‘I never thought I’d be able to come back to this place. It’s like nothing has changed,’ she continues. ‘Of course it snowed a lot more back in our day, didn’t it?’
I swallow the bulb stuck in my throat. ‘Who are you? Turn around.’
‘Even you. You really haven’t changed either, have you?’ Charlotte says. A smirk spreads across her face as she turns. Siara’s gone. A simple possession Heret-Kau had said, but it’s not that at all. There’s no longer any remaining remnants of Siara left.
‘This isn’t real,’ I mutter, my mind spinning. ‘You’re not real.’ My feet can’t seem to move. Instead, I just stare at the ghost in front of me. Her warm smile complements her grey eyes. It is Charlotte. The anxiety that had diseased my stomach vanishes in an instant.
She walks up to me, taking my hand in hers. ‘I know. It’s been so long.’
‘How are you here?’
She leans her head against my chest. ‘It doesn’t matter.’ It rests under my chin perfectly just as it always had. ‘You found me.’ Time seems to stand still. Before we know it, the sun has risen, the only indicator of the time we’d spent together.
‘Meet me here again tonight,’ Charlotte says, her sparkling eyes containing the same enchanting quality. Sitting down on the fallen tree, hand held in mine, she sighs.
I frown. ‘What do you mean? Just come with me now.’
Charlotte shakes her head. ‘I cannot.’ With the dawning sun, a gentle morning breeze glides through the clearing, in a single and swift motion she closes her eyes, giving way to another familiar complexion. Siara.
22
Siara
I wonder if they ever notice me staring. If they have, they’ve never mentioned it.
Xander slouches about on the dusty couch. Small voices chatter from the animated characters on the screen, the audio fuzzy and uneven due to the age of the television. It was the best I could do with the money we had available. The electricity, on the other hand, was left entirely to Xander and somehow, he came through, just like he did with the small bag of fruits and vegetables. We dusted the fruit bowl together in the kitchen and loaded it up. I’d never seen him happier so I didn’t question him too much on their origin but I suspect there’s more to being a demon than they’re letting on. With a huff he repositions, upside down, on his side, sitting straight, cross-legged, marvelling at the moving pictures on the screen that sing and dance. I lean forward on the backrest of the couch, taking small glances at the glaze-eyed child; it’s hard to believe that I was once terrified of him. Even the ice demon’s demeanour has become more tolerable lately.
I barely even notice it now, their silent steps and non-existent presence, the way they suddenly appear and disappear on whim. Where my feet thud clumsily down the stairs, theirs drift soundless, weightless. I wonder what it would be like to be immune to time as they are. It’s an enchanting thought that I have to remind myself not to glorify – at least not out loud anyway; they are dead after all. I have the privilege of returning to my boring life and living it until its mundane end. It makes sense, I guess; I’ve definitely had more heart-stopping moments these past months than I can expect to experience for the rest of my life. How ironic, feeling the most alive when surrounded by the dead.
‘Siara.’ Xander touches my arm and I tense instinctively. ‘You don’t look well today.’
I shake my head. ‘No, I’m fine.’
He frowns in response and disappears out the door without another word. My body collapses on the couch with a dramatic slump.
‘Here,’ Xander says, reappearing in front of me. The boy offers a small bowl of fruit. ‘Maybe you need some real food, instead of those food pills you insist on inhaling. Maybe your body doesn’t like them anymore.’
I pout, slightly embarrassed. I haven’t been having that many of them. ‘I like the fruit bowl, it’s a nice touch – it makes this place seem a little more, well, alive. Did you think of this yourself?’ I pick one of the green fruits from the assortment, a sour sweetness erupting at the bite. There sure is nothing quite like real food though, food pills just don’t compare. What fruit is this? I know it but I can’t quite think of the name.
Xander chuckles weakly at my question as if I’d said something mildly funny. ‘You said something similar earlier today.’
Did I? I give a little smile, concealing my confusion. It doesn’t matter.
I breathe out a long sigh. She’s right, it doesn’t matter. I close my eyes as I bring another pill to my mouth.
‘Get up. Get up. Get up!’ Xander yells, barging through the door in a frantic motion. I sit up, alarmed.
‘What is it?!’ I ask, getting myself out of bed in a frantic hurry. Fumbling, my toes catch on the bed sheets. My feet hop unsteadily across the floorboards in an attempt to regain balance. Untangling myself, I glance at Xander. His face is beaming. Not at all the reaction I was anticipating.
‘You promised to play me in chess today, remember? I’ve been waiting for days now. Today will be my twenty-fourth win,’ he spits out, giddily.
‘Did I now?’ I say, following him out of the bedroom and down the stairs. Days is an exaggeration; we just got here yesterday. The demon boy turns his head to stare back, aghast.
‘It was the day before yesterday. How could you have already forgotten?’
I chuckle but his stare remains. He’s lying. He has to be. He can be mischievous like that, especially for his own gain; like how he stole my belongings when trying to hinder my dates with Rye. And he thought I had no idea.
Moving past the kitchen, my whole body recoils. ‘What is that smell? It’s horrible.’
Xander shrugs, obviously thinking not much of it. ‘I think it’s the fruit.’
Fruit? Doubling back, I walk up to the bowl in the middle of the counter. Furry brown lumps with varying degrees of oozing liquid sit sadly in their containment. My hand covers my nose with rapid speed, scowling. ‘That’s so gross. How did this fruit go bad so quickly? And how do you seem so nonchalant about it? It smells and looks horrible.’
Xander tilts his head, eventually responding with another shrug. ‘We don’t experience it as an offensive smell,’ he says. ‘Why would it? It’s not like it would kill us if we ate it.’
‘No, but it might kill me. That smell is horrendous.’
Growing impatient with this idle conversation, the boy takes my hand assertively, leading me into the sunroom down the hall. Like a moth to a flame, he approaches an exquisite marbled chess board. Before sitting, his green eyes glance over. ‘Do you want to play as your usual colour?’
I dawdle, hoping the answer to his question might dawn on me during my travels. I smile, trying my hardest to conceal the fear growing in the pit of my stomach. ‘Sure.’
Xander presents the rows of black and white pieces on the board. ‘Go on then.’
I hesitate, not sure what seat to take. I take a random guess and wait to receive his reaction. Finding myself sitting behind the row of black figures, Xander’s brows raise.
‘Something a bit different,’ I say quickly, accompanied by a nervous laugh. After a short pause of silence, Xander smiles.
