Evelyn Earth Part 11

The next few days flew by. We returned to the shipping yard and met up with the rest of Owen’s group. The second time around they weren’t as intimidating. Marla seemed less threatening now that she was placated by Owen’s reassurances about my character. For all I knew though she could still be harbouring suspicions, but I didn’t let that show.

 Jack and Tod were nowhere to be seen the first night, but Tod wandered into the meeting place the next day asking questions about when the next raid would take place. It turns out that the car they used in the last townhouse raid was Jack’s and he had to take off on some ‘personal’ business so he needed the extra manpower to carry supplies.

                Owen wasn’t forthcoming with anything definite and I could see that Tod made him more than uncomfortable. Later that night he confided to me that he suspected Tod and Jack of being part of a larger scavenger group. We made our way back to Owen’s containers through a different route that night, even doubling back in some areas to make sure that we weren’t followed. I admired Owen’s preservation skills; they made mine look crude and barbaric. I was the one with the comfortable bed though, and we definitely felt its absence.       

Evelyn Earth Part 10

The sleeping part didn’t even turn out to be the most awkward thing about the night it was the getting ready for bed part that took the cake.

    After my swim in the less than clean water of the docks I was in need of a shower, but since water was a precious commodity I resigned to wiping myself down with baby wipes under the glow of a propped up LED torch. My hair was another issue. It looked great, salty beach hair really suited me. It fell down in stiff waves around my shoulders, but beauty did nothing for the smell. I doused it in leave in conditioner and was surprised at the pleasant change in odour.

As I pulled out some of my face moisturizer I paused. Was I really doing this? When did looking good for a guy I had just met become my top priority? I put the moisturizer back on the shelf and closed the vanity mirror. My reflection looked ghostly. The torch was angled too close to my face and gave it a gaunt quality that unsettled me. I leaned closer and suddenly as a quick flash I saw myself standing outside. The flutter of leaves, the shade of a tree, and then it was gone. My towel wrack stared plaintively back at me.

Evelyn Earth Part 9

I stopped. For a moment I thought the sound had come from the darkness, but then I heard it again.

“Evelyn!” it was more urgent this time, less loud. Confused I turned my head and looked down to my right, nothing. Spinning around in a circle I searched with my eyes, but couldn’t see anyone. I looked back into the liquid darkness and realised that the reverie that had engulfed me not two seconds ago was gone. The swirling mass looked sinister and somehow…mean.

“Evie” the sound came out in short breathes. I turned back around and there he was. He was standing on the top of the escalator with his hands on his hips with his chest heaving.

“Owen?” I choked out. A heavy pulsing had begun in the back of my head. All of a sudden the world seemed to shrink down to just us, me, Owen and the darkness.

 He stepped forward slowly and reached out his hand. As I grasped it I looked back into the shadows and saw a face. It swirled in and out of focus so much so that I couldn’t make out its exact features.

Evelyn Earth Part 8

“I don’t understand, what’s happening?” I whispered.

                “Does it hurt?”

                “No”

                “Are you sure?”

                “Yes I’m sure!” I raised my voice, “it feels like a hand should feel.” It was my right hand, the one I plunged into the darkness while Owen was trying to save me. I couldn’t tell him that, what would he think? He took my wrist in his big hands and massaged it lightly. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it. The kneading felt nice, but it wasn’t doing anything for my arm.

                “I don’t think that’s helping” I wrenched my hand away from him and held it up against my chest.

                “I need to go outside.” Out in the sunlight I took three deep breathes and closed my eyes. Images of volcanoes and magma swam before me and I snapped them open shaking my head. I could feel Owen watching me, but I didn’t care. There was something inside me that wasn’t my own. Now that I focused on it, now that I had a foreign image of black veins in my body, I could feel the rest. A small voice in the back of my mind said something inaudibly. It was like my subconscious was trying to speak to me but the harder I focussed on it the softer it seemed to get. I shook my head more violently.