Music For My Soul
I.
The audience applauded and I smiled. They gave me a standing ovation, and I gave a little bow before I exited the stage. Same old thing. That's how it always goes. It never changed. I sing because I'm supposed to be good at it, not because I like it. The others in the choir were angry at me all the time, but that couldn't be helped. I got solos and they didn't. I thought that all of the material and techniques were easy, and they didn't.
My mom is a singer, so that's probably where I get it from. Mom likes listening to me, but I think that it's a waste of time. I don't particularly think I'm worth listening to, but if it makes her happy, then I'm all for it.
The weirdo that has a tendency to come to all of the school's music performances is another story, but no one really notices him. I get the feeling that he stays in the shadows so he won't be seen. I guess since the only other person who's seen him that I know of is my brother, Hayden, he's pretty good at keeping hidden. He freaks me out, which is unusual because there's only one other thing that scares me in this lifetime. I tried to tell Mom about him, but she just brushed me off and told me that I was seeing things. Hayden just said that if the dude ever tried to come near me, he's gonna kick his ass, but he knows that I would probably just do it myself.
I'm known around town for my boyish nature, which is why I'm told I clean up well for my performances. I pick fights with the boys who think I can't hurt them and I send them home wishing they'd had a different view of things. Hayden usually helps me take care of the visible injuries before my mom can see them, but most of the time I'm careful and don't take hits where she's going to notice. I take pride in the fact that she still hasn't figured out why none of the boys in town see me as girlfriend material. Hayden doesn't approve of my street fighting skills, but he much prefers it to having to beat down a line of boys at the door for some wimpy little sister that can't take care of herself.
"You were wonderful Eliza!" Mom praised me as I came out to the hall to meet her after the performance. My name's really Elizabeth, but Mom just got tired of saying it all the time and shortened it to Eliza. It was my dad who'd named me before he was killed, and he'd never used any nicknames. I find that as long as she doesn't find out about my secret life she's happy. When she's happy, I can be happy because I don't have to face her unbound fury. It's not a pretty sight, so just trust me on that one.
"Yeah," Hayden added, though his mind appeared somewhere else. "I could almost put up with listening to you for a change." Mom glared at him, but I just smiled and punched him in the arm when she wasn't looking. That's just his way of telling me I did great.
"What's up?" I asked, leaning against the doorframe of his room after Mom had gone to bed. He's three years older than I am, but we're still pretty close.
He seemed to know what I meant and nodded. "That guy was there again. He looked at me and I got a funny feeling, but I couldn't see his face completely." I know it seems like he's a pansy when he says things like this, but Hayden can actually sense most people's emotions and intentions when someone looks at him. It's a lot stronger when he actually looks them in the eye. "Something's up with him and I don't like it."
He got up and walked over to the desk in the corner of his room. I walked in and sat on the corner of his bed. He started shuffling through a pile of Tarot cards that he pulled from a draw. Our mom doesn't know he has them or else she'd freak out. She doesn't believe in that kind of stuff and would borderline kick him out if she knew about it. Hayden cared about that about as much as I cared about her finding out about my fighting, so he kept the drawer he stored them in locked. He kept the key with him at all times on a chain around his neck, hidden beneath his shirt. His readings are extremely accurate, and I knew the one he was about to do would work better if he knew his target's name or if he could see the face in fine detail. He also casts runes on occasion, but that's more of a hobby than a talent, like the tarot cards are.
"What do you see, Hayden?" I whispered so I wouldn't distract him too much. He concentrates a lot when he does readings.
"There's a fear in him," he said, trancelike. "He doesn't know anyone here. He prefers to stay with the night." He shook his head and hid the cards away once more. "He's planning something, but I can't tell anything else. I don't want to reap to much into this. I think it's best that we just try to ignore him."
I shivered, suddenly feeling very cold. I had a sense of foreboding, but I shook it from my mind. "There aren't anymore concerts this year, so we won't have to see him for awhile," I told him, and he seemed relieved by it. "I'll see you in the morning," I said and slipped out after he bid me the same.
Our mom left before we were awake the next morning. She had left for a city a few states away to do a show. She'd be gone for a couple of days, which gave me and Hayden free reign of the house. He went home directly after school that day, but I stayed after to play the piano in the music room. While I don't enjoy singing, I do enjoy the piano. I play when I'm nervous and it helps to relieve my stress. Most of the time the music teacher just works while she listens to me, or just leaves and entrusts me to leave the room the way I found it. I left the school around five thirty; it was already dark because it was the middle of winter.
A quarter of the way home I got hit by some loser in the stomach. I was winded, but only for a minute, though it was long enough for my attacker to get me a good one in the eye. I didn't try to see who my attacker was, I just struck out without hesitation and waited until I heard a scream. Hands reached behind me to grab my shoulder length chocolate hair. It's the best kind for grabbing in a fight too, because it's naturally curly and thus makes for better grip. I grabbed a wrist before it reached its destination and twisted until I heard a crack. The other hand reached my hair and I lashed out with the heel of my hand. I knew I'd found my attacker's nose because I felt blood on my hand. He (I knew he was male because of his outcries and his large wrists) let me go and tried to staunch the blood's flow. Bad idea. I dropped down before he regained composure and spin-kicked his ankles, knocking his feet out from under him. He fell on the ground with a splash and I knew he'd landed in the gutter. I gave him a sharp kick in the ribs and an extra punch in the eye just for good measure.
