Snow Heart (20 page)

For a moment he forgot to breath. It felt strange to say, “Thank you.” It hardly ever occurred so it left a strange feeling on his tongue.

Nieves pulled away, keeping her arms linked around his neck. “We better get dressed. Aunty won’t like it if we’re late.”

“Yes, she would not like that at all.”

His eyes moved down to find her legs nearly bare. The shorts she wore were useless and could hardly be called clothes. They might as well have been undergarments. Alric had no idea he crawled into bed with her wearing so little.

“Nightclothes,” Nieves replied naively. “Do you not like them?” She pulled out her shirt to stare at the little moon and stars. “I bought them a few months ago.”

He swallowed down his anxiety. Something inside of him hungered to hold her down against the bed. Alric tightened his fists and begged to stop thinking about her.

“You should get dressed for the party,” Alric said in a stressed voice.

Nieves noticed how angry he was about her nightclothes. She decided to never wear them again in his presence. It seemed to upset him for some reason. “What should I wear to the party?” she asked again.

“Anything you want,” Alric replied with a smile.

Nieves slid out of bed and padded over to the baggage she’d brought with all her clothes. “I should wear something nice since it’s your birthday.”

“No,” Alric told her. “Just wear something you like.”

Nieves got to her feet. “Nope, I’m going to dress up. Now go to your room and get dressed. We’re going to have a party!” She tossed her hands in the air with excitement.

Alric gave a smile. “Alright, then. I’ll get dressed.”

He got to his feet and headed out into the hall—relieved to be out of the room with her. She was too much for him. Alric was slightly old fashion and hated to see a woman’s bare body.

He took down a breath to calm himself.

He reached his room to find Aunty sitting on his couch with two outfits in her hand. Both were in dark red bags preventing the curious Alric to see what was inside.

His aunt rolled her eyes then smiled. She slid the sunglasses over her eyes with a laugh. “It’s a secret. You’ll wear it whether you like it or not. Nieves would agree with me.”

“That’s ridiculous,” replied Alric, turning his head away. “I wear what I want.”

The shoji door slid open. “Alric,” Nieves called out. “Hi Aunty.”

“Nieves.” Aunty dashed over right past Alric. “I bought you this dress for Alric’s party. As soon as you get it on we can drive over there.” Aunty tossed a glance to Alric. “Well, as soon as he gets dressed too.”

Aunty smiled devilishly as if she were getting away with something. “Now that that is settled let’s get a move on. I’ll be damned if I let you two take up any more time.”

Nieves laughed while taking the dark red bag into hand. “Thank you very much. I’ll go and try it on.” Nieves dashed out of the room and down the hall.

Alric and Aunty stared at each other motionlessly until finally he put out his hand. She gave him the hook of the hanger. Alric walked away from the door and watched her leave.

She held back her smirk until the shoji door was closed—she’d won this battle as well as the party. She was on a roll.

CHAPTER 27

“Where the hell are we going?” asked Alric who was sick of sitting in the car.

Nieves fidgeted nervously with the ends of her dress. It was a baby blue dress that she felt was a little too short. It reached her knees but for a girl who rarely wore dresses it was far uncomfortable. Nieves tried to remember that this was for Alric’s party and it was only one night. Still, Aunty had bought it for her and it would be rude not to wear it again.

She groaned on the inside. “Dresses are not my thing,” she said mentally.

“Just look out your window,” Aunty told him. Her voice was stern but she smiled the whole way through. “You’ll find out when we get there.”

“We are going towards Rusuto’s house. Is it there?” continued Alric.

Aunty rolled her eyes to the ceiling of the car. “If only he weren’t my nephew.”

Alric leaned forward to look past Nieves at Aunty. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? I am simply asking you where we are going. You know how much I hate surprises. I especially hate birthday parties—scratch that: I hate any form of gathering that includes people.”

A sigh that sounded more like a grumble rolled from Aunty’s throat. “We’re going to the forest. Is that fucking good enough for you?”

Alric jolted back, pressing his back against the seat. “The forest,” he began to consider silently. “Where no one will hear me scream? They’re taking me out there so they can kill me now rather than when the snow falls.”

Nieves gasped, leaning forward until she was crawling into the front of the car. Half her body remained in the back of the car while she stared in awe. “Aunty this is amazing.”

“What—” Alric looked out the window not really pleased. “What is it?”

Nieves spun around. “How could you not know?”

“It’s a carnival,” Aunty explained. “I invited the entire city to attend your birthday party. Well, of course they had to buy tickets to get in but once they’re in everything’s free.” Aunty lifted her hand and began to count off the things with her fingers. “Food. Rides. Drinks. Games. Free.”

“It must have cost a fortune,” Nieves blurted kneeling down in front of Alric to look out his window. “A Ferris Wheel.”

Aunty nodded her head. “Snuck that damn thing through the east gate. Luckily I got everything done yesterday.”

“This is ridiculous,” Alric said after folding his arms over his chest. “I hope you realize I am not getting out of this vehicle.”

Nieves turned to him, still kneeling on the floor of the car. “Oh, but Alric, it’ll be fun. Please, you have to come. There will be lots of things for us to do. The Ferris wheel. And roller coasters.”

Alric furrowed his eyebrows with irritation. “Who is this Ferris and why does he have a wheel? And what are rolling coasters?”

It finally clicked: Alric had never been to a carnival because he had lived his entire life behind the Macter walls. He hadn’t even seen a city or walked down the streets at night. Did he know what a sky scraper was? Had he ever eaten a hot dog from a vendor off the street or at the park?

