Fable

Calyx ignored Bia when she collapsed into tears. We kept walking as if nothing happened. This shocked me. When someone broke down and cried, it was for a reason. Why would Calyx pretend nothing was going on? Why did we walk away?

Bia picked herself up and wiped away the few tears that had fallen like she was fine. Was she fine? I couldn’t tell. Either way, she walked right behind Ivy like she was her puppy. I didn’t want them to get too close. It didn’t seem safe. “Are you okay? Do you want to walk now?” Calyx asked me.

My legs weren’t hurting anymore, so I thought walking would be fine. “Sure. Set me down gently, though. I hate being dropped.” She placed me on the ground so my feet touched the dirt softly. I could feel everything with my toes. “Can I still hold your hand?” I asked.

She smiled. “Always.”

I slipped my hand into hers, happy to have someone next to me. I was so used to being alone. I could remember my early childhood, when I was about three or four. We were sitting around a fire singing old Romani songs. I had my head resting on Momma’s knee, but she kept shoving me away every other minute. Still, I kept going back to her because we were family and she was my protector. She was supposed to take care of me.

Momma never took care of me. She left me to starve unless I brought home money for food. “Fable, you go get dinner for us. You go do magic,” she’d croon. I always obeyed. I never asked questions. “Oh chahvi, you’re so good to me. I need you forever and ever and ever...” she’d whisper late at night while I fell asleep.
... and ever and ever and never.

I was gone. I’d left her by herself with no one to take care of her, no one to get her money or food, no one to keep her company. I left my momma for what? This? Why did I think it was ever worth it? I stubbed my toe on a rock and mumbled a swear word I’d heard our King say one day when the fire burnt him. Calyx giggled. “I want to go back,” I admitted in a small voice. “I don’t want this.”

Calyx gave me a small pat on my head with her free hand. “We all want to go back. But we can’t.”

“But… but- I miss Momma and my family. I miss everyone. I don’t want them to be gone,” I sniffled.

She stopped walking long enough to give me a hug. “It’ll be okay. Everything will be fine. You just stick with me and Bia. We’ll take care of you.” Bia walked up from behind me, leaving Ivy alone in the back. I left that topic alone.

“I won’t let you get hurt,” she said quietly. And I knew what kind of hurt she meant. Ivy’s kind of hurt.

“Good. I don’t like hurting.” I stuck my chin up in the air and sniffled again.

Bia swooped me up in her arms and carried me like a baby. “No worries. We’re doing great, kiddo.” She kissed my nose. For a second I let myself pretend I was in Momma’s arms and we were coming home after another night at the fair. But the scent of incense was replaced with bleach and Momma’s soft shawl was replaced with Bia’s cold arms. This was what I had now. I had to be fine with it.

“Take care of me, okay? And you. Take care of you. I don’t like it when you’re hurt,” I said honestly.
I could see the pain in her gray eyes. She wasn’t doing a good job of hiding. Maybe she didn’t want to hide.

“I’ll go walk with Ivy and see if her brother’s said anything yet,” Calyx mumbled. She slowed down to match Ivy’s pace. Bia pulled me closer to her chest and I laid my head on her cold skin. She’d do. She was fine. Besides, something deep inside me told me she was already family. It was like we knew each other from long, long ago. Only we’d forgotten all that and only had right now.

Ember

“ He can’t be too far off.” I told Chase, “ He isn’t usually the type to run off on us like that. His owner is a real dick- I mean... he’s really strict and all I guess. I don’t know why he ran off in the first place.”

“ Us?” Chase questioned as we pushed through the trees.

“ Uh, yeah. I’ll introduce you to them.. I guess.” I said uncertainly. Maybe it was a bad idea. Bringing in a normal kid into a group of freaks… oh well. There was something strange about him and the way I found him…

“ What’s the dogs name?” he asked.

“ Sarge. He-”

“ SAAAARGE!!!!” He wailed into the forest.

“ Don’t scare him off!”

“ Oh… Right.” He laughed nervously. “ Saaarge?” he whispered. I shook my head, a smile spreading across my lips. I pushed a branch away and saw the dog standing there, wagging his tail and waiting patiently. I held onto his collar and kept walking, Chase trailing behind.

“So uh, You like dogs huh? I thought you said you were looking for your dog, but then you just were talking about the dog’s owner in a way that said the dog wasn’t yours, so… is the dog yours or not?” words tumbled from his mouth in a constant stream.

