Olivia had always pondered how she would react if she encountered a monster, defying the laws of nature and lurking in plain sight. Would she panic and scream, desperate to flee, or would she avert her gaze and pretend not to see them, just as she was doing now? She was visiting her friend Noah at their local Grace Hospital, where he was recovering from a knee injury sustained during endless swim practices. He needed the scholarship for college, after all. That's when she spotted a woman in black. Olivia had always detested the color black, especially when it appeared on people's faces and bodies. Rage made her head spin, but she quickly looked away, afraid that the monster feeding on the woman would target her next with just a glance.
She carried orange roses with a note that read, "I thought theater geeks broke legs, not fish." She hoped this might mask her concern without sounding too harsh. After all, this was the same Noah who had laughed at her after tripping her into a mud puddle in the fourth grade, then called her "Muds" for the rest of the school year. Even eight years later, he still used that nickname.
"Muds!" Noah shouted as she entered the sterile white hospital room, the sight of her making him sit up and bounce excitedly on the bed. His infectious smile spread to her face. "Took you long enough," he said, embracing her. "Where's Mk?" he inquired, glancing behind her, expecting to see the brunette walk in.
"She's at work, but she sent you chocolates," Olivia replied, producing a Toblerone from a plastic bag and handing it to him. "How's the leg?" she asked, eyeing his left foot swaddled like a newborn in a cast.
"Better today, I'll be out in a week," he said, opening the chocolate and tossing a piece to Olivia, who caught it with her mouth. Olivia approached the window on the left side of the room, where she replaced the old roses with new ones in a blue vase adorned with sea creature decorations. She set the postcard on the windowsill next to the orange roses, feeling Noah's gaze on her the entire time.
**********
"You should take it easy with the training," Olivia suggested, sitting cross-legged at the foot of the bed and plucking petals from the dried flowers. "I need the scholarship," Noah countered, eyes on his sketchbook. She knew he was drawing her. He always did when they sat like this, silent yet vibrant. "Have you heard from NYU yet?" he asked, not looking up. Olivia sighed, "I'm guessing that's a no," he continued, glancing up and receiving a confirming nod from her.
They exchanged a look before Noah reached for his water bottle. "He's in Atlantic City, a mermaid who doesn't know about his child," Olivia said, a hint of a smile on her face. "And she's a marine biologist exploring the ocean depths in search of her lost love."
"He's a rose farmer living in the French countryside," Noah added, "And she's a fashion designer searching for rose petals for a new dress she's creating." They both grinned at their shared imagination.
Noah finished the last drop of water and set the bottle down. Olivia stood up, taking the empty bottle to the water dispenser on the right side of the room, only to find it was out of water as well. She glanced back at her friend's sheepish smile and shrugged, mimicking his earlier gesture. She shook her head in mock disapproval but left the room to fetch more water, ignoring his shouts of gratitude but listening to everything else.
"Excuse me," Olivia addressed the floor nurse behind the counter. The nurse grunted in response, not looking up from her computer. "Room 201 needs a water refill." At this, the nurse looked up, visibly annoyed. "Again? This is the third time today, and it's only 2 in the afternoon." Olivia simply smiled and shrugged, mirroring her friend once more. "I'll inform the nurses, but it might take 30 minutes or so."
"Okay, thank you," Olivia replied, proceeding to the ground floor café, suddenly craving a chocolate muffin.
**********
She was listening to the light tune of the elevator music when a hand grabbed the doors and a man stepped in, followed by the woman she saw earlier.
"Hmph," the man grunted as a hello and proceeded to press the button to the basement, where he parked his car or would take the woman somewhere dark so he could darken her more, maybe even kill her and rid her of this misery.
Her face wore black and blue and a little purple on her cheeks, her left eye squinted open and fell closed but she saw her iris dressed in red which made her wonder if she saw things in that color, if her white cardigan seemed like red to her, if she thought she was a redhead when she was blonde, "I fell" the woman smiled without showing her teeth, which made her wonder more if she lost a tooth or two. "Stairs," she proceeded to say, her front left teeth were chipped. "Slipped on my son's monster truck" Olivia is 17, her birthday is not till another month, where she would say she shared with her brother if this was 7 years ago, before that black day. A seventeen-year-old knew a face of terror, and this woman was drenched in it.
