Finding Good and Evil; Overwhelming Evil

  Finding Evil

and good

 

Walking to school was the only real quiet time Kate had for herself, and now only ten days remained. The end of her current life was upon her. No more classes full of rowdy boys and stuck up girls. Only life, life that is just a few more steps away waiting for her in the shadows just around the corner.  Its hard long road growing closer with every footfall.  Now the grey concrete path she followed every day will soon be more out of her way than walking to Alaska. It’s familiar cracks and holes forever will remain, growing and expanding ever so slightly for eternity or until someone decides new ones should replace them. New and Modern cookie cutter homes line her path. Houses that give unfailing shelter to those within keeping their owners safely entombed. The smell of the newly sheet rocked homes still permeates every breath she takes, though now she does not notice the stench like she did when she first moved here. She has gotten used to it and now doesn’t notice the long standing, offending stink that lingers on her clothes. For a while it seemed like her nose was tuned to smell the sheet rock, but now she doesn’t notice it. It has become just another smell, no better or stinkier than anything else. It’s amazing what you can get used too.

It was really only about a little over a mile to get from her parents house to school. In the beginning Kate felt the path to be longer than walking from New York to Miami, but now it seems like just a stroll.  Kate tried to convince her Father to take her in the family car instead of that long walk down that grey path past all those strange houses and nosy people with their evil dogs and their long hard stares. But to no avail. They lived too close and Kate would have to walk. She once tried to get one of the bus drivers who drove past her house to let her hitch a ride but he would have none of it. He told her to “walk, it will do you good” which just made her angry and sad at the same time. Angry that she didn’t get her way and Sad because the tone the bus driver used made her feel fat. So, Walking it was. To and from her prison till she was old enough to escape from the rules and siblings. The same dream haunted Kate as does most teenagers and young adults. The dream of escaping to freedom. If only they really knew what freedom wrought. Staying out all hours, having friends over anytime you want and watching whatever you feel like on TV … and bills, keeping a job, housecleaning, taking out the trash, washing your own clothes just to name a few. Little do we know how well we have it until we have to do it all ourselves. But we humans must have a light at the end of the tunnel, even if that light is the burning flames of hell or the love light of heaven. Kate is just like the rest of us only more naïve for She hasn’t thought that far ahead. So she walks, past the houses, past the evil hounds and on to school where her locker awaits diligently every morning for her to stuff it full of clothes and papers.  Then on to her first class, Civics, where the teacher is the bus driver that told her she was fat.  Starting the day off without any perceived dignity she kept to herself just like every other day before.

The rest her day was as uneventful as always, never speaking to anyone unless she had to. Moving through the hallways stopping by her locker before each class. People would look at her occasionally but she made it a point to look at the floor never to look up. Her locker is next to her study hall class and also next to Steve’s. She tried to make it a point to get her books and get out before he made it to his locker. Kate spent many hours of the day just trying to figure out new ways to avoid him. Even though Steve was a good looking boy he was not that much fun to talk too. And his friends were even worse. But if it were not for the only date Kate had ever been on would she know how disgusting he is. Sex ruled the minds of Steve and his friends, that and alcohol. No conversation with Steve would be complete without a sex joke or a comment on how “hot” some girl was and how much he wanted to get with her. The concept of “getting” with someone was completely foreign to Kate. All she really wanted was for someone to fall in love with her like they do in her books. Something that is completely unheard of in today’s world. Or at least for someone from today’s world. Both girls and Boys in this modern age seem to think of nothing else but the sexual. This is not to say we are the first, but you know as well as I do in the past romance was a thing to be studied on, practiced and ensnared; used to make love making the ultimate passion with no other thing becoming more important. And now, in this age, it has been reduced to an addiction without meaning or focus. It’s once thick and warm waters have been drained and replaced with alcohol and misery leading us to a world overflowing with pleasures unfulfilled, where lust is love and love is nothing. Only the whispers of romance remains within our literature, Intact in our books, our fiction, never to be acted out in real life or with real people. Literature has become the only semblance of romance and true love left for those of us who enjoy such things to indulge in.  Kate longs for the love and warmth, dreaming about it constantly throughout the days and nights but never really experiencing true passions except in her books and fantasies of the books. She has read all the popular love stories.  Reading them over and over again until she has come to believe in the romance and passions within. Making them real, as real to her as a warm spring day with its fragrant wind blowing through the trees carrying the calls of love stricken song birds along for its wild ride into summer.

