06// Curiosity killed the cat

It was a rather anomalous day for both Henrik and me. While that boy continued to stare in the depths of my sapphire-blue eyes, I tried to look away from his melancholy-grey-blue ones. He wasn't bullshitting me. But why?

Why was he so nice to a poor girl like me? This feeling of longing clung at the edges of my crushing heart, and the crunching in my heart continued to crave more feelings of such kindness. When I was a simple orphaned girl; a girl who knew nothing more than people flashing bullshitting stares at me.

" You're never going to get adopted." This was what Auntie Ossie said often to me while the other kids would snicker behind my back. Why is it that people who I thought were kind to me always so fake? Fake doesn't always mean the same definition to everyone. And now, as I continued to stare at my new prosthetic hand, Henrik-that creep- continued to stare longingly at my eyes.

I couldn't help but look back.

Strange.

The way that he treated me at the beginning was like he saw an alien. Has he never saw a poor orphan before? No, he's never truly met anyone from the slums of San Marcos, California. In fact, the Johannson family has lived in Indonesia their entire life and they've never gone further than the rich human sectors North of Bali. Could he tell me that I can see monsters? No, I don't think so.

Does he want to be friends?

Human.

What did this even mean to me? Why was it that every time I experienced a human emotion, I experienced this crunching in my heart? Was I ever human to begin with?

Weird.

I was starting to find this situation weird, and the way Henrik stared kindly at me seemed so different for me. No kid has ever been kind to me before. No kid has ever wanted to bring roses to me.

I looked away, cheeks flushing a bright red. Henrik looked down, " I'm sorry about Amy. I didn't think that your eyes would be this beautiful up close."

Beautiful? Okay, now I think he's bullshitting me.

"I'm sorry...? WHAT!? It's Amity, not Amy." I looked at him, and I think my voice came out more high-pitched than usual.

" Oh." He responded quietly.

The door opened again, making me pop back into reality. Mrs.Johnannson and Calise appeared through the door, making Henrik well aware of what he was doing here.

He sauntered slowly to the door, as Mrs.Johnnson scolded him, " Henrik! What are you doing here? You have a fencing class at two o'clock and you're going to be late! I knew something was fishy when I didn't see the fifteen dollars in my wallet...Did you steal my money? To go to where? Huh, Huh?" She continued to babble nonstop at Henrik about leaving the house without her permission and stealing money to buy the roses, all the while pinching his ear and dragging him out the door. Would he really go through all the trouble to just buy flowers for me?

" Let's go." His mother hissed and dragged him out the door. Henrik looked back at me with sad eyes that a dog would say to his owner. He was such a shy boy.

The moment that they left, I heard a loud bang at the front door. Ouch. My brows knitted in worry for that boy. Dang, that must be harsh.

******

Kneeling on the food-stained beige carpet by my mother's bed, I clenched my fists in anguish. There really was nothing I could do. Day by day, hour by hour, instead of progressing, her life was diminishing. She was the only person I had left: my only family.

All I could do was remain useless like a rusty piano that's no good for playing. All I could do was be nothing to anyone. All my questions will always remain unanswered for the world, and all I'll ever ask the world is the word: why. Why?

I bit down on my bottom lip in hopelessness, as I continued to ball my fists with the cloth of my knitted-red dress. This dress was kindly replaced by my brown ragged, torn-up one by Mrs.Nugraha. No, I shouldn't insist on calling mother that. She was my family now.

The only family, I had left.

My teeth chattering from the cold, frigid air, I started to feel concerned. It wasn't even cold inside the house, and mother didn't even drape the blankets I offered her around her body. Looking at my mother's suddenly pale, sickening-pasty white face, doused in fear, and looking rail-thin, I was worried. How did she even end up so pale and feeble?

A sudden flick of the light turned on my senses, and I think I figured this out: she's like this...Because of me.

Me who was nothing but somebody who was the scapegoat for all the things that happen to all my loved ones. Times like this were common, familiar even, to me. I was nothing, and I'll always be nothing. I couldn't even save Mrs.Nugraha.

******

"Amity, dear. Come here, I need to talk to you." Mother grimaced still in debilitating form. She was laying down on her bed on her back, with an expression that was impenetrable.