"Name?" I asked, knowing that he already knew mine, and knowing that he knew I wanted to know who had sent him after me. He was reluctant to give me the information so I gave him another kick, this time in the stomach.
"James," he told me and I rolled my eyes. See, James is the major cause of the street fighting that I do. He and his lackeys are always trying to rough me up, but the only one who's actually managed to beat me on more than one occasion moved, and I repaid him for all of the damage he'd done to me before he left. That was the closest that my mother had ever come to finding out about my fighting. My arm was broken, and I had to tell her that I fell off the stage while trying to back up to make room for the risers that I was helping to set up for the choir.
"Tell him he's got to do better than that," I said and left him on the ground to continue on my way home.
I had figured that I wasn't going to have anymore trouble that night. My eye was already starting to swell so I quickened my pace. Hayden was probably going to freak out and run for the steak. It always bothered me when he held it over my eye, because I'm a vegetarian, but that couldn't be helped. It was just the way he was. I just had to hope that my eye wouldn't be black anymore by the time that Mom got back home.
Someone grabbed my arms from behind and I was yanked out of my thoughts. I tried to wrench them free, but my assailant held tight. I figured it was the guy that James had sent out, back for more. I ducked so that my arms were above me and spun, hoping that after I twisted I would be able to break free of his crossed arms. No such luck, but the guy I was confronting wasn't a part of James' gang. I managed not to scream, but I wanted to. It was the man from the concert. His black hair hung in a long, well combed sheet behind him. In the moonlight, his face was pale and his silver eyes, with their streaks of green, looked freakishly bright. I used all of the strength I could muster in an attempt to pull free, but it didn't work. It managed to kick a shin and an ankle in quick succession, but I received no more than a grunt and a slight bend of the knees for my efforts. I knocked him hard in the chin and only received a hiss in return. He raised a fist above my head and the last thing that I heard before that asshole knocked me out was the howl of a wolf somewhere in the distance. If I screamed, I didn't hear it, and his face showed no sign of it.
II.
There was sun in my eyes when I woke up, though I had no idea what time it was. My head ached and I knew that that dark man on the street the night before must have hit me pretty hard. But I wasn't lying on the street. I was lying on a bed; I could tell by how soft it was. When I tried to sit up my head began to pound. I rubbed it as I looked around.
I was in a very sparse room. There was the small bed I was lying on, a small desk, a chair, and a rug. The desk had a candle on it, but it looked new. I got up and wobbled towards the door, suddenly stricken with nausea as I went. I had expected it to be locked, but it came open without a sound. The walkway was about five feet wide, and was secured with a railing. It surrounded the length of the upper floor, as I could see by looking straight out across it. The place was huge. I estimated the walkway to be about half a mile long all the way around, but I'm no champion at eyeing distances. I made a move to walk past the threshold, but I tripped over something and nearly fell against the rail.
Whatever I had tripped on yelped. I looked down and gulped. An extremely big wolf had gotten up from the floor. It walked a few steps towards me and bared his teeth. It was blocking the room I'd come from, so I backed down the right side of the hall. It started to growl and its hackles went up, and that made me more nervous than before. It came at me and I backed against the rail. When it stopped on the other side of me and didn't harm me, I went towards the left side, which I found was close to a flight of stairs. It stopped growling and followed me, so I was going slowly, making sure that it wouldn't suddenly change it's mind about leaving me unharmed.
As strange as it sounds, I swear that animal had a destination in mind for me. Every time I stepped out of line, it started to growl. The moment I was back in the direction that it wanted, he stopped and continued to follow me. It kept up the same routine until I ended up in the kitchen. The room was empty and dim, away from the direction that would let the sun shine through the windows. I could see the outlines of pots and pans hanging on the wall and a black outline of a wood stove in the corner next to a large, brick oven. There were candles on the counters and the table here as well. I felt for a light switch but there was none. The wolf growled at me until I ended up by a drawer, which I opened and found full of matches. Rolling my eyes, I figured there was no electricity in the place and lit three of the candles closest to me before blowing the match out and dropping it into the metal sink to my left. It was still hard to see. The wolf was lying across the doorway, so I assumed that I wouldn't be leaving until it moved. I could see clearly now that it was male.
"I bet you keep the burglars out," I muttered, jumping when I heard a noise that wasn't quite like a whine. He looked at me with keen eyes and lifted his head. A worn leather collar was wrapped around his neck. It must have been three inches thick. I shook my head and figured that I might as well look for something to eat. It was a kitchen, so it must have food in it somewhere.
