The summer passed on a blur and autumn came knocking on our door. Kids went back to a new year in school, a new term in college, a new day at work. More people died, at the same time as kids came to be born, in that cruel cycle of life.
It made me angry, how the world kept going when mine had stayed in that tragic day, how I was frozen in my own grief, my pain and guilt all but surrounding me like a cocoon, shielding me from the rest of the world, so I wouldn't be swapped away. The animals tried to talk to me, but I was unable to stand it, I locked my windows, my doors, and stayed in my room, in the 2nd floor of uncle Daniel's house.
Uncle personally took away anything that I could possibly use to harm myself, and made my room like a room in a psych ward, which made it all worse, because I was trying to kill myself, and he saw the intention in my eyes. He read through me, because I don't care about shielding my real feelings anymore, or hiding anything. And he also saw me talking to the animals that came to the pay respect for my family in the funeral that last day, before I blocked myself from them.
Maybe that's why he began to try giving me the pink pills again.
Fuck that. I hate pink. I hate pink. I hate pink. I hate pink. I hate pink. I hate pink. I hate pink. I hate pink. I hate pink. I-
["Missssssssssssschief. Missssssssssssschief,"] called a hissing voice from my bathroom, startling the living shit out of me. ["Let me in."]
"Jesus Christ," I closed my mouth with my hand. "Where are you coming from? I blocked you off, how did you come in?" I growled, my voice raspy and unknown to myself, worn off after the days I've spend crying from June 15th to September 7th, today. I'm a ghost of what I was, an empty vessel.
Getting up slowly, I forced myself to walk to the bathroom, feeling my legs weak, and when I did, I saw a huge black and green serpent coming out of the toilet. ["Missssssssssssschief,"] it came closer to me.
"Ugh," I covered my nose with my hand, pointing to the bathtub. "There, it's fragrant water, you stink. Take a quick swim."
I swear it rolled its eyes, but did as I said. ["You ssssssssstink!"]
"Hey," I growled, "I'm grieving, and I'm depressed. I have a reason to stink, because I want to die, I have no motivation to get up and bath. And the bathtub makes me want to die drowning, but I'm a coward, and I'm still gathering the guts to do that." I've always been honest with the animals and deceiving with humans, mischievous like my name suggests, aunt Harmony used to say I was like Loki, but a better version. She said I was a Slytherin.
Swallowing the memories of her, I felt like crying again.
["Missssssssssssschief, you cannot die yet. You made your mom a promisssssssssse, didn't you? Your phone. Where isssssss it?"]
I swallowed the lump in my throat at the thought of eomma, of our fight, of the memories of me promising her to help her find my sister, and how she died on that train because she was looking for her. I confess I feel bittersweet about Euphemia now. "I don't want my phone. I left there."
["You need your phone, Misssssssssssy,"] it rose up and came out of the bathtub, drying itself on the carpet and finally coming to me. ["Your mom left you a messsssssssssssage, we have been trying to make you sssssssssssssee it, to make you pick your phone, but you inssssisted in blocking ussssssssss. We only want to help you, Misssssssssy."]
I froze. "Eomma left me… a message?" My lips trembled, my voice broke, and the tears found it's freedom, running down the hills of my cheek.
["Take a bath, you really ssssssssssssstink. Then you go back there, and get your phone in your real housssssssssse. Let's not act recklessssssssly, okay? You mom and your grandparentssssssss would not like to sssssssssssee you sssssssmelling this bad, would they?"]
My brain was still trying to absorb what it told me, that there's a message of eomma in the phone I left charging all those months ago in my room, but my body was on the action, finally motivated to bath. Before I could even rationalize, I found myself stripping from the black hoodie, the black sweatpants, the black socks, the black cotton panty, and walking into the shower, turning it on the cold water.
The worst part was untangling my hair, and had I not used a whole bottle of hair conditioner on it, I would seriously have to consider going bald. God, halmeoni and Kit would have gotten so mad at me if I had to go bald just because I've been careless and not washed my hair in months. It definitely took me more than two hours to get through my messy hair, and though a lot fell down the drain, it wasn't at all as much as I expected, I'm not bald yet.
Washing my hair one more time, scrubbing my body for the 100th, and getting rid of the dirt that had clung to my skin, I stepped out of it.
"You're a female, right?" I asked, staring at the serpent.
["I am both."]
I blinked, "Okay, I'm fine with that answer, I'm not transphobic," had it been another time, I would have laughed at my own words, not now. "Hermaphrodite, right?"
["A human word for it, yesssssss."]
Uncomfortable, I covered myself with the towel, "Your name?"
["IlleRiabhaich Mèinnearach,"] fancy. ["Raibh for ssssshort."]
