Snow Heart (22 page)

Finding Angel was his best option to calming the girl down. He’d make sure Dan took her on all the rides just to keep her worried mind off of Mia.

“I know that! I’m not stupid. I’ve just never heard anyone call it that. At least not in modern times.” She rolled her eyes. “Rich people always have to make things complicated.”

“Stupid people always have to be so stupid,” Bryan mocked.

Lisa folded her arms while getting in line for the merry-go-round. “Next he’ll be calling it a roundabout.”

Nieves tried to seem calm about it though she didn’t like the way Lisa was acting towards Alric. In fact, she found it harsh. “He’s just anti-social,” Nieves explained. “He hardly ever meets new people.”

“Oh,” Lisa said, still with a careless tone. “So, he’s an emo.”

Nieves looked away into the bustling crowd. She felt rather upset about Lisa’s attitude towards Alric. He had rejected her in a harsh way but Lisa shouldn’t expect immediate attention from strangers. Had she honestly expected Alric to take her into his arms as a lover would?

A heavy hand fell down onto Nieves’s shoulder. She turned her head and smiled at Gustav. “I think he’s good for you,” Gustav said in a deep low voice.

Nieves gasped, a little astonished someone noticed how bothered she was by Lisa’s harsh words. “Thank you, Gustav.”

“Hey!” Lisa flailed her arms at the gate of the merry-go-round. “Are you two coming or what?”

Gustav grunted something that was meant to be a yes. He never really liked the ride. It mostly because he couldn’t fit on the small horses.

Instead he decided to stand by Nieves’s horse to comfort her. Considering Lisa would never give up on her harsh pursuit simply due to rejection. Any man who rejected her was obviously not good enough for anyone.

CHAPTER 30

“Mia?” Monsun dodged the flying skull and lifted the fake cobwebs over his head. “Are you in here, Mia?” He rounded one of the corners of some jagged protruding wall. A melted face greeted him but he wasn’t moved at all. He pushed it aside and kept going, taking glances around for his student.

“Mia, answer me.” Monsun kept going until he heard a low familiar growl. “Nina, is that you? Can you come out here for a moment?”

A few people walked past Monsun to go down a different hallway. The place was like a maze with all the halls and corridors. Some doors opened to rooms; some doors had been bricked up. There was even one door that led to a hole in the floor but it’d be too dark to know it was there until it was too late.

Monsun sighed. “Nina, I just need to speak with you for a moment.”

The growl became louder with the silence of the empty haunted house. “Go away,” hissed a voice from the darkness under the staircase. “Go away and leave me alone. Go away so I can kill myself properly.”

“Nina,” Monsun reasoned. “There’s no reason for me to leave you.” He crouched down just a foot away from the shadow. “Come out here. It’s safe with me, I promise.” He reached out for her hand, hoping she wouldn’t bite.

Nina quickly swiped at it, her nails only leaving dusty scratches.

“That’s not very nice,” Monsun said. “You’ll hurt my feelings doing that.”

There was a whimper then a shuffle across the floor. Mia—or better yet, Nina—scooted herself out of the shadow with watery eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said in a soft almost inaudible voice. “Please forgive me.”

Monsun nodded his head. “Come here, little one. Come and talk to me for a while.” He held out his arms, ready to take her in a hug.

Nina gave a low hiss. “I won’t fall for that trick again!”

He tried not to flinch. Nina remembered the last time when he squeezed a nerve to make her unconscious and carried her back home. He’d dealt with Nina only on small occasions such as this.

“Don’t you trust me, Nina?” asked Monsun as gently as possible. “I always take care of you. Remember when I saved you from those awful monsters?”

Nina remembered the men vividly and whimpered. “I want to go home!”

“I’ll take you home,” Monsun said. “I’ll take you wherever you want to go, Nina.” He put out his arms again, wishing with all his heart that Nina would obey.

He nearly fell to the floor but he caught himself with his hand. “Nina,” Monsun whispered. “Where’s Mia? I need to speak with her.”

“I don’t know.” Nina buried her face into his neck and closed her eyes. “I don’t care about her.”

†

“Is she going to be alright?” asked Angel who was pacing back and forth around the bench. Mia slept peacefully on it for what seemed like years though it was only a couple minutes.

“She’ll be fine,” Alric told her. “She’s just tired.”

Angel spun on her heel and glared at Monsun. “What’d you do to her?”

“Me?” Monsun’s expression was pasted with agony. “I… We were just talking and she was going to tell me something but…” His eyes lowered to the ground. Monsun realized that he was right about his assumption. Mia had run away because of Jess. “I will watch over her until she wakes up.”

“Yes,” Alric agreed. “Angel. Dan. Why don’t you two go have a good time?”

Angel went to protest but Dan grabbed a hold of her shoulders and pulled her towards the rides. Dan knew what he was doing would upset Angel but he also knew it was better that way.