I found loaves of bread in a cupboard. I grabbed one and was surprised to find that it warm. I started tearing chunks off and chewing them slowly. I hoped that it would help to make me feel some-what better. The wolf came and sat at my feet when I was three quarters of the way through the loaf in my hands. I looked down at him with suspicious eyes. When he just looked at me, I put the bread on the counter and crouched down. He sat still, looking at me with yellow eyes. Cautiously, I reached forward and touched the collar around his neck. He didn't move. Brushing the fur of his neck gently aside, I looked at the metal plate screwed onto the leather. There was only one word engraved onto the metal, in large, capital letters: Yalu. As far as I could remember, Yalu was a river, though where it is I can't recall.
"I don't suppose you'd just let me leave?" I asked, wanting to break the silence that I had noticed continually enveloped the house. Yalu growled at me. I have no idea how he had become so intelligent as to reply to people. I guess it's just one of those mysteries of life. "I'll take that as a no." He got up and resettled himself by the door, looking at me expectantly. I shrugged and let myself out of the room, hoping it wouldn't take long to get to where he wanted to go.
The house was massive. It would probably take me days to see the whole thing, if I'd actually wanted to see it. I couldn't see any doors that led outside from where I was standing, and I wasn't about to try and make an escape with Yalu around. I placed my hope in the fact that Hayden would be able to find me with his tarot cards, or at the very least his runes.
This time I ended up in a room that was even darker than the kitchen. I felt for candles and matches, but found none. There weren't even tables around me. Instead of growling, Yalu grabbed the front of my sweatshirt and guided me through the dark. The next thing I felt was a set of velvet curtains. I pulled them apart, but they were heavy, and the windows were huge. . It felt like it took forever. There were two of the windows, side by side with about six feet of wall space between them.
By the time both curtains were opened, the room was lit brightly with sunshine. I looked around and saw why my guide hadn't been willing to growl and wait for me to find the right path. It was a cozy sort of room with a thick, plush burgundy carpet. The velvet of the curtains were royal blue. There was a sofa in one corner and an oversized lazy chair in another. In the middle, there was a large grand piano. Other various instruments sat in stands or lay against walls. There was a harp, a flute, three violins of different sizes, a cello, and a set of saxophones; one of each kind. There weren't any brass or percussion that I could see. Against the back wall there was a large, ornate book shelf that reached across the entire span of the wall. It was covered in music books, notebooks, and books on music theory; any book you could possibly want for music, it was there. The notebooks were filled with staff paper; some of it blank, but most of it scrawled on in a neat hand with intricate rhythms and key signatures. I had to admit that I was impressed. Who could have this kind of instrumental knowledge and collection? I gasped when I saw the glass display case sitting at a ninety degree angle with the book case held a flute made entirely of crystal. It was pretty, and it was no secret why it was locked up in such a way.
Outside the ground was covered with undisturbed snow. The house was buried in the woods and mountains could be seen in the distant. A light snow was falling, but there weren't many clouds to hint that it might get worse later in the day.
I jumped when I heard Yalu give a yelp and run for the door. He hadn't left me alone all that morning and I found it strange that he would do so now. He came back seconds later and laid down to the right of the door. He rolled over onto his back and began to whine. A man suddenly appeared in the door holding a piccolo. I recognized him as the man who'd attacked me the night before and jumped. His black hair was tied in a pony tail against his neck with a wine colored ribbon. He wore a black turtle neck that made his skin look sickly pale. Glasses made his eyes look intelligent. There was a slight bruise on his chin where I'd hit him, but other than this his features were unmarred. He looked at me with something I couldn't identify before reaching down and giving Yalu's stomach a quick rub. Standing and walking across the room, he placed the piccolo on a small stand next to the flute.
"You feel okay?" His voice held a German accent, as well as something French and I could tell from the tone that it was a question, not a statement.
"My head hurts a little," I admitted, unsure of what to say to him.
He gave a nod and looked as though he held some sympathy. "There's a tea in the kitchen. Should help some if pain stays much longer. Yalu will show you if you ask." He looked at me with something like concern. "If eye pains you, I also have something for that."
I felt it and cringed. It didn't really hurt unless I touched it. "It'll be fine in a few days."
He nodded and sat down at the piano. "As you say." He didn't say anything else about my injuries, but played a chord that struck my interest immediately. The melody was peculiar and poignant. It's hard to describe it accurately.
"What's your name?" I asked, and for awhile I wondered if he would answer. He played for some minutes before he stopped and looked at me. "Won't you play the rest?" I wanted to know.
"Not finished," he answered simply. "I'm called Caleb. And you are Eliza, no?" I nodded, not really able to say anything. For a moment he gave me a wary look. "You should not run, see? It's quite secluded out here. Might freeze before Yalu can find you. Would be very disappointing to find you dead."
"What do you want me for, then?" I asked, thinking that if he'd hit me any harder over the head my skull would have cracked and I would have died anyway.
"Musical skill," he told me. He really wasn't very good at elaboration. He gave me a quizzical look. "Want to play?" he asked, gesturing at the piano's keys.
