Otherworld: Station One. - 6. Winter 6

The quickest way back to my home was through the main street of our town. Even though there were crowds of people all around, in their cars and walking down the cracked pavement, I felt completely alone.

“Hurry up Alex!” I shouted over my shoulder. He seemed far too interested in the frozen people than saving Mel’s life. I heard him grumble then the slapping echoes of his footfalls as he caught up to me.

I stopped abruptly and turned to sneer at him, he didn’t. We hit each other and fell down. I smacked my head against something incredibly hard and cried out. Alex lay on top of me and groaned.

“You might as well have bought me a drink if you wanted me.” Alex joked. My answering glare was apparently enough to silence him. “Come on” he said grabbing hold of my arm and wrenching me upwards with him.

I didn’t say anything as the pressure in my arm built up, he was holding it so tight that I felt like hitting him. But I didn’t, and he didn’t let go. “Alex..” I said softly. He suddenly let go of my arm, like it had turned infectious and green.

“Right..” He said. Then he started to run. I jogged to catch up to him and then steamed ahead. We made it to the water tower that was the central landmark of our town. My home was about two kilometers west of there, down past the train station on the other side of the tracks.

There were usually two ways of getting there: through the more suburban streets, or, through the more dingy, commissioned housing plots where graffiti and the smell of trash was rampant

Alex’s nose scrunched up as we ran past the train station. “What the hell is that smell?” He asked.

“It’s the beggars.” I said, averting my eyes from the incoming sight. I heard Alex gasp. “Yeah, they all live there.” I assumed we just passed the Beggars’ nest, the small enclave of four or five, stereotypically men that were usually huddled around a small fire.

“No, that!” Alex hissed. I looked over to where he was staring and stopped. Just past the fence on our right, past the beggars that were staring at us, their tangled hair hiding most of their eyes, was something.

It was a huge something, and at first, I thought it was an elephant but instantly dismissed that idea, rolling my eyes at my own stupidity. Whatever it was, it wasn’t moving. It was just as still as the rest of its environment.

“We should go..” I murmured. Alex slowly nodded and we walked, much softer this time, past the thing and after a short distance we started running again.

We made it home and I burst through the door barely turning the key in time. My room was on the right of the front door so I stumbled through into it and leapt over the growing pile of clothes on my floor.

“Where is it!” I growled, shoving aside my books on the desk, running my hands along the smooth wood trying to feel the light soft touch of the feather.

“Hurry up!” Alex shouted. He was standing at the door leaning against the frame. I flipped him off and kept looking.

“It should be here, where is it, c’mon…?” I stopped and placed a hand to my head covering my eyes. I ran over what I had done that day. I could remember placing it on my desk and then doing homework on the computer… Then I left, pulling my jacket off the table… off the table! I dropped to all fours and pushed my chair out the way.

“What are you doing..?” Alex asked. I glanced up at him. He had moved closer and crouched down.

“I pulled my jumper off the desk, and I think it might have fallen to the ground.” I blindly ran my hands under the desk scrunching my eyes and hoping I might have felt it. All my touch met with was the soft carpet.

My eyes widened, “Soft carpet, clean carpet…” I could see it in my head. Mum must have vacuumed, and if she vacuumed she would have seen the feather.

I could see it now, “Disgusting habit.. I wish he would throw them all away, probably already has one like this.” And then it would be in the bin. I jumped up and smacked Alex with my elbow.

“Ow!” He cried out, trying to grab me as I zoomed past but I was too quick.

“Sorry!” I shouted over my shoulder. I stumbled into the kitchen and wrenched the lid of the bin off. It was the shape of a wooden box, the height of my hip and solid, most people thought it was an extra stool or something.

Plunging my hand into it’s dark contents. I could feel scraps of something rotten and disgusting but eventually I touched the feather. I grabbed it and pulled but it wouldn’t budge, it was like it weighed more than those giant cartoon weights that said, ‘one hundred tonnes.’

I almost laughed when I slid my second hand down to help my first. “This is ridiculous.” I muttered. It started to come unstuck and as I lifted it out something grabbed my hand.

“What the..?” It was something sticky and I tried to lift it out again like nothing had happened, then it started to pull me down. “Alex!” I screamed. I heard him run towards me and he stopped when he saw my arm in the grip of a large black hand. “Alex, help me!” I shouted. He snapped out of it and grabbed onto my arm and together we started to pull.

