chapter six. sweet eve
spring
EVE FINDS HER NEW UNIFORM QUITE sweet enough as her. Ariel brought it home folded in a plastic bag, and it was Eve who actually took it out from it, as her guardian didn't mention a single thing of it when he arrived after spending the whole afternoon out, only briefly muttering that she had been accepted into a new school.
He hasn't mentioned too much things since they left the yellow house.
The skirt is colored in a dark blue, like the night sky, and on the top, there's a simple white blouse covered by an equal blue coat, and a tie to fit it all. Eve stares at her figure with amusement. She doesn't know if Ariel got the wrong uniform, as the skirt is too way up her legs, something completely different from the rest of her clothes she's used to wear. But she likes it. Sweet Eve looks even sweeter with her legs finally seeming long like the ones from the girls she would watch in television sometimes during night.
Perhaps that was Ariel's intention, she thinks with a whisper of hope. Perhaps he wants himself to remember that Eve is no longer a child, but already sixteen.
Perhaps he wants her as much as she wants him.
Eve knows how wrong is to think on him in that way. Such a sinner she is when her thoughts go further than simple confessions of love, and starts imagining instead how it would be to feel Ariel hands dancing in her body. He's always cold —his hands, his eyes—, and Eve wonders if she would be as cold as him if their bodies were placed together, skin against skin.
She can already imagine it. He entering into the room and falling like a small bird under the sight of her. Ariel will kiss her then; first in a soft manner and then with all the fire she knows he keeps hiding in his inside as he only shows cold and no one could ever be that cold. He will take her to bed... Eve has seen similar scenes so many times in movies, though Ariel would usually turn off the television when he decided it was enough.
But that's not what happens.
Ariel do get into her room that night, and his eyes get unusually darker when he notices what Eve is wearing and how she sees herself in the mirror. The girl turns around when she becomes aware of his presence, a smile in her face because smiles used to be a common thing between Ariel and her as long she can remember.
"I don't know how to tie it" Eve comments, pointing the thin cloth that still hangs around her neck. "Would you help me?"
"Why are you wearing that?" is what Ariel answer. Her smile falls immediately. He's not happy.
Eve flicks in confusion. "Well, I know it's my new uniform."
"It's not" Ariel claims with a snort. "The woman who I brought it from didn't mention how tall her daughter was. I'm returning it tomorrow."
"Why?" she questions, still not understanding. Does he believe she doesn't like it because it's second hand? That's totally nonsense. Eve knows about how bad they're with money right one, with Ariel investing all what they had left because he was determined to acquire a house the closest to Michael Langdon, and the neighborhood was not as small as the one from the yellow life. She understands that, but not the reason why Ariel is so bothered by a uniform. "I... I like it" she clarifies. "I look pretty on it."
"You look like one of those rotten women from the street, Eve. They're not pretty" he snorts again, shaking his head. His black curls fall into his forehead, foreshadowing the expression of sadness that is shown in Eve's face during a split of second before she can change it into one blank. Pretend it doesn't hurt and it'll be easier, she tells herself. He's just stressed, he didn't mean it. "Just take it off. I brought some food for dinner."
Eve obeys him, returning to her common jeans and sweater before walking in the stair's direction. She stops her way when she catches a glance of Ariel kneeling in the floor of the bathroom. He's going to take a bath, she supposes, as she hears the sound of water hitting in the inside of the bathtub.
But then he begins to talk in a known language of her. Eve recognizes the words, quaking in her place.
"What are you doing?"
"We've tried before to wake up your gifts" Ariel explains, stopping his praying. "And we've waited, but there has been many too years. Michael is only three streets away now, under the care of his grandmother because he's still an infant."
She knows what he's planning to do. It's not the first time.
"Then why don't we do it now?" Eve suggests. Her voice is trembling just as her body. "He's a child, and all that he has is an old woman to protect him."
Ariel hits the water, splashing out some drops that reach Eve.
"Because it has to be only you" he speaks between teeth. "And you're a fool if you believe that you can defy him with your bare hands. His father protects him just as our father protects us. He wouldn't lose that battle unless we fight with strength."
And I'm weak.
"Strength." She nods.
"Your gifts" Ariel insists. "They're a weapon and a shield."
"And how are we...?"
