A Vision of Green (Florence Vaine #2) (25 page)

Frank interrupts him. “Okay, let me get this straight, they saw the lion with a human head and then what? Obviously it didn't attack or kill them if they were alive and well enough to tell the tale.”

“
That's the thing,” Josh answers. “It ran forward and was about to leap on top of my friend Adam when suddenly the earth began to shake or pulse or something. The lion backed up and ran off, that's when they all got the hell out of there.”

“
Well, that's convenient,” Alex snickers.

I sit there as they argue back and forth over whether or not Josh is lying, when Green George's riddle surfaces in my head.
In body I am king of the jungle, my mind is human through and through, I can kill you instantly with the slightest prick of my tail, what am I?
Josh said it was a lion, and a lion is the king of the jungle, it had a human head, which coincides with “my mind is human through and through”. Oh my God, I think Josh might be telling the truth for once. Without thinking I turn to him, and blurt out, “Did they say anything about its tail, I mean, did it have a weird tail?”

“
No way, how did you know that?” Josh breathes. “Have you seen it too?”

“
T-t-tell me what they said about the tail,” I state firmly.

Josh furrows his brow thoughtfully, before answering, “Only one of them said they saw it, the others were too scared shitless to notice. Apparently it had a kind of a snake-like tail, half prickly and half like a rattle snake or something. I repeat, Flo, have you seen it?”

“
N-no I haven't, it's just something I wondered about, since the head was different from the body, I thought that the tail might be different too.” I reply, thinking quickly.

Caroline shifts beside me in her seat. “So it had a human head, a lion's body, and a prickly tail. Sounds like a manticore to me.”

“
What on earth is a manticore?” Ingrid asks with disgust.

“
It's a sort of mythological hybrid creature, I had a book about myths and legends when I was younger that I used to read to myself before bedtime. The manticore was one of the freakiest, that's why it always stuck in my head.”

“
You must have been one weird kid,” Josh comments.

Caroline shakes her head. “Whatever Josh, just because you aren't interested in anything other than wearing douchebag clothes and being a sleaze. Do you want to hear about this thing or not?”

“
Fine, carry on,” says Josh, with a flippant hand wave.

“
Well how you described it is almost right, except a manticore's tail is supposed to be like a scorpion's, and it's got three rows of teeth in its mouth, knife sharp, its voice sounds like a brass instrument, like a horn or a trumpet, creepy right? It can paralyse or kill its victims if it shoots them with the spines that come out of its tail. And oh there was something else, let me think,” she pauses for a second, a thoughtful look on her face. “Right, now I remember. It's also a man eater, which means it eats the bodies of its victims whole, leaving no trace of evidence behind.”

Her last sentence sends a shiver down my spine. The eating of human bodies is all too familiar to me, so fresh in my memory after having dreamed about Diana and her cannibal witches and witnessing their doings in the flesh.

“
That's it, I'm going home. This conversation has gotten all too morbid for my liking,” says Ingrid, getting up and shoving her bag over her shoulder. “You coming Josh?”

He glances up at her at the sound of his name, but it looks like he's lost in thought. “Huh? Um no, I'm going to stick around for a while.”

“
I drove you here, remember?” Ingrid continues. “How else are you going to get home?”

“
I'll catch a ride with the ginger,” he looks over at Caroline. “That all right with you?”

Caroline shrugs and nods, she's too nice to refuse anyone a lift, even if it's Josh who's asking.

“
Suit yourself, see you tomorrow,” says Ingrid, and with that she sashays out of the room.

“
So, do you all believe me now then?” Josh asks, after Ingrid's gone.

“
I don't want to believe you, but I think I might.” Caroline replies. “My cousin got murdered in this town, and ever since it happened I've had this feeling that there's something not quite
normal
going on.”

“
Why do you care if we believe you Carter? Believing in this shit's not going to make it go away,” Alex puts in. “We all just have to deal with whatever happens.”

“
And with that I think we'll call it a night,” says Frank.

“
What? No, I want to talk about this,” Josh demands and gestures to Frank, Alex and me. “You three know something, let's not pretend I don't see you eyeing each other all the time. Now spill.”

“
We all know the same amount as you, so you can untwist those panties and get the hell out of my house,” Alex tells him.

Josh rolls his eyes, but he looks like he's on the verge of a tantrum. “If that's the way you want to play it then fine. But don't say I didn't warn you, something bad is on the way for this town, and we're better off having everything out in the open instead of all this fucking secrecy all the time.” He turns and faces me. “And don't even get me started on you Flo, you probably know more than the lot of us.”

“
What's that supposed t-t-to mean?” I ask, a little indignant, since I don't know what suddenly brought on this unprovoked attack. Looking more closely at his aura, I see that what happened out in the forest last week, and again this story that his friends have told him about the manticore has really taken its toll on Josh. He hasn't been getting much sleep, that's for certain.

“
Oh nothing, just nothing. Are you ready to go Ginger?” he glances at Caroline.

“
Yup,” Caroline replies, letting out a long breath and giving me a wide eyed look that says
I think Josh might be one his period
. “You coming too Flo?”