I shook my head vigorously. I didn't really like playing for people. Hayden and the Band teacher were one thing, but this guy was on a whole different level. My mom could talk me into singing publicly, the band teacher could fail me for not singing publicly, but it wasn't just anyone who could talk me into playing piano for them.
For a moment I thought he'd be angry. "Why?" he wanted to know instead.
He was making me nervous, but if I was going to be forced to stay here with him until Hayden was able to find me, I figured that I might as well indulge him.
"I don't like playing for people," I said. It was honest for the most part. The grand total for listeners is two. I don't even let my mom listen to me, and I told him as much. "I don't think it sounds the best, anyway," I added, more to abolish the silence than anything else.
He appeared to think about it for a moment, as he rubbed Yalu's head. The wolf had moved to sit at his feet when he'd started to play.
"One sounds better when they wish to do something than when they don't. It may be good in general even if they don't like to do it, but it will sound best to the ears of others if one can put passion into what they do."
I don't think that it was exactly how he meant for it to come out because he looked a little disgruntled after he spoke, but I still understood the general idea. I nodded my agreement, still not wanting to play for him. I had the feeling that it would might be awhile before I gave him that privilege. Hayden always thought I sounded good, even when I was just learning a piece and my teacher never really said anything about anyone's skills unless it was in class or if she was asked.
"I think that I know what you mean," I told him. He ignored my statement and moved on to the next question.
"Maybe you hate the singing because it is not challenging for you, no?"
I cringed. He had a point. Everything I'd ever been given to sing was easy. Even the solos hidden in my teachers file cabinets were too easy for me. I prefer challenging things because it means that when you finally get it right, it has to be attributed to your skill and nothing else.
Caleb walked over to the bookshelf and began shuffling through things on a row at eye level. Yalu remained by the piano bench with his head cocked as though in curiosity. Eventually he found what he was looking for and passed it to me. It was one of the binders filled with staff paper, though its pages were filled with melodies and lyrics. The first one covered seven pages and was insanely intricate.
"You wrote this?" I asked. I had to admit that I was at a bit of a loss.
"Yes."
"What about the piano part? Is it acappela?"
"No. The part for piano isn't finished."
My eyes widened in surprise. "You mean that what you just played is the-" My words failed me and silence ensued for a mere moment.
"Correct," he answered. "I am retiring. You're free to stay in this room as long as you please. If you feel like wandering about the house, Yalu will let you know what is forbidden to you. I recommend that you are in your room before sunset. Would like you to stay there until dawn at least."
He didn't wait around to answer any questions; he just swept out of the room. I expected Yalu to follow him for a moment, but he stayed, staring at me with his dark eyes once his master had left.
III.
After waiting for a few minuets just to make sure that Caleb wasn't coming back for something that he'd forgotten, and partly to make sure that he was out of hearing range, I returned the binder to it's proper place and sat down on the piano bench staring at the keys. Yalu stared at me with his head cocked in curiosity.
"Maybe I'd be willing to play for you," I told him, striking a Dorian chord on the keys in front of me. "Do you have any requests?" He snorted and shook his head, looking as though he was trying to dislodge something from his ears.
I didn't bother trying the music that Caleb had left on the piano. A mere glance at it told me that it was far beyond anything that I could play on the piano, and the melody wouldn't sound right without the harmony to support it, so I just played random things in Dorian. It didn't sound bad in my terms, but it definitely could have been better, and it was nowhere near as catching as the one sitting in front of my face either.
Getting up, I walked over to the book shelf and found the binder that I'd replaced minutes before. I opened it to the solo that Caleb had shown me and walked back over to the piano. The starting note for the song was middle C. I played the note on the piano and began the sad attempt of humming the tune to myself. The range that he'd used for the piece was almost as insane as the rhythms. I could tell just attempting to hum it, that it was a song that would take the help of the composer in order to get it perfectly. It might serve as a way to pass time when I had nothing better to do. After all, who knew how long I would be stuck here before Hayden was able to find me? There was no way of telling and I couldn't even begin to guess. Could be weeks, could be months, and with a shudder I realized that it could even be a year or more.
Let's just say that the thought was not the most appealing one in my mind. It was pretty much up there with running away and freezing to death, and running away and being cornered by a huge wolf who would be less than gentle when he found his charge gone. I somehow doubted that Caleb would be willing to forgive and forget someone going against his warnings either. I knew from experience that, unlike some guys, he wasn't afraid to hit a girl, and he could take me out no problem. These thoughts also drew me back to his suggestion that I be in my room before sunset. What could be wrong with wondering around late at night? I was pretty damn sure that Yalu wasn't going to allow me to walk into something valuable and smash it to smithereens.
When I got aggravated with Caleb's untitled and interesting piece, and I'm pretty sure that Yalu was tired of hearing my squealing hums, I began to rummage through his other assortments of music. Some he had written himself and others he'd collected from only God knows where. It really was an extensive library. As I looked about the room one more time, I remembered Hayden, who had played the violin for nearly five years before giving it up, telling me that stringed instruments were the worst ones in the world because they sounded so horrible if you didn't know how to play them well. I laughed at the memory of my mom and I going crazy during the first year or so of his tuition. It really was horrible, but our mom and I had born the misery because she was so enthusiastic for us to take up music as she had. I swear it had been the only thing that had kept her from killing him when he practiced, or slamming his violin to an unusable mess of wood and string.
