Unreal City (5 page)

“You’ve been following me?
Why?”
I demanded.

“Why, I’ve just told you. I wish to serve you. Believe me, I mean you no harm. Now please, no more questions until I eat. I’m hungry—
starving.
I haven’t eaten for months…have some pity.” He looked kind of pathetic, his warped face twisting into a bedraggled expression of longing.

My brow pinched as I tried to think of what to do. A sympathetic part of me really wanted to give him something, but I was afraid of what might happen if I did.

“This is a trap, isn’t it? If I give you something, it’s gonna come with some messed up consequences, won’t it?” My voice still trembled, but I had started to regain my composure. Fascination was rapidly eclipsing my fright.

“No. In fact, if you get me some food, I’ll give you something very special…something
wondrous,
” the familiar hissed at me, his toothy jaws opening and making him look more cat-like.

A strange experience flooded my head as he whispered the words. I had a
vision
—and I don’t mean that I saw anything with my eyes—but I could see it as clearly as if a film slide had folded over reality for a few seconds. I had
knowledge
of jewels hidden in the cavern all around me, glinting dully in the feeble light. They were unpolished, but thick and lustrous, and pulsed with their own luminesce. Yet as quickly as the echo of his words faded in my head, they too melted back into nothing.

“How do I know you’re telling me the truth?” It was easily my biggest concern.

“Because familiars cannot lie. It’s one of the inborn laws of our existence,” he said, as if this should be quite obvious.

“There are others…like you? You have
laws
? Tell me them….” I coaxed, my fascination heightening.

“There are eleven others like me, so far as I know. As for laws…I cannot disobey a command from my master. I cannot tell anything that is not asked of me. I cannot take what is not given to me. I cannot enter where I am not invited…the list goes on. Now, please, I beg of you—mercy. Have mercy!” he yowled, pacing back and forth, so very catlike now.

“What exactly will you give me?” I prodded further, and he hissed at me, his fangs bared and his eyes blazing, sending a shock through my heart.

“
MERCY.”

“All right, calm down!” I cried, fear rekindling in my chest. My shivering hands fumbled with the zipper on my bag and I fished frantically around inside until I found the granola bar I’d packed earlier that day for a snack. I tossed it to him gingerly, then my hands flew straight to my necklace and gripped. The familiar sniffed at the foil-wrapped treat for a moment, then looked back to me, the black slits that were his pupils fixed with unwavering precision.

“Not this. I need something else—something more
alive
,” he moaned in a voice that was as demanding as it was tortured.

“I don’t have anything else,” I admitted.

“You’ve got hair. You’ve got skin. You’ve got nails…and lovely eyelashes, and
eyeballs,
and blood. Any of those things would be simply
scrumptious
…” he murmured, his long pink tongue licking at his jaws and his eyes narrowing to burning slits.

I worried I might vomit. “You wanna eat—no way! Get away from me!
Go on, leave me alone!
” I shrieked, wishing he would move so I could escape from this miserable cave without having to touch the demonic little beast.

Just as I thought it was going to turn into a struggle, he complied, slinking around me while tracking me with those bright eyes. He headed deeper into the cave, still watching me over his shoulder.

“All right, Sarah, I’ll go, but you’d do well to remember how I’m suffering down here. Remember how I’m waiting down here for you. I’ll settle for other things, you know. If you happen to have a change of mind or heart, just set a bowl of milk outside your window tonight; that will do. Give me some milk, and I’ll bring you the thing you desire most in this world,” he purred, the hideous grin still fixed on his face.

I squinted at him, halting my crawl out of that dismal cavern. “And what exactly is it that I want most?”

“To escape.”

I HOISTED MYSELF
up out of the cave and over the stone block, then set off at the fastest run I could muster. My legs didn’t last long though, and I slid on the sandy pathway and lost my balance. Covered in clay and dirty water, shaking from head to foot, I felt like I was floating miles above my head. Whatever presence I had encountered down in those caves—familiar spirit, ghost, or figment of my imagination—the feeling of energy that surrounded it had dissipated. It was gone. I was safe for now, but I wasn’t sure whether it would come back looking for food.

Blood.

I rose to my feet with a moan and scaled the hill. The meadow seemed miles wide, and I staggered over to the bus stop to await the next ride back to Merrill. I must’ve looked as shaken as I felt, because the bearded student next to me kept glancing over. He opened his mouth to ask what I assumed was going to be “Are you okay?” but when my wide, frantic eyes met his, he looked away. His reaction sobered me, and I was reminded of something that had occurred the week after Lea died. My parents were both away that afternoon, and it was one of the hottest, stickiest days of summer. I had awakened late, around one, and right away the anguish had hit. The realization that Lea had been moving around, laughing, talking with me, lying on her bed and thinking—all just a week ago—and now was so abruptly and completely
gone
ruined any chance of a normal day.