“Uh… no. This is Jack’s dog.” I explained.

“Ohhhhh.” Chase said as if everything had become clear. We kept walking, and he didn’t say anything else. I was aware of his deep breathing, as if each step we took made him more nervous. Why? I dunno. “ Want some chocolate?” he blurted out suddenly.

I turned and looked at him. His eyes widened and his lips formed into a frown. I had to resists myself from laughing. Why was he giving me that face? It’s not like he said anything wrong. “ Sure.” I smiled, and kept walking.

“ Really? Oh- well… Okay.” He swung his bag around and fumbled around with the zipper. When he finally opened up his bag and pulled out two chocolate bars, he handed one to me happily.

“ Thanks.” I ripped the top of the wrapper off with my teeth, keeping one hand secured on Sarge’s collar, and took a bite. Chase gave me a quick look and then shrugged it off, taking a bite of his chocolate bar. “ So you didn’t tell me,” I said, snapping off another piece of chocolate. “ Why were you way out there in the middle of the woods?”

“ Oh.. Haha.. It’s uh… a Long story.” He stuttered.

“ I got time.”

“ Does that mean this is a long walk?” he whined.

“ No,” I laughed. “ but I bet the story isn’t as long as you say it is.” I smiled.

Bia

Fable had adjusted herself so she was sitting on my back in an almost-piggyback fashion. She was still clinging to me, tighter than ever, as if I would drop her at any moment. But maybe that’s what she knew. She said her sisters left her. Maybe everyone else had left her long before they physically moved away.

“Guess what?” she whispered in my ear.
I nearly jumped at her voice being so close to me. “What?”
She switched to talking in my head. “Ivy’s thinking about you right now.”

I tried to slow my heartbeat down and keep all thoughts of the possibilities out of my mind as Fable obviously could catch on quick. But it was nearly impossible.

“Really? Is it good? Or, bad?” I stammered.
Fable laughed. “I’m not telling. That would be rude.”

Out loud, we heard Ivy shout something triumphant.
“Omigod! I get cell phone service! We can order pizza or something!”

I stared at blondie. She had obviously fooled me into thinking she was different than the rest of the popular girls.

“Ivy, that’s impossible. We’re in the middle of a forest with no known address, wandering around in probably circles, nowhere NEAR a road. How on earth could a pizza delivery guy reach us?” Calyx paused, thinking. “But I’m hungry too. I’m sorry if that sounded mean. I didn’t mean it to be, I just- I was-”
“Cell phone! Ivy, does your brother have a cell phone?” I asked, interrupting Calyx.

Ivy stared at the flat phone in her hand for a moment before letting a smile creep across her face.

“He does! He has a cell phone! And a backpack full of chocolate bars, not that I’d eat those, but maybe he has some snacks...” Ivy trailed off. “Oh, I mean, we could text him to see where he is. Screw the food.”

She ducked her head as if she was embarrassed. I wanted to tell her it was okay, that my stomach needed me to fill it as well.

“You ate ice cream, doofus.” Fable’s voice crept into my head again.
“Get out!” I thought rather loudly.
She shot me a look and opened her mouth to speak. “I want Calyx to carry me. Your nails are digging into my legs. You’re hurting me.”

I shot ahead to catch up with Calyx who was now concentrating on marking the trees with a sharp stone she’d found on the ground. Apparently it helped her know we weren’t going in circles and were actually getting somewhere.

“She wants you,” I said quietly.

Fable jumped from my back to Calyx’s in a couple seconds. I expected Calyx to at least jump a little at the extra weight, but she didn’t even blink. It was as if she hadn’t noticed. Huh.

“You can go now,” Fable ordered in her tiny voice.
I glared at her. “You’re really annoying.”
“I know. So are you. Now leave me alone. I want Calyx,” she whined.

I fell back in step with Ivy, who was staring at the screen of her phone. A message was up on the screen, and despite my thoughts telling me to give her privacy, I peeked over Ivy’s shoulder to read it.

“go away. im with a girl,” the text read.

“Huh, I never thought your brother was the type to ditch you for a girl,” I mused. “But then again, I only knew him for a short while.”
Ivy glanced up at me. “Why’d you read my message?”
“Well, I, uh,” I stuttered.
“That’s private and personal, you know. I don’t go through all your little diaries or whatever you do in your spare time. I don’t even know you. God, just… give me some space. I can’t deal with this right now,” Ivy ranted.