And because of her need to have such a perfect romance Steve was able to use his charm on this vulnerable girl, he saw what she wanted almost intuitively and went for the kill wrapping her up in his perceived passions.  He walked her to class and bought her lunch.  Listened to her stories about the books she read and how she wanted so desperately to be loved by a man such as those in her stories.  He looked into her eyes and played his games patiently waiting for his time to come plotting every detail.  When the time came he told her that he wanted to take her out on a date.  Take her out to a special place so enchanting the world seems to stop for whomever is there.  Kate could not resist going to such a place that seemed right out of her books. So she went.  He took her to the perfect overlook its effervescence was just as described.  The cliffs falling below them and the night sky open above.  He slowly took control over her mind with his eyes and words deliberately positioning her into his grasp where he claimed her for his own taking from her something that she didn’t know she had and didn’t mind giving up.  A true young lovers tale.  That night was perfect, the moon light poured over everything filling every deep corner with a grey pale glow.  The crisp air filled her lungs while his warmth wrapped her body in passion and pleasure covering her entire being.  It seemed as if it were written just for her.  Steve had made sure of that.  He used every word she spoke to him over the past week against her in that single moment to get what he wanted.  He was a master of manipulation.  Every detail was planned, thought out and rehearsed in his mind.  If it were anyone else you would begin to believe that Steve was genuinely interested in Kate and that all of this was planned out of love and caring but that was not his true intent. He got what he wanted and was satisfied.  You could call him a vampire of sorts,  instead of sucking the blood out of his victim he sucked a little bits of her soul instead.  Digesting them to feed his ego with no consideration of the harm he was doing.  You see, it was only for one night.  There was no love and he never meant there to be any.  It was all for his pleasure and entertainment of his friends.  When Kate came to school the next Monday she expected him to be there, at her locker, like every day the week before waiting for her.  Waiting to hold her hand and walk her to class, waiting to continue their romance into another week and another world.  But he was not.  He was nowhere to be found for he had already gone to class and begun his day without her because she no longer had anything that he wanted.  He had already fed on her, for she had fallen for the real Vampire amongst us.  His friends, however, were there.  Waiting for her so they could get their turn.  They told her stories and tall tales about Steve and why he wasn’t there.  One even told her that Steve wanted him to walk her to class that day.  But Kate didn’t understand and went to class alone.  Writing his name in her note book over and over again.  Hearts and butterflies circled his name over and over again.  Still she had no clue even though the rest of the school did.  They had been listening to Steve’s tale all day about the shy little meek schoolgirl dressed in black.  How he took her to his usual place and played her.  How she was so small and frail he was afraid he broke her twice.  His tales grew more and more descriptive as the day wore on and became almost folk lore within the senior class.  His claims of domination of the timid little “emo”, as he started calling her, became raunchy and so explicit that most of the students began to grow weary of his tales.  But by then it was too late, the rumors were started and the innocent little Kate was now a full blown sex monger who would do anything with anyone.  Her reputation was set in stone thanks to Steve and she didn’t even know it.  The day wore on and people looked and stared at her whispering and giggling the whole time.  Finally she had enough and asked one of the girls what her problem was and the truth was revealed.  And that was that.  She spent the next four days crying in her room.  Her mother pleading with her to come out.  So now she looks at no one and talks to even fewer.  Solitary confinement was the only way for her to deal.  So avoiding Steve was first and foremost the only thing that mattered.  For the rest of the year she kept to herself and now it was almost over.  The pain and torture is coming to an end and the rest of her life is only nine more days, a week and a half.  That’s all that’s left.

With one more school day gone and one more walk home about finished Kate began to feel slightly better.  Maybe it was the exercise or the fresh air but she was definitely feeling better.  With the trees starting to bloom and the distant mountain peaks still white and covered with snow the contrast itself is enough to make most people feel refreshed if not new again.  The Colorado high plains were still brown and lifeless but the neighborhood trees made everything come into perspective.  The crisp air and the Warm sun keep with the theme and snap your perception in to high gear making you keenly aware of the approaching spring changes.  Kate found herself taking in the surroundings making her happy.  Therefore, she had to put a stop to it.  How could she be happy with all that has happened?  So she looks down once again at the grey path, memorizing once again the holes and cracks trying to see if they have grown since the day before.  Her gate now changed from upright and head back to head down and slouched over Kate felt back at home and content with her outer shell now showing despair and sadness. 

Once she reached the front door she was immediately confronted with her little brother Zane.  He was only eight compared to her seventeen and acted like he was six.  Zane is infatuated by Spider Man and constantly wore his Spiderman Halloween costume every day of the year.  When he ruined it playing on the neighbors slide he forced his parents to buy him another from the internet, every wish was his parents command.  As Kate tried to enter through the doorway Zane’s small body intentionally blocked her entrance into the door. 