“Hold on!” Alex said. He rushed over to the sink and grabbed out something which he brought over. “Don’t move a muscle.” he raised a knife high over his head and brought it down, driving it into the hand. A high pitched squeal ripped through our ears and the hand let go.

The abruptness of the release made me stumble backwards into Alex. He grabbed my shoulder to steady me and held the knife in front of me in case anything came out.

I became far too aware of his hand on my shoulder and the way he was holding me. I shrugged him off and cautiously moved over to the bin. I looked inside and couldn’t see anything, but I could hear a whistling, like air passing through a tunnel.

“Alex, help me move this..” I said grabbing onto one side.

“What?” He asked, “Why?”

“Just help me.” He shrugged and moved onto the other side and with a heave we shuffled it along the linoleum revealing a hole the size of a small child. I got down on my hands and knees and listened.

I could hear scuttling, and the sound of breathing. I was so caught up that when I felt Alex’s hand touch my back I jumped into the air.

“We need to get back to Mel.” We moved the bin back and I tried not to think about what had grabbed me. I ran my fingers over the mark it had left and felt raised little bumps, as if the hand had suction cups or something.

I tucked the feather into one of my belt loops and followed after Alex. As we a passed the beggars I noticed that there was nothing there. Not even the beggars.

“Alex do you see that?” I asked slowly to a jog. Alex glanced over his shoulder and saw the empty space.

“Where’d it go…?” He whispered softly.

“I don’t want to think about it.” I replied. Alex nodded and he pulled me along. Worrying about Mel made the trip incredibly tedious. I felt like I had been passing the same streets forever, I actually just wanted to relax.

My legs started to feel like weights as we turned into the school and ran along the depressed concrete ground. “Hamon, we have it!” Alex shouted. He skidded to a stop and I swiveled around him pulling the feather out of my belt.

Standing there, brandishing the feather I felt rather foolish. I mean since when could animal products fix demonic poison? Then of course, I reminded myself that I was in another reality, with an angel and the steaming corpse of a disgusting creature to my right.

Hamon stood up, his bark colored coat swishing around him. In fact he looked totally different. His hair gleamed in invisible sunlight and his white shirt had been swapped with for a knitted white shirt and a coat.

He snatched the feather out of my hands and slipped it into the sleeve of his coat. He then proceeded to run the same arm along the length of Mel’s’ body. I finally noticed her. She had become pale, like the colour was slowly fading out of her body and she seemed cold, her entire body shivered.

“Damn..” Hamon swore.

“What!.” Alex pushed past me “What’s wrong!”

“She’s not responding..” Hamon pulled the feather out and then shocked both of us as he pulled off Mel’s shirt.

“Uh…” I heard myself say.

“I’m trying to save her!” He growled. He laid the feather down on her stomach and then pressed down on her. I stepped back aghast. His hand slipped into her body, along with the feather, he twisted his wrist and then pulled his hand back out, the feather still inside her body.

“What did you just do?” Alex asked, his eyes wide and head cocked like a spaniel trying to find where you hid the bone. Mel’s body arched, similar to when Alex was healed and the ringing burst through my body, rocking every single bone till I was rendered useless, lying on the ground.

“What’s happening?” I barely heard Alex over my own shrieks.

“I honestly don’t know” Hamon said, but I didn’t hear him, I read his lips. Something I had never been able to do before. Sound was gone bar the ringing in my ears. It slowly subsided but my hearing didn’t come back.

Hamon looked at me. “Are you okay?” he mouthed. I nodded, then stopped halfway through, could they hear me?

“Yes,” I said, hoping that’s what came out. Hamon frowned.

“Why are you talking like a deaf person.” He asked. I placed a hand on my hip and rolled my eyes. There wasn’t any easy way to explain this.

“Probably because I can’t hear you, or me.” I said. Again my words must have become that odd combination of random sound and partial words, I wasn’t sure of this though, all I had to base my claim on was Hamon’s furrowed brow. He crouched beside me and touched the side of my face gently, he then turned my chin quickly to the left and I was sure something had cracked. “I don’t care about me, go check on her.” I said.