My face turned crimson and I stopped walking. Diaries. As if that’s what I spent my time doing. Try avoiding the leers of my mom’s current flame or trying to sneak downstairs without running into a half-naked man in the kitchen, eating my food. When did I ever have time to write any of this down? Did I look like the type of girl to keep a diary?

I glanced down at my arms. Probably, judging from my appearance. Good job, Bia. Dressing in black skinny jeans, a gray tank top, and gray Converse. Trying to blend in with the world around you. You mix your f’ucking charcoal eyeshadow every morning with the teal, hoping you’ll fit in nicely. Right. Like people don’t notice the freak. Like they can’t see your scars and everything you’ve done.

My feet gave out under me and I let myself collapse to the ground. It was comfier than walking, anyway. My feet ached. Tears welled up in my eyes but I refused to let them fall. I was done crying over my past. I was done crying over yet another person who shrugged me off like a stray piece of confetti. The sadness turned to anger and the tears fell anyway, hot and sticky on my sweaty cheeks. I brushed them away angrily. They didn’t belong here.

“Bia’s not good,” Fable cried loudly. I could hear her from back here.
I’m fine, I wanted to say. I’m perfect. This is as close as I’ll get. Instead of opening my mouth, I picked myself up off the ground and continued walking behind a waterfall of blond hair.

Thirteen

“Thirteen, hm? Aren’t you going to, I don’t know, kill me for that last little incident?” It was a task not to bruise Julianna’s fragile skin pigments although my hold on the peasant woman was anything but rough.

“You’re a fool if you think that they are in a safe haven. The Protectors are weak… they have hardly distanced themselves from us. Their song is still strong within my ears, Julianna.”

“Julia,” She corrected me, her tone dry. Her lips parted and she exhaled a small gasp—- I realized I’d been bruising her. “Well you’re obviously not going after them now. Weren’t you programmed to kill them as the modern day Terminator?”

“Terminator,” I tested the meaningless word. “Yes, I do terminate, perhaps… there was another one to terminate, in the past?”

“Ah, Christ,” Julianna mumbled, frustrated for some reason of the sort. “The Terminator… It’s an old movie.”

“Movie?”

“Yeah.” Confusion welled in my head as I tried to remember the term, if I had ever witnessed the use in the past.

“What?”

“I’m starting to wish that you’d killed me earlier.” Julianna answered in a sigh, bringing a translucent hand to her forehead. “A movie. Moving pictures on a screen… motion picture. Do you know what ‘motion’ and ‘picture’ mean, or are you too dense—-”

“Ah, perhaps you are referring to a film, yes?”

“Sure.”

“The terminator you are subjecting to is a film.” I took a moment to ponder this as we broke from the forestry. “I was not… programmed. It is, in jest, my destiny to find and destroy the Protectors and retrieve the Prophecy to the human kind.”

Julianna barked a guffaw as she prodded from to the edge of the forest. We were now between nature and mankind; the border between the beginning of the forest and town. “And what’s Jack’s role in this?”

I wetted my lips. “I know of the Protectors and who’s to be, not their placements.”

It was only when Julianna lightly brushed a lock of my flaxen hair from my eyes that I realized I had released my grip on her arm. I froze, momentarily stunned by the sudden compassion. Stiff and no longer trekking, I angrily locked my eyes with hers. Julianna drew in air, cross. “I’ve noticed a few things about you, Thirteen. When you talk to me, you don’t move your lips. In fact, I’m not sure if I’ve ever even seen your lips open before, at all. Half of your ear is torn off. Every word you say echos. You’re pale. Your eyes are a weird shade of yellow. The way you walk...” Her words came across as gentle, yet firm. “maybe all of this urban shit is true and Jack has a place. The Protectors have a place. The humans have a place, they’re the ones being protected. But, according to the Prophecy, what’s your place in all of this?”

The back of Julianna’s hand brushed against my jaw line as she drew her arm away from my hair. She did not receive a peculiar answer from me. Once and for all, the human weapon of sound emitted none, for she had no answer.

I was silenced.

Chase

After being freed from the vines of flowers and anything else that had happened upon me -and trust me, there were lots-, I stepped back to take a look at my savior.

Before I even thanked them, I gasped and started to stutter.
She-s-she was a g-girl!
A girl!
I was- she was standing right- and I was- we were so close!

