Chapter 2
Word Count: 2,119
Uploaded: 03/24/16
Uploaded: 03/24/16
Renata Vasquez pulled off her gloves and dropped them into the trash bin. She tried to take hold of Sirenia’s wandering eyes, but the girl wouldn’t stop looking around. Clearly she wasn’t in the mood to discuss why she arrived at the clinic’s west wing, knocking on the doors at nearly two in the morning. Renata didn’t want to discuss it either, fearing it would require calling the girl’s aunt to the clinic, which wasn’t exactly what they’d need at the moment.
“New curtains, huh?” Sirenia noted, but then her eyes were already moving to the cabinets across the room. “You know, I could have sworn there were five cabinets and not four. You sure that number is right?” And her eyes continued to rove the room, searching for every little detail she could pick out as being different from her last visit three weeks ago.
“Sirenia,” Renata said.
“And that picture! Don’t you think the flowers are a little too bright for the cold toned background? I mean, it’s to the point the painter might as well have just painted the flowers, you know? Forget the forest behind it.”
“Sirenia.”
“Oh, it’s also tilted a little. Please fix it, it’ll bother me the whole time I’m here.”
“By the Saints, Sirenia! If you’re worried about me calling Castellina, I’m not!”
That got the girl to shut up and focus her gaze on Renata at the foot of her bed. She laid there, stripped from her sweater and sweatpants and into basketball shorts and a tank top. Ice packs laid on her shoulders and thighs, places where Luca’s fist (and maybe foot) landed some hits on her. Bruises already painted her skin from what little Renata could see, easy places Sirenia could hide if it were autumn.
But it was mid-summer and you were crazy to roam Versaivona during the day wearing sweaters and sweatpants. The nights, when it was somewhat chilly, were fine, but the days were torturous in the heat. And knowing Sirenia, who delivered food from her family’s restaurant and supplies brought over from Avallinia, she wouldn’t be the one caught in her night-walk attire during a summer’s day. Bruises or no bruises, Sirenia had her designated jogger capris and tank tops for deliveries, and then an occasional raincoat when a flash shower loomed over the islet.
Sirenia’s eyes narrowed as she shifted her jaw to the side. “You’re not?”
“No. Your household, the clinic, and the town are sleeping right now. The last thing we need is Castellina crossing town, yelling and preparing her lecture for you before she even gets here.”
“So just for now you’re not telling her. But in the morning…”
“You won’t be here.”
Sirenia adjusted herself, making sure the icepack tucked beneath her arm for her ribs didn’t slip to her hip. “Hold on, I’m confused.”
“Clearly.” Renata sat down into the chair beside the bed and fiddled with the end of her black braid. “I’ll let you out of here before Casa wakes up. You can sneak back in, and we can keep this a secret for everyone’s sake.”
Renata Vasquez was the older sister to Sirenia’s best friend, the best friend of Sirenia’s aunt Castellina, and most recently, Castellina’s girlfriend. Why would she be keeping secrets now?
“Why?” Sirneia dragged the word until Renata rolled her eyes. “You never keep secrets from Cas.”
“Like I said, it does everyone a favor to keep her from coming here now.”
“But why not tell her in the morning?”
“Do you want me to?”
“No!”
“Then that’s that.”
Sirenia shimmied down into the bed and pulled a blanket over her legs. “You’re the bestest,” she said with a grin.
The Vasquez and de los Santos family had their roots in the Philippines, dating back to the Spanish-American War where both families met on Philippine soil only to discover they were more allies than enemies—both foreigners to Earth as they were Avallinians who had crossed the Rift during the Avallinian Enlightenment.
But even when they were separated by time and space, they knew they could count on each other to appear when necessary. The families fought side by side when the Kanao Civil War broke out early in the 20th Century, had been there when the Zakrisian Strait War ravaged the western coast of Avallinia, and were together across the Rift in the Philippines during Japanese occupation in World War II.
Renata’s parents had been there the day Lionel disappeared and Luella took his place, they were there when Luella was put to trial and removed from her position as the Empiorex’s primary adviser, fighting for her defense. They followed her to Versaivona, and when the Vasquez had to leave behind the islet to deal political affairs in Avallinia, Luella took in their three children.
"But just know," Renata continued, “I’m not giving you any invetrim to speed up the healing process. That requires consent from a parent or guardian, and I’m not about to loose my license because of that, even if I am Cas's girlfriend and a long time family friend. We never count.”
“Sure, sure. That’s fair.” Sirenia adjusted the bag of ice. As she did, the ice pack on her shoulder slipped to her back. “Do you guys have an ice blanket? You know, a massive pack? I could also go for an ice bath if not. That’s fine too.”
Renata reached over, adjusting the packs herself. She crossed her arms as she leaned back.
“A light painkiller is the most I can give you for now. It should be enough."
Sirenia knew the so-called "light painkillers" would really have been something strong enough to knock her out, keeping her from running. Renata knew exactly which medications did that to the girl and which ones she could trudge her way through with some effort.
Your people are being hunted across the Rift.
Sirenia could trust Renata.