"I see" she finally replied, but noticed the slight treble in the woman when the man put his hand on her lower back, "I hope it gets better" she knew what she meant by it, The woman knew what she meant by it, with how she stared at her with burrowed eyes and quivering lips, she looked like a ticking time bomb. they stared at each other for what felt like a century when the man cleared his throat, causing attention to go to him,
"This is your floor," he stated to Olivia,
"Oh, thanks" Olivia answered and stepped out like a sad bride walking down her isle, she looked back and saw the woman as she was deciding to blow, deciding to open her mouth, but the doors closed leaving her without a trace of a fight, Olivia ran to the buttons but her fingers closed in on them, refusing to touch them "Come on, Olivia" she tried to persuade herself, she tried to imagine what she would do, she tried to imagine what she wouldn't do, but it all came tumbling down like blizzard from a mountain with her tears she held for the woman, and her cowardly actions, when she saw the elevator reach the basement and go back up to the other floor, forgetting the woman, forgetting her darkness.
**********
"I hate the color black." Olivia thought to herself
There are not so many colors Olivia hates, to be specific, but if she had to pick, the color black would take her holy grail of hate. The hate for that color started at the age of 10, when her twin died in a car accident with a black Honda, with tinted glass, and a dent on the right side of the car, not from her brothers' bicycle. A scratch on the car's bumper, from her brother's bicycle. The back windshield was broken on two spots from when she threw rocks at it, after it sped away, clearly seeing it impossible to aid the disfigured body of the twin laying on the pavement on that bleak sunny day on June 10, 1996. plate numbers BLK879, BLK879, BLK, BLACK.
Olivia remembers the police station on 37 Firefly Lane, Bay Harbor, East Maine. She remembers the black chairs with metal handles scratched from what looked like continuous friction, She remembered learning about friction from the girl scout training on how to make a fire, having to rub one horizontal stick laying on the ground with a vertical stick, in between Their hands, moving from left to right, top to bottom, the trick was to not let go and not stop, only it never works on metals. The seat cushions that were thorn on the sides led by struggle or uneasy fidget that at 10 years old could only relate to a visit to a doctor's office, and smelling the small tangent of alcohol and deciding what will come next. She remembers sitting on those chairs next to her uncle (the orphanage guardian, but everyone called him uncle) and looking down at her black skirt and seeing no trace of blood no trace of her brother's tragedy, being afraid the police officer will believe the red on her hands were ketchup and not blood since he can't see it on her black dress. 'If it was blood, it would be on your dress too, sweetie.' he would say 'maybe you imagined it all' if only She did this time.
Olivia remembers the black body bag her brother was zipped up in, he always used to hide in a suitcase back when they played hide and seek, he would zip himself up and wait for the footsteps to leave the room, he would always peak a little to see if she went, but Olivia always hid and kept quiet, so she could catch him unzip himself to victory, only to realize he was in a trap. She thought, 'Maybe if I left to where he would not see me, he would reach out and scream SURPRISE!' Laughing at her crying face and torn dress, not remembering the black Honda that ran over him a while ago, BLK879, BLK879, BLK879…
She remembers the funeral, the black casket, the black clothes, the black cars, the black umbrellas, black, black, black, Black Everything.
"Dr. Layla to room 304, Dr. Layla to room 304" The speaker blasts through the clinic, causing Olivia to look up to the mirror and see her completion, wondering how much more sleep can one lose to be declined clinically a zombie She haven't slept in two days writing an essay for NYU psych, she wanted it to be perfect she knew she would be perfect at it, she has always felt like this surge to help people to give them comfort from the darkness that haunts them, always loved hearing peoples stories both good and bad. Being able to enter people's minds was a plus.
She grew wary of her powers when one day she entered a classmate's mind and saw him sweating and blushing which he masked by throwing spitballs at her face, she knew he liked her then and told him about it, which was followed by a push that left her on the ground dumbfounded, and name-calling from the rest of the boys of kindergarten, she decided she does not want to enter peoples mind after that unless it's necessary.
**********
Today was the day Noah was being released from the hospital, and they would go to their favorite café for milkshakes and waffles where they would talk until daylight's end. They always talked, the nonsense and the serious, the good and the bad. That's what she loved about him she felt like she was residing in his brain, and he was in hers, and they were completely vulnerable to each other.