Alex grabbed Hamon and turned him back to Mel who was lying still on the ground. “She’s fine.” Hamon muttered, but he didn’t look convinced. “I’m worried about you, why can’t you hear?”

“If I knew that, I probably would be making a deal out of it, but I don’t so I’m not.”

Alex prodded me on the back and I turned to him. “Um, you are making a deal out of it.” He corrected. I rolled my eyes and saw Mel shift on the ground uncomfortably.

Her eyes fluttered open and she blinked a few times. “I feel funny…” she said. Hamon knelt beside her and helped her into a sitting position.

“How do you feel?” He asked. I had to move around so that I could read his lips. I figured I would work out why I couldn’t hear, and how I could read lips magically later.

“I said, I feel funny didn’t I?” Mel bit out. She pulled her legs into her chest and rested her chin on her knees. “My stomach, I think it’s on fire.” She said, her hands snaking across her chest and clutching at her stomach.

“Okay…” Hamon looked uncertain.

“Shouldn’t that have worked?” Alex asked. Hamon didn’t look at him, I saw him scratch at his ear and bite his lip. I couldn’t help but notice his strangely human habits. He was supposed to be an ethereal, celestial creature, above all of us.

“I’m not sure, I’m not a healer. I do basic first aid, but this..” he said, “this is something beyond my skills.”

I started to get angry. It was like hot lava oozing from the cracks of the earth and with a resounding crack my hearing shot back full force along with my rage. “What do you mean beyond your skills!” I shouted. Hamon turned back to me.

“I don’t do this stuff. I don’t heal I fight!” He growled back. “This isn’t my job.”

I bit my tongue, holding back my comments; instead, Alex chimed in for me. “Then what did you do to her when you shoved your hand into her chest.”

“My….chest?” Mel murmured. She looked down at herself and I noticed it too as she gasped. There was a scar. It looked like someone had lit a ball of paper on fire until it was a curled charcoal heap and then stuck it onto her chest. But that wasn’t Mel’s problem, “Why is my shirt open?” I almost laughed, almost…

“I had to open it to help you.” Hamon explained. Mel shivered and pulled at her clothes, trying to stay warm. Alex wrapped an arm around her and looked up at Hamon.

I felt a strange sensation, as if a pit had opened in my stomach and I was quickly bottoming out, like that lurching feeling after going over a dip in the road, and I was lightheaded. I closed my eyes for a moment and told myself I was fine.

“The feathers aren’t really meant to be used that way.” Hamon said. He hadn’t noticed me, and I was relieved for that.

“What, to heal?” Alex asked. He tugged Mel closer again and that same feeling opened itself in the center of my stomach.

“No, on humans…” Hamon said. Again, my stomach lurched. “It’s only meant to be used in that way on fatally wounded angels. No one’s tried it on humans.” I struggled to my feet and stuck my arm out onto the pole near me, trying to steady myself.

“I feel…. Strange..” Mel whispered. Alex stood up, supporting her on his shoulder.

“We have to get out of here, she can’t rest in Otherworld,” he said. Hamon moved to the her other side and supported her. With his free hand he dug around in one of the pockets and pulled out miniscule feather, it was a bluish grey and shone brilliantly amidst the drab grey of our environment.

“Here, use this” Hamon told me. “It’s a bluebird feather; it’ll get us back to your world.” He explained. “I don’t really use feathers a lot, but this is a staple one.”

“Sure, but.. how?” Hamon sighed.

“Just focus on it and say where you want to go.” He explained. I smiled nervously.

“Heheh…” I stared at the feather, I studied its colour, a deep blue hue along each of the feathers with a tiny, opaque center shaft. The tip was sharp and could probably have cut someone had it been long enough. There was a black smudge at the very top of it and I came to the idea that I liked the feather. It was beautiful.

“Home.” I spoke softly and this time I felt it, unlike the previous black feather. I could feel the ground spinning beneath my feet like when I was a child and I span around with my arms outstretched.

I felt warm, and breathless. I felt… safe. I could smell the familiar chilling air that carried along the scent of a barbeque somewhere. It was comfort. I hadn’t realized that I had shut my eyes, so I opened them and saw that we were in front of my house. Hamon, Alex and Mel stood a little behind me under a canopy of dark leaves.

