Banes (9 page)

"Why Miss Ari you looks a wreck, you wants I should pour you a bath?"

She glanced up at Annabelle and smiled, "Yes please." She knew she wasn’t dirty but she couldn’t help feel it.

She looked back at herself seeing the tattoos she hated poking out of her clothes in random places.

"Well I be's concerned for ya Miss Ari. You looks some awful upset. What be troubling you?"

She stood still watching her own mouth move in the reflection, "My soul is split into two people Annabelle and I can't seem to keep the bad one of me out of my mind."

"Well I know Momma Elsie could help ya's wit dat. She be a magic lady who helps Lydia sometimes. I seen her do some amazing things. Ask Lydia to takes ya there. Now I pour ya bath." She vanished.

Ari walked from the room quickly looking for Lydia. She was scared to run into Lucas but she needed to know about Momma Elsie. Lydia was in her reading room looking over a huge book.

"Whose Momma Elsie?"

Lydia sighed looking at her, "Annabelle is going to get it. No one you need to be concerning yourself with. Ari we need to learn abut your other side before we just dispel her. We don’t know a lot about you and your gifts. I know you're having a hard time with it kiddo and I know you want a normal life but you need to remember if we dispel one of you it could be old you who gets removed. Then what? You'll be in a dark place kiddo."

Ari nodded and walked back upstairs for her bath. A very large part of her didn’t want to wash off Lucas's touch and kisses but she couldn’t help associate them with the bad man in New Ari's memories.

Chapter Nine- The Cop and The Killer

Aimee

He stared at her, "You're so beautiful Aimee. I think I almost forgot how beautiful."

She looked at him with an evil grin and flashed them into his bathroom.

He shivered with motion sickness, "Aimee Jesus that is awful."

She squeezed his hand stepping into his shower, "How's my dad?"

"He's broken. He's so sad he can't eat, he sleeps all the time. He barely leaves his house."

She looked at him feeling her face tightening, "What can I do?"

"Aimee you need to see him."

She shook her head, "I can't let him see me like this."

"I can't tell a difference in you, you look the same. If I can't see it and believe me I am looking for it, he won't either." He gripped her hand, "Lets drive over though k?"

She laughed, "Okay." Her stomach was in her throat. She didn’t know what she was about to do but she knew she couldn’t leave her father the way he was. She needed to fix things with him and she knew she was probably safe enough to see him without hurting him.

They showered quickly and changed into clothes. The thought of her father had killed her ideas of how the shower was going to go.

Aimee laughed as they walked up to his big truck, "You know I miss riding in this truck."

She climbed in and closed the door remembering how sick she had been when she rode in the truck the last time.

Her nerves didn’t improve as they drove but Shane nattering on made her smile, "Yeah so anyway I got lucky with my job. I can come home a lot and if I need to help my mom I can be here pretty fast. So my dad is marrying that girl hey."

Aimee raised an eyebrow at him.

He nodded as he drove, "Yeah, I got an invitation. I'm not even kidding. You wanna be my date?"

She smirked, "You're going to the wedding?"

"I have to Aimee, my sister is going too. Dad has spent a lot of time trying to make up for it all. I don’t like Hilary but she makes him happy and he has been trying."

"Hilary, it just sounds like mean girl home wrecker."

"Still a nerd at heart."

She laughed, "Yup. Speaking of which how's my sister and Blake doing?"

His face went hard. He parked in her driveway turning his bright blue eyes on her, "Aims Blake is evil. I'm pretty sure he beats your sister. She had bruises all over her arms last time I saw her and she seemed really skinny and weird, like shy and unsure of herself. Anyway they live in Boston now. They just moved. He's going to MIT."

Aimee rolled her eyes, "Shane I know you hate him and I have to admit I'm not a fan anymore. Not since that night but lets be honest it's Blake. He's a giant nerd not beating my sister. Alise is probably on drugs and he's probably trying to help her." She sighed, "Maybe Boston will be good for her. MIT huh. Wow talk about a dream come true for him."

She looked at the house and cringed as she opened the door. She hopped out feeling over dressed in her skinny jeans and high-heeled boots and cashmere sweater. Her dad would be suspicious of her clothes.

Shane bounded the stairs to the front door like he was family, she smiled knowing he was. She was more than grateful for the attention and care he had given her father over the past year and a half.

He opened the door without knocking making her feel like the outsider at her own home.

Her father sat in the living room watching TV on a huge big screen TV. She looked at it curiously. He was watching the nature channel, at least that hadn’t changed.

"Look who is feeling like her old self and able to finally leave the medical center?"

Her father turned to see her. Tears poured from his eyes as he leapt off the couch, "Aimee. Oh my sweet Aimee. You're okay? What are you wearing?" He held her hands making her nervous. She looked at Shane who smiled and nodded at her. She kept her hands in check. She looked at her fathers face sickened by how thin he'd gotten but also how old.

"Daddy." She whispered gripping his weathered skin.

He pulled her in gripping her tightly sobbing.

She felt the tears streaming down her face as she nestled into his thin frame smelling his old worn sweater.

His muscles trembled with the sobbing as he gripped her too tight but her new body didn’t flinch under the strain and pressure.

She glanced at Shane and mouthed, "Thank you."

He nodded fighting the tears sitting in his eyes.

Her hands tingled for a half a second but her love for the two men in the room saved her, it was stronger than anything that lived inside of her.

After her father gained his composure they sat at the bar while he made omelets. Aimee dreaded eating in front of him, she hadn’t gotten the hang of swallowing after going for such an insane amount of time not eating.

"So anyway when Blake got into MIT he asked Alise to go with him. We are all so proud of him. After everything that’s happened around here everyone is still trying to put the pieces back together." His voice cracked slightly as he whisked the eggs.