"Perhaps it is because you haven't met him properly" he repeats the same words he said the first time they tried it. The green in his eyes is so similar to the dark part of the woods. "Our father."
She can't make a move before Ariel takes her from the arm, obeying her to lay down next to him and then her head is under water. Eve waves her hands, seeking for air, begging for Ariel to let her go. Do you see him, Eve? She hears his voice. Can you see Him?
But Ariel tends to forget how weak she is. And no matter how much Eve tries to plead their father name, nothing else happens.
When Ariel takes her out, she's already breathless and crying. It's easier now that it's only Ariel's face what she sees in the moment she opens her eyes and no the faces of nuns or Father Roman. They ended up being disappointed with every session, just as Ariel was and still is now. It's a lot easier once she rest in Ariel's chest, with her moans being swallowed with the beats of his heart.
She has always been weak.
I'm special, Eve repeats for herself. I'm special, I'm special.
"You're alright" he mumbles in her hair. "You'll see him too, and he'll love you for what you're doing for this rotten world."
"And what if he doesn't?" she speaks in the middle of tears. "What if he hates me because I'm useless?"
Ariel kisses the top of her head. Even the gesture is as cold as him.
"Who could not love you, my sweet Eve?"
She thinks about the nuns from the convent, on Father Roman and the rest of the persons they left behind because of her; because she was afraid of what they'll do to her when they were more and more disappointed. Such a spoiled girl was Eve, Sister Linette will say, but only that; nothing of a savior.
summer
MICHAEL SAYS HE LIKES HER UNIFORM and the way her short skirt dances with the wind when she moves. Later, when Eve uses the word sweet to describe herself, he nods in agreement. Sweet Eve, he calls her with a childish smile, as if with that nickname then Eve is only his and no one else's. His sweet Eve.
It only takes three days for him to trust in her. In the first where they spend a couple of hours under a tree, speaking of their families. In the second where they were still under the same tree, with Eve explaining to him her day at school and then asking for what he had done (Michael had only played chess with his father and Eve had only learnt about a boring man with the last name Marx). In the third where Eve explains her more about the other Michael which is her friend and that had finally return home after getting lost. The news make Michael smile, though he doesn't enjoy the fact that there's another Michael in Eve's life. It makes him feel less special.
Eve pretends she needs a friend and as Michael really needs one, he doesn't see the difference between her sweet lies as her and the reality. And no matter the warnings from his father to stay away from the girl, Michael keeps waiting for her during the afternoons, always in the yard and not the inside of the house because he knows how much Eve is afraid of it. Why would it be even dangerous to have a new friend? He had asked his father when Eve's name comes out during a conversation. "Because you could hurt her" Ben had answered. "We're still working on that, remember? It's too soon to be near others."
"I'm tired of only talking to you" Michael claimed. "I want a friend, she wants to be my friend, how can that be wrong?"
"Michael..."
"I've been good!" he interrupted him. "After that incident in the basement" Michael had blushed at the memory of it. "I haven't done anything after that, I promise. I've been so, so good."
He would never hurt Eve. Never.
Everything feels different for him when she's around; it's like this song Michael has never heard about before but that only for the mere fact of coming out of her lips he knows it is something special. She's special, he is sure, and he is special too. That's what the ghosts in the house whisper to him during night, that's what he sees in his dreams.
And Eve is not aware of Michael's thoughts, but she is surprised of how easy is all for her with him. She has already learnt to be in the warmth Michael causes, and not in the cold of Ariel; she's no longer afraid, and she can pretend even with her eyes close that she enjoys Michael's company and simply smile when she knows that's what he wishes to see. The shiver is with her all the time and she feels an odd energy emerging from her body as time passes. She's no longer weak.
And now Ariel can see it too.
Ariel's periwinkle eyes are fully muddy with Eve's new talents; he's almost blind. The girl smiles towards her guardian, and this time, neither the smile on his face or the twinkles in his expression disappear. She feels things now; things like when Ariel is about to enter to the room —nothing to do with the things she used to feel about him before, and how she predicted his emotions and learnt to lie to him—, things like when an object is about to fall and then she screams to make Ariel catch it, things like a rain to come, and the storm that caused the lights to went off during an entire night.