Huffing, and face drenched like she had diaphoresis, the parting of her lips tremored for she seemed apprehensive. Perturbed, I rose from my seat near her bedside and ambled towards her, I didn't think that she'd be in that much pain. Raindrops seemed to stumble their way down the pathway that was the translucent windows.

Peeking out from the windowsill, seeing the lucent afterglow of the moon, I almost imagined timberwolves rebel one another, blaring their fangs and sinking an excruciating claw into the others' limbs. They'd fall, one by one, like ragdolls, tossed down a hillside. Running down the hillside, they'd make sure to keep the fight going.

On the contrary, this place wasn't like California. There were no wolves to be seen. No, no. At midnight, there were creatures called dhatins, instead. On top of that, this place wasn't even Bali. Back in San Marcos, California, Aunt Ossie said that Ms.Nugraha was taking me to Bali.

She lied.

This is Semarang, Indonesia. A place that's inundated by a good chunk of the dhatin population. Our cottage was located on the outskirts of Semarang, in a province called Djomblang a subdivision of the city, on the island called Java.

" Yes mother, I'm coming." My voice seemed dry like my teeth were serrated, worn-out. It was a tiring feeling: especially how my life now revolved around the lives around me.

There was something about that dhatin that screwed me up. Teeth chattering, my heart crunching in on itself, my mind nebulous from the results of my actions. How I wished that I didn't trod past the Dismouth forests that day, then perhaps mother would've been safe.

Life was anything but safe, now.

My mother continued with an ill-infused countenance, her eyes inspecting my gaze, her warm terra cotta eyes searched me like she was trying to tell me something. What is it that she's trying to tell me?

I. Don't. Understand.

" My Amity, will you do your mother a wee favor? Take that pail over there to this address." Mother's voice staggered, the coat of sweat glistening her face seeping into her face and body at expeditious speed. She motioned me to a mildly gray pail near the wooden doors to her room after she placed a small piece of paper in the palm of my hand.

Standing, with the piece of paper inspected in between my fingers, the only three words that read on the paper was:

For the Requiem.

~ The next day~

I was beginning to think that this place wasn't real. But it was.

The walk from our cottage in Djomblang back to the rivers (that I don't know the names of) where I met that insolent boy, Kersen was brutal. While a simple walk-without-a-heavy-pail was about ten minutes, a walk carrying a pail of god-knows-what-is-inside was taking a toll on my arms. These skinny non-muscular arms of mine were built that way for a reason? I have no idea what I'm even made to acquire.

Sluggishly, I tread the fields of flowers like before, instead now with more grievance.

" Ah, now isn't it strange girl! Give yourself a pat on the back cause that pail sure looks freakin' heavy." Kersen was there again, his back leaning against a willow tree, and his face covered by its leaves as if slapping him. A gust of wind blew over his dark hair and he smiled a cheeky grin, looking like he just won the lottery.

" What?"

" Nothing." Yeah sure, it's not like you take pleasure in seeing me struggling.

He walks over to me and takes note of my prosthetic hand. Picking up my hand like it was a piece of unwanted garbage, he sighs.

" Fine. Only because you look like you need help." He gives me a half-grin and grabs the pail from me, and lifts it like it didn't weigh much. Insolent brat!

This gave me more of a reason to loathe that cocky attitude of his.

" Oh? Am I making you look bad, strange girl?"

" Monster! How dare you refuse to use my name!" In an effort to take back my pail, I continue to race after him as he runs down the hill and out of the area.

Just as I was close to getting the pail back from him, I realized...Where I was.

******

Nervous and distraught were the first two words to pop into my brain. Nervous for what I had gotten myself in. And distraught for I've lost my way.

Or, have I?

Trekking among the red dusty roads, I wondered where I was. Where and what I've gotten into. Looking ahead, I sought to find Kersen happily leaping ahead of me, carrying my pail away from me in vain. How I yearned to see another, and how that another...Appeared.

"Are you lost, child?" A voice asked but was nowhere to be found.

" W-who a-are you?" I stuttered as I tripped on something. The grainy ground was getting the best of me, and my feet were growing incapacitated from all the walking, and I was horrified. Horrified for myself, and mother. Why do I have to be so weak?