“That’s why you have to come,” Aunty stated gravely. “Or else.”

Nieves nodded her head with agreement. “I’ll make you come.”

“Oh, really?” Alric narrowed his eyes to the threat. “You are going to make me go to this party while wearing a dress? I think you’ll have a difficult time doing that without your dress flying up.”

Nieves gasped. She quickly pointed her finger at him, pressing it against his forehead. “Yeah, well at least I’m not some arrogant overbearing jerk who doesn’t even want to attend his own birthday party.”

“Okay,” Aunty shouted to break up the fight. “We’re here.”

Nieves opened Alric’s door and stepped out. She didn’t want to look at him right at that moment. Alric was being selfish as usual. Did he ever consider that she wanted to share his birthday with him?

“Are you going or not?” asked Alric who was pushing her towards the carnival—the smells of popcorn and cotton candy coated the air. “People usually go inside the gate to attend these things so get moving.”

Nieves smiled, walking slowly forward.

“Great.” Aunty ran to their side with a smile. “I’m going to go find Wilhelm and Rusuto. Have fun, you two.” She pranced across the field, through the gate and vanished into the overwhelming crowd.

“Well,” Alric said in a calm less threatening voice. “What do we do first?”

Nieves smirked. “Roller coaster.”

Monsun took the small round ping pong balls in hand and aimed for the glass. He chucked it gently using an under throw. The ball clinked against the glass and bounced into another.

“Yes!” Mia shouted, tossing her hands into the air. “You did it, Monsun.”

Monsun laughed. “It’s not over yet.” He tossed another ping pong and watched it bounce from glass to glass to glass until it slipped inside.

“One more.”

He tossed it with ease and watched it fall right in. “There we go. Easy as ever.”

Mia gave a short victory dance just before getting her medium sized stuffed animal. It was a yellow blue spotted frog—yellow being her favorite color as Monsun knew.

Monsun hugged her with one arm, pulling her close. “Hope you like it.”

“Nah.” Mia shook her head. “It’s too ugly.”

Monsun huffed. “Do you have any idea what I had to do to get that stuffed animal? I had to chase down super-enhanced ninjas that trapped me in a warehouse. I had to fight each and every one of them to get it back for you. Do you have any idea how hard that is?”

Mia giggled into the frog’s head. “You’re such a liar.”

“I know.”

She swallowed down a lump in her throat. “Just tell him how you feel,” she thought for a brief second. “Erm, Monsun, I’ve been wanting to tell you something…”

Mia stared at the woman and took in her lively appearance. Her hair was long and nearly white—it was the color of wheat billowing in the wind. Her eyes were baby blue and shone like sapphire in the light.

“Jess,” Monsun said, opening his arms to her. He hugged her tightly, eyes closing like a lover would do.

Mia felt her heart twist inside of her chest. “No,” she thought silently; the world was freezing around her. “No. He can’t love this woman…” She dashed away as fast as her feet could carry her. Her eyes stung with the hallow emptiness that was carving its way through her chest.

“Mia!” Angel called out from the crowd but Mia didn’t’ stop. “Mia, wait!”

Dan looked back at Angel who was now dashing off for her friend. “Angel!” Dan raced after Angel. She could get lost in such a large crowd—or worse, Angel could get hurt.

Monsun slid out of his hug. “I want you to meet one of my students,” he said, turning to where he thought Mia would have been standing. He found the space empty. “Mia? Mia?” He glanced at the booth hoping she’d gone there. “Curses. Where’d she go?”

“What’s wrong?” asked the woman who placed a hand on Monsun’s chest.

He opened his mouth trying to find reasoning—Mia had wanted to tell him something so why had she disappeared. Was it the arrival of Jess? Or had she seen a friend and walked away with them, forgetting all about his presence?

CHAPTER 28

“This line is ridiculously long,” stated Alric. “I’d rather cut off my arm than stand here any longer.”

Nieves smiled a bit trying not to laugh. He sounded so childish and immature; yes, he was complaining but at least he wasn’t walking away from her. Nieves considered it a large step in Alric’s personal growth.

“Mia, wait!” Angel screamed while pushing her way through the crowd.

Both Alric and Nieves spun around to see what the crux of the situation was. They could see Mia running into the haunted house with tears streaming down her face. They also saw Angel run in after her with Dan putting effort in catching up.

Alric grinded his teeth. “Damn it, I knew this would happen.” He snatched hold of Nieves’s hand and leapt into the mass of people.

Nieves screamed for a short instance after nearly tripping over someone’s kid. Alric had lost grasp of her hand while wading his way to the other side. “Alric, slow down.” She caught the ground with her feet and ran with him into the haunted house. “Oh, wait… I…” She looked back to the mouth of the entrance, wishing those flashing lights were in there too.

“Alric…” Nieves tugged at the sleeve of his shirt. For some odd reason it didn’t feel like something Alric was wearing. She turned to stare into the melted face of a rotting corpse. A scream shattered the background noise of cackling Witches. “Alric! Alric!”

Something grabbed hold of her wrist. Nieves balled her hand into a fist and swung as hard as she could at whatever it was. “Alric help!”

There was breath knocked out of the person she hit. He let go of her hand and backed away. “What the fuck are you doing, Nieves?” He wiped up the small cut on his lip—Nieves’s knuckle hit the skin of his lip against his sharp teeth.