Indigo: Abraham, The Princess and the Key Chapter Two: "Red Strings"

Chapter Two: Red Strings

Oh, how I wish

I could hold your hands,

And sink into your skin!

Alas, I think that we,

Shall be no more than friends.

            Weeks before school started Alex was at Shana’s house.  They had spent the day outside, lounging in Shana’s pool.  Shana’s family was very well-to-do, born into money and dedicated to keeping it.  They had a large, four-story house and a business that kept thriving.  None of that meant much to Alex, however, who simply enjoyed Shana’s company.

            In fact, Alex normally avoided the pool.  She couldn’t swim very well, so it felt to her like tempting fate. Luckily, Shana was always there to her afloat.   So long as that happened there was nothing to worry about.  They could isolate themselves, hide from the world, and indulge in the pleasure of each other’s company.

            “You really shouldn’t jump in like that,” Shana lectured with a smile.  She had pulled Alex to the shallow end of the pool and they were sitting, shoulder-to-shoulder.  They sat close enough that when Shana laughed Alex could feel it before she heard it.

            “I fell in.” Alex leaned into Shana.  “And I’m okay.”

            “Sure, but you’re only because I jumped in to save you,” Shana said.  “You never know.  Maybe next time you won’t be so lucky.”  She looked down into Alex’s eyes and leaned in close.  Water dripped from Shana’s nose into her cleavage, and Alex had to fight to watch its descent.  Shana smiled.  “Maybe next time I’ll just let you drown.”

            “You’d never do that,” Alex whispered.  She could smell Shana through the chlorine.  It smelled like safety, like home.

            “Really, are you so sure?”

            Shana kept coming closer.  Alex got lost in her eyes and was nearly shaking.  Everything felt muted and indistinct.  Only they existed, and time was kind enough to let the moment linger.

            Then the spell was shattered by an eruption of laughter.  Alex squirmed and flailed, splashing everything in her clumsy attempts to escape Shana’s wriggling fingers.

            “I surrender, I surrender,” Alex cried as Shana continued pursuit.

            “Oh, no you don’t!  This doesn’t end until I say it does!”

: The Princess and the Key :

            Out front of the dormitory sat a pair of old, blue picnic tables.  They looked out at the blank fields that surrounded the campus.  These were the smoker’s benches, and rain or shine students were out there, sating their addiction.  Carolyne was often among them.

            Alex sat with her head down.  Carolyne sat beside her, a cigarette in hand.  She took long, anxious drags on it.   They were quiet and had been for nearly five-minutes.  Each had a running inner dialogue but neither had the bravery to speak.

            Eventually, Alex managed to say, “Carolyne,” before ending finishing with a sigh.  She looked away, out at the fields, and tried to settle her thoughts.  Everything seemed to make sense until it was time to put it into words.  Then, every sentence disassembled of its own will and bounced aimlessly around her head.

            Carolyne released a cloud of smoke and tapped her cigarette.  “I’m tired of this,” she said, resting her chin in her free hand.  She stared listlessly toward the campus.

            Alex sat up and collected her thoughts once more.  This time she managed, “Tired of what?”

            “These moments together, where both of us want to talk but neither of us will,” Carolyne said, mouth smoking.

            Alex nodded and stared at the ground.  She didn’t know what else to do.  It felt like everything that could be said had been said before.  Anything more would be redundant.

            “So, anything you want to talk about?”

            “Well…I miss how close we were.  I miss when we used to spend almost every day together.  We’d skip our classes and hang out.”

            “So do I.”

            “Then why did you…”

            Carolyne bounded from the table and wheeled around on Alex.  “Really?  This again?  Is that all you can say?”

            Alex slouched, retreating in like a turtle.  She pulled her hair down and tried to hide her tears.  “I just want to know.”

            “Can’t you just accept it, Alex?  We’re friends.  We could be close again, like we were, if you would just grow up.  It doesn’t have to be so bad!”

