Chapter 27: Promises

Sam

The sun’s rays penetrate through my bedroom window as I huff after my daily exercise. It has been a day since Carol and I had that baffling conversation, I worry about her, maybe I should stop by and check in on her.

“I am positive that we have more pressing matters, boy,” Abhartach sneers arrogantly. “I get that but she is a large reason I am invested in this ordeal,” I respond as I pick myself up and change into a more casual outfit. Abhartach takes his time responding, I hear him mumble under his breath and finally, “Soon, you will understand that things usually aren’t as you want them to be and while fate can be changed, it is not always up to you.”

I let out an exasperated sigh and turn to my computer, pessimistic vampires will not ruin my mood today. I turn to my computer and scour the web for any “Unknown” incidents hoping that I might get a clue to something, anything. Any tactical advantage right now would be great. We have no information, barely any experience and from what I can gather, poor teamwork. When was it this difficult to find information on a super-powered being in the twenty-first century, there’s already a fan page for me and I have only been around for a few weeks.

I find a link on a social media platform that hints at a mysterious figure as of recent, the description matches our culprit, I click the link and the page loads. I am redirected to a page that shows… unspeakable debauchery. Why and how is this even legal? She is menstruating and he is just going to put that in his mouth?!… “Repellant,” Abhartach winces. I leave the site and try to unsee everything on it. We spend the next four hours browsing the internet to no avail. “Maybe we should try a more hands-on tactic?”

“Alright,” I agree and shift into Abhartach’s garments. I crack open the door and morph into a dark cloud that swiftly flies across the hallway downstairs and reach the door. “Kelly! I am going out to Max’s for a bit, I’ll be back later.” I hear rustling in the kitchen, must be cooking. “Alright, sweety. If you end up staying late, call and make sure you sleep early, all-nighters are bad for you.”

I whisk myself off as a foggy presence and manoeuvre the streets, dodging and passing through obstacles as well as vehicles and people. The sun glimmers faintly as it slowly sinks into the horizon. I feel the wind as it brushes on my face but gently. I feel myself come together again as my cloudy form weakens, this is the longest I have maintained it so far. I parkour across the terrain, latching onto a pole, I propel myself to the roofs and subtly dilly dally forwards atop them. A scent of familiar rose perfume arouses my attention. Not far from me, I rush towards it, I know this perfume.

Max

“We have to tell Sam, Carol. If there isn’t a way to prevent your death then he has to know,” I argue trying to keep it quiet but it comes off as a hushed scream. “We can’t, it will break him. I think we should keep him out of this, he doesn’t need this, I don’t know if he can handle the truth.” I walk closer and glower, eye to eye. “This is why I hate you, you are bad for him, you are selfish, always keeping things from him and stringing him along, he needs the truth not whatever you think is “relevant” for him to hear,” I shove her. “It’s not my fault that he is naïve like that, I love him but sometimes he is just too much, he is attached, I need to keep him away for his own good or he will never recover!” She shoves me back.

The bitch, I wish Sam had never met her. She is always hurting him and he always lets her. I conjure a slow ball of flame in my right hand, hot enough to boil, the flame sears intensely. “I wish the day would come where he would see you for what you truly are.”

Sam

I sink into the alleyway like the sun a moment ago and witness Max and Carol in the heat of it, literally. “What is going on? Max lets her spell sizzle out and glares at Carol, “I promised I would not get involved but I don’t have to get along with you. Do anything funny and I will eviscerate you.”

Carol turns and smiles, “Nothing, Max and I were just having a small talk before going on patrol.”

I could have sworn I heard the word eviscerate. I scrutinise the situation and sense the hostility, something happened. Let me play along for now. “Alright,” I say feigning ignorance. “I have been considering our next course of action and I think we might just have to go back to Otherworld and find Danu, maybe if she is still alive she will help us like she did the Nemedians that washed up in their realm.” Max fixes a glance on Carol from the corner of her eyes and Carol tries her hardest to ignore it. “I don’t know, it has been thousands of years, Danu never left the realm so she could have died of age. We didn’t see any signs of life when we were there,” Carol explains. “I did some research on it and you did not see all there was, far from it, Excalibur was sealed on a small garden called fhíonghoirt. All you saw was a small part of a vast world, legend says it is many times the size of our own,” Max slips in. Carol loured at her as she spoke.