“Thanks,” I mumbled, trying to think of something funny to say. All that came out was, “Did you know jelly-fish are 95% water? Isn’t that funny, because they swim in water, and they’re part of the water, so you’d think they’d fall apart or something… but they don’t...”
The girl watched me, her mouth tilting up slightly, forming a smile. She was laughing at me. As usual. Everyone laughs at me…

“I.. I’m Chase,” I stuttered, looking at the mess of flowers and ripped of vines at my feet.
“Ember,” she muttered, looking at me, clearly confused.
“How’d you get stuck in those flowers?” she asked, poking me in the side.

I shrugged.
“I don’t know. It was like a mutant swamp monster thing attacked me or something. Only, we’re in a forest. So a forest monster. Do you think it could have been one?” I nodded my head towards the flowers and vines, and she shook hers slowly.

I was scaring her away.
“What are you doing in this forest, anyway?” I asked, trying to find some common groud.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
She frowned at the sun that was shining through the tree tops and getting in her eyes.
I didn’t say anything more.
I was stupid, anyway.

I would just scare her away.
She was a girl!
Girls don’t talk to boys like me, unless they’re forced to.
There had to be a reason why she was here.

“No really, why are you here?” I pushed once more.
“I was just trying to find my dog,” she said uncertainly, as if she was making this up on the spot.
“Can I help?” I jumped, speaking a little too fast.
” I- I mean, to repay you. For helping me?”

She nodded, laughing a little bit to herself, but still uncertainly.

Excerpt

The masses of people were like cattle today. Tourists filed in and out of doors, anxious to see the same buildings and landmarks that Jeremy had observed many times before. He didn’t understand why exactly this day was important. To him, it was as if somebody was having a birthday, and that somebody had a lot of friends. If that were true though, why wasn’t he invited?

“Busy day, ain’t it, kiddo?” Startled, Jeremy turned. Nobody ever talked to him unless they were scolding him for stealing their goods. The man was tall, almost too tall. He had big muscles, Jeremy noticed, that were starting to go away. He had wrinkles littering his face, and his eyes looked tired. The man seemed friendly, but he had such a deep voice that he slightly scared Jeremy. The man looked away, a shadow of a smile stretched on his lips. Almost to himself, he muttered, “Never thought I’d be here again...”

At that, Jeremy bit back his coyness with wide eyes. “You be gone from here before?” The white man lifted a brow and uttered a small cough. He leaned against the bricks of an old restaurant that Jeremy wasn’t allowed in anymore. There was a lot of black people in Seattle, but Jeremy didn’t know any of them except for himself and the nice old lady at the church. The white people though, Jeremy noted, were plentiful.

The man chuckled. “Kid, I’ve been to tons of places. I was born and raised in Canada, but I’ve traveled here in the U.S too. America, South America, several places in Europe, New Zealand...” Jeremy hadn’t heard of any of those countries before, but he nodded as if he did.

“I be in lots ‘o places too,” He boasted, puffing out his chest a little. Moments later, though, Jeremy felt bitterness make its home inside his chest. “ ‘Cept they don’t want me should stay. Iffen I do, it only be fer a tinsy time.” Jeremy exaggerated this with his dirtied hands. “They say I be a horrid guesty. They be planning to turn me out come ‘te morning to the creatures.”

The man raised his eyebrows, making his forehead seem more wrinkly. “Why do they not let you stay?”

Jeremy let a mischievous smile slip. He leaned in and lowered his voice, looking quickly both ways to make sure no one was listening. “I be take’n their goodies! Them be have’n to chase me all the time. Iffen I be sleepy there one night, I can’t come back or they be call’n the cops.”

The man cracked a small smile, as if he remembered something. “What’s your name, kid?” Jeremy stared up at the man, stretching on his bare toes to meet his eyes. Even though he was stronger and faster than most of the kids he played with, he looked a lot shorter and younger than he acted to be. Though, Jeremy wouldn’t know if he was younger or not, since he wasn’t entirely sure of how many birthdays he’d had.

“Jeremy. Actually I be have’n TWO names. Jeremy Hawthorn be all of ‘em.” Jeremy outstretched his grummy hand proudly to the tall white man. He was proud to remember seeing people do this on the streets and felt that this was a proper time. Just in case the man didn’t know what he was doing, though, Jeremy explained. “It be a hand shakey. Iffen you shaken my hand, we be friends.”