            “Really?  Because I can’t see how it can be good!”

            Carolyne flicked her cigarette and took a calming breath. “Just give it time, okay?”  She turned toward the dorms, took a step, and stopped.  Without looking back, she said, “Just try not to think about it.”

            “Why did you even pull me out here in the first place?”

            For the hundredth time that week Carolyne surprised Alex.  With uncharacteristic meekness, she turned and looked and seemed almost sad.  Within a single breath her poker-face returned.  “Listen, Alex, I do care about you, even if you don’t believe me, and I do want to be your friend.  Really.  I want you to realize that.”  She paused long enough to let it all settle.  Then, “And I do want to spend time with you.  I just can’t take this drama.”

            Alex groaned.  “Why the hell did you pick me?”

            Carolyne shifted uneasily.  “I thought you could handle it.”

            Alex opened her mouth to speak but didn’t have anything to say.

            Carolyne sighed.  “Alex.  You’re my friend, and I care about you.  A lot. But I have to tell you.   You’re not alive, dear, and you haven’t been since before I even met you.”

            Alex felt a familiar pain in her chest.  She held in her tears as best she could.

            “When you smile it’s easy to see that it’s fake.  You’re smart, funny, and beautiful, and I loved talking to you, but sometimes it’s so hard to be around you when I know that you’re not even there.  You’re just a zombie going through the motions.”

            They stood in silence.  No words were spoken, no other sounds were acknowledged.  Caorlyne stared directly at Alex without flinching, and Alex kept her gaze on the ground.  She felt hollow.  Then there was a deep breath and shoes scuffing the asphalt.

            “Are you coming,” Carolyne called from the doorway.

            Alex didn’t move.  “Maybe in a minute.”

: The Princess and the Key :

            The princess lived up in the castle all by herself.  She was born loving the world and all of the people on it, but in time she grew lonely.  One day, as she was watching the people from her throne up high, she saw a young man who was just as lonely as her.  Deciding to be daring, she went down to see him, and that, my son, is when she found true love.

: The Princess and the Key :

            Shana sat at her desk, legs crossed, chewing on the end of her mechanical pencil.  Her essay wouldn’t write itself, and she knew that, but a part of her kept holding onto hope.  After an hour, however, she had achieved nothing but a headache and decided a rest was in order.

            She pushed away from her desk and shuffled over to her bed.  Shana’s room was large, dark, and organized.  The walls were painted a deep, stately blue.  She was never one for pink or frills, preferring dark colors over their brighter counterparts.  Primarily, she enjoyed how cozy her room was in low light and how easy it was to nap there.

            Her bed made it all the easier.  It was king-sized and piled high with fat pillows and fluffy comforters.  When she touched the mattress it seemed to swallow her up in its soft embrace.  She disappeared between the blankets and curled up underneath them.

            As she lied there, she eyed her nightstand and watched time pass, her alarm clock counting the minutes for her.  Normally, Alex found homework to be easy and, though most of her life, whenever she had trouble, she had Alex.  Alex never actually helped her, but she offered distraction, which was sometimes necessary.

            Half an hour passed, and nothing happened. The air felt stagnant, and so did Shana’s thoughts.  She kept thinking of Alex, had dreamt of her the night before.  Everything was foggy and out of focus.  She missed her best friend, missed the distraction.

            She rose again and paced her room, and she tried to start her assignment again but didn’t get anywhere.  So, she called Alex.  The phone rang once, twice, and then Ellen answered.  They talked briefly.  Ellen said Alex was busy, and Shana assumed it was with Carolyne and hung up.  Shana didn’t like it.  Talks with Carolyne always ended in disaster.

            Another round of pacing, and Shaan ended up standing by her bed, clutching a photo that normally rested on her nightstand.  It was of her and Alex, years ago, covered in mud and draped over each other.  They were smiling like they found the gold at the end of the rainbow.  In reality, they had decided to go out into a rainstorm.  It ended with a lecture of Shana’s mother and a severe cold.