I had plummeted into one of the most acute bouts of sorrow that I’d ever experienced and ended up collapsing on the couch. I’d gotten it together long enough to know that I needed help, and called who I’d thought of as my best friend at that point. Annie had been watching some show—
Supernatural
, I think—with our other friend, Jess, but when I called them, they drove right over. I don’t know what I expected. They’d patted me on the back for a while, then just sat on the floor while I lay there, my eyes open and leaking tears. They stared, shaken by the intensity of my reaction.

“What do I
do
?” I had croaked. They looked at each other, at a loss for words.

“Stay busy, I guess. Just get your mind off things,” Annie suggested without any conviction, as if she knew the best she could do wasn’t very much at all. They were quiet for five minutes longer while I continued to cry, paralyzed and staring. Then one of them—I can’t remember who—started talking about the episode they’d just been watching. An excited conversation followed, all while I was rendered defeated in the darkest hour of my life.

The memory of this kept me lucid on my way home. I couldn’t process what I’d seen just yet, and I stood in front of the towering, crimson-leafed tree back at the Merrill dorms like a child who had lost sight of its mother. I didn’t want to be alone right now, but the thought of talking to anyone made me sick.

I escaped into the community room and threw myself into a chair. Attached to the ceiling were these little rainbow twinkle lights that shifted colors to create the illusion they were moving in a line. I watched the other kids go about their business. Playing pool. Scrolling through blogs and other websites. Exchanging stories with their friends.

It all seemed so gut-wrenchingly meaningless, and it scared me that I thought so. What had I seen down in the caves? What had it done to me?

I remained motionless in that chair until dusk, feeling shell-shocked and disconnected. However, I couldn’t ignore my rumbling stomach forever and ventured to the dining hall for something to eat, though I felt like I might retch it all back up afterward. As I stood in line and paid for my plate of mystery chicken and string beans, I thought about calling my mom and telling her what had happened. The idea was absurd.

Most of the friends I knew from Monterey didn’t want to be associated with me now—I’d become too depressing after Lea died, and they complained I’d given up on life and resigned myself to being a downer until they couldn’t deal with me anymore—so looking to one of them to talk to was out. I sat down and poked at the food on my plate, trying to come up with a “step one”, and my eyes fell on the buffet line. There were cartons of milk stacked up there. Nonfat. One percent. Whole. A regular Smorgasbord of choices.

…but you’d do well to remember how I’m suffering down here.

And what if I
did
do it? What if I fed the little abomination? Would it cost me anything besides the perils of sneaking food out of the dining hall? If I set out some milk for him and he came back, at least I’d know that I was still sane, and that whatever was happening to me was beyond comprehension…or if he didn’t show, I’d know that I was certifiable and I should seek anti-psychotics as soon as possible.

The thought of those ephemeral jewels glittering in the darkness beckoned to me, too. I wanted to see them again, or at least understand what they’d represented. That ghostly image was the only thing that haunted me as much as his revolting, hypnotizing eyes. I was tempted by the promise of something—what was the word the familiar had used—
wondrous?
It might be something earth-shaking, something that would allow me to escape the prison of malaise that my life had become. And it would only cost a carton of milk. If it’s there, why not?

All right, Salem. You’re getting the works. I won’t skimp on your meal, pal, no sir-ee
. I abandoned my half-eaten meal and plucked a carton of whole milk off the counter, glancing back at the front of the dining hall. The rat-faced man who monitored dining students sort of had his eye on me. That creep never stopped smiling and that smile only seemed to get bigger when he caught someone trying to get past his guard with extra food stuffed under their coat. I waited till he started a random security check on a boy stoned out of his mind, then stuffed the milk carton into my bag. It stuck out at an odd angle next to my computer. This was going to be a bit of a challenge. I sauntered up to the gate, trying to appear as bored as possible. Smiley Guy must have smelled the delinquency on me, though, and raised his hand as I tried to leave.

“Hey, there—what’s that in your bag? You got any food?” That smile never faltered. This guy was good.

I’d forgotten to come up with a just-in-case-I’m-caught lie, so I blurted out the only thing I could think of that would get him to leave me alone. “In my bag? Tampons. A lot of ‘em.”

Smiley Guy was a bit taken aback, and I felt a little surge of victory that I’d broken his grin, even if it was just for a second. He wasn’t buying it, though.

“Let me see.”

I pushed past him in a brusque motion and set off into a sprint, my tennis legs helping me get away. So I might get in trouble later. I didn’t really care. I kept on running, feeling beautifully antisocial and freer than I had in weeks. The running started to feel less necessary and more instinctual after I was in the clear, and I broke into a wild gallop that carried me all the way back to my dorm room.

I DIDN’T HAVE
a bowl, nor did I have tableware of any kind, so I dug a Styrofoam coffee cup out of the garbage, washed it out in the sink and set it on the windowsill. After night had fallen, I opened the window to the chill of the night and poured the milk into the cup. Then I sat back at my desk and waited for my good friend Thackery Binx to come crawling up to my window to get his long-awaited dinner.