|
Butterflies and Hurricanes
Chapter seven. . . Help Us
~o~o~o~
I tried my best to keep pace with Bausch but it was hard. He had to be at least 6'5 and his legs were long. His strides were longer and he moved with frantic, almost graceful purpose. He still had the papers tightly clenched in his hands. He had reached the back door of the school that led directly into a large open field-hockey field. The field had rickety chain link fence around its manicured grass and the stands on the left side were the perfect place for students to hide and meet in secrecy. He stopped and looked over his shoulder at me.
"Just making sure you're still there." He mumbled. I waved and grinned like an idiot and he turned around snickering and shaking his head.
"Still here." I called sarcastically.
He huffed and opened the door before him and strode out quickly into the sunlight. I followed suit, catching the door on my hand as it flung back at me. At this point I stopped. I was beginning to have a sneak suspicion about him again and half expected him to turn to dust in the sunlight. He didn't.
He kept walking. Faster. I ran to catch up. We entered the field and he headed straight for the bleachers as I had thought. When we reached them however, he turned to the fence behind it and jumped over.
"Just to be safe, 'o course," he called as I looked on in shock. I shook off shock and stumbled over the fence. He stopped just feet from the fence. He kept a steady eye on me as I fell over the fence and on my butt. It was then I realized how silly my predicament was here and I burst into laughter. I heard Bausch sigh and his hand reached down to mine and hauled me up. I dusted myself off still laughing but stopped when I met his eyes.
"This aint no laughing matter missy." I could tell he was serious but I still thought it was odd that some strange man had led me into the woods to talk to me about Mother. I straightened up.
"It's just odd that you had to bring me all the way out here. Behind the school . . . In the woods just to talk to me though . . ." I trailed off.
"If you don't trust me then go back to your class. You're obviously such a good student and you love your 'mother'." This remark left him with snarky grin and a chuckle. I forced my face into a more serious look.
"Fine. I trust you. Now just . . . Can you tell me who you are first? I mean it's just odd. I don't know you really. I was just saying it's a bit odd. Not saying that I'm not happy about skipping. It's just odd. Though it's not like I haven't done or seen anything odd before, so whatever you have to say will be OK I guess. " He laughed at this and his grin never left his face as he said the words that would probably mess me up inside more than anything Mother could ever do.
"Like I said, my name is Bausch. I am the leader of the Greater North American Werewolf alliance." Mother had never told me about anything about the supernatural other than, "There are only demons and we are the destructors of the vile swine of the earth. We are the destructors of the human race." And that was all. That had always unnerved me. But what Bausch had said filled me with an odd kind of joy. An almost satisfaction. . .
There were other kinds of monsters out there. Better monsters. I trembled as I brought my hands to my face. I remembered my dream with his blood on my hands and I remembered Mother's mirrors and the eyes that came from his blood . . . But all that blew away. Alex would be OK. . . I dropped my hands and looked up expectedly at Bausch's grinning face.
"Why are you talking to me?" I said shaking.
"We believe that you can help us."
I said nothing.
"That you can help us take down your "Mother." She's evil Jenna. More so than any demon. And powerful. At this point you must have no inkling. But she's gained power beyond your wildest dreams . . ." I couldn't think straight at this point. I could only keep my mind on one thing at a time.
"W-we being the werewolves right?" I shook. Of course they would want to take her down. Weren't they good? Bausch was good. I could feel it . . .
"Not just the werewolves. The whole of Mortal Others." The words seemed to fall from his mouth like precious silver chains. I wanted to hold them in my hands, but couldn’t for fear that I'd break them.
"Jenna, there are other sentient beings out there you know. . . Good and bad demons as well as sinfully evil ones . . ." I couldn't stop my shaking.
I said nothing.
"There's . . . even a place . . . called the Otherworld. Full of demons a-and . . . the like." He seemed reluctant.
The Otherworld??!
My head was spinning rapidly and I couldn't stop it. I fell to my knees. I heard Bausch run to my side and he reached a hand out to me.
"I realize this is overwhelming, but Jenna you must help us. We believe that Mother is a runaway come to kill -" I pushed aside his hand and glared angrily up at him.
"We? Are you a messenger of the "Otherworld" or something?" He coughed and avoided my hotheaded glare. I went on. "So supposedly there's this whole otherworld of able bodied and mythical creatures out there. A big world right? And they only send one werewolf to take down one very, very, VERY evil demon?" I was angry now. Years of being Mother's rag doll had let rage build up inside of me. There was no target really. Bausch was just there. "No wait. My bad, they did try to get someone else! One teenage demon who is under the EVIL b***h'S CONTROL. And wait -"
"Listen to me Jenna," Bausch butted in, now slightly angry himself. I tried my best to keep my mouth shut. "Try to understand this. The Otherworld is a VERY big place. And I hear has, as of late, been in disarray so -" I couldn't help it.
"You're trying to avoid something aren't you." I said calmly. He cleared his throat and kept his eyes on mine. He seemed shaky. He couldn't keep his gaze for too long and looked away from me.
"Well, werewolves aren't exactly considered high class lassie. Since we're half mortal. . ." I looked away from him immediately wanting to hide my shame for having exploded at him like that. Now I felt as though I could emphasize with him for being different . . .
"We are not exactly welcome in the Otherworld, nor here. Humans are flighty, paranoid and believe they're the best of the best, Aye? At least here we have communities of ourselves that we can stick to." He looked down at me. "And I wasn't sent. I came to ask for your help. You have powers that can control the demon known simply as "Mother". She is a threat to us who are exiled from the Underworld. We are not nearly organized as the Otherworld's demons; if Mother does decide to bring genocide upon the humans as we fear. . . we will fall as well." He eyed me cautiously to see if I was close to exploding again. "But, I also came to offer you protection . . . As we believe somehow, you will be key to the destruction of her. " He grabbed my hand and pulled me up. I dusted myself off and looked up at him.
"So how 'bout It Jenna Mourtemour? Protection from a very evil of demons, for aid in the destruction of said demon?" I gave a great sigh. I was parted. How did I know I could really trust all these fairy tales that seemed to spout from his mouth? How do I know he's not part of Mother's sick twisted plans? How would I know any of this? Why should I care?
With this last thought, Alex's beautiful face appeared in my mind. His hands in my blood covered own. And I made up my mind.
If it was protection Bausch was offering, what other choice did I have but to trust him? Mother would kill me either way eventually . . . And where would the poor human boy I was supposed to kill fall into all of this?
Suddenly, Bausch's outstretched callous hand seemed like gold to me. So I grabbed it. And he slowly shook my hand, a smile appearing on his face.
"Of course, there are always things even in this world full of hate worth protecting, eh?"
 Madame Joli Rouge · Tue Dec 15, 2009 @ 11:23pm · 0 Comments |