            Shana considered it time well-spent.

            Alex had that effect on Shana.  No matter what they did, no matter how it ended, Alex made it better.  They were best friends, someone to spend their lives with.  All her life, Shana has always thought that people like their spouses but truly love their best friends, and she did truly love Alex.

            She fell into bed again, holding the photo and staring at the ceiling.  She stared a circle around her lightbulb, skirting the ring of light it cast but never staring into the center.  Someday, she and Alex would be old, and they would have a lifetime of memories together.  Personally, Shana looked forward to it.

            Smiling, that was the thought that carried her into sleep.

: The Princess and the Key :

           

            The weekend came uneventfully.  Alex woke in the early morning and found the sky overcast.  Thick, grey clouds hung suspended in the air like the curtain.  She could see them swelling and darkening with rain.  Thunder sounded in the distance.

            Alex took to her desk to work but ended up staring at the wall in a rut.  She had nothing to write, nothing to say.  Her life, and the meaning to it, were subjects she avoided often.  After hours of contemplation she had come to one conclusion.  She was nineteen and had nothing important to say on the subject of life.

            Abraham played beside her, diligently and carefully coloring in a book Ellen had purchased for her.  It had an outline of an elephant, which she was coloring pink with yellow stripes.  She had drawn wings on it in blue crayon.  Alex watched her, and she recalled her return to the room after the run-in with Carolyne.

            When Alex had returned to the room, she was in an even worse mood than before.  She slammed the door behind her and stared Ellen down and was met only with a nervous gaze in return.   

            Ellen fidgeted and shifted her weight.  She stared at the ground for a moment and then, tentatively, met Alex’s gaze.  She still looked like a child in trouble, the way her shoulders slouched, and her body folded in on itself.  When she spoke, her voice was high and her cadence slow.  “So, um, did you have a nice chat?”

            “Peachy.”  Alex crossed her arms.  “Now, where were we?”

            “What do you mean?”  Ellen wove her fingers and shrugged her shoulders.  She tried hard not to look guilty but that only made things worse.

            Alex searched the room and found Abraham missing.  It was almost like the little girl had disappeared or as if she hadn’t been there at all.  Everything was in its right place.  Their dresser drawers were closed, their beds were made, their work desks untouched.  Everything was perfectly placed.

            It made Alex scowl.  “Where is she?”

            “Who?”  Ellen stiffened under Alex’s gaze and then laughed nervously.  “Oh!  My cousin?  She, um, she had to leave.  Busy girl, you know.  Just came by to say ‘hi’ before she can off.  Then, she, um, you know, ran off.”  Ellen mimed a small waving motion and then started wringing her fingers.

            Alex gave a long stare and then sighed.  “Abraham, where are you?”

            “I’m right here!”

            Abraham tiny voice came from underneath the bed and behind the dressers.  Both Alex and Ellen turned their gazes there and then locked eyes again.  Then, Alex marched over and yanked the dressers apart, revealing Abraham hiding in the darkness with her hands worked into Ellen’s sock.  Alex helped her back out into the open and then glared at Ellen.  “Gone, huh?”

            “Got you?”

            Alex sighed.  “What the hell is going on here, Ellen?”

            “Well, I was…She was…You see…”

            Alex growled like an animal.  Her head began to hurt, and her focus shifted.  She saw Abraham and Carolyne together.  She heard the Voice.  These thoughts flooded her mind, and she…pushed them out.  Fixing her attention on Ellen kept her in the moment.  “Just spit it out already.”  She said it as calmly as she could because, from her experience, shouting only made Ellen cry.

            “I—I don’t know!  I went on my walk and on the way back just sort of found her.  And I didn’t know what to do? I mean, would you?  There was just this little girl, unconscious, lying on the ground.  I panicked, and I grabbed her, and I brought her back.”  Even without raised voices Ellen was nearly in tears.