“Make sure you explain yourself thoroughly,” Alric told him. “I don’t want this happening again.”

Monsun nodded. “Yes. I have a lot to explain to her.”

Alric was beginning to leave when something cold tickled his spine. He moved his eyes to the shadows of the forest. The rustling wasn’t the wind; Alric knew that for a fact. He had warned his Demons not to interact with humans. But did he trust enough to believe them?

He knew he had to warn his Demons to keep away but Nieves kept tugging at his thoughts. Yes, she was with her friends but he still wanted to be there to make sure nothing disastrous happened. Those rides seemed extremely dangerous as to what Alric considered.

“Alric!” Aunty pushed her way through the crowd with people giving irritated remarks about her pushiness. “Alric!” The worried look on Aunty’s face told him something was definitely wrong.

“Aunty? What happened?” Alric really wanted to say, “Is Nieves alright?”

“There’s an emergency.”

†

Mia took down a breath of air. It was the smell of sweet cinnamon from the bakery across the street. The warmth of its interior called out to her. Winter’s brisk fingers had frozen and numbed the feeling in her face. Her fingers were barely kept warm by the thin cotton gloves. She knew she should have bought better ones from the mall but she liked the red and black striped ones the most.

The bell from the bakery chimed, pulling her from her thoughts.

“Just for a moment,” Mia thought to herself. She walked into the bakery and slid off her gloves. Heat sank down into her fingers even into the contours of her bones.

“Good evening,” said the young man behind the counter. He looked only a few years older than her, a high school student maybe. “Can I get you anything?”

The baker leaned his elbows onto the top of the shelves. “Well. Since this is your first time I’ll give you something for free.” He disappeared behind the glass and slid open the door. Reaching inside he grabbed one of the star-shaped breads. “I think you might like this one.”

Mia remembered to thank him before entering back into the cold frosted air. The winds lashed against her cheeks, and then died down. While nibbling on the bread, she headed down the sidewalk towards home. Her parents would be wondering why she was coming home so late. The sun had already set and the streetlights were flickering on.

“Mia,” the voice called out from the whistling wind. “Mia… Mia.”

She lowered her bread and swallowed her latest bite. “What?” Mia took glances around her, across the street and behind her. “Yes?”

No one replied.

The star was half-eaten when she took another bite. Mia continued down the street ignoring the voice that called out to her multiple times. She closed her eyes to take in the sweet taste that flooded her mouth.

“Mia Macter.”

Her breath was caught in her lungs. She opened her eyes to thick inky darkness. The cackles of the men surrounded her endlessly. “Such a pretty thing,” they said in turn. “Such a fine woman.”

Another would say, “Wouldn’t mind having some.”

Mia took a trembling step back. “Who’s there?”

One at a time their bright yellow eyes opened. Only a single set of blue opened directly in front of her and stared. Blue eyes like sapphire burned into her skin making her own eyes burn with acidic intensity. He reached for her.

Mia nodded her head. “Monsun…” Her eyes fluttered in the darkness until a smeared world appeared before her. The more she fluttered her eyes the more the world became clear.

Monsun chuckled, brushing her yellow strands of hair out of her eyes. “You silly little girl. What were you thinking running off like that?”

She slowly sat up. “I’m sorry, Monsun.”

“Why’d you run?” He was sitting on the bench with grace and tranquility. Mia always found him to be perfect. He never cursed in front of her. He was a gentleman all the way. He opened doors for people, gave up his seat to the elderly and women, and he always treated people with highest respects.

Mia lowered her head. “Nothing.”

Monsun didn’t hesitate to take her face into his hands. “I cannot help you if you do not tell me.” He locked eyes with her, letting her know he wasn’t giving up.

“Monsun,” Mia said. “Do you… Do you love me?”

Monsun took her hand and placed it in his grasp. He traced the outline of the smoothness of her skin. “There are some things in life that we cannot have, Mia.”

Mia was befuddled if that was a yes or no. “I see,” she lied. Her eyes lowered to the ground, remembering what had happened earlier.

“Great,” Mia said, and swallowed the lump in her throat. She would try her hardest to pretend, just like she pretended to be normal.

Fox spirit? Nope, none here.

“I’d like to meet her.” She clenched her hands and yelled inside of her head, “Don’t you dare cry! Be happy for him and don’t cry!” The voice inside of her head sounded so much braver than she thought she could ever be.

Monsun nodded. “Yes. That would be lovely.”

CHAPTER 31

“You think?” Alric tried to stay calm. “I would have never guessed.” He slid his hands down the side of his face then glowered at the bathroom door. Alric noticed the small “Occupied” symbol near the door handle. It made him wonder if all bathrooms in the city had that.

Rusuto gave a dramatic sigh. “Oh, my dear little angel, how heaven must have been cruel to let you out of their sight, even for a split second to allow those horrendous Demons to get a hold of you.”