She was rounding up the corner of the west view, making her way to Cherry-pop café, where she would be welcomed by Mrs. Dickerson, she would tell her she looks as pretty as ever and give her a chocolate chip cookie wrapped in a pink tissue to hold, then she would order one strawberry smoothie for her and one chocolate swizzle for Noah, where Mrs. Dickerson would say he orders like an 8-year-old, to which Olivia would promptly agree, and then she would order the house special waffles to share. she would go to the left corner of the café, to take a seat in the booth with the bay window, They claimed that spot 10 years ago when her twin and their two friends came in after running away from the orphanage, and she would sit there to wait for her friend enjoying the sweet crunchy Chocolate chip cookies, watching the quiet streets of west view, seeing the same people walk by. she looked back to see the crow gliding across the upper sea, eyes trailed on her, even before she saw it She knew it was following her, she didn't need to look back to make sure, "It's just a bird Olivia" she assured herself but she couldn't help it, She feared what came with it. The bird appeared when she started having those nightmares, where she would be blindfolded and thrown in a van, taken to a warehouse, and she then would see the man with the same crow on his shoulders waiting. She always found herself in bed trembling and drenched in sweat at the end. Olivia saw this crow every day for the past three weeks now, and every night, she had nightmares of the crow, the same nightmares, never knowing how it ended.
**********
They were walking home from the café when she heard that familiar screech of the van behind them, they didn't have time to look back before they were thrown inside, and drove off to the warehouse, she knew she was going there and she would see the shadow man and the crow, she only didn't know what will happen after that, she brought herself to a seated position and felt for Noah's hands by her fingers, the moment she touched him she knew it was him by their friendship bracelet she gave to him in 5th grade, she held on to him tightly and rested herself against his back, she could feel his muscles contract and she knew he was tense, she tried to comfort him by stroking little circles on his palm, she always did that before a swimming competition, when she knew he was nervous but would never admit to that, she didn't want to irritate the kidnappers by speaking, so she just continued holding his hand when the van came to a halt, she waited for the door to open and to be taken to the shadow man, where she would see him with his crow on his shoulder.
she felt Noah slipping out of her hand and heard his cry for help, causing her to run out of the van screaming his name, "Noah! Noah! Let go of him he didn't do anything he is…" she was cut short when she bumped her head, bringing her to fall backward, she felt cold hands grip her by the shoulders holding her up saving her from meeting her doom.
"We are not here to hurt you," the man whispered lightly. He was so close that she could smell the little tangent of chamomile tea in his breath. Then slowly, every so gently removed her blindfold, bringing her face to face with the depths of the forest. She wanted to plant his eyes in her earthly orbs, she couldn't stop looking at him. She looked away only when she heard the car door slam to her right, seeing Noah get into the same car, the same dark BLK879 car.
She looked back at the man holding her but this time instead of wonderment she was met with terror, and she felt herself come free from the ropes holding her wrists, she felt herself pushing the man to the other side of the warehouse, she felt her feet leave the earth, she felt the surge of light leave her hands and strike the man, she heard his cry of help, she wondered if her brother would cry the same way if he was given a chance to cry, she wondered if he would sound as agonized, she only stopped when she felt a prick on the back of her neck and started to drop to the ground dizzy and weak, but before she passed out she could only think about BLK879.
She woke up gasping for air and looked around to see the familiar small bedroom and see her silk gown stuck to her chest drenched in sweat, she felt her hair stuck to the side of her head and tried to recall the events of last night, causing her to stumbled out of her bed to call Noah, he picked up on the 4th ring with a groggy voice.
"Hello?"
"Noah! Are you okay?" she couldn't hide her worry this time
"Yea, I'm okay, how are you?"
"I'm okay, oh my god, I thought they hurt you." she could feel the relief leave her from those words.
"Who?"
"Those men last night"
"What men?" he sounded more awake now.
"Those men that kidnapped us as we were coming back from the cafe." she started to wonder if they hit him on the head, and he couldn't remember the events clearly.
"What? What are you talking about?" she could hear the shuffling of sheets from his end, which she assumed he was picking himself up from the bed and sitting down."I walked you home last night and went home myself, " he continued.
"But they took us in the van and tied us up..."
"Look, Oli," he cut her off, "Do you think it might have been a nightmare?"
That's when all those nightmares came crashing down on her and she felt her face go hot, from freaking out about a nightmare like a 5-year-old, "I'm sorry Noah, I must have had another one"
"It's okay, you can always call me when you need to, I'm just a corridor away,"
"I know."
"So the nightmares haven't stopped, huh?"
"No."
"We will go to a clinic later, okay?"
"It's not necessary,"
"You can't keep living like this, Oli" she liked it when he called her oli, she felt like a sunflower blooming after being hit by the sun "We will talk about this later on, bye for now"
"Bye,"
"Oh, and Oli," she waited for his reply. "Happy birthday!"
**********
She was dressed in the red dress she picked out with Mikayla when she heard her door knock and saw Noah walk in. He took a moment to look at her, causing her to out red her dress.