            Alex let her settle before speaking. “And you didn’t think to tell anyone?”

            “I was afraid I would get in trouble.”

            “In trouble?  Ellen, for what? That makes no sense.”

            Ellen sniffled and nodded and stared out the window.  At that time there was no hint of a storm.  There was just a clear blue sky and a field of green grass.

            Another deep breath, and Alex was careful to mind her tone.  Rather than speak, she tried to touch Ellen’s shoulder.  Contact always made Alex a bit uncomfortable, but for Ellen it was sometimes necessary.

            Ellen wiped the tears from her face and looked Alex in the eyes.  She was crying now, but she was doing it quietly.  “I don’t know.  I always do.  I try to help, but I always end up causing trouble, and I’m always bringing stuff home.  My parents tell me I have no common sense and…”

            “Ellen…”

            Ellen sniffed and took a deep breath.  She wiped her eyes again.  “I’m sorry, Alex.  I just wanted to help her, but I should have known better.  I’m just a college student.  I can’t do anything, and she won’t talk to me about anything, she just keeps saying that she needs to hide.  I didn’t even think.  I just said okay.”

            “Hide?” Alex looked at Abraham, who was miming their conversation with her sock-hands.  “Hide from what?”

            Ellen looked too.  She shrugged.  “I don’t know.  She won’t say.  Just that no one can know she’s here.”

            They lock eyes again.  “Well, she can’t hide here.”

            “Why not?”

            “Because, it’s like you said: we just college students.  I can’t even make it to class on time and you’re bringing children home like lost puppies.  And damn it, where would we hide her?”

            “I—will think of something.”

            “Ellen.”

            “I’m sorry,” Abraham said, her small, clear voice cutting the tension.  They looked at her and found her standing beside them now, head down as if she were waiting to be scolded.  She had taken Ellen’s socks of and was clutching them tightly with both hands.

            They stared at her and silence reigned.  Then, Alex closed her eyes, frowned, and sighed.  “Fine.  She can stay until we figure out what’s going on, but once we do, we need to find something else to do with her.”

            Ellen smiled even through her tears, and she hugged Alex, who went tense.  “Oh, thank you Alex.  Thank you!”

            “Yeah, yeah.”  Alex swayed, tried to retreat, but Abraham caught her next and held her about the waist.  The two stayed there while Alex stood steady, making sure not to scream or even to move at all.  At that time, Alex had wondered if Abraham even understood what happened.  Looking back on it, Alex decided that Abraham might have known better than either of them and manipulated the circumstances.

            Either way, it left Abraham there with a coloring book and a set of crayons to occupy her time.  She shared the bottom bunk with Ellen that night but woke up long before either of them.  She was quiet and well-behaved, and she was fascinated with the smallest things.

            While Alex thinks, she glances again at Abraham, who now holds the picture up for Alex to see.  Today, she is wearing a pair of brand-new socks bought specifically for her tiny hands, and she smiles with so much warmth that she is the sun cutting through a storm.  “Is it good?”

            Alex had to admit that the picture did look nice.  The coloring was precise, without a single bit of wax outside of the lines.  Not even her self-imposed boundaries were broken.  Even after watching Abraham work, Alex found it hard to believe a child did that at all.

            “Hey, Abraham, I have a question.”

            Abraham set the book to the side and turned her big, dark eyes on Alex, who suddenly had trouble speaking.  Her eyes were not the eyes of a child.  They held infinite depths, possession a wealth of love, warmth, compassion and, despite her youth, wisdom.  “What is it, Alexandra?”

            Alex hesitated, shifted in her seat.  “Uh, would you mind calling me Alex instead?”

            Abraham smiled again.  “Okay, Alex.”

