Little Hidden Darknesses

“Really? No one?” I asked, my left brow still raised and a smirk creeping around my mouth. He had to be kidding, of course, making fun of the stranger. But the boy didn’t burst into laughter. His face stayed ever as sombre, as serious. My eyes swerved to the forest. I glanced about the trees – what little I could see through the murk – then back at him again.

“Nope,” he said as though it was nothing unusual. “No one’s ever returned after going in.”

I altered my weight from left to right, something of a sigh escaping my lips. Fine, if he wanted me to bite. I happily played his game. “Well,” I asked, “how many people have tried?”

The boy shrugged. “I’m not too sure. Enough to let everyone know it’s dangerous, though.”

“Mm, I see.” What a load of crap. If everyone who entered the forest died, how come I was still alive? Alive and well and a little pissed off by now. “What’s up with the fog anyway?”

Another shrug.

“Beats me,” the boy replied, his fringe still covering half his face. “But it gets worse after sunset.” He glanced over his shoulder at Ariel’s Café, the customers still observing me, judging me from afar. “Oh, and don’t mind them. They’re not used to anything strange.”

“I could say the same about you,” I challenged him.

“What do you mean?”

“I saw you in the bookshop, eavesdropping.”

The boy grinned, guiltily, two dimples denting the sides of his cheeks. “You can’t blame me, though. We haven’ t had a stranger come through here in ... well, I don’t think ever.”

This time, I couldn’t hold it back. I scoffed. “Deadly fog and no strangers? Yea, I totally believe you.”

“I’m not kidding.” The boy wasn’t. He stared at me for a moment, his eyes glued to mine. I tried to break away, but something kept me frozen. Entranced, almost. A tingle raced down my spine, all the way into my stomach. He said, “May’s right. You really do look familiar.”

“Uh – no, I doubt it. You’re too young to have known my mum,” I managed to say, and only then was I able to look away, my cheeks for some reason searing. Get it together, Eira.

I didn’t even know his name.

“It’s Alejandro, by the way,” he said as though I had spoken out loud. “You’re Eira, right?”

I held my breath as he extended a hand. A handshake? Who still did that? I nonetheless reached out and placed my hand in his. His palm was warm, his grip surprisingly strong.

“Yea,” I said with hesitance. “Eira sounds about right.”

This made his cheeks flush with red. “I – uh – heard you introduce yourself to May in the shop.”

“I know. Eavesdropping.”

Alejandro let go of my hand and scratched behind his head. “So – uh – if you’re looking for the Vinsants, I can show you the way to their house. I’m heading that direction anyway.”

“That’d be great, yea.” I tried to smile, but the expression didn’t feel right so I aborted it. Instead, I adjusted my duffle bag for the thousandth time. “I’m kind of lost at the moment.”

“No kidding.” Alejandro chuckled as he walked around me. He smelled of books and a hint of boy sweat. Not at all bad. In fact, it comforted me. For whatever reason, I had no idea.

“Aren’t you coming?” he asked when I didn’t move.

“Oh, right.” I turned and followed him up the slope of the sidewalk, our heels kicking back gravel. I struggled to keep up with him, my breath already gone. “What’s the rush, by the way?”

Alejandro motioned to the sun in the distance, now a ball of reddish-orange. It gently grazed the highest trees, its rays entangling with the fog, tinting it a washed-out pink.

“It’s getting dark soon,” he explained. “Like I said, you don’t want to be out in the fog after then.”

“Oh, right. I’m sure I don’t.” The amount of sarcasm in my voice surprised even myself.

But Alejandro didn’t react in any way.

Like me, he kept his eyes on the sidewalk, on the steepening slope and our dimming surroundings. We veered left around a bend, away from the businesses and into a more overgrown part of town. I glanced to the top of the hill, to a fortress of a house nestled in between the trees – tall, broad, and built from greyish stones with wet patches and moss all over. The roof was peaked, slanting down at an angle, and painted dark burgundy.

A twisted fence kept everything enclosed, together with neatly trimmed hedges by the gates.

I gasped, surprisingly out of breath. My calves throbbed and the back of my heels felt as if they might snap, but I pressed on. Upward. “Who’s the rich sop that owns that place?”

“Actually, that’s Vinsant Estate.”

“Really?” I choked.

While the address on the envelope did say estate, I never expected this degree of extravagance. My mum and I barely made ends meet over the years, so she couldn’t possibly have come from a place like this. No. If she really had all this money, she’d have told me about it.

It didn’t make sense.

“You seem surprised,” Alejandro noted. He kicked a stone into the trees to our left, into the rolling mist that seemed surprisingly closer now. Closer and darker and borderline eerie.

Not even a cricket chirped from within.

“Surprised?” I repeated, half-chuckling. My duffle bag bounced off my left hip as I walked, a continuous rhythm in my head. “Honestly, I didn’t even know they existed before last week.”

This made Alejandro frown. “What? How so?”

