The Emerald Talisman (9 page)

She latched on like a crab and her distrust
overwhelmed me. I recoiled, but she didn’t let go. Her feelings
seemed ironic since she was the one who made a living deceiving
others in the first place. I wanted to laugh, before running out of
the place, but I was slightly curious at what she had to say.

“Hmmm,” she said, as she studied the lines on
my hand.

Her long boney finger traced along the ridges
of my palm then froze. Her dark empty eyes fell into slits. She was
afraid.

“You’ve got quite a life line here,” she said
quietly.

I tried to pull my hand away again, but she
held on, her grip amazingly strong.

“Danger surrounds you… danger unknown to
you.” She paused and furrowed her brow. “Ah…and you bear the mark…
the mark of the innocent one.”

I started to feel unnerved because as far as
I could tell, she told the truth.

“The innocent human… the one to rid us of
them
.”

Sam sat next to me with her mouth gaped
open.

“Them?” I asked.

“You don’t know about
them
yet, do
you?”

The old woman looked deep into my eyes. I had
no idea what she meant; her words gave me goose bumps.

“But what about Nicholas?” Sam said.

I kicked Sam under the table. The last thing
I wanted was to reveal anything private to this looney. Sam felt
confused and clammed up.

The old woman’s eyes shifted from Sam and
then back to me. She dropped my hand.

“He’s trouble. Stay away from him.”

I rubbed my hand, grateful to have it back,
wanting to wash it off.

“That’s all I can see. You can leave now,”
she said, getting up abruptly.

I wanted out of there, so I got up too,
grabbed my crutches and headed toward the door. Sam led the
way.

“When you want answers, you’ll be back,” she
said quietly behind me.

I pretended I didn’t hear her.

Once outside, I hobbled quickly down her
walkway and took a deep breath to cleanse out my lungs. She
disturbed me. Her touch unleashed a wave of toxic emotions, as if
she poisoned me. I moved as fast as my crutches allowed, down the
walkway, relieved that with each step, my feelings began to return
to normal. No way would I ever return to her house again –
never.

“Sorry about that,” Sam said as we rounded
the corner of the theater. “She was totally weird.”

“Yeah –” I looked back towards her house. “–
she was.”

I tried to process what the woman said. What
did she mean by
them
? And being innocent? She sounded like I
would save the world, from some unknown darkness, like a super
hero.

And then her insistence to avoid Nicholas?
Not that I had any choice in the matter seeing how he completely
avoided me like the plague. Could she have been anymore cryptic? I
looked at my palm for a special mark, but saw nothing out of the
ordinary.

I wanted to tell Sam about how I believed the
mountain lion incident and the old ladies rantings were more than
coincidental. I might have told her, if I could’ve done so without
disclosing my lie. I marveled at how insane my life had become, as
if I was on a collision course with some crazy alter universe. I
wished for normalcy.

There was a line outside the theater. We
walked to the end of the line to wait our turn. I checked the time.
We had ten minutes until the movie started.

“What do you think she meant by ‘you bear the
mark’?” Sam asked me.

“I have no clue. She’s crazy.”

“I thought she was okay at first, like when
she said – “

Sam kept talking, but I didn’t hear her. The
same eerie stalking hunger-filled feelings from the forest were
here. I whirled around to find the source.

I spotted a group of college-aged people
walking in our direction. Something about them seemed unnatural,
almost surreal, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I stiffened and
felt the need to protect Sam who still prattled away about the old
woman. I put my arm around her and ushered her closer to the wall,
away from the middle of the walkway. I glanced back in their
direction. One member of the pack looked right at me with his dark
black eyes and smiled a wicked grin. Frightened, I looked away and
watched their feet out of the corner of my eye as they paraded past
– not wanting to cause any trouble.

I breathed a sigh of relief as they moved
away from us and the hunger feelings dissipated. Sam, oblivious to
what just happened, was more concerned with paying for our tickets,
than fearing for our lives, but it wasn’t over.

