The Mortal Fringe (27 page)

"You know what I just can't get?"
Abigail shouts out after a long silence. "Why would the old woman
write that book? I mean, it's just stupid isn't it? It's not even
telling the truth!" She laughs as she mentions it. But her broken
voice tells me that she just wanted to break such an awkward
silence.

However, why indeed would Barbra write
the book? Perhaps it was a way of warning the world that something
else was out there, something that we could never come to imagine.
Maybe, just maybe, she has been of great help to many other Mortal
Fringes, just like she has been to me and Elizabeth.

The hours go by and the car is getting
more and quieter. The three of us are thinking of ways of
postponing the inevitable, unsuccessfully. I know that Abigail
blames me for this whole thing, not just for being back in the
States with me, but for the whole situation. I am sure that if it
had been her choice I would probably be chained to a tree, awaiting
for the moment that Elizabeth had to become a God, more or less
like Constance would. Thankfully, she is closer to Elizabeth than
to Constance. However, on the other hand, I do see desperation on
Tristan's eyes. I am not sure it is for me, as I guess it has to do
with Elizabeth, but he is really trying to come up with something.
It comes from his heart, no matter how cold he is, he wants to
help, why else would he have stayed with us?

"We will need people" he says finally,
with his fingers touching his forehead. "That's how we avoid
them."

They both start a new conversation
that it is far too complicated for me, it's not about logistics,
but tradition instead, their own tradition as Gods. In the end, I
pick up what I consider to be important, which is the same thing
Barbra told me when I walked into her house. The world of the Gods
is highly forbidden for those who are foreign to it. If we can
stick around people, we should be fine. Gods would never put
themselves on a vantage point.

Night is falling upon us when we reach
my house door. Abigail has parked the car a couple of blocks away
just in case, it feels like we are in a gangster film. I am about
to open the door when I remember that only two of us left, and now
we are three.

"What do we tell her about
Tristan?"

"He is a distant relative of mine that
you wanted her to meet."

"Why would I…"

"Shut up and open the door" she cuts
me.

I open the front door and the creaking
gives us away. My mom is right in front of us in less than a
minute, smiling but with a hint of anger in her face.

"Did you guys have fun?" she asks, and
I know that she is not being nice, the irony in her voice is
something only I could notice.

"It was terrible, the weather was
completely atrocious. We should not have gone at all, after all.
Isn't that right, dear?"

"Of course" I blush, “But at least we
got your cousin out of there."

"Louise I would like you to meet
Tristan, he is my uncle's son, we are just now going to find him a
place to stay.”

"Don't be ridiculous, there's a spare
bed on the basement.”

"Alex, your mom is just the best, I
will steal her from you" she says.

I smile, my mom expects me to say
something but instead I just grab her hand and walk with her to the
living room. With my free hand, I point to the stairs and I can see
Abigail and Tristan going up to my room.

"I am terribly sorry for leaving so
unnoticed."

"Don't ever do that to me again
Alexander Stills, never has “she hugged me “I was dying with
anxiety. What if something had happened to you? I"

"I'm sorry, mom. I really
am."

"I can't lose another son," she cries.
"I'm glad you are home. My little boy"

She always called me that, her little
boy.

I kiss her goodnight and go up to my
room. Abigail and Tristan are talking and they suddenly stop doing
it the moment I walk in. Quite obviously, they were talking about
me, but I don't force them to tell me about it. I just lie on my
bed and try to think about anything that I could use to help us.
Anything at all.

My mother's words are still on my
head. I hate myself for what could happen if Constance finds us. I
keep my eyes closed, trying to retain the image of her face telling
me that she can't lose me; that, I hope, will give me all the
strength in the world to never give up.

With the buzzing of Abigail's and
Tristan's talking, I fall asleep. I don't think I will dream today,
not after knowing that they might be after us right now, because I
just realized what that means.

When I wake up in the morning, I will
only have a day left to live.

CHAPTER 39

I can't eat today, it's like the food
can't go passed my mouth. The nerves are driving me mad and even
though I am trying to do my best to hide it, I can't say it works
the way I'd like. Abigail and Tristan are sitting in front of me,
they both look as frustrated as I do. It is a silent
meal.

I am left just with my mom afterwards,
the Gods leave to my room to, as they put it, settle things up for
Tristan. I stay there in front of the television, not hearing a
thing. The phone rings and mom picks it up. It's grandpa, he went
to a little trip with some friends. They talk for a long time, I
don't want to talk much today so when she offers me the speaker to
talk to him I decline the offer. I am not in the mood for anything
today, nor will I ever be, perhaps.

I help my mom with the washing up, she
looks weirdly at me, not because I don't usually help her, but
because I am sticking around too much today, if only she knew… I
want to spend as much time as possible with her. But of course she
does not know that, and she can't know. I am finishing the last
dishes when she shows up behind me with a large box, wrapped in
black paper.

"What's this?" I ask putting the last
dish on the sink.

"Don't get too enthusiastic. Come on,
open it" she keeps smiling so much that I start to feel bad almost
instantly.

I carefully take the box from her
hands and put it on the table. It's not too heavy so I have no
problems doing that. There's a silver ribbon around it. I cut it
with my teeth because I can't find the scissors. The paper comes
off pretty easily, I try not to damage it, as I have always done. I
look down to its content and I immediately start to cry.