Aimee smiled, "How's Giselle?"

Her dad smiled, "She is doing amazingly. She is in Seattle now going to journalism school. She wants to be a fashion journalist." He shrugged.

"I'm glad she's feeling better. That liver transplant was a miracle."

"Yeah but its taken her as long as its taken you to recover. She was just lucky to be able to do it here, at home."

Aimee looked at Shane and smiled, "Thank god for small and large miracles. I will have to look her up next time I'm in Seattle."

"Yes we will. Aimee and I are back together. Not that we were broken up but the distance and the isolation, well you know."

Her dad looked too excited to speak as he nodded. He just beamed and plated the omelets.

Shane cleared his throat looking nervous, "So Mr. Mackenzie was tried for murder, rape, assault causing, stalking and a few misdemeanors that were added because of him being a teacher and an adult and Jaime only being seventeen. Anyway it's going to be life with no chance of parole, ever."

Aimee nodded, "Good. He deserves every second of his punishment. Some of us will never recover from the things he has taken away." Her eyes misted slightly.

Her father reached for her hand, "I'm so glad you're home Aims. It's too bad you just missed your sister. She would have been excited to see you."

"Yeah, me too dad."

"I thought I was going crazy, your letters were the only thing that kept me sane. I couldn’t bear the lack of correspondence between us."

She looked up abruptly to see Shane wink at her. She paused for a breath, "Oh yeah, well I'm glad. I wasn’t very strong and it took a lot out of me to write those letters."

"I still read them all, every night."

She felt sick thinking she had truly gone a year and half without even contacting him once to tell him she was okay. Her heart swelled thinking about how much she loved Shane. He wrote her father under the guise that they came from her to keep the man alive.

Chapter Ten- Angst and Bushwhacking Can Never be Friends

Ari

She looked out the window at the gray weather feeling like the old her was slipping away further and further as if lost in the fog that seemed to constantly hover around the house. She didn’t know what to do with herself but she was scared of staying in the same place. She needed some heat and some sweat and to run the energy off. Her legs twitched with the need to move and the new Ari twitched with the need to feel some pain. The piercings and tattoos and cuts in her skin had come from a need. Ari didn’t completely get it but she understood what it was like to feel chaos taking her somewhere and the burn in her legs and lungs was the only thing that stopped her from getting lost in it.

She slipped on some runners she had picked out on a shopping trip with Aimee and some shorts. In the cold rainy weather she knew she should pick track pants or jogging pants but she wanted to feel the cold against her skin. She slipped on a running bra and a t-shirt. She walked down the stairs quietly and out the front door.

The cold air hit her like a wall. Instantly her skin was burning from the cold. It was extreme like the desert just the wrong kind of extreme. She walked to the edge of the house and then pushed herself off into the woods. She ran along the path Lydia had told her about that circled the lake for several miles. Her muscles burned and ached from the lack of running but new Ari loved the pain. She seemed to be contented by the agony she was putting them through. Ari left the trail even though she knew she shouldn’t and ran into the woods. The ground became uneven and her weakened leg muscles struggled with the logs she hopped over and the branches she ducked under. Dead brown leaves smacked her face weakly as they were barely attached to the branches.

Her vision blurred, her lungs screamed from lack of air and her head pounded but she pushed herself further. She was determined to feel it, the explosion of endorphins she used to get. Her sprint had turned to a jog and she was just about to let go. She knew if she stopped she would fall. New Ari tingled in delight imagining the pain of falling in the forest, the sticks stabbing her and branches cutting her skin. Ari shoved her back behind the curtain she had started to build in her mind to separate them. She never let her legs quit.

Off to her left she heard a branch brake. Her heart stopped for a second as she looked around her. The forest had swallowed her. She no longer saw the lake, she no longer could see the extremely high rooftop of the mansion. She couldn’t see anything or hear anyone. Another branch broke and she stopped. Her head spun. She looked up at the gray sky letting her legs crumple beneath her.

She heaved struggling for breath. Tears formed in her eyes as the endorphins seemed to be lost to her. She couldn’t feel a runners high but instead a massive frustration and let down. She panted heaving and shaking looking around her as another branch broke. Her eyes darted around the forest shaking and trembling but her vision wouldn’t focus. The control she had gained over her body was gone, she no longer was an elite athlete, she no longer was the girl in the diner. She wasn’t old Ari or New Ari, she was somewhere in between, lost.

She watched as a dark shape moved just beyond her sight. She blinked still huffing and puffing but the dark shape was still there. It got larger as it neared her. At first she tried backing up but her leg muscles were cramping in sweet blissful agony forcing her to look around herself for a weapon. She grabbed a sharp stick beside her and held it up still trying to clear her eyes and recognize the shape.

Instead of recognizing it she screamed as it drew closer. The shape was a beast, a wolf but huge. She thought about the timber wolves she had learned about in school and wondered if they could grow as large as the one she was seeing. It was covered in dark fur with a huge wolf face but instead of looking fierce and growling at her it seemed to be panting and tilting its head in curiosity. Its long tongue hung from the side of its face like a dogs would. She held the shaking branch up threateningly at it but it crept closer wagging its huge bushy tail. She noticed the green eyes first. They were like emeralds compared to the dark shaggy fur. The huge wolf walked crushing the branches making loud snapping sounds fill the forest, it seemed to be comfortable with her.

"Hey buddy are you someone's pet?" She asked out loud as if it would make the situation better. The wolf tilted its head to the other side walking directly to her. It pressed its chest directly on the shaking branch she held. She felt the pressure of it pressing itself against the branch. It didn’t seem to want to eat her. She dropped the branch reaching out with her trembling hand. She hesitated for a moment before letting her fingers brush against its dark chest fur. Its hot breath filled the air around her making more mist against the cool breeze.