Why is it that in a matter of a few weeks, I've felt more terrified than I've felt in my twelve years of living?

Why is it that...I had a terrible feeling that seemed to creep up my spine and strangle me by the throat?

The answers to all my unintended inner monologue peaked, and I see a shadow saunter towards me, slouching forward. The shadow emerged, and out of the shadow, appeared a man with sickening pale skin, bloodred eyes, and sharp fangs. His gelled black hair was kept to the side, and no trace of age was seen.

A dhatin of Vampire.

The highest among the hierarchy of dhatins.

"No need to be scared, Amity. No, need." The man said slowly, in a sleepy manner. I didn't realize until now, but the man was holding a black umbrella above his head, and his black shades refused to cover the red glint in his eyes seeping through.

" Who are you?" I asked the man, walking over to him, I continued saying, " How do you know my name? Do you know Ms. Nugraha?"

" I'm Count Darc, to answer your first question. I know you simply because I've heard talk among us dhatins of a girl who was attacked by the Blight binge eater, Raidne." He bit his bottom lip until the blood from his rose-tinted lips bleeds. He licked off the excess with satisfaction.

Was he going to attack me?

Who knows.

It was ironic how a dhatin would be the one who'd help lead me the way to the address mother wanted me to follow. After a few minutes of unnecessary questioning, I decided to trust this Count Darc.

" So you do know the way to this place called The Requiem?" I asked the man, pointing to the slip of paper mother gave me. Count Darc squinted his eyes; vampires weren't really prone to sunlight after all.

" Yes, yes, I do know this place. In fact, I'm the man in charge of running The Requiem."

" Oh."

Count Darc walked ahead of me and continued to lead the way. Trailing behind him like a lost puppy, I wondered where that insolent brat Kersen took the pail!

Sound-asleep Blyth's river frogs lay on the grass and their beady multicolored brown-and-black eyes look like they are sleeping with their eyes open.

Seeing red robins was quite rare in Asia, and instead, there were Asian songbirds and crimson sunbirds that nestle near the flowers like Hibiscus such as Kembang Sepatu.

This place that we walked among was called the Requiem Rainbow forests, because of its many Rainbow Eucalyptus gum trees that were native to the area.

As I observed my usually straight brown hair turn frizzy from the heat, I noticed that the gel on Count Darc's licorice-black hair was still the same.

Panting, my legs were flushed from the heat and my denim shorts weren't helping with the increasing tan-lines. My already light brown skin tone was becoming increasingly darker as we hiked among the red-rocky trails.

The Rainbow gum trees stood tall and mighty, thin but strong. The frogs and various birds chirped from the tops of these glorious trees, and heck, I wouldn't blame them for doing so. If I was a bird, I'd love more than anything to soar above from this muggy air below.

" How much longer?" I asked the Count impatiently. My legs were on fire and I didn't bring a hair-tie. This caused my back to drench in sweat and my lungs to breathe in this sweat dripping down from my forehead to my mouth. My eyelashes tried to catch the water droplets before they blinded me, but it was too late.

Salty sweat was all I was tasting.

" You don't look so good, dear!" I never realized the high pitched voice that the Count possessed.

" Yeah, probably because it seems like...This...Is...A...Never-ending! W-walk!" I spat and continued to force myself to tread longer among the forests.

" Look!"

" What?"

The Count then takes off his shades, revealing bloodred eyes glowing.

The sky is no longer bright from the sun's vexed gaze. Slowly, the cerulean blue sky melted and mixed with a midnight color. It was like a child was mixing paint colors together to create a darker shade of blue.

This darker shade helped my sweat to cool off, for I had no more reason to produce more sweat from my forehead. Cool air wisped around me, and the muggy air deteriorated.

A wooden plank sign read: The Requiem.

******

The small area that was the secluded Requiem lay past the Requiem rainbow forests. Local dhatins emerged all at once in one area: Vampires headed to the booths that sold human blood, Jenglots headed to the grilled babies' toes booths, and the Blights headed to the booths that sold goat blood and human eyes.

