Book of the Hidden (8 page)

     
Silhouetted against the door was a man six feet tall, with short white hair, his nose long, and thin. He had pulled a bulging bag over his shoulder.

     
"Michael! Michael!" Vivian panted up to him balancing the envelopes.

     
Michael turned around, and made a funny noise between a grunt and sigh. "Are you kidding me? My bag is already full, Vivian."

     
"Please, these are urgent. They have to be out today."

     
"Well...." His face went from exasperated to pity. "I've never seen you mail out a letter in my life, and this many letters is amazing. May I ask -"

     
"No." Vivian shook her head, she didn't mean to cut him off so rudely. "I'm sorry, it's just secret. I can't tell you."

     
Michael gave a short nod. "Okay, I'll take them. Anything for you."

     
"Thank you," Vivian relaxed her arms as he dumped the envelopes into his bag. "Thank you," she repeated, and sprinted back down the hallway.

     
Vivian didn't know why, but she expected an answer to all the letters she sent out, but a week went by without a single response. Each day she met Michael at the door, and each time he said "no letters." She suspected he was getting aggravated of her constant appearance.

     
She knew what was next.... She had to go and visit her family. She had hoped that Jean would go, she was almost certain she would, she was the one that read all the stupid letters they sent trying to persuade them to change back. But Jean, thinking something like this was what Vivian needed, refused flatly.

     
Not only did this put her in a bad mood, but also Seth never came back. It had passed into two weeks now, and there was no sign of them. Vivian went to Akia's room hoping for some all-knowing answer from her. But she said nothing, with a wave of her hand dismissing her away.

     
One morning Vivian dragged herself to the dining room. When she made her appearance through the doorway everyone stared in silence. She kept her eyes on her sneakers that were worn, and wearing at the soles. She paid no attention to where she sat, and piled her plate with the food around her, but she couldn’t eat. Instead she pushed her fried eggs around her plate poking at the yolk with the tip of her fork watching it in a yellow volcano. She closed her eyes and took a long sip from her glass of water, and casting her hand over it. The crystal water had turned red with wine, but before she could raise it to her lips it was snatched from her hand.

     
Vivian looked around, retreating back was Jean. But it did not matter. Her appetite was long gone. She rubbed her eyes with the palm of her hands realizing they were puffy from a nights crying and no sleep.

     
“Hey, where is Seth?”

     
Lowering her hands she saw Flint sitting on the edge of her plate. When he saw her he gave a puzzled expression.

     
“Vivian, why are you crying?”

     
“It’s nothing Flint.”

     
“It is something. What's the matter?”

     
When she didn’t answer, he did.

     
“He has gone.” Flint suggested.

     
“Yes, he’s gone. He left a long time ago. I would think from dating my sister you would know about that." Vivian replied.

     
“I did, but I don't know why?”

     
She sighed irritated. “I told him to. Damn it, Flint, he had to go home.” She stood and began to walk out of the room, but Flint was flying right beside her.

     
“You let the one you love go?”

     
She stopped in her tracks. “I didn’t love him! He was just a guy that needed help. I helped him, and now he’s gone. That’s it - there’s nothing more to it.” Vivian broke into a run out of the kitchen running to the hallway, but she didn’t make it halfway when she collided with someone throwing her backwards onto the floor. A sudden sharp pain shot up her back, her head feeling like an explosion when it hit the floor with a thud.

     
“I am sorry miss.” A tall gangly man with long silver braided hair stood before her holding out his hand.

“It’s okay, my fault,” she took his hand, getting to her feet.

     
He watched as she brushed herself off. “You were going fast there.”

     
Vivian looked up, and nodded. “Yeah, guess I was. I’m sorry, just was trying to get away from someone.”

     
“Not Seth.”

     
The name caused a pain in her heart, but she was intrigued. “How“, then she noticed his ears, they were pointed sharply up. “Oh…”

     
The elf gave a kind smile, and walked away.

     
“They disturb me.”

Vivian jumped at the new voice, to realize it was her sister talking over her shoulder. “Yeah, you disturb me too,” she cracked a smile, and continued walking.

“Why did you do it?”

Vivian stopped and turned towards her. She was serious. “I can’t be selfish.”

“He loved you though, Viv.”

She opened her mouth to protest but Jean held her hand up to silence her. “Really, he loved you, he would have stayed here forever with you. I don’t understand why you would give him up.”

“It wouldn’t be fair to him,” Vivian sighed, and went to try to leave to her room again when another voice caught her attention.

“EVERYONE, THE NEWS! COME QUICK!” A deep voice erupted from the circular room.

Doors swung open, and footsteps echoed off of the walls. Everyone headed to the circular room in a rush where a small television was perched on a rickety stand. All of them gathered around it, the fairies and dwarves up front.