Someone, who looked an awful lot like
Nicholas walked hurriedly towards us. He wore the same long, brown
leather trench coat and it flapped in the wind as he made his way
in determination. When I spotted him, he flipped up his collar and
turned his sun-glassed eyes down, just before walking by.

“Nicholas?” I said as he passed.

He ignored me.

I spun around and spoke louder.

“Nicholas.”

He stopped and turned towards me.

“Oh, hi,” he said coolly.

“Hi,” I said, nudging Sam. “This is my friend
Sam. Sam this is
Nicholas
.”

I emphasized his name.
He reached out and shook her hand.

“Nice to meet you,” she said with a smile and
wide eyes that said ‘
yeah, he’s gorgeous’
.

“Like wise,” Nicholas said, with a nod, his
voice polite, but his face like stone.

He made no attempt at small talk and the
pause in the conversation became awkward. His emotions were
completely different than before, as if our connection never
happened. I searched his aura and looked for some sort of
reassurance that we were still friends, but only sensed fear and
icy aloofness.

“So… how are you?” I asked, trying to relieve
the tension.

“Julia, I can’t talk right now. I have to
go,” he said abruptly “It was nice to meet you, Sam.”

A lump formed in my throat and I blinked back
the tears feeling completely stupid as he walked away. I couldn’t
believe he didn’t want to talk and just ditched me. Why did I call
out to him? Sam, not sure how to react, tugged at my arm.

“Let’s go, the movie is about to start.”

My body went into autopilot and I followed
her inside, unable to pay attention to where we were going. Before
I knew it, she’d found us seats and I sat down thankful for the
darkness.

The movie started and so did my tears.

What was I doing insisting he notice
me?
I’m so stupid
.

As the movie progressed, I did my best to try
to follow along, but couldn’t concentrate. The movie I watched was
the one in my head of what just happened, not the silver screen. I
slumped back into my chair and stifled my sniffles. Everyone
enjoyed the movie and their laughter echoed all around me, but I’d
never felt so lonely in my life.

Sam passed me a tissue.

I’m so pathetic. I can’t even keep myself
together.

I tried hard to stop crying; not wanting to
ruin everything Sam did to help me have a good time, but I
couldn’t. The damage was done.

“This movie is lame, wanna go?” she whispered
after a few minutes.

Relief flooded me – I did want to leave. I
wasn’t sure how much longer I could endure the torture of holding
back my emotions.

“Yeah,” I murmured.

We pushed the double doors to exit and I felt
thankful to leave the theater alone, without curious onlookers. I
could image their confusion because I’d looked like I’d just left a
tragedy, instead of a comedy.

“I’m so sorry, Jules,” Sam said as we walked
to her car.

“It’s fine. I’m fine. It’s just – “I choked
back a sob.

She put her arm on my shoulder and squeezed
it, her care and concern soothed me.

“I guess he’s not who I thought he was,” I
finally said. “Maybe he is trouble.”

I wanted to say
jerk
, but my mouth
wouldn’t form the word. I cared about him still – too much
actually. I was astonished at my willingness to be a glutton for
punishment.

“Trouble? No, he was plain rude,” she said,
slamming her car door. “Honestly, he saves your life a few days
ago, but now he doesn’t have a few minutes to say hello and meet
your best friend? Whatever.”

She started her car and backed out of the
parking spot.

I appreciated her desire to protect me and
her interpretation of the situation helped me see that I wasn’t
crazy. Nicholas was the one with the problems. But, I still wanted
to know why he didn’t like me anymore?

“Yeah, you’re right. I just don’t get what
happened.”

“Guys are weird. They get all spooked for the
stupidest reasons.”

“I guess so.” I gave a fake chuckle.

Luckily, he only met Sam and not my whole
group of friends. Now, that would have been utterly embarrassing
and Katie never would have let me hear the end of it.

I slumped back in my seat and watched the
world move by in a blur as Sam drove. She’d found a man-hater song
on the radio that seemed to match the mood. I could sense her
worry, but I didn’t want to talk for fear I’d burst into tears
again. It was a lousy way to finish our evening.

“Sorry I ruined your movie,” I said as she
pulled up to my house.

“You didn’t. It’s understandable considering
the circumstances.”

