The Mortal Fringe (8 page)

"I love this place" he is
drunk.

"So you wanted to talk?" I bring up
the subject, not because I feel like hearing the same explanation
over and over, but I want to put an end to this whole thing as soon
as possible and now it could be my chance.

"Oh yeah sure, shoot."

"You are the one that wanted to talk,
not me, remember?" the awkwardness of the moment makes me drink
half of my cocktail in a sip. Is he being funny?

"Yeah, right" he nearly stands up, his
chest is on the table and he looks at me, straight into the eye.
"The thing is...the thing is that you are a cool guy" that's all he
says.

If I wasn't in a public place, nor
trying to control myself, I would most likely crash my glass on his
head right now. I say nothing, stare back at him and wait for
another epiphany. Suddenly, all the joy on his face disappears,
it's like all those drinks have not affected him at all, on a
normal basis I would feel scared of the sudden change in his
attitude, but now, now I just go along with it.

"What I meant was, you will do the
right thing."

That is not what he should have said
to start the conversation.

"Do you ever consider, when you say
all that stuff that you are talking about my life ending in a
matter of months? And that you even want me to willingly accept
it?"

My reaction is more than a surprise to
him, he sits back again and tries to build up something to say but
he clearly can't. I guess that I should have kept my mouth shut but
not about this, not this time. He finally looks at me, I can see
fury in his eyes.

"Look, this world, all this? It
stinks, ok? I know it, but the same way I am here dealing with you
and your stupid behavior, you have to deal with what's been given
to you", he is being serious now "The moment your fate, if you
want, crossed with Elizabeth's, you were bond to her, and if you
don't do what it is expected from you, she will pay the
consequences, and you will only be somebody else's
meal."

I try to process every bit of
information he has just given me.
Somebody else's meal, pay the
consequences..
. I can't avoid feeling furious and guilty at the same
time, but why guilty? I don't know, but I do. This whole thing is
driving me crazy, and the one that can help me with it is sitting
in front of me. One thing is for sure, I have a real friend, even
though he insists on me surrendering my life, there's a friend in
him. I am sure. My glass is on my hands again and I empty it in a
matter of seconds. I am worried, more than worried,
frustrated.

"What do you mean by her paying the
consequences?" I finally say, looking out the window and trying not
to look at him as he tells me everything I don't want to
hear.

"There are rules in Elizabeth's world,
the millennia is not like actually becoming a God, or someone else.
It's more like a process, like when you turned 18, you could either
decide to go to university or do nothing, right?"

I nod.

"If she becomes a God, she is
following the law, which you can imagine is not as breakable as
your laws. If she fails to do so, she becomes what we, they, call a
Tartar. She will be dispossessed of all honor, and rights. She will
be haunted, and eventually, she will go as dark as all the Tartars
around the world."

"Dark?"

"Can you imagine a lifetime of
imprisonment, consisting in no one ever being able to talk to you
again, just to humiliate you...? That's not even close to what she
would have to face."

I still have the same feelings about
the whole thing, but Jay has shown me that even a non-mortal soul
can be more human than humans. I can't avoid picturing Elizabeth,
and imagining people doing all those things to her. Haunting
someone as Elizabeth down for eternity... she and I were not off to
a good start, but I feel like I know her more than I should. Maybe
this is it, maybe that's my reason of existence, maybe this is how
I will do some good. I am not ready to die, not yet, I can't accept
it, and I won't. But If I have to, I'll take it as if it was my
time.

"I'll think about it" Even though I
already have "when?", The word can't even come out of my moth
directly and I have to make a terrible effort to pronounce it, I am
too afraid of the question.

"February the second" he says looking
at me with gratefulness.

Then, suddenly, I have another
question which he might not want me to ask. But I have the right to
ask whatever I want now, the least he can do is answer.

"What's going to happen to you?" I try
to say it as clearly as possible. I don't want to repeat it, I just
want to know it.

"My only mission is to make her a God,
Alex."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, I will die too." his
expression doesn't change and there is no doubt in his
words.

After his answer I take a moment for
myself and start wondering if anyone would ever do that for me, I
don't think so. My only friend until now, Richard, has not spoken
to me since I sent him the text message after arriving in
Barcelona. And after my years in high school and college, I am
quite sure I will never have a friend like Jay again. Maybe I'm
being depressive, although I think my attitude is perfectly normal
for the situation I'm in. This is not the best moment to put up a
scene, but the best thing I can think of it's actually the one that
I think that will make us friends forever. I rise my glass and wait
for him to do the same.

"To Elizabeth" and even though I know
what those two words mean, I feel like I am more free than
ever.

"To Elizabeth" He says, and then he
stands up and takes some more drinks to the table. The night has
just started, and I will enjoy it as If it was my last night on
earth.

CHAPTER 13

When I open my eyes the dream is gone,
but I know I remember the same parts I did yesterday. My back is
still wet with the mud of the rainy field. I can't understand why
the dream seems to be so real. I think about the past two days and
how my life has drastically changed. Deep inside I know I have
accepted it, I will die sooner than expected, and there's nothing
to be done about it. But some parts of me are fighting all those
feelings, some part of me tries to scream, and I can't stop it, I
have my doubts, and I will have them until the very end. I know it,
and I can't fight it.