The newscaster announced- “
A break in occurred at 7
th
 
street this morning at four A.M. Jake Martin was taken from Mary Anne’s Orphanage. A boy by the name of Seth Martin - brother to Jake Martin - ordered that Jake leave with him. The nuns expressed their disapproval, but Seth was of age, and took his brother with him. Police found mysterious claw marks made by what seemed to be a large dog, on the door to the room where Jake slept. Because Mary Anne’s Orphanage does not allow animals inside their building, it wasn’t apparent of how the marks came to be there.”

With a soft click, the blond haired lady with a stack of papers disappeared, and the screen went black.

People turned to look at Vivian, but she didn’t notice. Her head was reeling with what she just heard. Seth and Jake got away, but now Jake knew what Seth was, and he left claw marks. He was risking their secret. Jake was only eight, he couldn’t handle his brother being something other than human. He went through enough.

“You know what you have to do….” Jean prodded.

“I know, the safest place for them, is here.”

“Them?” An old bitter dwarf asked in a gruff, scratchy tone. He rubbed his matted black beard thoughtfully. “Isn’t this Jake boy human?”

“Yes….” Vivian didn’t know what he was getting at.

He shook his head, rubbing his wild black beard. “No, no. Can’t be done. He’s human, he doesn’t belong here.”

“What?” She looked at the others backing away.

“Only magical beings. No others. That’s how it has always been done, and will always be done.”

“He’s eight years old! He can’t be on his own, especially now that he knows what his brother is. I’m in charge, and I say he’s staying. If you have a problem with this Gundon then you can leave!” Jean cursed.

Gundon did not move, but he pulled on his wiry beard harder with glaring eyes of a stone.

     
“Don’t defy her,” Flint warned in full size standing next to Jean.

     
Vivian gave a smile to him mouthing her thanks, then turned to her sister. "I need your keys."

     
Jean's eye twitched. Her car was her baby. Nonetheless, she handed over her keys.

     
"Thanks sis," she said quickly, and left the underground to her sisters red sports car. She took a deep breath starting the engine, slamming her foot down with force leaving tire marks and a cloud of dust behind her. Her hair whipped around her face. Nervously, she made a rhythm out on the steering wheel. She had no idea where she was going; where they might be. They could be anywhere. With a shaking hand she wrapped her fingers around the necklace.

     
Where are you Seth? Where are you?
A warm feeling drowned her senses like she had been cold, and sunk into a warm bath.

Opening her eyes she barely saw a man standing out on the dirt road in front of her headlights. Letting the pendant drop onto her chest, she gripped the wheel tightly, and the car jolted along the stretch of the field bouncing her up and down on the seat roughly. Her foot slipped along the brakes until she was able to press down on it throwing herself into the wheel. Chest aching, with a stabbing sore pain as if being beaten. She took deep breaths coughing as she choked on her spit.

Her hand still shaking, she reached for the necklace again. She wanted to know what caused that warm feeling…. What was it?

     
A scream that surely the stars above heard erupted into the night as Vivian turned around to see the mud-streaked face of a man through her open window.

     
“Shhh. Vivian, it’s me, Seth.”

     
She removed her hands from the steering wheel, shoving the door open, and throwing her arms around his neck. She could have drowned in the relief that flooded her that moment. “You’re okay right?” She looked into his eyes frantically.

     
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he insisted, but behind the mud his face was pale, and bloodless. “Astrid was there Vivian.”

     
She felt like she had been clobbered on the side of the head. “Astrid? Are you sure – “

     
“Yes, it was her, I fought her. She tried to get to Jake, I don’t know why.”

     
“Is Jake okay?”

     
“He’s fine. Not a scratch on him.”

     
Vivian nodded, “well, that explains the claw marks.” Seeing the confusion on his face, she went to explain. “They had it on the news.”

     
“Great,” Seth moaned, and leaned further on the door.

     
“Astrid,” Vivian whispered to herself. Why would she be at that orphanage, and how would she know that Seth was going to be there? Or maybe she didn’t know Seth was going to show, maybe it all had to do with Jake. But what about him? He was human…

“I didn’t know where else to go,” Seth brought her back from her trance in soft spoken words. “I need to find someplace for Jake to stay. The Underground was the safest place I knew, but I know you all don’t allow humans, and it’s okay -“

     
Vivian nodded understandingly. “In this case, rules can be changed.”

     
Seth’s dry, chapped lips curled up in a smile, and he embraced her in a hug again. “Thank you,” he whispered.

     
She never wanted to let go of him, but a shadow behind him caught her eye, and she gently and reluctantly pushed Seth away. She kept him at arms length. The shadow was short, and small, and it was - or more like who Vivian suspected it would be.