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Butterflies and Hurricanes
Chapter eleven . . . I Swear
~o~o~o~
“W-what?” I replied softly. How could this be? How . . .
It was dark now. It was cold. Flakes of snow scalded my hot skin as I froze in awe at what Bausch had just said.
"That’s not right, that's not . . . possible . . ." Then that means they don't need my power . . . I was angry. Did it mean that they'd have to . . . I clenched my fists.
"You lied to me!" I knew this wasn't true. I only wanted someone to blame.
"I said no such thing. I didn't say how you'd be useful . . ." The sun was gone and trees surrounded us. It was mostly dark, except for the flick of a radio tower beyond the darkness. The snow was softly falling and it seemed we were alone in silence and I was alone with my anger. I twitched. I was wrong. We weren't alone.
I was slowly becoming aware of at least ten dark shapes around us. I spun my head around searching a sign for a face. I could not see any; it was too dark around us. The moonlight cast shadows behind the trees where the figures waited. I looked back towards Bausch. He was stoic as ever.
"Who's there . . ." I called timidly into the dark. I heard a chuckle. I kept turning my head back to Bausch and away from the dark shadows. It was odd that, in that moment I felt no fear towards the shadow figures.
"Oh, she's good for an espirita . . ." A voice came with a thick accent. His was similar to Bausch's voice, but there was a slight difference. Unlike Bausch’s, this one was more arrogant and less drained sounding.
"Espirita . . ." I mouthed. The word seemed familiar. The voice laughed again. I turned to Bausch.
"Who are they?" He turned back to the figures.
"They're scouts of this range's Pack and various others . . . They're here to . . . to take you off my hands." I looked at him flustered. What about-
"What about Alex? I do not want to go unless I know Alex is safe! No, I won’t go! That's it! Promise me he'll be safe!" The voice chuckled again.
"Oi, she's feisty ‘aint she? I like her Boschy! You said she loves a human?" I ignored the haughty voice. Bausch sighed.
"Menja, take the cat Creoline and retrieve the boy - But do so silently! Make sure he's completely safe, but don't reveal yourselves, I'll . . ." Bausch trailed off low. I wasn't listening. I stopped when he said "completely safe."
Instead, I turned to the darkness where small thin boyish man stepped out. He was no taller than I was and he seemed almost cat-like in his movements. When he stepped into the moonlight to listen to Bausch however, it became apparent that he was cat-like. He had almond shaped yellow eyes. Their pupils were wide; a sign that most cats were flustered. He had copper windswept hair that was disheveled and it flopped when he nodded frantically at Bausch. When his hair flopped again, I noticed he had thick pointed triangular ears; like a cat's. When I heard Bausch stop talking, I looked back to him. Then I heard a weak voice.
"Uh, B-Bausch sir, you said you wanted me to take Creoline there?" Bausch stared at Menja impatiently.
"That's what I said, Menja. Is there a problem?" He arched one of his eyebrows slightly. Menja seemed wary in his timidness.
"Uh, it's just that. . . You know sir, that girl and Creoline's cat form. . ." Bausch's features lightened. "If that girl sees Creoline then . . . Then-"
"Don't worry about that. I have thought of this before hand. The girl's powers will not work on the cat's body. Not after what happened before." I cocked my head slightly at the two and the voice behind me chuckled haughtily again.
What girl? Before I could ask, Menja turned into the darkness beyond the moon's light and Bausch turned to me.
“You will have to go with them now.” He pointed towards the darkness, but I didn’t turn to look. I was fixated on Bausch’s tired face. He had deep circles beneath his eyes.
“Where are we going?” I said quietly. Bausch looked conflicted.
“Away.”
“Where away?” I asked impatiently.
“Away from here.” I huffed and he eyed me for a second; he seemed to give up as he sighed. I noticed that he seemed to be doing this a lot with me.
“We must get you as furthest away from her as we can. The farther away from you she is . . . The weaker she’ll be, we figure.”
“We figure? You don’t know for sure . . . I mean-“
“We know for sure that somehow, one way or the other, you are the key. That we are certain. However, we don’t know whether or not . . . Well . . . I mean . . . whether or not you’re vital to her existence.” He dropped it after that. I knew where he was going with this train of thought, and from the look in his eyes something oddly said that he wished it couldn‘t come to that. . .
The thing was however, that I couldn’t care less about my life.
Bausch turned to leave and I stopped him. I was tugging on his sleeve when he turned around. I forced my face to be as serious as possible; I made it so I could rival Bausch’s maturity with a hard unmoving stare.
“What about Alex.” A rivaling tired stare was shot back at me.
“I’m about to go see to his safety . . . Personally.” I let go of his sleeve.
I trusted Bausch. I didn’t care if it could become my downfall.
At least Alex would be safe.
As I watched Bausch slowly walk into the copse all around us, I felt alone. I wasn’t. A hand fell onto my shoulder. The voice that had been laughing at me earlier spoke.
“He’s a man of his word, I swear it to you. . . . On our mother's grave.
I whirled around. An extremely tall and handsome man stood before me. He could have been Bausch’s double, if you were standing at least ten feet away from them.
The man was Bausch’s pale double. Where Bausch had dark circles around his eyes, this one had pale purple around his eyes. His skin was not sun worn like his twin’s. It was pale. When he saw me staring, he grinned.
As he grinned at me, two sharp and pearly fangs accompanied by rows of beautiful white teeth appeared benath his lips.
“What? You act like you've never seen a vampire before, lassie."
 Madame Joli Rouge · Thu Dec 17, 2009 @ 10:14pm · 0 Comments |