            “Thanks,” Alex said, and she forgot her question.  She stared for a moment longer, muttered, “Never mind,” and returned to her work.  It was too difficult to stare at Abraham too long.  Even looking right at her, Alex had trouble believing she was real and out of her periphery the little girl seemed to bleed into the atmosphere.

            She stared at her desk, at a piece of paper blank save for her name written at the top.  Words wouldn’t form in her mind.  Instead, emotions and memories come to mind.  She thinks of her sister, Alicia, pale-skinned, hair tidied, lying in a wooden box, sterile, frail, sleeping.

            Alex closed her eyes and forced this memory away.  She replaced it with something older, something better.  Alicia’s skin flushed with life, her hair shined in the twilight.  They stood alone in a field of wheat that rose up to Alicia’s waist.  Alex remembered that she couldn’t see over the swaying stalks and had to hold her sister’s hand so as not to lose sight of her.

            In that moment Alicia was her entire world.

            The air was cool, late autumn flowing into winter.  They had gone to the outskirts of Sadieville to look at a farm.  Alicia loved plants, loved gardens.  She would tell Alex about every plant, every tree in their yard and, when they ran out, she started going on field trips with her.  Alicia was sixteen, Alex eight, and they used to argue about the color of Alicia’s hair.

            “It’s brown,” Alex would say, and Alicia would laugh.

            “No, no.  It’s russet!”

            In ways, this memory was worse.  Alex blinked and returned to the moment.  Tears were streaming from her eyes and beside her, Abraham stared.

: The Princess and the Key :

            Carolyne exited the dorms.  She was having a nicotine fit and realized she was out of cigarettes, so she was in something of a huff.  Her conversation with Alex made her mood worse.  Even as she tried to push it out of her mind, she continued to flip the argument over and examine it from all sides.

            She was so engrossed that she didn’t notice the strange figure at first.  Only after she reached her car did she realize that someone was watching her.  Someone tall, sinewy, and dangerous.

            Knuckles white, she gripped her keys tightly with both hands and struggle to keep them steady.  The air was tight, sinister, and suffocating.  It told her to attack or to run away.  At this point, there was no other option.

            She jammed her key into the door and unlocked it, and she had it halfway open when she stopped.  As frightened as she was, she had to look back.  Something called her, attracted her to the lithe figure skulking toward her.  It was a magnetic force, something primal and animal that Carolyne could hardly understand, let alone explain.

            Carolyne went stiff.  She gripped the door tightly to keep from falling.  The figure was close now.  She could smell the sweat of them even from a distance and as they drew closer, Carolyne came to realize they were a woman, but there was a wolf inside of them.  She could see it in her eyes.

            She turned.  This woman demanded fear and respect, awe.  It was dangerous to show her back to such a person, but it was more dangerous to look her in the eye.  Everything in her bodyscreamed to run but it was too late.  The woman was there, and she pushed Carolyne’s door shut.

            The musky scent of the sweat was stronger now.  It wasn’t unattractive, but it was cloying, and the longer Carolyne smelled it the more it fogged her mind.  She could smell something else within this peculiar scent, something like iron.

            “Hello,” the woman said, and her voice was like a growl.  Fangs sunk into Carolyne’s neck, and she suffocated for a moment before she realized it wasn’t real.  She felt her neck and stepped away, and the woman followed her closely, eyes on her.

            Carolyne backed into her side-mirror and came to a stop.  She fought to breathe and found the smell of iron was stronger than before.  “Can I help you?”

            The woman slithered forward and wrapped thin fingers around Carolyne’s face.  She stared Carolyne in the eyes and a smile opened upon her face like a fresh wound.   Her eyes were endlessly dark and full of hate.  “Why, yes,” she hissed.  “I think you can,” and she slipped one sinewy arm around Carolyne’s shoulders and began to talk.

: The Princess and the Key :

           

            “What are you doing?”

            Alex opened her eyes and stared up at the ceiling. She had long since given up on the essay and retreated to the top bunk. There, she lied sprawled, one leg hanging off the bed, and one arm draped over her eyes.

