The Mirrors of Fate (17 page)

He fell quiet again but this time for a longer interval. When he took a breath to speak again, his tone was lower and gruffer. “Listen to me
girl,
your time is running out.”

She stiffened defiantly.

“
You don’t have a say in whether you get married. You only choose out of your choices. Soon your father will decide for you, and guess who he’ll pick?”

It was a bold statement meant to set her straight, and it put her nerves on edge.

“
Y-You get this straight, I—”

“
It’ll be very interesting having you as a wife,” he sliced midway into her retort. “You’re a firecracker and I like that. The young ones usually are.”

Maria bit down on her lip. She tasted blood. “I’m not marrying you. Not today, not tomorrow, not even if my ovaries were at risk of drying up like raisins, or if I was a poor beggar on the street. You get it now?”

“
You’ll be quite the challenge, but I think that will be good for me,” he said without care. “I like to tame wild beasts. I have a dog, you know, a bitch just like you.”

“
You bastard! You can kiss my ass if you think I’d marry you! Do you understand
that
? Should I say it louder?”

The phone suddenly filled with laughter. She slowly fell speechless. His laughter didn’t only boast amusement, it boasted a blatant attempt to shake her to the core, an attempt that had worked. An uncontrolled chill swam up her spine.

“
The only thing you’ll be doing a few years from now is raising four children. That’s your future, so you better embrace the idea quickly.” Maria could almost see the smile forming on his lips. “I’m glad you slapped me. I deserved it anyway for putting my hand up your skirt. But moreover, it intrigued me to continue my pursuit. I like fights, and you can fight me all you want. You’ll be doing a lot more of that when I’m on top of you in the nights. Then let me see if you can slap me.”

Maria felt bile rise in her throat. “Th-Then you’ll be having a fight with two people. My boyfriend can kill you!”

His amusement suddenly seized cold. “You have a boyfriend?”

“
Yeah, you heard me right. I have one, and unlike you he actually cares about me.”

“
Well, then,” he said with his amusement returning, “I guess you’ve been hiding that from your father. That really doesn’t matter, though. Just like in the workplace, I always get what I want. You could argue from here until next week, but you know as well as I that at the end of the day, you really can’t stop this from happening. I suggest you save all that energy for later.”

Maria’s lips inexplicably quivered. On their own accord her shaking hands dropped the phone as if it had lit afire.

“
Hello? Maria? Answer me, damn it!”

She stared at the phone like it was contaminated. From the corners of her eyes all she could see was a black thickness closing in on her. And this was the color of her future as she imagined it.

As her shoulders began to shake, she whispered to herself, “I already have someone. I already have someone...”

•

No matter how long it took, no matter how many it took, he refused to stop until the thoughts melted away with the burn. But why wasn’t it working?

The first one, to help his mind escape. The hundredth, to force it to. But no matter how many reps he did, there seemed no escaping the shameful memory of what he had allowed to happen between him...him and that damn girl.

The sweat beads drowned his face. Getting carried away was his fault and no one else’s. He had only meant to kiss her, not to become so entrapped in the moment like a damn schoolboy.

To have kissed her. Touched her. Why did he? No. He knew the answer. To continue the game. But what confused and irritated him beyond belief was why he felt as entranced by the moment at her house as she had obviously been. As long as the kiss continued to plague him, he was going to avoid Maria until he set his damn mind right.

Another surge of repulsion with himself urged him to move faster, to block the thoughts by any means necessary. In the darkness of his apartment, his arms pumped his body up and down faster in his pushups, his hatred amplifying his adrenaline. The sweat streaming, the tom-tom heart racing, and the ground shrinking and growing with every dizzied rise and fall to the depleted rhythm of insufficient short grips of breath all blocked rationality, and then guilt.

When he eventually collapsed onto his back to catch his breath, thoughts of her melted away into nothingness, and as he nursed air in beaten lungs, he nursed his determination once again. His task here had to be completed before his short time grew even shorter.

Soon he grew tired of staring at his apartment walls and dressed to go out, leaving behind the abandoned, condemned building. The cold night air was nothing to bundle up for, so when he went out he went with only the shirt on his back, the pants covering his legs, and the mop of ever-blackening hair keeping his head warm.

White Crest City slept soundly that night. Few cars drove on the street, as if it were covered with sleet. Car lights looked weak, as if the cold had gotten into their systems and depleted them with virus.

The more populated areas he ventured into were also quiet, although a few people still clamored to find a store willing to take their money at that time of night. The eight Caucasian faces to one African or Asian face smiled as if there wasn’t a single problem in the world that they needed to be aware of. Those who made up the minority, like the bundled up black mother with her child staring into the store window they would have to avoid until next month’s paycheck, only tried to smile away their particular problem of the now.

What a seemingly peaceful space this place could be, but he saw through White Crest’s façade. In its isolation, the town pretended perfection through the smiling faces and the clean air lungs rejoiced in; yet it absorbed and presented, for those willing to really see it, the human pain of its dwellers.

But much more than that, there was something else the town absorbed. It was apparent in the eerie stillness of White Crest Hospital, and the nurses whose smiles were so wide their eyes closed to the truth. It was apparent in that overwhelming spirit that begged kids when he was in school not just to leave when they could, but take off running. That “it” was pure darkness.

This town, and maybe many other places like White Crest City, absorbed the supernatural chaos that came with being home to anyone like him who inhabited this reality but was affected by the
other
. Maybe for White Crest City, only his family brought the dark chaos the town absorbed. His conclusion meant then that killing his evil wasn’t just a way to avenge those he had lost, but also to save White Crest City before it completely descended into darkness. But his first priority was vengeance...and saving himself.