Ariel is right under her spell—or so she believes, as Eve keeps muttering warnings of minimal dangers, the shiver in her fingertips becoming an acquaintance and then a usual sensation.
But it's not enough. The shiver is there daily, yet Eve knows it's not enough. Ariel still expects more, as how on Earth does she plan to defeat the son of hells by telling stop! every time a car increases its speed and Ariel must be careful behind the wheel?
So she continues visiting Michael, with the perfect excuse of assisting the play's rehearsals in the afternoon once she was accepted on it (though they're in fact in the morning during classes). Ariel accepts without a blink, but with a smile covering his old-dark factions. He's usually smiling now, like he used to do back in the yellow house.
The house where they live is almost yellow as well.
If Ariel used to love her before... Eve is not sure if there's another powerful word to describe his feelings towards her, but they're beyond anything else now. They have to be.
And right now, sitting next to Michael, she can't do other thing than to continue thinking in Ariel. It always helps to control the pain. And while her thoughts are all green and no spot of blue, she doesn't notice Michael has stopped talking and now looks directly to her until he calls her name with urge.
It was like if her mind was in a whole different place, Michael thinks. But where else could she wish to be but with him, her dear friend?
"You had that yesterday too" he mutters, making a gesture to the small book Eve has in hands. "What is it?"
Eve smiles. It's easier to pretend to be happy around Michael, to forget how rotten he is. "Just a script from the school play."
"So you act?" Michael inquires, a brow rose.
She shrugs. "This is my first time."
"And what's your role?"
"I'm sort of a fairy, I'm not sure" she laughs. Michael likes her laugh, even though she doesn't do that often. She's usually nothing but sweet smiles and sweet lies. "I don't even understand what we are supposed to do" she rolls her eyes. "I just know I don't even have a name in the script, what an honor."
He tilts his head in signal of confusion. "But you're Eve. That's your name."
"Not this time. I am a completely different person."
"I don't like that" Michael frowns. "You're faking. I want you to stay the same."
His words hit even harder than what he imagined. You're faking. For an inch of a second, Eve feels her smile disappear.
"You don't like too much things." She only says as an answer.
Michael rubs his face. "Sorry. I was just..."
"I'm not mad at you" this time, her sweet smile is there again. "It's fine."
But as she has discovered from her days with the boy, he's really smart for his age. So smart that Eve only imagines he hasn't been suspicious about her because he does truly need a friend and Ariel has taught her to be a great liar. Oh, if only she knew about what Michael thinks of her, of the cold he feels when she's around and how much he likes it despite feeling warmth all his life.
"You always look scared" he says, his voice quiet. "Is it for me?"
It's all your fault.
"The souls in here" Eve fakes a shiver while she speaks in a whisper. "I know about them. I'm not an idiot."
"Has any of them try to speak to you?" when Eve shakes her head in an answer, Michael's frown becomes deeper. "Then why do you keep looking afraid?"
"Do I look afraid now?"
"It's better, but..."
"Better is better, isn't it?"
"I guess so" the topic remains forgotten after that. But when Michael is ignored once more because Eve has gotten lost in her thought about Ariel, he growls again. "You really have to study it all day?"
"If I don't want my brother to notice that I'm here with you and not in school, then yes" sweet Eve answers.
"I could take you back to school at least" Michael suggests. "Saint Murillo is not that far and I like walking."
That makes her think about something else beside her guardian.
"How many times have you left the house?" she asks, curious. "I mean, recently."
"Just a couple ones. A woman usually comes and leaves food, so I don't have to go out If I doesn't want to, but I promise I do like walking."
Eve controls a grimace. He has never mentioned any of that before. "Who is that woman?"
"A friend of my grandma. She... We can say that she takes care of me now that she's gone."
"So she gives you food."
"And other stuff, but we never speak" the grimace ends up appearing in Michael's face, not hers. "I don't think she likes me very much."
The shiver is in her skin, but Eve can't feel anything going wrong in a time soon. Not around Michael at least. He doesn't have an idea of what's going on.
His sweet Eve pronounces a sweet smile.
"Who could not like you, Michael?"
a/n: yes, she's using michael
and yes, she learned that from ariel wops. it won't always be like that, i promisee.
and yeah, things are getting kind of fast between michael an eve, but our boy needed love and asjdasda, sORRY.