Evelyn Earth Part 24

“I’ll go get the blankets” Toya said breaking the spell. I turned to look at Sebastian and he shrugged. One of his friends called after Toya with a thank you.

“The boys will be sleeping here in the clearing tonight. Marla will keep vigil over Fins and the rest of you can come and go as you please I guess” Old Mal sighed. He looked worn out and older than usual, "as for me I’m off to bed.” He lifted a hand in a half-hearted good bye and made his way out of the fire light. Marla also stood up and nodded in our general direction before disappearing inside the container.

“Evelyn love, you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting my sorry lot of lads yet, except for Izzy of course” Sebastian winked in Izwan’s direction.

“No not yet” I tried to force a smile, but it didn’t fool anyone. One by one Sebastian introduced them. The first was a blonde man who looked about my age and whose name was Trevor. He greeted me with a cliché g’day and I had no doubt that he must love to surf in his free time. The second man was older probably early thirties and very distinguished. His name was Gerard and he had a distinct French accent, and like all French men I had met in the past he had a twinkle in his eye that only meant one thing; sex. Izwan was next and he clarified for me that he was not in fact just ‘some Asian’ but a Malaysian exchange student from KL. The last man looked the worse for wear and barely grunted in response to Sebastian introducing him simply as Sloan.

Evelyn Earth Part 23

When I had told Sebastian that there was food I was referring to the shared stash that Owen and I had accumulated. Now that I thought about it though Owen did most of the accumulating and my original supplies had all been consumed in my old and now disintegrated apartment.

“Wait” I stopped, “I don’t actually have any food to share with you.” As Sebastian looked at me I felt that uncanny sensation of him reading my thoughts.

“Not yours to share hey?” I simply shook my head in response. I was actually quite embarrassed. I looked like one of those girls who relied solely on their male partner to be the bread winner. I wracked my brain for possibilities. Most of the surrounding area had already been picked clean by the group and anything that had been left over within Harbour Town and the town houses had been consumed by the darkness. Speaking of darkness it would be relatively impossible to raid at night anyway.

“Let’s go see the rest of the lads then, maybe they’ve been offered some grub”

Evelyn Earth Part 22

At any other time Sebastian would have out run me, his body looked like it was made for high speed hunting. Right now though he was sapped of energy and I felt almost normal. I scrambled up the side of a hill that marked the edge of the shipping yard. It sounded as if the voices had come from deeper inside the compound and true enough another scream punctuated the air, bouncing back and forth as if hitting an enclosed space.

Sebastian wasn’t far behind me when I skidded around the corner of a container and almost rammed into someone’s still frame. I managed to stop myself just in time and the person, who in the dim light looked like a young Asian boy, let out a surprised gasp. Sebastian on the other hand wasn’t dexterous enough to slow his speed and slammed into both of us with enough force to send us sprawling.

Evelyn Earth Part 21

I was speechless. I just stared down at him, fully aware of the fact that I had just kissed a stranger who seemed closer to me than anyone I had encountered since the world crumbled.

“I have to say, when I first saw you I didn’t expect this” he raised an eyebrow. His arm was still lightly touching my back and I shrugged it off before leaning back on my heels.

“Neither did I” I agreed.

“I take it then that this is the first time for you?” For a moment I thought he was asking me if this was the first time I had ever kissed a stranger, but of course he was referring to the fact that we both possessed the darkness.

“Yes.” I looked away, scanning the horizon. The sun had almost set completely and it was getting hard to see. He nodded in a thoughtful way and followed my gaze. The view that greeted me now was completely different to the one I had become accustomed to in the years that I had lived here. The Bolte Bridge had framed the setting sun for as long as I could remember, but now water and sky met in unobstructed harmony.

Evelyn Earth Part 20

I could feel his presence crackling in the air around me. There was so much of him that for a moment I almost faltered. He had sent out his energy all over the bridge and I traced its intentions with my own. I was like an animal circling a larger predator trying to gauge its strength, its next move. I cautiously let my darkness brush up against the tendrils that were creeping up the underbelly of the bridge and the force of the contact hit me like a sledge hammer.

I was prepared for the huge surge of power this time—it was an echo of what happened to me on the roof of my building. I was like a copper conductor I let it wash over me and sink deep into the earth, bringing it up again, slowly, to supplement my own darkness.

We were connected now. It was an uncanny feeling of shared physical strength and a partial mental merging. I knew instantly that he was destroying the bridge for the same purpose that I had destroyed my building. I also knew that he had come here to find me.

My eyes locked onto movement on the bridge and I could see him as he moved to the edge of the railing. The barrier crumbled under his touch and he jumped up onto the edge of the bridge with the agility of a cat. His silhouette was framed by the setting sun and even though he stood in the shadow of the huge orb I could see him as if he were bathed in the clearest light.

Evelyn Earth Part 19

A smile crept over my face. That would be the ideal scenario; a new Earth, wiped clean of all mankind’s cruel inventions. We stood there for a few more minutes, each of us contemplating what Marla had just said. It was a solemn moment in which we all reflected on the changes that had occurred in our lives in the past three months.

“I wonder if we missed something” Toya said, breaking the silence, “By staying here I mean. What if we were supposed to move on to something else?” She turned to the rest of us and I could see the worry etched into her face.