"IlleRiabhaich Mèinnearach," I repeated, mimicking the way they spoke. "That's Celtic, isn't it?"
["Celtic issssssss the human language clossssssser to ourssss. They were not joking. You have an incredible perfect pronunciation. Even the other racesssssssss sssssssseparated from mine have a hard time ssssssssaying our namessssss."]
I should have asked the names of all the ones who ever helped me, but I was too arrogant and didn't. I did so many things I regret… "Thanks."
Running into the closet, I grabbed a black pair of underwear, black denim high-waist pants, a black cashmere long-sleeved turtle-neck shirt, black socks, black Crocs X Balenciaga platform crocs, and a black Versace handbag. Putting the black hair tie on my left wrist, I allowed my hair to dry naturally and as soon as I was all dressed, I passed a facial cream, and a Guerlain Rose Chérie eau de parfum, the only fragrance uncle got for me here, that I never used, and that wouldn't give me any bad flashbacks.
"Get on me, Raibh," I told them, and in a second they sliding over my body, serpentining their way around me, their head on my left shoulder.
["You ssssssssmell good."]
"Don't make it weird," I growled, going back to the bedroom, and grabbing the new phone uncle Daniel got me, a black Samsung Z Flip this time, probably because I had complained countless times before it all came crashing down on me, on us, that I hated the iPhone battery.
["But I sssssssssaid I'm part female."]
"And I'm bissexual, idiot. I have the ability of put down someone else's pants and be thankful with whatever I find. But don't worry, I'm not into serpents, or any kinds of beings aside humans and fictional characters. Though right now I'm not like much humanity either. I've already been cheated on by fur different humans entirely different, from two different genders, and they were all the same type of disloyal pieces of shit," I hissed, unlocking the door and running down the stairs.
Uncle Daniel's staff screamed as I came pass by them, with Raibh clinging to me. And as soon as I got to the living room, I found uncle Daniel there, talking with aunt Sofija Silić, the CEO apparent of our family… my conglomerate, that answered directly to my grandparents ever since eomma stepped down from the position to focus entirely on finding Euphemia. And now, she answers to me… or to uncle Daniel, as I told him to take care of everything for me for now. She's always been lovely to me.
Now she's screaming, since she's probably scared of serpents. "Oh my God," uncle gasped in horror, "Missy me careful, there's a snake-"
"It's okay, ahjussi," I caressed Raibh's head. "Ajumma, you don't need to be scared, Raibh's harmless as long as I tell them to. They came to help me, because I was blocking them out."
"They? What? What are you talking about, Missy?" She gasped.
"Help you? Did you…" he swallowed, "talk to it?"
"They talk to me," I clenched my jaw, "but I long lost the hope of any of you believing me. Raibh told me to go back home, to get my phone that I left charging in my room… that day, before ahjussi came after me. They told me eomma… left me a message in it."
"The snake told you that?" Aunt Sofija asked in pure dismay.
"It's a serpent, ajumma. And yes, she told me. You can choose to believe me or not, but they never once lied to me, not the serpents, not the ravens, not the black cats, not the rats, even less the dobermans. And before you came for me, ahjussi, they had been desperately telling me to get my phone, I didn't look at it because the battery had died. So, I choose to believe in them. I… I should have looked at my phone before."
Helping aunt up, uncle stood up and turned to me, then grabbed the keys of his midnight blue Lamborghini Urus, "It's the first time you've talked to me since… everything happened," he swallowed, convicted. "I'll take you there. If the… serpent is right and there is a message from Felicity in your phone, I'll believe in you, I'll believe that you can talk with those animals you've claimed to ever since you were little."
"I'll go with you two," aunt exclaimed. "You can count on us."
Nodding, I turned to the front door, "Let's go then."
"Did you bath? You smell good," uncle gasped.
I felt my cheeks heating up, "Raibh said I was stinky, so I bathed."
"How did it even get to you? The serpent?" Aunt asked in dismay.
"Through the toilet drain. But I made them swim in my bathtub to get cleaned up, because they were smelling horribly bad," as uncle unlocked his car, I got into the back seat, while they hopped on the front.
["Your ssssssssmell was worssssssse than mine!"] They scoffed.
"No need to remind me, Raibh!" I barked back.
Uncle gasped as he began driving to my family's villa, "Did it just speak with you?" He asked after a minute.
"Yes, they said I was smelling worse than they were," I scoffed.
"Jesus Christ," aunt covered her mouth. "This is insane."
"The situation or me?" I grinned, but it didn't rich my eyes.
"The situation," she growled. "You're not insane, Missy."
"My psychiatrist would disagree," I mocked under my breath.
The rest of the journey to my home was in pure silence.