The man let out a loose torrent of laughter, breaking into a grin. Taking Jeremy’s hand, he responded, “My name’s Kiorri. And I’ve been looking for you for a hell of a long time, kiddo.”

They shook.

Bia

I found Ivy sitting with her back against the rough bark of a mangled tree and her knees brought up to her chest. She was sobbing loudly, with each heave her chest rising dramatically. What I could see of her face looked streaked with makeup.

I sat down next to her and immediately put my hand on her shoulder.

“What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” I asked.
She hiccuped. “My brother’s missing… Mom’s going to be so pissed.. and Dad.”
“But we’ll find him.” I rubbed part of her back softly. “I promise.”

Ivy looked up at me, her baby blue eyes swollen and filled with tears. Her lips were pouting and parted slightly, as if she couldn’t breathe through her nose.

“You promise?” she said softly.
I nodded. “Yes. We’ll find him. It will be okay.”

She looked back down at herself and scoffed quietly. I stopped rubbing her as she was easing up on the crying.

“I’m a mess.” She laughed eerily.
“No, you’re gorgeous.” I glanced at her white skinny jeans that now had smears of dirt on the sides.

The sun wasn’t reaching this part of the forest as well as it had been where I was with Fable. Though there was a small stream a few feet away, it still smelled like dirt and pine needles. I couldn’t smell the water at all. I could barely hear it.

“How old are you, Bia?” Ivy asked me.
I watched the water in the stream. “Fifteen. I’ll be sixteen in the spring.”
“I’m fourteen,” she boasted.
I smiled. “I know.”

We both watched a rabbit hop down into its burrow.

“Why don’t you go to parties? Are you afraid you won’t fit in? Because everyone’s too drunk to notice, you know.” Ivy started wiping the mascara streaks off her cheeks.
I let out a sigh. “It’s not that. I used to go to parties, but I stopped. They’re all the same, honestly. Kids get drunk, have sex, make mistakes, and add new regrets to their lists. I don’t belong on that scene.”
“So where do you belong? At home with your cats?” She giggled.

I thought about the pets I’d left behind. Would Mom remember to feed them today? Probably not. She didn’t care about anything of mine. She only cared about her men and her birth control. God forbid she have another child, another mistake like me.

“I don’t have a place. I don’t belong anywhere, really. I drift.” My mind wandered to my childhood.

I was seven years old. My teacher was a strange bald man with half a finger missing on his left hand. I shared a desk with Calyx Baker and Amanda Rawlins. Calyx was getting mad at me because I could draw a perfect circle and she couldn’t. Amanda told her to shove it. Calyx started to whimper and our teacher yelled at me for making her cry. He made me sit in the corner for the rest of the day. I couldn’t even have a washroom break or go out for recess. The whole time he told me what a naughty little girl I was and how I deserved to be punished.

He kept me after school. He was the first guy to violate me. A week later, he was my mom’s boyfriend. I never told.

“Are you okay? You look… scared,” Ivy said quietly.
I tried to erase the memory from my mind. “I’m fine. I was just thinking.”
“About what?” she asked.
“Losing my innocence.” My voice cracked on the last word.

Ivy asked no more questions, she simply gave my hand a squeeze. It was as if she understood. But she couldn’t possibly. She wasn’t the little girl with her pants down. She wasn’t the older girl screaming for help. She hadn’t seen what my mom ignored.

Maybe she still had her innocence.

“There you are!” Calyx jogged over to us. “Bia ran off suddenly and we had to follow her. You didn’t have to go so fast, you know. We- oh. Um, are we interrupting something?”
Ivy let go of my hand quickly. “No. We were just talking. Bia made me feel a little better, but we still need to find Chase.”

Fable jumped up in the air and landed half in my lap. She grinned up at me and gave my head a small pat, as if I was an animal.

“You took her hurt away, right?” she asked.
Ivy laughed. “She did.”
“We should probably look for Chase,” I said while standing up. “Hopefully he’s in the forest somewhere and not out with whatever was chasing us.”
“Chasing Chase,” Calyx muttered.
Ivy stood up and tried to brush the dirt off her pants. “Darn, I really liked these jeans.”
“Oh here, I’ll help.” I wiped some of the forest floor off of one leg. Ivy looked at me weird.

Fable threw herself in my arms and demanded that I carry her. I stopped helping Ivy and hoisted Fable up. She wrapped her legs around my middle and clung onto my neck like a monkey.

“We’re going on an adventure,” she giggled. “We’re explorers. This is awesome.”