Finally feeling some-what hungry again, and realizing that I'd lost myself in the same room until mid-afternoon, I headed once more for the kitchen. Yalu followed me, and I felt like he trusted me not to head in some forbidden direction. The maze of the house still confused me a little, and Yalu had to redirect me at least twice, but I eventually found my way to the destination that I'd set out for.
There was more bread, this time laying out in the open, and a pot of what looked like stew sitting on the top of the brick oven. Yalu lead me to a drawer contained wooden spoons and I carefully stirred the concoction in the pot, wondering at its contents. I tell you that I almost puked when my stirring turned up hearty chunks of meat along with carrots and celery. I gave Yalu a cynical look. He looked up at me with puppy dog eyes and sat at my feet, wagging his tail across the floor.
"I bet you want some of this, don't you?" I asked him, and he rolled onto his back. His tail never stopped wagging. "I guess with no way to keep a fridge cold, you don't exactly get fresh meat whenever you want it." He gave me a whining yelp.
I didn't know what Caleb fed him or when, but that wolf hadn't eaten in the time that he'd been hanging about me all day. With those eyes I couldn't help but cave. I found a bowl and filled it to the brim, setting in before him with great care, so as not to get an accidental bite on the fingers. By the time I stood up and reached for the bread, he was digging in, and I had the feeling that it would take more than one bowl to fill that animal up.
When I'd finished the bread in my hands he was looking at me expectantly again. I shook my head. "No," I told him sharply.
He bowed his head and looked like he'd just had his paw run over by a car or something.
"I don't know what you're fed. Who knows if I was even supposed to give you that. I'm not giving you any more."
Yalu stepped back over to his bowl and pushed it with his nose until it was directly in front of me. The look started back up and so did the tail.
"No," I said decisively. "Be happy that you got anything at all. Let's just say that I gave you what I didn't want and leave it at that."
His look turned to a curious one and he let out a curious sounding whine.
"I don't eat meat," I told him with a pat on the head. I picked up his bowl and headed over to the sink. I washed it out and put it back where I'd found it. "Now let's get out of here and look around, eh?"
He followed me out, but he looked as though he would rather stay in the kitchen and try to con more of the stew out of me. I scratched him behind the ear, hoping to make him feel better, but he still seemed like he was at a loss.
"Maybe Caleb will let you have some later," I offered, but he didn't exactly perk up at the thought. While I'm not one who cries every time I see some animal hurting and in need, and it is sad, I hate it when they go all somber on you. It makes you feel guilty.
I found that besides the rooms that were securely locked, there were at least four rooms and one hallway that Yalu refused to let me go towards on the first floor. Mostly the rooms on the first floor were different types of studies and offices. A few of them were used for storage, but I didn't bother going through all of those boxes. That would definitely pass for another day of boredom. There were also two libraries on the first floor, both of nearly equal size. Caleb had a vast variety of rare and uncommon books, as well as some that I was familiar with from my AP English classes. It was also a theory of mine that there were possible routes for my departure around the hallway I was forbidden to enter, or on the other side of the rooms.
Nearly a quarter of the second floor was off limits and I couldn't begin to guess why so many rooms were not for my eyes. On the rest of the floor I found a sort of gym that held punching bags, mats, and dummies, as well as a room that appeared to be a small indoor shooting range. In the corner near a window I found a concealed door. Yalu freaked out when I opened it and attempted to go up the staircase it revealed. I shrugged and closed the door back up again, figuring that it led up to the attic, which would entail tons of dust and probably a lot more boxes filled with miscellaneous objects.
When I realized that I was hungry again, I headed back for the kitchen. My eye was throbbing so I had Yalu show me where the tea Caleb told me about was kept. While the water boiled, I looked for food and managed to locate a side pantry that revealed several home-canned jars. There were peaches, pears, apricots, asparagus, carrots and all manor of other things, including jellies and jams. I picked out some peaches and went back into the main room to start steeping my tea.
I was half way through peaches and tea when I looked outside the window and realized that the sun was almost gone. Yalu whined when this was brought to his attention and began to scratch at the door. He rushed me up the stairs and to my room, but not quite before I was able to discern several shadow like figures hanging along the rails on the other side of the house. I wasn't able to get a closer look at them before Yalu followed me in and shoved the door closed with his head.
IV.
Hayden was going crazy with worry. Eliza hadn't come home from school the day before and he hadn't had any word of her all day today. The sun was nearly gone from the sky, but sleep was far from his mind. He had no idea when his mother was planning to return home, and she wouldn't be at all pleased to find that Eliza was missing. It wasn't like her to stay out so long and not call to tell him where she was.