I saw that it was nighttime, something I had forgotten And that Mum would probably be worried about me. Mel still looked like she had been drugged, her skin beaded with sweat and her face had been shifting between pale green to fierce reds and I couldn’t work out how.

“Hurry up, we need to lay her down.” Alex demanded. I nodded and pulled out my key. Hamon and Alex rushed past me.

“The room on the left!” I shouted after them. I followed them inside but instead of going into the room I had designated wandered past them and into the kitchen.

“Where the hell have you been!” Mum yelled. She was sitting in the lounge room with a beer in one hand her phone in the other and seated in front of the heater. “I’ve tried calling you”

“Sorry,” I apologized thinking quickly, “Mel’s not feeling well, I had to help some friends bring her home.” I lied. It was a natural talent sometimes, although I usually never had to. Mum’s face softened.

“Oh, there’s some Panadol in the medicine box. Do you need my help?” It was a nice offer, but I knew she was far too interested in her adolescent life. I wondered some times, would she ever grow up? I shook my head but she didn’t look reassured.

“I’ll let you know Mum, I did first aid don’t forget, I can take care of the basics.” I said, I couldn’t actually remember ever doing first aid and I doubted that I had in fact, any medicinal use further than the application of a band-aid.

I grabbed a few different bottles from the medicine box. You know those funny, white square boxes with the plus sign on them that you see in most shooting games. It was pretty much the identical twin of that. I carried them back to the spare room.

There was a pile of shoes in front of the door and I looked down at my own mud-caked shoes. “Shit.” I nudged the door open and stepped inside the pale orange room. My sister, who used to live in this room, loved the colour. She owned so many orange things. Her car was a vague shade of tangerine, and her favourite shirt reminded me of peaches.

She wasn’t around anymore so I barely thought of her, not on purpose, but because at the end of the day there were so many other things occupying my mind that I never had time to sort through it all to find her.

Mel was lying on her side, curled into a ball on the sheets. In an act of defiance my Mum had changed the light yellow sheets to simple white bed sheets with hospital corners. Hamon was sitting next to her, trying to get her to unfurl herself.

Alex was standing over them, and turned to me when I came in. “Your mum?” He said.

“She’s too busy being a teenager.” I shrugged. I dumped the contents of my armload on to the bed. Hamon twisted around and started sorting through them with agile fingers. He would pick something up, study it for a second, then set it down again.

“I don’t really understand human medicine...,” he said. I slid past Alex to get on Mel’s other side and lifted her face to mine. Her eyes had turned bloodshot and were watering. Her hair had plastered to her skin and she was shivering.

“It’s like she’s suffering from a fever..” I ran a hand along her forehead, “She’s freezing..” I whispered. “Alex, pass me that blanket at your feet, Hamon can you switch on the electric blanket?” Alex tossed me the blanket but Hamon seemed confused.

“I don’t know what that is…” Hamon said, smiling sheepishly, his cheeks flooded with colour. Alex rolled his eyes.

“Do you know what a drink is?” Alex asked, Hamon didn’t find it funny and nodded sharply. “Well, why don’t you get one for Mel?” He suggested.

“Ask my Mum where the cups are.” I said. Hamon didn’t say anything. He turned and left the room his coat billowing after him.

“I feel like he’s intruding…” Alex murmured. I was silent, so he kept talking, “It’s his fault you know..”

“He’s helping us. It’s not his fault, he could be up there.” I said, tilting my head towards the roof, “but he’s down here.”

“But he hasn’t told us why.” Alex pointed out. “Sure he said he’s going to stop Satan, or whatever, but why?”

“I-I don’t know why,” I admitted, “but he’s helping us, and I’m not turning down an angel.”

“Fine.” Alex huffed. I wrapped the blanket around Mel’s small frame and pressed it against her. “Think she’ll be okay?” He asked softly. He came around and sat beside me and placed a hand on her leg. I couldn’t help but stare at it while I spoke.

“She-I mean, why wouldn’t she be?” I said stuttering, Alex probably assumed it was because I was worried. Fortunately for me.. I’d prefer to figure out what it was rather than talk about it as if it’s an issue. That’s the way I operate.

“You’re right.” He muttered. His hand moved into his lap with his other hand and was fidgeting. “You know, if I had the chance I would have probably liked to meet you, outside of this ya know?” He turned his head a little and grinned.