"You look amazing, Oli," he said, walking up to her for a hug
"Thank you," she said, hugging him back. "You look good," she says, looking down at his plain blue jeans and his silk red shirt.
"Where is Mikayla?"
"Bathroom"
"You would not believe the size of my shit, Liv" the brunette walks in the room, her hair bulked in an Afro, and dressed in a purple body con dress that hugs her in all the right places,
"How big?" Noah answers.
"Seven inches"
"Wow." "Damn," Olivia and Noah exclaim at the same time.
"I'm sure it's the cheese sandwich," Olivia remarks
"I am not lactose intolerant, Olivia!"
"Being in denial does not help, you know,"
"You are trying to gaslight me into believing it,"
"MK, you always get stomach problems after you consume dairy,"
"That's because I have a high metabolism,"
"That doesn't even make sense."
"Your face doesn't make sense." Being out of words, they resort to sticking out their tongues, declaring an ugly face war.
"Ugh MK won" Noah remarks leading Mikayla to curtsy with glee while Olivia throws the pillows at her, "We need to leave, Mr brooks only agreed to let us use the book store from 6 to 11, and it's already 7, "I'm sure the others are there by now" Noah states not failing to let on his excitement to see Layla from the cheer team.
"Yeah we hear you, hold on to your tits" MK resorts back, and proceeds to leave with a personal monologue about how she and Olivia work there, not him, she was the one that gave a presentation to Mr brooks, bribed him with cleaning the men's bathroom for a week, and at the last resort begged him crying on her knees, finally letting them host the party at the book store. But Noah acts like he managed the whole thing.
***
They reach the party to find it in full blast, "Birthday girl is here!" someone bellows from the crowd, causing a rapture of cheers and claps to break out.
Olivia is sitting by the fiction aisle staring at the two bodies pressed up against each other and swaying to the beat, he dips her to the back, then brings her back up so fluidly that Olivia wonders if they practiced beforehand. But then again, it might help that she is a cheerleader.
She looks to her right to see her other friend dancing on top of the counter with a wine bottle in her hands, while contemplating if she should get her to come down she hears a deep chuckle from behind her, and she looks back to see a man drenched in black sitting in the shadows laughing at what seems to be a book in his hands, 'How can he see in the dark' she wonders to herself and turns back around to see Noah and the cheerleader gone from her sight, her eyes wander to look for them but are distracted once again by the strangers chuckle, she looks again for a second to see him still as a silhouette in the shadow.
she hears a cheer below of cheers, turning to see Mikayla drowning one of her audience with red wine from the counter. She looks up at her and gives her a thumbs up silently, telling her she is okay. She hears the chuckle again, only this time he is standing next to her, finally making up the book in his hands she notes it is 'Bare Faced Time' the book about dimensions and time travel. she looks up at him in time to see his green emerald eyes studying her caramel brown orbs.
"Tell me," he continues. "Why would there be a universe with hot dog fingers?"
"It's only weird to us because we have bone fingers. They would ask the same if they knew about us."
"So what their hot dogs are bones?" The man fights back
"And their buns are nails," Olivia answers, to which the man only responds with a chuckle.
"Humans dance in the most peculiar way," he says, turning his attention back to the dance floor, Olivia finds it strange he said humans but decides not to comment on that and instead asks,
"Which dance do you like then?" Instead of answering, he proceeds to tuck his head under one arm and flap the other above his head, interchanging them as he moves from left to right.
"What is that supposed to be?" Olivia can't help but laugh at his sudden strange dance.
"A riffle bird courtship," he says, laughing. "I believe you were impressed."
"Oh, very" she can't help but smile. "Is this how you get the ladies?"
"Most definitely, and it works every time," he says, extending his hands out and asking her for a dance. Her eyes wander for a second, looking for her friend and the cheerleader. At last, she brings her hand to his, following him to the dance floor, where Mr. Brooks would normally call the reading section.
"So are we to dance a mediocre human dance, or do you have a special dance in mind?" Olivia asks in bemusement, listening to the DJ announce the next slow song to the small audience crowded in for a dance.
"A beautiful girl in my hands, a dance can never be mediocre" he says, continuing to gently put his hand on the small of her back, so tender it felt like a handshake, falling into the step of Tennessee Whiskey by Chris Stapleton.
"Smooth," she says, grateful for the twirl to hide the red building on her cheeks.
"What's your name?" the guy questions bringing her in for a dip.
"You came to my birthday party," she replies, still coming back up to meet his emerald green eyes.