“So it’s settled then, we’re going to revisit and look around, we might find something.” Max looks at me and nods, “I could help cover more ground with my teleportation incantations too.” We jump up to the roof and Carol follows. “Want to hang out later?” I ask Carol as she parkours beside me. “Sure, there is a new park that opened up last week with a killer food truck, caught wind of it yesterday, we haven’t had time to hang out.” We separate with Max and morph out of our Danann disguises and head to the park. The sun shimmers dimly as the last of its light hangs off the edge of the horizon. The young gorgeous night, I like Dublin more at night, the lights decorate the roads and buildings circling River Liffey. The ocean breeze washes away the various perfumes and food fragrances that plague the streets and replaces it with a natural addictive scent. We walk slowly and enjoy the moment.

“What’s on your mind?” I inquire curiously. “A lot, Angy, a lot. Sometimes too much.” She looks around and sighs. “Soon it will all be over after we go to Otherworld, things will get better,” I look at her and ogle, “You look breathtaking.” She pushes a strand of hair behind her ear and smiles, “Thank you, sugar, you look good too, I love your drip,” she giggles. My drip?! That is a new one, since when does she use slang like that? Oh well…

We walk towards the entrance, the park has a decorated sign in Gaelic that reads ‘gàrradh’. My Irish is terrible but that should mean garden. We walk closer and a ferry passes by the river with a tour guide and they take pictures of the city.

“I can’t wait to meet Danu, she’s bound to have some awesome tips for me and Abhartach,” I blurt out in excitement. “Why do you keep talking about Otherworld?” Carol asks with an irritated tone. “I was only thinking out loud, I only talked about it twice. What’s up with you?” She fixes her gaze on me and dismisses the thought of her response. “Nothing.” I get slightly frustrated, “Just say whatever is on your mind, I’ll love you no matter what.” She stares blankly and opens her mouth, “I hate that, when you do and say things like that. I find it annoying when you talk like that, ‘I love you, I’ll always be there, ‘I won’t ever lie,” she mocks and I look stop walking. “I’m sorry, I didn't know that annoyed you.” She stops and looks me in the eye, her face is stern, she means it. “You are attached and I feel you are coming on too strong, Sam. I know I told you that you could always tell me anything even how you feel but you make me feel guilty. I feel like I can’t tell you that I don’t love you or because you subconsciously manipulate me. Whenever you talk about your dead parents or when I realise that you have loved me for so long. I hate how I feel when I am around you, Sam. I am part of some prophecy and you put yourself through all this and for what? Because you love me?” Tears flood my eyes and blur my vision. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean it to do that.” She frowns. I feel my chest get tighter and my heart sinks. “What do you mean that I manipulate you? I do not do that. Do you think I told you about my parents because I wanted to manipulate you into loving me?”

“That’s not what I said, I said you subconsciously manipulate me,” She corrects and I get angrier. “Same thing, Carol.” I feel her slipping away as the conversation continues. “You guilt trip me into not saying things, Sam. Whenever I want to tell you that I don’t feel the same I just can’t because I do not want to hurt you. Can we not talk about this?” I glower at her and shake my head profusely. “No, we are talking about this now.” She continues. “We both know you have issues with abandonment and you hate it when people leave, it hurts you and you project that on me, you even do it with Max, you keep reassuring me that you love me because you think I will walk away and I hate that,” she slows down then continues. “I try to tell you and it hurts and when I go to bed that night, I go feeling ill.”

“So you mean I’m coming on too strong? I can’t handle the truth, I do this to you and it’s all my fault. We made a promise to always be honest to each other so why didn’t you tell me earlier if I make you feel this way? I want a clear answer.” I say angrily. I feel lied to, the entire time I thought she was being honest, she felt this way. Why now?!

“I don’t tell you because of how you react to what I say. You read too much into things and when I try to tell you, you get hurt and I am not putting everything on you, I have problems too, I have insecurities but yours…You are too much. I think you can handle the truth, I try keeping the promise but the way you react shows me the opposite.”

“Oh, so all that, sending me erotic videos and pictures, the dates, the love…”

“Sam, I sent those to like five other guys, I am sorry that you felt It was only for you, it wasn’t. I feel my heart cry in agony. My body has already gone numb like I’ve been stabbed all over with acupuncture needles. “So you only told me things you thought were relevant?” I ask sternly. “Yes, I only told you what I thought you could handle. It didn’t concern you but now you need to hear it.”

“You think I have the mental capacity of a child. That I can’t handle shit and that I manipulate you. How could you say that? How could you possibly say that?! You were dishonest, you broke your promise and here you are, blaming me. All I wanted to do was to make you happy,” My eyes give in and the tears fall, I taste saltiness. “Alright, Carol. I won’t be a burden to you anymore.” I walk away from her and break into a run, she calls out to me but my legs keep their pace, the wind hardens my tears but more fall.