I stand up, and get ready for class.
The last time I went to Ms. Adkins lesson I knew nothing about what
was going on and I actually thought that she was the Immortal. It
will be the most frustrating class that I have ever attended,
watching and listening for an hour and a half to the woman that has
planned my death scene. I don't wake Jay, I am convinced that when
I walk out of the door he will be already there, I only hope he is
wearing some clothes.

He does. Before we start walking I
look at him seriously.

"About yesterday..."

"You are not pulling back, are you?"
he isn't angry, he is rather worried that I might.

"I didn't even say that I was in for
it. Anyway, I have more questions."

"Go on, then" he says,
being more
relaxed.

"Not now, I was just letting you
know."

The class is as empty as ever, it's
like nothing had changed, but that obviously isn't true. Everything
is different now, and even the white painting of the walls looks
darker than last time, and the wooden benches seem to be paying the
price of time, too. I sit and wait for the class to begin, I am
fully aware that Ms. Adkins will know by now that I have accepted
my fate. I hate to call it that way, but given the circumstances, I
don't think there is a better way to deal with it.

Ms. Adkins walks into the room, she is
more radiant than ever and her smile covers half of her face while
the other half is covered by some pink sunglasses. I remember the
passage of the book that talked about how showy and boastful
Immortals tend to be, that's obviously why I thought that Constance
was one of them. It is now that I realize that Elizabeth is showy
and boastful to, not in that way, but I don't think there's
anything showier than her eyes, and that's what attracted me to
her, even before we officially met. That book got too many things
right.

"Good morning, Mr. Stills" she says
upon her arrival to her desk. I am not the only person in the room
now, and I can feel the hostile looks I'm getting from everyone
from the second row to the last, everyone but Ingrid, who keeps
laughing silently at the situation.

I smile, pretending I didn't hear her.
Jay is sitting right next to me and is obviously hiding a guffaw.
The class proceeds as usual, and I feel like my life is normal
again, which I appreciate, for a change. By the end of it I begin
to feel very bored, is it because this subject has suddenly become
so personal that I don't care about it anymore? I can't be
sure.

Before I'm out of the room, Constance
grabs my arm and holds me in for a couple of seconds. When
everyone, including Jay, is gone, she lets me go.

"I understand you are now in
possession of every bit of information" the strange language feels
weird, but I guess she is not playing a character anymore, that's
her.

"I do, yes" I say convincingly enough,
trying to keep my fear out of my words.

"Then you must be warned. If you fail
to fulfill your obligation, I myself will take care of
you."

She vanishes with a hint of silver
mist and leaves me in here, with her words coming back to me again
in a repetition loop, like when a song is stuck in your head,
although I would rather have a song in my head than her words. Her
vanishing does not surprise me, I have seen Jay doing that over the
last days. I must ask him about that, it seems the only cool thing
in their existence.

When I finally get out of the room Jay
is waiting for me, he is also talking to a couple of young girls
that are standing nearby.

"You don't longer have to go to
Constance office" of course not, there's nothing else to do there
now.

My next class is Latin, and my heart
stops the moment I see Elizabeth walking in the room. This time,
not only does she come straight to me, but she sits right next to
me as well, smiling as if we had been friends forever. I blush, I
can't help it. Her presence makes me very nervous and I feel
something is moving inside me. I am covered with goose bumps once
more. She clearly notices everything that's going on with
me.

"It's alright Alex, you are safe here"
she jokes. She smiles, just for me, and as stupid as it seems I
can't get my eyes out of her smile. She clearly likes showing off,
it's in her nature. I go along with it and try to look as tough as
possible.

"Of course I am, the only thing that
can kill me in this room is Latin declinations." She smiles back at
me and I can't help but wonder, is it real? Or is she just being
friendly because she is forced to?

I have never paid less attention to a
class in my whole life.

When I get home Jay is waiting for me,
sitting on my chair, he seems to know that my meeting with
Elizabeth went better than the last one.

"Tell me about your powers" I say even
before putting my bag down. I am eager to know as much as I can
about all this stuff. Jay looks at me quite surprised, he later
realizes that I am not asking out of enthusiasm, it's only
curiosity.

"Well, Gods and Immortals have what we
call "the mark", which basically means that they have quite cool
powers. It's hard to know which, because most of them have
different abilities."

"What about you?" I am sitting on my
bed, listening carefully to everything he is saying. It's strange,
I don't feel like I should be doing this, not even talk to him, but
then I remember everything I have gone through, and I erase the
thought.

"Keepers and Leaders basically have
the ability of teleportation, and it's not even as cool as it may
seem. You see, we can't move wherever we want, our power is limited
to the area our Immortal is at the moment we cast our powers. That
means, that right now I can only move around Barcelona, but If
Elizabeth was to leave without telling us, I couldn't possible
track her. We can also interpret what people think, but I've never
been able to do that, Constance does" I remember how she guessed
Theseus the morning we picked our essay topic.

I can think of more things to ask, but
I decide to do some overdue university work instead, that way I
won't seem so eager. I can't really focus on it though, it's hard
to focus on anything when you know you will die in a couple of
months, but it keeps me from thinking too much.

After some hours of doing the exact
same thing, there's a knock on the door. Jay does not move a finger
so I put on my flip-flops and go get it. My heart stops once again
as Elizabeth walks in.

"I see you are not ready yet, am I too
early?"

I am completely lost.

"What did I miss?" I am asking both of
them.