“I think we’ve all thought about that” Old Mal added, “the thing is people are afraid of change, even if it is a change in location.” Marla nodded in agreement. They had all lived around Docklands before the darkness struck, just like me. The rest of the group had trickled in from surrounding suburbs. It was Tod who spoke up next.

“You can think like that only because you haven’t been out there” he pointed towards the south, “We travelled up and down the coast before we settled here and I can tell you now like I’ve told you before, there’s nothing better than here. No military camps, nobody to tell you how to behave, just a bunch of savages on looting sprees.”

Things that inspire...

Usually I am a rag tag mess of influences gaining snippets of mental illumination from graphic novels, street art, anime shows and all sorts of wonderful rubbish. This time around though I have finally been able to pin point my mind’s thought processes in terms of tracing specific influences. You could call them inspirations as they imbue me with a sense of sophistication and timeliness that allow me to create, to write and to live in the moment. 

The first and foremost influence that has had me spending all my extra cash on magazines is Paris Fashion Week. It started filtering into my daily life through Instagram images of high-end fashionistas such as Anna Dello Russo and Carine Roitfeld hurrying to the Espace Eiffel to catch the latest A/W ’13 shows by Isabel Marant and Giambattista Valli.

Carine Roitfeld at Paris Fashion Week Fall 

 Suddenly everywhere I looked I saw Cara Delevingne under headings like The New Kate Moss and All Runways Lead to Cara. That plus the release of Harper’s Bazaar 15^th Annual issue was enough saturation to get me sucked back into the world of fashion.

Cara Delevingne at PFW/F 

For the past month I have been devouring the March and April issues of HB and Vogue re-memorising names of designers that I had thought were lost to the deep recesses of my memory, as well as adding new talent to my list. Why had I let my HB subscription run out without renewing it? Where had my thirst for knowing this season’s trends gone? I’m talking about the girl who once completed a clothing production course in her final years of high school, even designing her own graduation dress. But that’s right, that girl was accepted into The University of Melbourne and had become fully immersed in the literary University life.

Evelyn Earth Part 18

I couldn’t fully enjoy the feeling of sheer power, sheer control over someone else’s life because frankly I was tired.  My energy levels were completely depleted and even walking was becoming a struggle. That small burst of anger had powered me enough to get free of Owen, but without him carrying me I wasn’t sure how far I would get.

Thankfully I could hear voices in the distance. I followed the sounds until I reached the edge of the pier. Everyone from Owen’s shabby group was lined up along its length staring out at the Yarra River and gesticulating madly.

“It can’t be!” Marla’s assertive voice rang over everyone else’s.

“Why not?” Old Mal stubbornly insisted.

“Because it’s not natural!”

“Come on you can’t seriously be debating what’s natural and what’s not, we had black clouds obliterate whole houses for fucks sake” Tod chimed in.

“How do we know this just isn’t another one of those black hole things?”

“I still think it’s breaking down” Old Mal grumbled.

“Shut it old man” Marla turned on him, “from an engineer’s point of view bridges don’t just start to sag for no reason.”

Evelyn Earth Part 17

“What does that have to do with anything anyways?” he asked. I could tell he was trying to be patient with me. His voice took on that wary edge, that intonation that psychiatrists used with dangerous patients that might lash out them for no apparent reason. I certainly felt like lashing out. For the past week I had thought that my abilities were progressing, that by touching man-made objects I could initiate minute destruction, but the whole time I was just playing games. My real power lay on the main land, where the earth could invigorate me.

I clutched my head in frustration. How did I not realise that I was capable of destroying whole blocks of buildings? Was it something I could do at will or was it a reaction to the man on the boat? I was sick of everything being so vague and unknown!

“Evie, come one, get up let’s get moving. You wanted to go home right? Its’ not that far, let’s just keep walking.” He was coaxing me like a fucking puppy dog. I growled in response and he jerked his head back. “Hey!” He sounded surprised and frankly so was I. Surprised at the fact that I hadn’t seen any animals for the past three months. Granted we were in Docklands, but I remembered seeing plenty of rabbits running around the area before the war came about.

Evelyn Earth Part 16

“Well as long as you feel okay?” he put me at arms-length and looked me over. His eyes widened and I followed his gaze. All up and down my arms traces of darkness flecked my veins. The tips of my fingers were the worst—pitch black, as if nail polish had been applied by a child and spilled out over the edges inching its way up my fingers.

                “Evie…” Owen stammered, “Did you touch the black hole again? This wasn’t one of your, you know, suicide attempts?” I couldn’t help but laugh, I laughed right in his face whilst he sat there looking confused and slightly hurt.

                “Don’t be stupid Owen, look around, why would touching the darkness cause death?”

                “Are you kidding” his voice raised an octave, he dropped my hands and I could tell he was distancing himself from me, “Are we seriously going to have to have this conversation again? You haven’t seen what I’ve seen the way--” 

                “I’ve seen more than you think” I snapped interrupting him, I was sick of his sad speeches it felt like he was trying to scare me into safety with horror stories, “You think you’re the only one whose seen horror! I know what horror is and it’s not THIS!” I point around me.