“HEY! Your Late!  Were you making our with Steve?!”  he said while wiggling his rear end back and forth and holding the door.

“go Away You Little Freak!”  Kate yelled.

Zane just kept wiggling his rear end blocking her entry.  Forcing Kate to reach out and push him.  Unfortunately for Kate was the fact that she was a weakling.  Zane stood his ground, stuck his tongue out at her and ran off screaming what he thought were the words to the spider man theme song Circling between the living room and kitchen as fast as he could go with his arms out like he was trying to fly.

“Spider Man,  Spider Man lives inside a spider can!  Spider Man, Spider Man Lives inside a spider can!”  Over and over again at the top of his lungs.

Rolling her eyes, Kate shook her head and started up the stairs for her room.  Just then she heard her mother yell for her

“Kathryn?  Is that you?”

“yes mom..  what.. “ she said with contempt as she turned to look back down the stairs at her mother just turning the corner holding something wrapped in purple in her hand. 

“come down her, into the living room, I have something I want to show you.”  She followed her mom back down into the living room where she plopped down in her dads large leather chair.  Zane still running through the rooms screaming about spider man. 

“Stop It Zane!  Go up stairs and do that.”  Her mother said loudly. 

“NO!  I wanna see!”

“I’ve got something for you to Zane, I’ll give it to you after Kate, ok honey? Now go upstairs and wait or you I won’t give it to you.”

Zane turns and starts screaming at the top of his lungs stopping at the corner of the stairs to peek around the corner at what his mother and sister are up to.

“I know how much you like older things and I came across this at an antique shop while I was downtown today.  It looked so much like the bracelet that you bought from that store in the mall.  You know the one with all the weird clothes and creepy things”  Kate cut her off;

“They’re not creepy mom.. “  she said looking at the ceiling.  “that’s the only place I can  get stuff from the movies I like.” Her gaze shifted toward the dining room and away from her mother, Kate never was able to look her parents in the eyes after her experience with Steve.

“ok, I know, I know…  Im sorry, here I wrapped it in Christmas paper, but I figured it wouldn’t matter that much” 

Kate’s mom handed her a small box wrapped in purple tin foil wrapping paper with bells and Christmas trees on it.  Kate took if from her mother and looked it over hard before opening it.  Kate had always hated opening presents.  Not because she didn’t like getting things but because deep down in that gothic and grunge covered body and soul of hers she was a girl at heart and really liked having pink purses and stuffed animals and especially loved to have unwrapped presents full of wonder laying about, waiting for her to tear into them, discovering the happiness of the perfect gift or unknown treasure.  Because if you opened the present, you have the gift, but you no longer have the present.  A real catch 22 that’s been haunting mankind for centuries.  Kate took care in opening the fragile yet durable foil paper.  She untied the small red ribbon first, careful not to pull to hard lest it become a knot instead of a proper bow.  Slipping the ribbon off the box Kate began gingerly caressing the box feeling for the crease that tells where one end of the paper begins and the other ends.  She smoothly slid her finger along the crease feeling for the clear tape used to hold it all together, its edge almost cutting her in the process.  Once the tape was located and the opening properly identified she pulled the paper apart ripping the tape ever so slightly releasing the paper from its hold on the box causing it to fall to the floor.  Kate wondered what it could be, her mother never brought anything home from the antique store for her, it was always something new from Wal-Mart or Safeway and the only reason for a gift was because her mother bought Zane something and she didn’t want to make Kate feel left out of the festivities. Kate stared hard at the White box in her hand, wondering what it could be. 

Kim, Kate’s mother, could no longer help herself;

“I thought that you should have something that for graduation and I looked and looked for stuff in the stores but never found anything that I wanted to get for you.  Then I saw this, it looks soo gorgeous and since you have something like it already, I figured you would love this because its so much fancier.”     

“Thanks Mom”

Removing the top of the box revealed more purple wrapping paper crumpled up inside.  Once out it revealed a beautiful pewter and silver bracelet adorned with carved Roses and flowers and what looked to be a crest on the face of it.  On one side of the piece is A circle with a double square inside of it offset to look like a diamond inside the circle.  Around the outsides of the squares but in side the circle is writing that looks like it hasn’t been used in hundreds of years and so small it is very hard to make out.  More writing appears inside the squares, again written in the old world writing style but familiar shapes begin to come through.  Another circle resides inside the diamond where numbers are clearly written.  The top right going clockwise 5, 18, 75, 38  all circling around what looks like a sun at the center. 