With a racing heart, he turned to his desk and pulled to key from around his neck. Quickly he shuffled his tarot cards and put them into formation. He scanned them with wary eyes. Most everything was a blank. He could see that she'd gotten into trouble on her way home from school and began to worry, until he was able to see that she was safe and, for the most part, unharmed. There were no clues that he could see to help find out her location. All he could see was fear and darkness, but it wasn't Eliza's fear; it was someone else's.
As Hayden moved through the rest of the cards, his readings formed into a coherent idea. Eliza was with the man from the concert. He was keeping her safe from something, but he couldn't see what. She'd been brought with him intentionally, but something wasn't right. Something wasn't happy. The man may have wanted Eliza, but there seemed to be something else around him that didn't appreciate her company.
Hayden brushed the cards off of his desk with a strange mixture of fury and fear. He was breathing hard, and it was some time before he was calm enough to gather up his cards and lock them up again. But the last card that he put back into place made him stop and examine it closer before he slammed the drawer shut.
La Morte. Death.
V.
My eyes popped open shortly before the sun came up. My mind sped back to Caleb's strange suggestions the day before, and the strange shadows that I'd seen in the hallway before Yalu had shoved the door closed.
Carefully I stood and looked about for Yalu, knowing at least this time that he would be inside the room with me so there would be less of a chance of me tripping over him. I saw him lying to the side of the door, head in his paws, clearly asleep. Creeping over to the door, I opened it a crack and peered out. I couldn't see anything but the pre-dawn gloom.
The door creaked when I opened it farther and Yalu popped his head up. I stopped, thinking for a minuet that he would let out the growl that meant I wasn't allowed to do something. Instead, he whined and looked out the door with his ears pricked forward. I wondered if that meant whatever I'd seen in the night was out there, and Yalu was afraid of them.
I took an exaggerated step forward. Yalu followed but otherwise did nothing that would suggest I stay in my room until the sun appeared over the trees. I eased the rest of the way out to the hall, Yalu behind me every step of the way, and looked around. Something flashed in the corner of my eye and I spun around to see what it was.
At first, I thought nothing was there, but when I turned around to face Yalu, I had the feeling that something was watching me. Slowly I turned my head, something inside of me knowing that I was going to see something that I probably wasn't supposed to see, but since Yalu wasn't complaining, the reckless side of me said that it couldn't be that bad. There was a figure hidden back in the shadows, not discernable to my eyes because it was on the opposite side of the house. I blinked, and had to gulp down a scream when two red orbs appeared from the figure's head. Pulling Yalu back into my room, I slammed the door, not really wanting to know what exactly it was that I'd seen.
I was shivering when I sat back down on my bed to wait for the sun to come up. Yalu jumped up and laid down on my feet. His fur warmed me a little, but I couldn't shake the feeling that just by looking at that thing, I was going to freeze to death. I felt that I would have a better chance spending a few hours outside after a blizzard than I would if I'd bothered to look at that creature for a little while longer.
Yalu licked my face and brought me out of that nightmare of death. The sun was up now, so I got up and walked over to the window, hoping that the sun's light would warm me up a little more. Rumbling came from my stomach, and I realized that I had to leave my room. Somehow, this thought now terrified me, but I told myself that it was ridiculous and jerked to door open.
I couldn't help but look to see if the creature was where I'd seen it last, but it was gone, sunlight now flooding the shadows that it had previously used to keep hidden. I shook my head free of the thoughts and went to the kitchen. There was still some of the stew from last night sitting on the stove, so I heated that and gave some to Yalu before moving into the pantry and pulling out a jar of asparagus. I browsed to find other things to eat as well, and found cans of soup, but most of those had meat in them, so I finally settled on cream of mushroom; not one of my favorites, but I was starving.
Once I was finished eating, Yalu and I went to the music room. For a while I just sat there, but then I got the sudden urge to play the piano. Walking over to the shelves, I found a piano book with simple melodies that I would be able to play. I looked over several before I found a tune that I liked and started to play the first few lines. Yalu cocked his head and came to lay down beside the piano's bench, just like he'd done while Caleb had played the day before.
I was just starting to get fluent with the notes when Yalu jumped up and ran to the door. Immediately I ceased playing, figuring that Caleb would be coming in any second now, and I still wasn't willing to play for him.
I was right. I didn't have to wait ten seconds before he flew into the room hectically and grabbed my shoulders, kneeling on one knee so that he could look me in the eyes.
"Is it true?" he demanded. It was clear that he was frantic, but I had no clue what there was to be frantic about. I was confused, and a little bit scared to see him in such a state. Yalu, it was clear, felt the same, because he hovered in a corner next to the door rather than come and sit next to his master.
"Is what true?" I asked, my voice shaking a little with nerves. I didn't know what he'd do to me if I'd done something to make him angry. But he didn't seem mad, just really, really scared.
"That you saw one of them?"
I could only think of one thing that he could mean and I shuddered. "You mean that thing in the shadows, with the red eyes? What was it?"
He shook his head. "This is not a good thing. Come with me." He dragged me up and out of the room, Yalu following closely behind us.