“Y-yeah, me t-too.” He was silent and the pressure of the quiet built up until it was unbearable. “I wonder where Hamon is?” I muttered standing up. I felt blood rush back into my extremities and I shook my legs to get them flowing again.

Alex looked at me strangely. “Hey, are you alright, she’s going to be fine.” He said trying to calm me down. But he couldn't help. What was wrong with me? I'd never been a stuttering fool before.

“Here,” I heard Hamon’s voice and his arm with the drink attached preceded him. I took the glass and carried it to Mel. Was Hamon standing there the whole time? That would be beyond embarrassing.

“Mel…, drink this kid.” I said smiling softly. Her eyes were shut but her mouth opened and she gulped the water down laboriously.

“My throat hurts…” she whispered.

“Open your mouth.” She obliged and the insides were swollen and an angry red colour. “Okay,” she closed. “It’s pretty inflamed, I don’t know what that means but I think you should rest, I’ll call your parents.”

Mel’s eyes were wide. “My parents….I left in front of their eyes…they’re going to be confused….”

“I’ll take care of it.” She shut her eyes and I motioned to the other two to leave with me. We stood outside the door and I shut it gently. “How long is this going to last?” I asked.

Hamon cast his eyes downwards, “I don’t know…”

“But if she keeps on like this she’s going to die isn’t she? Her temperature is dropping so fast that if I touched her I’m pretty sure my skin would freeze to it.” I argued. “She can’t last like this, you have to do something.”

“I can’t. I don’t want to make it worse, I can’t stay here either.”

“Like hell!,” Alex growled. “Why do you have to leave?”

“Because I borrowed this body. If I stay like this, I’ll be trapped. I’ll become a…human.” He said the last word with a tinge of disgust, tempered with a shudder.

“Fine, piss off back to your luxury pad!” Alex yelled, shoving Hamon. I smacked him on the back of the head and he spun on me, “What!”

“Mel..” I said softly jerking my head sideways. He glanced over at her door and his face dropped immediately. I pulled Alex back and stepped forward in his place. “What are we supposed to do then if you can’t do anything?”

Hamon shrugged and I almost hit him myself. “I don’t know. I’ll be back when I find another peacock feather,” Seeing the blank looks on our faces he explained. “It recharges the time I have left, see.”

He reached into his shirt and pulled out a leather cord that was tied around his neck. Attached to it with a metal clasp was a peacock feather in an array of blue and green colours. The bristles along it had started to fall out and the ‘eye’ of the feather was starting to fade in colour. “When those bristles all fall out I’m stuck.”

“Fine,” I gave up, clearly I was out of my league here. “is there anything we should do?”

“Not that I know, if she keeps getting worse well… I don’t know.” Hamon murmured, Alex shoved off my hand and grabbed Hamon’s collar.

“Well then get someone who can!” he hissed. Hamon didn’t even look fazed, he grabbed the wrist of Alex’s left arm and started to squeeze, Alex gasped and let go instantly. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“You were threatening me… don’t threaten me, and you wont feel that again.” Hamon replied. He turned to me and I stepped backwards. “Tell your mother hello.” And he was gone again.

“Prick...” Alex muttered.

I silently agreed with him. “I.., I need a smoke.” I said. I pushed my door open and dug into the pockets of one of my jacket on the back of my door. I pulled out the carton and Alex frowned at me.

“Cancer sticks? You? Really?” He asked. I shrugged.

“I have my vices, all great people have one.” I grinned and walked out to the backyard with Alex on my trail. We stopped outside on the deck. My Mum had contracted a tradesman and he was rather quick. But one thing I never thought about in great detail was how we actually paid for it. We didn’t have the money for that and I could only imagine how Mum would have reimbursed him.

I hugged my jumper closer to my body and cupped my hands to light the cigarette. The sky was dark like black velvet smattered with grey smudges for clouds. The moon was in its waxing stage.

“I hope she’ll be okay.” I murmured. Alex came up beside me and rested his arms on the wood. He didn’t say anything, just sighed and rested his head against the cool grain.

“Is this real?” He asked. I looked down at the ground. “Things like this don’t happen to people.”

“No, they don’t” I said softly, taking a drag. Alex glanced over at me, a grimace on his face.