She knew her aunt's girlfriend wouldn't be the one killing her if it came down to it. Renata would surely risk her life before taking Sirenia's. Yet Sirenia knew she still needed a quick get-away. Just in case Luca and his boys made their way to the clinic. Just in case the night-shift nurses were Wilter haters, just in case the other patients were waiting for the night Sirenia would be admitted. Maybe they were all part of this grand scheme, and Luca was the one in charge of corralling Sirenia to the clinic for the patients or nurses to finish off.
That could all happen without Renata knowing.
Adrenaline could get Sirenia through severe bruising, but it wouldn't be enough to wake her from an induced sleep. Not one induced by a sedative, no matter how "light" Renata claimed it to be.
“I think I can hold up without the painkillers,” Sirenia said. “The ice bath should fix everything.”
“You sure?” Renata pressed. “The aches should kick up a notch in the next half hour. I don't need your moaning and groaning keeping my patients awake."
"I'm sure."
Renata gave her a doubtful look, but then she got up to mark something down on Sirenia’s folder sitting on the counter across the room.
As she did this, Sirenia shifted on the bed to find a comfortable position. Once settled, Sirenia found Renata leaning on the counter and looking at her.
Even if Sirenia didn’t explain a word of what happened, Renata could tell. It was always the same group of boys from day one, and they were the only ones daring enough to lay a hand on her. Then again, Luca was the only one on the islet who had relatives die to a Wilter turning.
"They can't keep on like this," she said. "They're going to take their games too far one of these days, and it won't be a few bruises we'll be dealing with." The bruises were a recent step up from their tripping and cornering her in the halls. Even when Castellina did bring it up to the headmistress of Versaivona Academy, the boys never stopped and teachers played the oblivious card.
Sirenia could joke that it was meant to be a “let's go all the way” kind of nights, but that would get her locked up in Casa Manila for the remains of her days. And as much as she liked the free food from their restaurant and eavesdropping on guest in her grandmother’s pocket portal, Casa got boring after a while. She needed to be on the streets of Versaivona, even if there were wolves prowling for her scent.
Hunted across the Rift.
“We need to go to Impier Vandyke. Something has to change.”
Sirenia frowned. Renata would make that suggestion. "And what? Tell her the kids have to stop picking on the Wilter? That they have to play nice with the thing that's killing their family members? Come on, Ren. Jessabelle’s a Wilter too. You know the drill."
"You didn't kill anyone, Sirenia. Your people may be prone to turning into a'mukin—”
"We're the only ones who turn into a'mukin."
"That's not true."
"Then who else, Ren? Who else gets Nephilim Necrosis and starts on a killing spree?"
A hallow formed at the base of her neck, like she were refraining from answering, but instead she let out a slow, steady breath. Renata shook her head then.
"Exactly. We're the only ones who turn into a'mukin."
"Fine! Your people turn into a'mukin, yes, but that doesn't mean you have to take up the sins of your people."
"That guy Jesus did. And he kicked the bucket for humanity too!”
Renata pushed from the counter and started stuffing things into a medical pack, making sure Sirenia heard every item dropped in. Tweezers, gauze wraps, alcohol wipes, a bottle of alcohol, a bottle of iodine, a wooden box of needles, scissors, sutures. They all rattled around as she added things with an extra flick from her wrist.
"Let's ignore the fact you're a Wilter for a moment, can we? Would you let them do this to you then? On a consistent basis?"
"No! I don't want them doing this to me even as a Wilter. But there isn't anything I can do. Nothing I can do, you can do, Tita can do, Lola can do. You can't separate me from my people, from what I am, from what I can become. I mean, you can, but other people can't."
Sirenia had learned that the hard way—that she wasn’t like other people and they couldn’t accept her. She hadn’t understood as a child, sheltered by her mother and exiled to an Earth city before she could face the ostracization. It was only once she arrived to the small islet near the center of the Pacific did she realize her mother had done her a great wrong in sheltering her all those years.
She learned that from the rocks children threw at her when she roamed the streets. She learned when adults called her maluoy as she passed. She learned when peers refused to sit next to her during class or lunch or play with her during recess, and when parents complained to the headmistress about having a Wilter in the institution. Sometimes Renata loathed Castellina for letting her learn that way.
"You know the injustices done to blacks back then? Yeah, that then is still a now. The injustices continue because of their skin color, no matter how 'progressive' human society claims to be. Now, imagine if the humans find out about what we turn into? What we do to people as a'mukin."
Renata twitched, and Sirenia caught that. The sudden defocalization of her eyes when Sirenia said that last line, the twitch to her parted lips. Sirenia caught those, even as Renata pulled herself together milliseconds after.
Your people are being hunted across the Rift.
Luca's words had been in the back of Sirenia's mind the whole walk to the clinic, and they grew louder and louder the longer they stayed in her head, pounding and engraving themselves to her memory.
"If humans can kill millions of each other based on phenotype and prejudices and labels, imagine what they'd do because of my genes and what it equates to. We can’t change it either. There’s no cure."
The Wilter held Renata’s gaze, and she knew Sirenia knew. Even if they were rumors, they'd finally reached her.
Renata didn't try to lie down some words of comfort like Sirenia might have wanted her to do then, to tell her things would turn out okay even if they were lies. She didn't say that or anything. She just left the silence to hang between them.