Caleb brought me to a room that had an alter on one side. He left me by the door while he crossed to the other side of room and picked up a stick and some paper. The paper he dropped into a pot of hot coals, causing it to set flames. He used to flames to lit the stick on fire, and from there he lit several candles all around the room. Yalu for some reason refused to cross the threshold into the room. He stood there, guarding the entrance from a safe distance. I only wished that I could be ten feet away from this room. It was giving off an intimidating aura.
Caleb came over to me and brought me to stand in front of the alter. I was trembling now, and he made me kneel, facing towards the right as though I wasn't supposed to stare at the alter directly. He began to speak a strange foreign language; one that grated my ears and made me want to clench my teeth together to make it stop. It wasn't German and it wasn't French. I had friends who took those classes, and it sounded completely different.
A screaming hiss ensued and I found that I was unable to turn around and see what was causing it. I was completely rooted to the spot that I'd been placed in. The screaming ceased and so did the strange language being spoken behind me. Hands landed on my shoulder and I started to shake before I was able to realize that they belonged to Caleb.
"Free this soul," he mumbled, but I couldn't see how my soul wasn't free. "Let her pass without harm."
All I could think of was that the shadowy being had the ability to harm me should it chose to do so. I also had the feeling that there was more than one. It sounded as though Caleb was begging. The lights were suddenly extinguished and we were left in darkness. I was pulled up and removed from the room, shaking and unable to speak.
He grabbed my shoulders and looked me in the eye. "You promise to be in your room by the times specified. They don't want you here if you don't follow rules."
"I don't even know their rules," I muttered, barely able to say anything at all.
"Stay out of their hall, the specified rooms, the attic, follow their curfew."
I nodded in assent, but Caleb shook me, looking for a verbal answer. "I promise," I said, almost choking on my words.
VI.
Caleb was trapped in darkness. There was nothing that he could do to escape, The darkness was infinite, and they weren't going to let him out of it. He had broken their rules by bringing in an outsider, and they had looked it over. She had seen them, and that they weren't so easily willing to forgive. They could have killed her, but he had begged them for her life, and now he was going to be punished. Yalu wasn't there to help him. No one was there to help him. He had to face this one on his own.
Red orbs of light pierced the darkness in front of him. He bowed his head, staying on his knees, and never averting his eyes from the ground. The eyes surrounded him, a dozen pairs, burning into him.
"You will give us what you have promised," the one directly in front of him hissed in their strange and eerie language.
"I wouldn't go back on my word, Great Ones," he told them, bracing himself for the pain that he knew he was about to feel.
Claws ripped through his back, and he couldn't hold back the scream that tore out of his lips. He knew they wouldn't touch his face or legs. That wasn't a part of their nature. They went for the middle section of the body, always on the verge of death and barely away from the vital organs when they wanted to keep their victims alive…and away from anything that would prove to the outside world that he was a servant of these weird and freakish creatures.
He didn't know what to call them other than demons. Their name was their power. It was kept hidden among them, no doubt among one of the places in the house that they had claimed for their own, places that even he wasn't allowed to go.
He lay there long after they had left. Barely able to move, hoping that Eliza would follow their rules from now on, knowing that many more punishments such as these really would result in his death.
Silently he wondered how long it would be until he was free of their grasp, until he was no longer tortured like the animals that they hunted as their real pray. If he broke his oath of silence, if Eliza found out any more than she already knew, then they would kill him and long once more for the pray that they hadn't hunted for centuries. The humans.
Yalu was there then, after the creatures and moved from his room to the attic, whimpering beside him and licking the gruesome wounds clean like he always did. With weak gestures, he raised his hand a few inches above the bloody floor beneath him and gave the wolf's ear a light rub. Sighing with fatigue, he let his hand fall back to the ground and fell into a black sleep.
VII.
Hayden was quickly moving from crazy to frantic. His mother had just called to say that she would be arriving home tomorrow afternoon. She'd asked to speak to Eliza and he'd lied, which he knew was stupid because he'd have to tell her the truth the minuet she got home and started to search the house for her daughter.
With frustration he turned to his tarot cards for guidance once more, praying that they would show him something new; something that would give him another clue that would lead him to find Eliza.
This time he could see that she was safe, but there was some kind of threat to her. She was surrounded by something dark. The place she was in was isolated. (That at least was useful. He could use it to narrow his search for her.) Someone was there to protect her, but what disturbed him was that death showed up once more, this time followed by the card that indicated sacrafice.
VIII.
I was still shaken when I woke the next morning. I'd gone to bed the second that Caleb had released me from his grasp and gone away to God knows where, not caring that the sun had still been up. It was gloomy and I heard rain falling on the ceiling above me. I looked out the window and saw that the sun couldn't be seen even in the distance.
Far away I saw lightning cut across the sky and it caused me to shudder. Where there was lighting, it usually meant that thunder would be soon to follow. As this though crossed my mind, I heard the first boom in the distance and whimpered. I hate storms.