On the other side of the bracelet another symbol resides on the pewter and silver jewelry piece.  Is a heavily worn circle in it is what looks like a modern day compass with symbols at the end of each line.  What once was writing is now mostly vanished leaving just a faint outline of the words that used to be visible.  At the top of the circle is what looks like a crown and an arrow just to the right of it.  This side of the bracelet is so worn and faded that it is almost undecipherable obviously from years of use and wear.  But that was just a side show when compared to the extravagant crest on the main part of the wristlet.  It was large, like you would expect a modern replica to be.  It looked as if it were once painted with bright reds and deep blacks, now faded and worn making the design even more striking, bringing out the old and ancient.  In its deep carvings and intricate cuts you could almost see ghosts and princesses, long ago dead from age or terror.  Its complex design bore a striking resemblance to the piece she bought just a few weeks ago from the “weird” store her mother was talking about.  But this one made that one look like a child’s play toy, which in reality it is.  Carved in the center was a lion drawn in the soft silver with the greatest of attention.  His every detail carved out with tools that must have been to small and fragile to possible make another like this.  The lion was perpetually roaring with his mane flowing all around him. His claws sharp and deadly.  On his head lay a crown with three points, and three jewels residing in each peak.  His elaborately designed body was surrounded by roses and stems sharpened to pierce steel. His eye and the roses were once painted red but now only show diminutive areas of a deep blood red.  All the design was as if it were carved yesterday except for his nose, just a little wear there but all the better. 

“see”  Kim said excitedly “its just like the one you have on your arm, only way better.  I mean Its real!  That’s Silver on the face and Pewter for the bracelet part.”  Her mother grabbed her arm and jerked Kate toward her to see the antiquity better.  “The lady in the shop told me it must be like from the Seventeen hundreds or something.”  Kim looked her daughter in the eye with the excitement of a thirteen year old girl “or maybe even earlier...  Well, What do you think?  Put it On!”

“Ok, ok, calm down!  You’re like going to have a seizure or something”  Kate rolled her eyes at her mom once more. 

She had to take the store bought bracelet off her wrist before trying on the new vintage jewelry.  Not such an easy task considering it has been almost 6 weeks since she took it off last.  Removing it actually took skin with it.  As Kate tries to put is on her wrist she notices that the inside is also decorated and adorned with artwork and lettering. 

“OO OO!” her mom grunted “is there something on the inside of it too?  Let me See Let Me See”  “cruor , lacrima quod unda suo protego venator” was enscribed.  Her mom grabbed her arm once again almost pulling Kate out of her dads leather chair.  He mom tried to read out loud the saying encircled by more roses and thorns on the back side of the bracelet.

“Cror Las rima quad Unda So Protego Venator” her mom furled her brow, “what the heck does that mean?  That’s like Spanish or something.”  He mom continued to look at the bracelets maxim with confusion and mockery.  “whatever, Iam sure it says something like ‘to my dearest wife’ or something. Doesn’t really matter, no one can read it anyway.  Now put it on!  Lets see what it looks like!”

Kate remembered hearing some of the words in her movies and reading them in her books.  “I think its Latin Mom.  Some of those words are in Harry Potter.” 

“OO  Even better then!  Latin is the Lovers Language..  Maybe it was some secret love note” 

“MOM! YUCK!  Keep it up and Ill never wear it!”

Well,” her mom looked at her “maybe it will help you get a boyfriend.” 

“MOM!”

“ok, ok…  maybe its some kind of spell then.  How’s that?”

“better”  Kate said sarcastically.

“now Put It On Already!”

As she put it on her little brother grew more and more interested.  He thought to himself that thing was something special and old and his mom is making such a fuss it must be expensive.  He started pondering on ways to steal it from his sister so he could get a closer look and show it to his friend Jake.  Maybe it has magical powers and could make him super strong or invisible like the kids in his sisters movies with that blanket.  He had to get it and show it to Jake. 

“Now Kate,” her mom started talking in that whispery voice people use to show the listener that what they are about to tell them is a secret “This thing costs a lot of money.  I figured with you graduating from school and all it was a really good graduation gift.  So don’t lose it and keep it safe.  Don’t take it off to go swimming and leave it by the pool.  This thing you have to put in a locker or leave it in the glove box of the car ok.” Kate found her staring into her mother’s eyes shaking her head yes to everything she said.  He mother reached over once more and grabbed her daughter by her upper right arm and squeezed.  “Above all don’t tell your dad.  He would have a fit.  Let’s just say that this little thing is about what he paid for my first wedding ring.”  Kate cut her off

“you mean it’s like thousands of dollars?!”