I rolled my answer around in my mouth for a bit. It crawled to the tip of my tongue, but then I involuntarily swallowed and it funnelled down my throat again. A bitterness flushed my mouth – the type that left your gums tender and dry, and your voice non-existent.

When after several seconds I didn’t reply, Alejandro pulled up his shoulders and spoke on, “You’re nothing like them, though. They’re all scary and stuff. Quite an intimidating lot.”

I peered up the hill at the mansion again, at the heavy gates and iron bars that enclosed it. “I don’t care what they’re like. The Vinsants are the closest thing I have left to family. The closest place to a home.” A pause in which I inhaled. “Especially with my mum gone.”

“Gone?”

“Yea,” I replied, working my jaw, “she – uh – passed away recently.”

Alejandro stopped in his tracks. I didn’t. Too many people had tried. Too many people had failed. Seconds passed, and when he realised I had no intention of heeling, he caught up again.

“Listen, Eira, I’m really sorry about –”

I spoke over him to avoid receiving any more pity, “There was a letter at the back of her wardrobe. Addressed but not posted. That’s how I found out about them, about this island. After debating it, I decided to come here and find them. To learn more about my mum’s life.”

“I take it you already read the letter, then?” Alejandro wanted to know.

“Of course I did,” I said. “I’m not an idiot.” My hand instinctively reached for the bottom of my duffle bag, there where I had tucked away the envelope. My mum’s final words.

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“What did it say?”

My brows pinched together. “I’m not telling you. You’re a stranger who followed me out of a bookshop.”

Alejandro laughed, though I sensed a touch of distress in the way he let his fringe fall further over his face. He didn’t say anything at first, forcing me to listen to the scraping of my soles against the uneven sidewalk, and crunching of the odd leaf I stepped on.

“Fair enough,” he said after a while, just as we rounded another bend and the mansion’s gates came into view. “All I can say is good luck. They’re not the most welcoming people.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” I said, quickly to stifle any doubts. Welcoming had nothing to do with it. I was one of them, and they ought to be thrilled to meet me. To get to know me better.

“If things don’t work out, though,” Alejandro went on, “you can always come and stay at the motel down the road. My mother owns it. The Perez Motel, the best on the island.”

I glanced sideways at Alejandro with a grin. “The only motel on the island too, I presume?”

“You know what, the finer details doesn’t matter,” he admitted, his cheeks flushing pink again. While it wasn’t as visible in the copper part of his skin, the milky part gave it away. “The only thing that matters is you can’t miss it. We’ve got a big sign up and everything.”

My grin didn’t fade. “Thanks, Alejandro,” I said, “but I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Our pace slowed as we approached the gates. All of a sudden my heart leapt into my throat, and for the first time I noticed how far the sun had set already. When I looked at Alejandro next to me, I caught his eyes flicking to the treeline, to the ever-approaching fog.

“I’ve never liked this place,” he said, almost as if I wasn’t there. “It’s too close to the forest if you ask me.”

“You know,” I began, about to relieve him of his escorting duties, when the gates to the estate creaked open and we both bounded back. Its iron base scraped across the tar, excruciatingly slow. I almost jerked again when noticing a figure in the driveway, a young girl.

My eyes met hers, large and black and piercing. She seemed about my age, except a little shorter and with dark, shoulder-length hair. She wore a black skirt with a red-and-white, striped shirt tucked into it, paired with an oversized denim jacket and knee-length boots.

“Wh – Where did she come from?” I whispered to Alejandro.

“I said they were strange,” he replied without moving. “That’s Branka. She’s almost the scariest.”

“Almost?”

“Wait until you meet her mother, Lilith.”

Branka waited until the gates stopped moving before she stepped forward, slowly, stiffly, confidently. She tilted her chin, her eyes still on mine. “Thanks for taking your time in getting here, making me wait out here like an idiot. The family’s been expecting you.”

My throat parched and I couldn’t manage a reply. Branka’s eyes followed the movement of my throat as I swallowed, then swerved down my body, all the way to my feet, my duffle bag. She paused a moment on my hand, still clutching the section with the envelope in it.

Then, she glanced to my right, to Alejandro. I saw her jaw tensing, her eyes narrowing.

And Alejandro reacted accordingly. “Well,” he said as he started to reverse down the road, “I best get going. Nice to meet you, Eira. And remember the sign. You can’t miss it.” Upon these words, he turned and sprinted down the road, his hair bopping with his strides.

I stared after him for as long as possible – or until he rounded the bend and vanished beyond the overgrowth – before reluctantly turning back around. Branka stood exactly where she did moments ago, only her attention was on me now, her head tilted to the left.

Come on, Eira, stop being such a wimp. You won’t impress her if you act like a squirming mouse.

When at last I had regained control over my limbs, I marched through the gates and up the driveway toward her. I stopped short of Branka, holding my breath as I asked, “You’re expecting me?”

No answer.

Not even a twitch of her lips.

“H – How’s that even possible?”

Branka straightened her head. She put her hands in her jacket pockets, shrugged and turned her back on me. Her voice was muffled as she said, “Easy. We felt you in the fog.”