Yalu scratched at the door and I figured that he'd slept outside of my room since I hadn't bothered to let him in the night before. I'd been much to anxious to lock out the shadows that I knew would come with the night. I hadn't bothered to worry about Yalu anyway. He'd gone off somewhere, presumabely to be with Caleb.
I let the wolf in and went straight back to bed upon closing the door behind him. Thunder shook the house and I let out a little scream and covered my head with the blankets. Yalu must have known that I was scared, because he jumped up on the bed with me and let me hug him.
I will admit that I would almost rather face those shadow creatures in this house again then sit through a thunder storm. I've been scared of storms ever since my dad died in one over the summer about ten years ago. We'd been out camping and it had started suddenly and ended in a flash flood. Everything that we took with us on that trip was lost and our dad had tried to go get some of it back and had ended up drowning. I won't even go camping anymore.
The thunder kept coming closer, and I'm embarrassed to say, that by the time it was directly above the house, I was in tears and fearing that the house was going to fall down on top of me. I couldn't even cling to Yalu for comfort anymore. I was too concerned about trying to block the sound of thunder from my ears. It wasn't working either.
My companion began to howl suddenly and scrambled to get off of the bed, tearing away the blankets that surrounded me in the process. I barely noticed how crazy he was going in my despair. It seemed like the thunder and bright flashes of lightning were comeing more and more frequently, not to mention becoming even louder. Yalu was howling and jumping on the door, clearly wanting to be let out for some reason, but I couldn't bring myself to get up and let him out. I was too scared for that. How much longer was this storm going to last? It felt like it had been going on for hours.
A knock was issued on my door, but I could hardly hear it over Yalu's howling, the thunder, and my crying. Yalu started to yelp and the door opened without my permission. I almost hoped that it was one of the demons come to take me away from the misery and fear that I was feeling. Caleb was the one standing in the light of the kerosene lamps the I now noticed surrounded the walkway outside.
"Here you are friend," he said, clearly addressing Yalu. "I've been looking for you all morning. It's almost noon, you know. You hungry?"
Undaunted my my sobs or the darkness, he made his way to the desk, rooted around for a moment in the drawer, and came out holding a large book of matches. Yalu seemed to calm down as Caleb lit the candle, but I turned away and let out a scream and more frantic tears as the loudest crash of thunder yet was released upon the house.
"You don't need to be afraid, Eliza," he told me with a calm chuckle.
Easy for him to say. He wasn't constantly reminded of the traumatic sight of his drowned father every time a storm came along. I scoffed through my tears and lifted my pillow over my ears with the hope that it would block out even more of the horrible sound outside.
More thunder sounded and with a scream I turned away from Caleb to face the wall, not wanting him to see me in this state. Yalu had calmed down enough to climb back up onto the bed next to me. He was whimpering in what seemed to me a lot like pity. He certainly wasn't afraid of big storms. Caleb camed and sat on the bed between Yalu and myself.
"There are things more worthy of your fear than storms, Eliza," he tried, and if I hadn't been so scared of the noise and chaos outside, I would have burst into laughter.
Like I didn't know that. I've tried a million times to tell myself that storms are a part of mature and that they don't always result in flash floods that tear families apart. Hayden has tried telling me that it's just a breif passing moment in my life and I shouldn't waste it being scared. My mom has told me similar things, but they never worked either. If my family and I can't make my fear cease, then no way in hell was this man going to be able to do it.
Caleb seemed to see that it was pointless to tell me not to be scared so he just sat there for awhile in silence, and eventually began to sing what sounded like a lullaby, though it wasn't in any language that I could discern. I think it was the one that he was speaking in when he took me to the alter.
He stayed there singing with Yalu whining quietly until the storm passed and I ended up falling asleep. My crying must have taken a lot out of me because it was another sunny morning when I woke up again.
Breakfast had been laid out for me next to the candle on the desk, which had ended up burning half way the day before. The bread was cool, and the peaches next to it at room temperature. It led me to the assumption that it had been laid out some time ago, but I ate anyway. I hadn't eaten the day before and I was ravenous.
I found Caleb in the music room with Yalu at his feet. He didn't look up from the violin that he was playing, and he didn't seem eager to mention anything about the night before. Yalu came up to me and licked my hand, seemingly happy that I was no longer a teary mess.
The melody that Caleb was playing was simple enough, and as I sat down at the piano, it was easy for me to pick out chords to make a soft little harmony that went well with it. Caleb looked at me in shock, but didn't cease playing. I listened and played until Caleb reached the end of the piece and I was able to decrescendo down to almost nothing and let him finish with a flourish that would have killed me to attempt to follow.
"You play with good tone and steady notes," he told me, his accent a little harsh today.
"It's easier when I don't have to follow notes on a page," I told him modestly. It was the truth.
He chuckled. "Perhaps you should think of them as guidelines and not anything binding. The artist adds…flare to a piece as they choose, you know."
I nodded. He made a good point, but I couldn't help but shudder as I felt that something ominous, no doubt the demons in this house, watching us with an eerie presence. Caleb, however, didn't seem to notice.