Standing on the sidewalk, he allowed his thoughts to draw his eyes upward. Murky gray clouds pervaded the night sky, but a small break in the stretching sheet revealed the moon shining brightly behind, reminding him of the fragility and thinness of this one existence. Just beyond, like in anything, there was always something else, something much more.

But he refused to be sidetracked by the truth. Yes, one could always go beyond and look beyond things like the past. But the past still lived through those who carried it like a burning ember in their hearts. Forget the past, and you cannot mold your future. Forget the past and be destroyed.

For that reason, he would see Maria one more time.

* * * * *

CHAPTER SIX

“
Why are we still forced to do gym?” The question floated around the girl’s changing room until someone caught it.

“
I don’t know, it’s stupid though,” Gina said, holding on to her old gray locker door so she could squeeze herself into tight white shorts. “It’s not like any of us really care or really need it. We should have a choice. We’re about to graduate.”

From inside, the girls could all hear the whistle blowing in the gymnasium, followed by a shuffle of confused feet. The boys had gotten out there already, so the girls quickened their paces and scurried about in the crammed changing space of dreary gray walls and bulky rectangular lockers. The only one not mimicking their frantic movements was Maria, who sat silently hunched over on one of the changing benches.

“
Are we playing tennis today? I hate choosing partners,” a girl whined to Gina.

Gina’s eyes glazed over Maria sitting by herself. “Gee, I don’t know. I wonder who I’ll pick. Unfortunately my best friend is incapacitated right now.”

Everyone went silent. Maria heard the comment and felt the stares but let them fly by. She had to. Not only was she feeling strangely sick, she was under strict orders from the principal not to have any interaction whatsoever with Gina because of the incident. The punishment was lenient for the fight—avoiding Gina and the added extra hour after school she had to spend for a full month.

“
God, this is going to be so lame. It’s just not the same without Ellie here. At least she added some spice to the day. A little prank here, gossiping about whores there.”

A few girls snickered while others stared cautiously at Maria. They waited, probably hoped to see if she would react, but to their disappointment she merely sat there staring at nothing in particular.

“
So how is Ellie doing?” A concerned girl with short red hair asked.

Gina boldly glared at Maria yet again. “She’s doing fine. Her face is almost healed up now. She can almost see out of her left eye.”

The girl was visibly taken aback. “Jesus, that’s awful.”

“
It was. Oh well, whatever. Her parents were thinking of pressing charges, but you know, when a
certain person
has a father with money and reputation it’s hard to really get far in proceeding with that.”

A stab of guilt punctured her chest, but Maria still ignored them and stood up to start changing as well. Her ears grew suddenly alert at the mention of Alan’s name on someone’s lips.

“
It’s too bad Alan isn’t here for gym. I could really do with some eye candy for today
.”

The comment toward the back of the changing room was followed with laughing girlish agreement. Maria felt a twinge of jealousy course through her.

“
Oh wait! You girls back there!” Gina called to them. “We can’t have any of that kind of chat! He’s taken, remember? We don’t want Maria to pounce on any one of us!”

Maria felt another hard glare in her side, but this time not from Gina herself. From the corner of her eye, she saw another girl, Holly, a tall, robust, square-shouldered white girl come up to her.

“
I don’t think she’s dumb enough to try pouncing on anyone again because I know for damn sure I ain’t taking no shit like Ellie did. I’d knock her out.”

Maria made eye contact with the tall, lanky girl who had her arms folded across her small chest.

“
What?” the girl challenged. “You have a problem with me too? You gonna throw a punch at me, now?”

The door to the locker room opened. “Ladies!” shouted their gym instructor, aggravated as usual. “You don’t have all the time in the world here! Do you know how long I’ve been waitin’? Y’all are getting three more laps than usual!”

Holly backed off and hurriedly finished dressing with the rest of the girls. Only Maria was left last and barely changed.

“
Jaghai, make it three minutes you’re out here otherwise it’s six extra laps for you.”

Maria soon found herself alone, just the way she liked it. If the coach hadn’t come in, there might have been another altercation. She seated herself back on the bench again and held her hand to her stomach. So queasy, but she didn’t know why. Something tugged at her nerves, something troubled her, but placing it seemed impossible until she thought back to her reaction when the girl mentioned Alan’s name.

Alan had practically disappeared. She hadn’t heard anything from him for days. No one else had either. It was already Thursday and he had not shown his face at school. Something had to be wrong. She had hoped he would call her as he did on the Sunday morning after their date, but no luck. Maybe he was sick. That was the only logical explanation. But whatever the reason might have been, her health was reacting to the concern she felt for him...and that frightened her. A sickening void of emptiness sat in her abdomen, but there shouldn’t have been, not when she had only just met him.

Her body should not be responding like this.

But her sickness was not merely a result of worry for his well being. As much as she hated to admit it, she was having conflicting thoughts about his genuineness. He did seem to like her, but even if he were to write his undying love for her with a plane in the sky, there would still always be a discomforting feeling there, a lack of security for what this was. Why did he like her? And did he really? She couldn’t help asking herself that over and over again.

Thinking back, the electricity between them was undeniable. She was still in awe at what little self-control she had when he kissed and touched her outside her house. On the phone he had explained himself and said things like, “I hold all responsibility,” “I couldn’t help myself,” and “That’s what happens when people have a connection.” That was the first time, the first time ever she had felt that way. But when would she be able to see him again?