Crimson Hunger

Chapter 34

"Will you tell me why you're haunting me?" Ian asked Clara, who sat by him on the side of the bed.

She looked very radiant and clean. She brushed her fingers through her caramel locks, then asked, "Don't you remember me?" Her voice calm and melodious.

"I do," he replied, "I remember you first showed up in London the night my father died. You were there at the funeral and then when I went back to his house," he paused then added, "You were very nasty I must say."

"Was I?" She didn't turn to make eye contact even though he was looking at her. "But that was not when we first met."

"No?"

"We met early in 2005," she said, not ceasing to repeatedly brush her fingers through her hair, "You said you loved me."

"I did?"

"I suppose you swear it to every pretty girl you meet."

He looked down at his knees. His eyes crinkled and a smile played at the corners of his mouth. "I suppose I did," he confessed.

Clara stopped playing with her hair. Tight-lipped, she turned to study him. She faintly shook her head then said, "And you are very proud of your mischief."

With downcast eyes and a puckered forehead, Ian stared at her, half smiling.

"I suppose I caused you so much pain," he finally said, the smile fully abandoning his lips.

"I'm not sure pain is the correct word for what you'd caused many young women."

He looked back at his legs and began to fiddle with a thread that popped out of the seam of his pants' inner thigh. He sighed loudly then looked heavenward, unable to find the right words.

Clara turned to look in the opposite direction. "It's too late for anything now," she said.

He turned to look in her direction but she was gone.

***

"What is it?" Ada asked before she turned to look to her left, speculating that Amal was staring at a ghost at the opposite side of the bed. As she did so, she realized her head felt lighter than usual. She ran her fingers through her hair and realized that a few inches below her shoulder, there was nothing but void. Jaw-slacked and wide-eyed, she turned to look at Amal.

Tears began to well up in her eyes. "My hair!"

Amal got up and sat beside Ada. "It's okay, love," she said as she rubbed her back, "Remember, hair grows back."

The four nasty teenagers appeared at the end of Ada's bed, laughing like horrid witches as one of them held the long, dark braid they'd chopped off Ada's head.

"Go away or I will tell Madam Lina about this and make sure she flogs you and shaves your nasty heads," Amal snarled at the four rascals, who dispersed and were out of sight within less than a second.

She continued to rub Ada's back as she said, "They did it to several other girls when they first arrived here. I think it's a way to frighten newcomers and show some power."

Ada burst into a fit of laughter then wiped her cheeks with the back of her hands. "I am so silly! Can't believe I'm crying over hair at a time like this," she said.

"It's the accumulation of bad events, and this was the straw that broke the camel's back."

And I miss Ian, Ada thought.

"Come with me," Amal said, getting up and sliding her feet into her fuchsia flip-flops, "I'll give you a free haircut."

"Any idea where my clothes are?" Ada asked.