Happily scurrying about, all these creatures mingled with one another, but all with their own kind.

Vampires possessed the most Indonesian Rupiahs, their high-class talk and silk clothing said it all.

The Jenglots were in middle ground, some having extraordinary wealth ( I noticed that those who were more wealthy went to sectioned booths in the Requiem that were labeled: only for ORBV members) and some peasants.

The Blights were only allowed in one area on the right side of the Requiem where they can feast on raw food of their liking.

As the dhatins of Vampire, Jenglot, and Blight roamed in different directions, the vampires in the middle of the market, the Jenglots on the left side, and the Blights in the right side, all were satisfied. They had looks of hunger before they arrived at the Requiem but once they had their entertainment and food, they left the Requiem with full stomachs.

" Is this the Requiem?" I asked Count Darc peeking from behind his back, afraid that these dhatins would take one look at me and pounce on me like I was their midnight snack.

Maybe I was.

I started to wonder... Why would mother ask me to go to a place where dangerous dhatins ate their meals? Why would she send me away like I was some kind of disease?

Heart crunching, I started to think that maybe... I was a disease.

Was this some kind of unruly punishment for getting her infected by the Blight disease?

No, it couldn't be...Right?

" Don't worry, Amity," Count Darc spoke, and placed a hand on my head, " as long as I'm here, no harm will come to you. After all, you are one of us now."

"Us?"

"Yes, you are a dhatin of Blight now Amity. Sooner or later, you'll have cravings for human flesh too. Come on, give it a try." He brings me a piece of barbecued human meat to me, wrapped in foil and drenched in pigs' oil. This pigs' oil, according to the dhatins, was oil made entirely from pig blood, though it looked like regular vegetable oil to me...

When I refused the offering, Count Darc frowned, and said, " Well then. You'll get used to it," He took the meat away and gave it to a hungry-looking Kersen, who appeared out of nowhere.

" Thanks Count Darc! I was starving." Kersen then stuffs a mouthful of human barbecued meat in his mouth.

Wait... Why was a human boy eating human meat? Was he a cannibal?

No, wait...

He couldn't be--

" Don't stare at a dhatin while he's eating strange girl!" Kersen snickers, and then says, " Us Jenglots need our source of protein after a hard task of weight lifting that goat blood after all."

" Goat blood? Jenglot?!" My eyes widen and I look at Kersen in surprise.

No way.

He's one of them?

" Yes, I'm a sixteen-year-old teenage Jenglot what'ya mean? Besides, you shouldn't be so rude to someone who helped you carry that goat blood to the Jenglot booths. What? Do you want your money for your sellings?"

"...."

" Fine, here you go." Kersen, after ranting for a bit there, takes a hundred U.S. dollar bill out of his pockets.

" Where did you get the money from?" I looked at him out of curiosity. It was strange to find a dollar bill around this place.

" Well--"

"Okay kids, I gotta go to the main building alright?" Count Darc told us out of the blue. Dang, I didn't realize he was still here. " Kersen, make sure Amity makes it home before midnight alright?" The Count looks over at Kersen, and he gives him a trusting smile before waving us off.

" Okay then strange girl, let's go!" Again, he's not making an effort to remember my name.

" Hey! What did I tell you about saying my name?" I scolded him, and he gives me a cocky grin and starts running off with the money.

" HEY!!!" I screamed, louder and louder still. I was trying to figure out where that insolent brat went, but...He was nowhere to be found. My feet walking among the same red-rock that Count Darc and I trekked. But where was I?

A shadow creeps up to Amity and its sharp fangs are coated in blood.

Pig's blood.

BANG!

"What the heck do you think you're doing?" I screamed, my head going dizzy.

The wooden chair was making my head bleed.

I reached my hand out in a plea for help, but...Nobody.

*****

" I'm just trying to see if what Kersen says is true about you?" Another male voice says.

" Ley! Again." Kersen, that insolent brat says in a rude manner, with a glint of malice in his eyes.

"NOO!!" I pleaded, my eyes blurry from being knocked out.

"Yes."

"NOOO!!!"

BANG! The chair slams my skull once more, the mushy blood seeping through my brain. Blood pours down my brain, and I don't know why.

What just happened?