It was the girl that had interrupted Astrid and the Coates boy earlier that day; Caine's right hand: Diana Landris. Her form was silhouetted in the moon light. Her curves were accented beautifully as she approached me and became more visible. She was wearing her bathing suit: out for a late night swim I take it, needed to get a way; just like me.
She seemed surprised to see me, but she quickly wiped away the sneer and replaced it with a surprised smile. "Hello," she said, taking a seat next to me in the sand, the spot recently occupied by the imaginary Drake.
"Hey, Diana, right?" I said casually, ignoring the nerves in my brain saying "Leave."
"Yes, Diana Landris," she said sticking out her hand, "and you are?"
I looked at it tentatively before regretfully taking it. "I'm Leslie Harrington."
Her eyes widened, "I see."
I narrowed mine, getting a strange feeling. I pulled my hand away, like I'd seen Astrid do just hours before. "I'm sure you do..."
She narrowed her eyes too, but forced away a scowl, changing the expression to confusion, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I... I don't know..." I said, looking away. I truly was confused.
She didn't hide her scowl, she thought I couldn't see it, "Uh-huh," she said, "Well, I'm going to go for quick swim. I'll... see you later, I guess." With that she go up and walked into the too calm ocean.
I left.
I walked around Perdido aimlessly. Down First Avenue, turned left on to Pacific Boulevard, up Sheridan Avenue, past the firehouse were my nemesis, Sam, was sleeping. Then Left on Alameda Avenue into the suburbs. I didn't realize it until I was on her front porch: I had walked to Astrid's house.
I thought of knocking on the door, I could have just knocked, she would have answered, confused and sleepy, I could have told her I loved her, then we could move on, I could move on, but instead I just stood there, and stared at her front door. "The Ellison's" a sign on the porch said, showing a mediocre cartoon of a couple and a little girl and boy: the girl slightly taller. I laughed at the mediocre family. The sound resonated in the still night, and I quickly shut-up, but it was to late, a light in an upstairs window turned on.
I looked around frantically. Just as the downstairs light flicked on I dived into the bushes.
Astrid in her nightgown stepped out onto the porch. She looked left and right, not thinking of the bushes. She shook her head before stepping back inside and heading back to bed.
I stepped back up on the porch.
She hadn't locked the door.
I could just walk inside.
My hand was on the doorknob.
I went home and went to bed.
The next few days were uninteresting. I mostly moped about the empty house, watching DVDs I'd seen a thousand times and occasionally going to the McDonald's to repeat my experience with Albert, every time he'd ask me if I was eating, every time I'd half lie and say yes.
I really wasn't that hungry, it was odd but true. Mostly when I ate I ate because I knew I needed to eat. My cough got a bit worse but I kept it mostly under control.
Then everything went bad.
I was walking around when I saw a bunch of kids gathered around someone. I decided to see what was going on. Bouncing Bette was performing some kind of trick. She had balls of light and they were floating from her hands, like she was juggling without even touching the balls. Suddenly, commotion started.
"Hey," a gruff voice said. Orc.
"What?" Bette asked, the balls retreating back into her hand.
"No magic tricks," he said, gripping his bat tightly.
"Who says?" Bette asked, igniting the balls again, and allowing them to do their thing without her looking.
Orc's eyes narrowed, "I do."
"Well, you're not in charge anymore, are you?"
Orc grunted. "You better stop."
"Leave her alone, man!" a kid yelled from the back of the crowd. The tension was rising around everyone. It was so heavy on my shoulders, I almost turned tail and ran, but I stood rooted to the spot instead, thirsty for a fight,
"No," Bette said in reply to Orc's previous command, the balls grew brighter to accentuate her point.
I don't think Orc thought about what he was doing. He just swung, making contact with Bette's head. The balls retreated again as Bette crumpled to the ground.
Kids began yelling, everywhere, yelling:
"Why'd you do that Orc, man!"
"She wasn't hurting anybody!"
"You just hit a girl, dude!"
As Orc stood staring at the crowd with his bat behind his shoulder, eyes shifting, as if deciding who to hit next, Bette got up and ran. Orc blinked in surprise before chasing after her. Just then his goonie friends began to follow him in pursuit, and, at a slightly slower pace, the crowd followed behind.
I saw Orc catch up and hit Bette behind the knees. She crumbled, but kept crawling toward her destination. Orc hit her again in the back and she fell back on the ground. She stayed still for a nerve-racking second before again picking herself up and crawling. Orc wasn't paying attention, so she got pretty far away. She was crawling into the fire station as Orc and his goonies swaggered up to the mouth of the garage.
The crowd caught up to the action where Sam was yelling at Orc, playing hero: again.
Orc swung the bat at Sam's head, and some part of my groaned when he missed. Then Edilio came up from behind a staggering Sam to attack Orc. One of the other bullies went to help get Edilio off of Orc while kids chanted words of encouragement:
"Fight. Fight. Fight."
"Get'em Edilio!"
"Go Edilio!"
"Orc, leave the kid alone!"
"Get a life Orc!"
I left there, I couldn't take all of the noise, the people, the tension. I walked home the long way. I didn't meet to many kids out and about, but the ones I did I noticed averted their eyes.
The next day I found out Bette had died from the hit to the head Orc had delivered.
Anger swelled in me. I couldn't see straight. I ran home and slammed the front door closed behind me and leaned on it. I closed my eyes, trying to get a sense of reality, I shouldn't be acting so insane about this, but something inside me was lit on fire. I didn't even know Bette that well, why was I acting this way?
I looked down at my palms. They felt hot, I put them to my face, they were searing. I concentrated. I shut off my mind and listened to the stillness around me.
Caine. Caine didn't know what to do. He needed Orc, but he needed to keep the townies happy. He needed to keep his position. He couldn't... wouldn't go back to Coates. He needed power, he had the power, but he needed a firmer, more tangible power.
Diana. Diana was worried about Caine. She wanted to tell him to punish Orc, but she knew that if he did he would suffer a heavy loss. One he couldn't afford.
Drake. Drake was happy. He took a whiff of the fresh dirt being dug up by Edilio, the smell of death.
Bette's little brother. He was so sad, he didn't know what to do. He couldn't cry, not in front of all these people. He'd cry when he got home: his now empty home.
Sam. Sam was angry. He was clenching his palms and stealing glances toward Orc's house next to the plaza. He wished he could call up the power to burn Orc's arm off.
Astrid. Astrid was scared and angry. Something deeper was going on inside town hall, and she wanted to know what, but she couldn't focus on that right now, she had to play nice, and properly mourn the dead.
I took my palm from my face and opened my eyes. I was in my entry room. My hands where hot and my mind was spinning. All of the sudden, I was starving. Starving beyond thought. I ran to the kitchen and stuffed my face with whatever I could get my hands on. My hand, searing hands.
"What's happening to me?" I thought, "What's going on?"