"Yes, but I want YOU to tell me," he says, tucking her escaped blond, almost white, hair behind her ears.
"Olivia, Olivia Anderson," she replies, still boring into his eyes, "What's yours?"
He looks at her gently for a moment, deciding something in his mind before slinging her out with a spin hands outstretched, "Cameron" he says bringing her in, locking their arms in with every spin, her back to him he whispers gently "Cameron Achilles"
.
She spins in one spot coming face to face.
"Why don't I know you, Cameron?" she questions curious, in a small town where she knows every kid her age, she has never heard of him.
"I am not from around here," he replies with a hint of amusement in his voice.
"Where from?"
"Far," he replies shortly.
"Then why did you come here?" she questions, leading him to raise his left eyebrow in mock bemusement. "Not that I didn't want you to come," she tries to add, but he only laughs, replying with,
"To see you," causing a slight terror to run up her back, she is sure he felt with the smile rising in his face with every second.
"You know me?" she questions.
"Yes," he replies with a stone face before twirling her while singing along with Chris Stapleton, "You're as smooth, As Tennessee whiskey. You're as sweet as strawberry wine. You're as warm as a glass of brandy, " causing her to laugh and bring her back to position.
"And he sings?" she replies, her joy evident in her smile
"Dare I say you are impressed?"
Before she replies, she hears Mikayla booming through the mic, asking where she is.
"Your friend calls" the guy replies holding her hand out to kiss her gently, "See you soon, little bird," he replies pushing her forward toward her friend, now singing the beginning of happy birthday, Olivia begged her not to sing for the past weeks.
Olivia slowly walks to her friend, only looking back to see Cameron watching contently at her. She reaches the counter where she stands playing with her blond hair for the remainder of the happy birthday song, never knowing what to do with all those eyes pointed at her.
"Everybody give it up for my bestie, Livie." Mikayla's voice booms through the bookstore, reaching Noah and the cheerleader in the back storage, the small room not a bother for their melting lips.
"Bring out the cake!" Mikayla orders, causing a boy, a freshman Franklin Olivia notes, holding a strawberry cake dressed with 18 stringy red candles, to her direction.
"Make a wish" her friend orders once again, causing an eye roll from her but precedes to close her eyes and say a silent wish, that if the world stopped only Franklin standing a few centimeters away would hear her. she blows on the candles, gaining another roar of cheer from her friends.
"Come up here so I can kiss you." Mikayla extends her arms out for her friend, and as Olivia reaches her hands out, she notices the small ring on her she hadn't moments ago. An emerald green stone on the center, its shank dressed as a dragon around her fingers holding the stone in place with its mouth. She stares at the distant gleam of the stone in wonderment as her friend pulls her up the counter, bringing her in for a hug. she turns her friend's body in an embrace to look for the boy in the crowd, finding him to have disappeared in the crowd of people, trying to fit for the last song of the night in the small of the reading space.
**********
"I'm cold Livie" Mikayla resorts on their way back home, on the corner of east field street only two blocks away from home, she proceeds to pull out Olivia's left hand from her cardigan, slipping her hand in, hugging her with her right, looking like a monster with two heads and four feet from afar.
"I told you to bring your own jacket, MK," she responds, hugging Mikayla with her left arm and sharing the cardigan Mikayla knit her two Christmases ago.
"So what did you wish for?" Mikayla asks, earning her a pointed look from Olivia, "It better be New York," she resorts back to which Olivia only replies with silence,
"Exposed brick, blue door and window frames, open kitchen next to the living room where I can watch TV while I cook, if I am not too tired from my work at the hospital, just a couple of blocks away, and you reading by the wall a chair cushion next to our floor to ceiling window between the living room and the kitchen"
"What if I don't get into NYU?" Olivia replies with a silent whisper. She almost thought Mikayla didn't hear her.
"You will," the girl replies with complete certainty. Olivia rests her head on her shoulder and closes her eyes in silent gratitude.
A moment of silence later, only a block away from their apartment, "Livie?" Mikayla calls. When Olivia hums in response, she continues, "Where is that green light coming from?"
Olivia opens her eyes to see a glowing light coming from her right hand, bringing her hand up they see the ring burning in a green light, causing them both to squirt their eyes with the booming light of the small ring.
"What is that?" Mikayla questions the strange ring on her friend's finger.
"I don't know. I was dancing with this guy, and next thing I know I had this ring on," as the light grows in its flame Mikayla brings her fingers to the ring touching the stone, the light grows in a moment engulfing both of them, "Oh, shit" was the last thing Olivia heard before they both slipped into oblivion.