“Oh Heavens NO!  My first ring was only like four hundred. We didn’t have that kind of money” 

Kate was reassured but the thought of a piece of jewelry costing so much and being given to her made her want to find a safety deposit box and stash it.

“it cost about Seven Hundred and Fifty, but that’s ok, your worth it!” 

Zane sat at the foot of the stairs now, his mouth open as if his jaw were about to fall completely out of his head.  He had never seen his parents give either one of them anything that was that expensive.  He did talk them into buying a video game console just about a year back but that was only three hundred and it really didn’t belong to him or his sister since it was his dad who happened to play it more than either of his children.  And now this thing his mom has just given to his sister is  worth a fortune.  Zane had never seen that kind of money and never even thought about it before. Now, his sister has it on her wrist.  He must find a way to get it from her and look at it.  Unfortunately for Zane he is only 8 and it never crosses his mind to just ask.

“Now, Let’s make dinner!”  Kate’s mother rose up from the couch turned and half skipped into the kitchen.  “What do you want for Dinner?”

Kate rose from the big comfortable half worn out leather recliner her father naps in every Sunday while watching some sport or another.  She stares at the bracelet still shocked by the gift her mother has bestowed on her.  Her stomach fills with butterflies flapping as hard as they could as if to escape the dark confines of her insides as she begins to .  She begins to think about what to do with this antique piece of renaissance talisman grasping to her wrist as she follows her mother into the kitchen to help prepare dinner without complaining or arguing, she knew after all that she at least owed her mother that. 

“Now, Let’s Make Spaghetti, just the way you like it! But this time from Scratch!”  Kim looked at her daughter with an eyebrow half cocked as if to say, “Were Doing This Or Else”. 

“ok mom, just let me put this down, I don’t want to get it filthy just as soon as I got it” her mother looked at her and smiled approvingly.  She sat the three hundred and some year old bracelet down on the granite countertop in the large kitchen far away from where they were about to prepare the food.  It’s metal frame rocked back and forth on the stone counter rattling against the surface much like it did a few hundred years earlier when its first owner was tortured and dismembered by an enemy known many times to is since.  It’s presence in this household and on this continent has been a long prophesized event.  And yet no one that ever spouted rhetoric about the days to come could have ever imagined this home and this family to be the ones in the old recited hymns and poems of an era long forgotten, resurrected and forgotten again. 

Zane crept through the butlers panty and into the kitchen making sure to not be seen by his mother and his sister, keeping the center island of the modern kitchen between him and his family.  Keeping as stealthy as he can Zane slowly raised his hand above the counter and felt for the object with his young still chubby fingers.  Unnoticed, he slid his hand across the counter till he felt the heavy bracelet and grabbed it.  Stood up and in typical eight year old boy fashion ran off as noisily as a freight train hitting a pickup truck.

“HEY!  COME BACK HERE!” Kate yelled as she turned around just in time to see the theft take place.  She dropped her tomato and took off after her little brother.  “You Little Jerk! That’s Mine!  Come Back Here!  I Swear if you break it I am gonna Kill YOU!” 

For some reason Zane took that threat a little more seriously than usual.  He had stolen things from his sister and Older brother before so he was used to being threatened but for some reason, this time, Kate sounded a little more mean.  Like she meant it.  Like she really would kill him.  So Zane picked it up a notch. 

“NOOOO!  Don’t Kill ME!  Don’t Hurt ME!  I Wanna Look At IT!”  He was now running around  house in and out of the connected rooms with Kate in tow trying to grab his shirt.  She finally caught up to him and tacked him.  They both hit the ground with a thud Kate landing on Zane with all her weight twisting her ankle and hitting his head on the floor.  Zane began to cry and his mother began to yell, Kate was holding her left foot in pain while Zane held his forehead with his hands still holding the bracelet.  Facing the wrath of his mother and the anger of his sister Zane knew only one thing to do, run.  He hit the door going faster than he ever has run before.  Immediately turning left, heading to his favorite play area near the elementary school about a half a mile up the road.  He was still upset and screaming from the shock of being caught and tackled. Crying because of the throbbing of his fore head.  Running for a safe place from the wrath of his sister and mother whom he was sure were still behind him chasing him.  He began to cross the street, not looking where he is running to, just running. 

A car horn blows…  Tires Squeal…

Zane lay in the road, cut and broken, bleeding from his head and his legs.  He looks at the sky and hears a man yell.  His hands still clutching the bracelet that he envied so, soaking it with blood