Two Super Bowl tickets. The ones she
won.

"Come on Alex, don't be so childish,
you have never been a huge fan of football. Not once in your life!"
she jokes at me when she notices my crying.

"David did" I say trying to keep the
tears from falling.

What she does not know is that she has
probably saved my life, Tristan said we needed people. I don't know
how many will be there in the stadium but half the population of
the world will be watching.

I jump on my mom's arms and thank her
again.

"I'm sorry there's only
two."

"Won't you be coming?"

"What? Me? No thank you, I will watch
some teenage girl film on TV."

I smile and run upstairs to my room. I
am glad to see that the sad look on their faces is still there, so
I can change it. I tell them about the tickets and they seem to
believe it can actually work. Tristan stands up and starts planning
everything up, how are we going to get there, at what exact moment
we are going to be leaving… On the other hand, Abigail just sits on
the floor, smiling and closing her eyes, almost experiencing the
same feelings I went through down in the kitchen. This might
work.

But I don't want to keep my hopes too
high, I know all about Murphy's Law, if anything can go wrong, it
will. So we just take it seriously and keep on planning as smoothly
as we can.

"There's only two tickets."

"I will stay" Abigail volunteers
herself without hesitation. "I am not as experienced as Tristan is,
he is stronger, and if I stay I can take care of
Louise."

I thank her for that.

"Then you and me will leave tonight,
we need to get there on time to mix with other people. Make them
cover our scent, so to speak."

I nod.

Tristan urges me to pack up the
absolutely necessary, which basically is my mobile phone, and
something to eat and drink. He looks at me from the corner of my
room as I get ready. He knows I am nervous and terrified, I know.
But it does not make me uncomfortable, not at all. It's good to
have someone not judging you once in a while, especially if we are
talking about Tristan, whose greatest gift is clearly not human
interaction and therefore questioning all my moves would be
completely normal for him.

"Are you sure you need to go so
early?" my mom asks when we tell her about our plan of leaving as
soon as possible.

"Mrs. Stills."

"Louise."

Tristan smiles, awkwardly.

"We would not want to get into a
traffic jam."

My mom nods, pretending she is fine
with our decision, but it is clear to me that she is not enjoying
watching me leave again, at least now she knows about
it.

Tristan is in the car, getting
familiar with everything, I hardly think he has ever driven a car
before. I take my small bag, say goodbye to my mom and head to the
car. Something stops me.

I hear Abigail whistling at me from
the door. I turn back and she gets closer, her face shyest as ever.
She hugs me and I feel she is not pretending, nor acting out for my
mother.

"If I have ever done something to
upset you, I can't say I care" she says with a funny voice.
"Promise me you will come back" she whispers, just for
me.

I have never been one for promises, I
have always felt that people should not commit themselves to
something they clearly can't be sure about. But this time, I hope
again, for the best, and so I do as she says and promise to do
return. Somehow, I never expected her to say that to me, perhaps a
one month relationship has changed her way of thinking, perhaps now
she would not let me die, after all.

"Look after my mother" I whisper too.
"Please."

"As if she was my own" she smiles
before giving me quick nock on my shoulder.

She goes back to the front gate and I
get into the car. Tristan is still looking at the panels, the
injection, and the wheel.

"Have you ever done this
before?"

"My abilities never required learning
how to drive" he says, calmly.

"Do you want me to do it?"

He looks at me, offended.

"I hardly think that would be
necessary. Gods are fast learners. "

Tristan starts the car and we start
moving, slowly and clumsily at first, but as we reach the high way
things improve and he could pass for an experienced
driver.

I had known from the very beginning
that the trip to Indianapolis was going to be silent and not at all
interesting. All I can do is watch the landscape as he drives. Not
a single word has been spoken since we left home. His hands are
firmly holding the wheel, we are clearly not going to go off the
road. I hold my head from falling with my hand. An hour or so
later, I have had enough silence, and I break it, for the first
time in my life I think.

"Can I ask you something?"

He looks at me, I know he thinks ill
of me for asking such a thing, if it was for him, he would remain
silent all the way. Eventually, he does something similar to a nod,
I take it as an affirmative response.

"Why are you here?"

"Here? In the car?"

His way of talking is confusing and
frustrating at times, it's like he has never been with normal
people, as Elizabeth and Jay have.

"No, here, with me. You said Elizabeth
only sent you to warn us, and yet you stayed."

Tristan's pale skin turns even
lighter. After a while he clears his throat.

"One does many things out of
unthinkable feelings, for a God."

"What feelings?"

"Regret" He says in a small whimper "I
know what she is going through."

I look at him and I see his eyes
watering.

"But you became a God, after
all."

I can see his forehead frown, and his
eyes close. His hands shake on the wheel and the car starts doing
weird things and noises.

"Sorry, I did not mean that" I
apologize. "I meant to ask why you did you become a
God."

"Constance made me, of course. The
family of my Mortal Fringe had been compromised, she was going to
wreck them all if I didn't. What I did not understand was that I
would be the one to destroy that family if I were to become a God"
he is close to sobbing. "I was fooled by hope, I took the soul and
now I am paying for it."

"I am sorry" I murmur. "What was her
name?" I ask trying to get myself closer to him, to understand his
feelings and with his, Elizabeth's.