            “Thinking.”

            Abraham blinked her big eyes in confusion and continued staring.  “What are you thinking about?”

            There was a pause, and Alex said, “Nothing.”  Silence followed.  Alex felt bad for being so clipped with the little girl, but she had more pressing matters.  Her essay and Carolyne were at the top of the list.  Still, thinking about them didn’t alleviate her guilt.

            She peeked over the edge of the bed and found Abraham coloring again.  She was taking the time to shade her picture of the elephant.  She had also named it, having drawn very fine lettering at the top.  “Ellie,” it read.

            Alex prepared to apologize but the door opened before she could.  Ellen snuck into the room, offered apologies to no one in particular, and moved about like a flash.  She placed some bags on the bottom bunk before dropping a fast food bag on the floor.

            “I’ll get her out of here soon.  Just let me get a meal into her and then…”

            Alex looked back up at the ceiling.  She covered her eyes again.  “Don’t worry about it.  We’ve already talked about it, and she can stay for a little while.  At least until she tells us what she’s hiding from.”

            Ellen, elated but bewildered, looked down at Abraham.  “Are you ready to do that?”

            Abraham gave her a moony gaze.  “If I were as a bird, could I fly through people’s hearts as I would the sky?”

            Ellen sighed and got into one of the bags on the bed.  “I’ll take that as a no,” she said, and then, “Sure, honey, of course you can.”  She removed a couple bundles of yarn and kneeled down to look Abraham in the eye.  “So, I was thinking, do you want to make a friendship bracelet?”

            It was around then that Alex fell asleep.

: The Princess and the Key :

            There was darkness and pressure.

            Alex.

            “What?”

            Alex, can you hear me?

            “Yes, damn it!  Yes, I can hear you!  What the hell do you want?  Why do you keep harassing me like this?”

            I want for you to know me.  I want for you to listen.

            “I am listening.  I have been listening.  Christ, I can’t even take a nap.”

            You will need to be strong.  Great dangers are coming, but you must face them.  They will challenge you, both body and mind, and they may break you.  But you cannot run.  You must open your heart.  You must hear me.  Listen, please, listen to me.  Call me, and I will come to you.  All you have to do is call.”

            “What?  I’m sorry, I don’t understand, I just…”  She heard laughter and a bright flash burned her eyes.

            Say my name and use me as you will!

            When Alex woke it was the next morning.  She slipped out of bed and found Ellen sleeping on the bottom bunk with one arm fixed around Abraham’s tiny body.

            Alex stretched quietly and then snuck from the room.  She made it outside before finding the sky bleak and grey.  The air felt heavy, and she could tell that the storm was near.

: The Princess and the Key :

            Shana stared out at the grey sky.  It was early morning, Saturday, and she still hadn’t heard back from Alex.  The sun was only just rising and could barely be seen behind the dark clouds suffocating the sky. 

Normally, she wouldn’t be awake so early, but the night before had been restless.  She had dreams of Alex and woke multiple times through the night in a cold sweat.  Each time she shook, and she hugged herself, and each time she had to calm herself before drifting off.  The dream was the same, playing on constant repeat, and in the dreams Alex kept on dying.

Normally, Shana would disregard such things.   Dreams were nothing but ideas, memories manifested in a sequence of scenes played in people’s psyche while they slept.  That is what she told herself, but these dreams felt different.  They felt real.  Even upon waking she could hear Alex’s cries, feeling them crawling up her spine.

She checked her phone and found no new calls, and she considered calling again.  It was still early, but she wasn’t so sure that she could wait.

At first all seemed well, but in time the boy, who was nothing but a humble peasant, changed.  Having access to the castle in the sky, to the place that connected the heart of man with God, made him greedy, and he hungered for power and wealth.  One night, while the princess slept, he stood by the bed and watched her with a knife in hand.