“Does that help?” He asked, flicking a finger at my smoke. I looked down at it then back at him.

“It helps me.” I said. He reached out his hand.

“Give it.” I passed it over and he put it to his lips, breathed in and started to cough. “Bloody hell, that’s rank.”

“Give it a moment.” I laughed taking it back from him. He smirked and started to laugh with me. “I didn’t like it at first either…” I said my smile fading. The first time I started to smoke was when I was thirteen, my best friend Lucia had scored some from her dad’s cleaner.

“C’mon, dad says these are bad for you, so that means we do it. ” She brushed a golden curl out of her face and batted her eyelashes at me. I took one of the cigarettes she proffered to me and put it to my lips as she lit it up.

I choked and sputtered, but the thrill, it was that intense sense of rebellion that made me go back, more and more.

“Eventually I was addicted and now it unwinds me like a good massage.” I said.

Alex nodded slowly then turned back out to the backyard. “I always wanted… for things to be interesting.” He said smiling bitterly. “I didn’t mean it like this… How do you stop the Devil, better yet, how do you stop God?” He grabbed at his hair, “I don’t want things to end. It shouldn’t have to end.”

I placed my hand on his shoulder and he looked up at me. “Then we don’t let it end, I don’t know how we do it, or why it’s us that have to do something, but we don’t let someone or something else decide how it ends.”

“That’s easier said than done.”

“Nothing worth having is easy Alex, I learned that the hard way.” He smiled and stood up properly and rested an arm on my shoulder, he was my height I realized. I had thought he was smaller.

“Some things are, sometimes all you have to do is give it a shot.” He said. I grinned, most people shared that idea. I never let myself believe it personally. Everything I had I worked for. “Plus you have to be willing.” He looked at me sideways. “Are you someone that’s willing?”

I didn’t really understand him so I shrugged. “I’m about as willing as the average person I’d say.” He smiled and he moved his arm back to his side, brushing against mine. It felt like his skin had burned mine where he touched and I jerked my arm away.

He just smiled, so I moved my arm back, the backs of our hands touching. I tried not to look at him. I could feel his hand moving, turning around so that his fingers touched softly on the back of my knuckles.

I was paralyzed, and I wanted to run. I was breathless, but my chest wouldn’t stop heaving. I was so detached from everything.

His hand moved to the inside of mine and he was shaking. I risked a glance at him and saw a mirror image of myself. He was biting his bottom lip and his cheeks were bright red.

“Eli?” The soft voice snapped me backwards, physically and emotionally. Mel was standing in the doorway, her frame wrapped in the blanket.

“Mel!” Alex cried out his voice cracking in all the wrong places. “What are you doing, are you okay?” He rambled. I fought the urge to kick him in his shins.

She was watching me strangely, her eyes glazed over. Did she see us? What did she think? Wait… what did I think?

“I.. think I’m going to be sick.” She muttered, her cheeks swelled and she ran over to the gate of the deck. I closed my eyes and heard a splattering sound.

“Gross..” Alex whispered. I moved next to Mel and rubbed her back. The smell reached my nose and I flinched,

“Blood?” I wondered aloud, I brought out my mobile and switched on the light, on the ground there was a pile of black bile mixed with blood. “Alex!” I called. He leant over the wood and saw it on the ground.

“What the fuck…”

“Eli… I can’t see… what’s hap-“ She cut off as she fell to the ground, slamming her head against the corner of the floor.

“Mel!” I shouted dropping to my knees’ I slapped her gently on the face. “Mel, open your eyes Mel!” Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and black bile seeped out of her nose and mouth flowing across the ground to join the pile on the ground behind me.

“Wha- Eli?” Alex called. I glanced over at him.

“What?”

“What the hell is that?” I turned properly and saw that the black bile had grown and shaped into some eight-foot monster. It was just a mass of swirling black but humanoid in shape and sort of feminine.

Its head formed and so did its glittering eyes. They were solid blue and shone like sapphires amid the sea of churning black. I turned back to Mel. I had to get her out of here. I slipped my arms under her, heaved her upwards and sat her at the back next to the door into the house. I scrambled around searching for a pulse.

My stomach lurched, “Alex I can’t find a pulse!”

I heard one word before it started. “Fuck.”