“But still…”

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked,
her eyes kind.

“No. I think I just want to go to bed.”

“You sure?”

“I’ll be okay, honest.” I did my best to
muster up a convincing smile. She studied my face for a minute then
bought my charade.

“Definitely call me tomorrow when you wake
up, okay?”

I got out and peered through the open door.
“I will.”

I gave another weak smile and shut the
door.

She waved one last time with sympathy in her
eyes and then drove away. I watched until her car disappeared, took
a deep breath and limped up the cobblestone path to the house.
Disappointment flooded me when I opened the door to find it dark
and empty.

It was times like this I wished I had a mom
to talk to. Even if Dad were home, he would never understand and it
would be awkward to try to explain it to him. I thought of Jo and
sighed. If any consolation was going to be given tonight, it would
have to come from me.

I walked upstairs and decided to forgo the
whole “getting ready for bed” routine and just changed into my
jammies. I had little energy to do anything beyond that. Aladdin
jumped on my bed and wound her body into a circle resting her head
on my hand.

What rotten luck. Why did he treat me like
that? Was fate trying to tell me something?

I looked out the window after shutting off my
light and snuggled under my covers. It was partly cloudy, so I
couldn’t see any stars to wish upon. I rolled over and yearned for
sleep, but I couldn’t shut off my brain. It hurt inside; ached
actually.

I wanted to know why. Next time, if there
ever was a next time, charming or not, he’d give me answers, or at
least get an earful about what I thought about his retched
behavior.

I groaned and pulled the covers over my head.
Any normal person would get a grip and move on. But the panicked
feeling inside made me question if I just lost the best thing that
ever happened to me. How stupid to hang onto the past. But the
brutal reality, raw and unkind, told me he didn’t want to have
anything to do with me.

I wished I didn’t care.

. . .

7
– FOG

Even though my eyes were closed, the early
light of morning pierced them like daggers. All night I longed for
happy dreams to escape into so I didn’t have to think about my
pathetic life but ended up with realist nightmares instead. Unable
to sleep any longer, I rolled over to get out of bed and
accidentally knocked Aladdin off in the process. She meowed loudly
and sulked out of my room.

I stared at the ceiling, wondering why I kept
dreaming about mountain lions and evil people with red eyes and
sharp teeth hunting me down with the intent to kill me. I wanted to
just grab my pillow and scream into it, but I couldn’t find the
strength and worried Luke would hear me.

My tummy growled as I limped down to a cold,
dark kitchen – the first time without the use of my crutches – and
pulled my favorite tattered robe tighter around myself,
disappointed to find the room empty. Saturdays were supposed to be
big breakfast mornings, but Dad was still away on a business trip.
My mouth watered thinking of fluffy scrambled eggs, sausage links,
cubed fried potatoes and golden pancakes drizzled with lots of
syrup. Somehow, the thought of toast and cereal just didn’t seem as
appetizing.

While the toast cooked and the coffee
finished brewing, I watched the birds out the kitchen window
bathing in the fountain. Something about how they frolicked made me
want to sit on the patio and watch them.

Maybe the fresh air would help me feel
better.

With my toast balanced on the top of my
coffee mug in one hand and a fuzzy blanket in the other, I
carefully walked outside and snuggled up on the wooden lounge. I
rested my head on the back of the chair, closed my eyes and focused
on the peaceful sound of the creek gurgling through the ravine.
Normally, the ambiance would diminish my worries, but was clearly
not going to sooth away my wounds today.

I tried to think of a good reason why
Nicholas had been so rude to me the night before, but drew a blank.
It just didn’t make sense, almost like the Nicholas I first met and
the one I ran into last night were two separate people. I wanted
desperately to forget all about it – the fall, his eyes, how being
connected with him made me feel so alive and safe, but I couldn’t
make it go away.

This wasn’t how I wanted to feel. I prided
myself for my ability to handle my emotions better than other girls
my age, being forced to feel their rollercoaster’s all the time.
But with one interaction with one guy and I’m just like them? I
felt completely crazy, irrational and wished for a switch to turn
it all off.