“
I'll take Flo home,” Frank interjects, and I don't disagree because I'm certainly in no mood to share a car with Josh right now. Josh and Caroline leave, and Frank, Alex and I sit in silence. We listen as Caroline pulls her car out of the driveway, her headlights shining through the living room curtains for a second and then disappearing.

“
D-do you two know something I don't?” I ask finally, breaking the silence.

Frank lets out a long breath. “Not much. Just that John's been instructing us to stay out of the woods for the last week or two. So obviously something's going on, and I hate to say this, but I think Josh might be right. Something bad is on its way, I can feel it.”

“
Shit I thought those bad vibes were just me being paranoid, you're getting them too?” Alex asks.

“
Yeah, so we need to keep our eyes peeled. Sam and the Nephilim might be scary powerful, but they aren't infallible, something could always go wrong. The monsters in the forest could get out like they've obviously been trying to,” says Frank, scratching his head. “Listen, the two of you can't repeat this to anyone, but I overheard John on the phone the other night to Sam. There's been instances of people trying to walk right into the forest against their will. The only way they didn't get in was because the Nephilim were guarding the place and stopped them before they got too far.” He pauses and looks at me. “Like what happened to you Flo - with the N
ø
kken.”

“
What happened to Flo?” Alex puts in.

Frank gives him a quick account of how I've met Green George twice, once when he got me to convey his message to Sam and then again when he rescued me from being drowned by the N
ø
kken. Alex lets out a couple of swear words that I won't repeat.

We sit in silence yet again, this one more contemplative than the last. Frank and I both burst out laughing when Alex finally remarks, “Green George though, is that a super gay name or what?”

At that we really do call it a night, and Frank drives me back to Gran's street. I love to watch him drive, for some reason I find the movements of his exposed arms on the steering wheel
very
appealing. He's wearing a long sleeved t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up. His muscles flex as he turns the wheel around a corner, or when he changes gears.

“
You're staring Flo,” he says, his lips curving into a smile, face looking straight ahead at the road.

“
Am I? S-sorry,” I mumble, embarrassed.

He looks over at me for a moment. “Don't be, you know I like your eyes on me.”

“
Um, right.”

“
So you never gave me many details about what happened last night after you practically shoved me out the back door..” he says, trailing off.

I put my head in my hands for a second. “God, that was really horrible of me. I j-j-just get s-so nervous when Dad's in one of his humours. He and his girlfriend Sal were having a big fight because my dad was with another woman the night b-b-before. He threw her out of the house and then had a big party to celebrate. I just stayed upstairs in m-my room to avoid the drunks.”

Frank's jaw visibly tightens. “Fuck,” he slams his palms against the steering wheel, then rubs a hand over his face. “I'm sorry for swearing, it's just, Flo it makes me so angry when I think of you having to live like that. Let's pack your stuff tonight and you can come stay with me. John and Hayley love you, they won't mind.”

“
I c-can't do that,” I whisper.

“
Why the hell not?” he demands, his tone making me jump a little.

“
L-lots of reasons. One being I don't want to be a burden on John and Hayley, another being that I need to take care of myself and not just run away from my problems. Not to mention that it would be w-weird staying in your place Frank, since we're not together any more..”

Frank's look cuts right into me. “Yeah, there is that,” he grits out, pulling up to the curb at the end of my street. What I don't say is that I'm mostly afraid of what my dad will do if he finds out I've moved in with Frank and his family. I think his little plot for blackmailing me would become even more elaborate then. I turn to get out of the car, but just before I do Frank grabs my hand, squeezing it tight.

His voice is strained when he says, “Take care of yourself, you hear me?”

“
I will,” I reply and continue getting out of the car. I slam the door shut and head up the road to the house. When I get there all of the lights are off. I walk into the living room and stumble over something on the floor. When I turn on the light I find Dad lying there on the carpet, comatose. He's only wearing a t-shirt and there are track marks all down his arm.
Shit, shit, shit
. My dad takes a lot of drugs, but the kind he uses a needle for are the worst. His aura's ghostly white, but not gone, so he's alive.

I kneel down on the floor beside him. “Dad, D-d-dad, are you awake, can you hear me?”

He scrunches up his face and pushes me away from him, letting out a groan. He's lying flat on his back, which isn't good because he could die choking on his own vomit in that position. I grab a cushion off the sofa and put it under his head, while rolling him over onto his side. He's far too heavy for me to carry upstairs to bed, even if he is stick thin, so the only thing I can do is leave him where he is. His skin feels cold and clammy to the touch. I go to grab a blanket out of the airing cupboard and throw it over him.

A fleeting thought runs through my mind. I could put him back lying flat. I could do that and maybe in the morning he'd be dead. Gone from this world. I'd be free. I wouldn't have to deal with the darkness that he brings into my life any more. But then I remember who I really am, that even though I have spent half my life scared, deep down I'm not a coward. And letting my dad die so passively like that would be the coward's way out. I hear his breathing go even, so I know that he's fast asleep. I turn off the light and close the door, leaving him to his drug addled slumber.