Chapter Two
The day had not improved for Elex. After first period Devlin and his small group of followers trailed after him down the hall, calling out various insults and chuckling when Elex kept his down and continued walking. At lunch they approached him on the bleachers next to the baseball field, asking if he wanted to join them for a game of catch. He declined politely, shaking his head and returning his attention to his PB and J.
“Whatever,” Devlin had scoffed, walking away in somewhat of a huff.
“What’s his problem?” another boy, one Elex hadn’t seen until just then, asked.
“That’s what we get for trying to be nice,” a third boy interjected, shrugging indifferently.
A pit had risen in Elex’s stomach and it burned; a hot rock just sitting there, weighing him down. Had they actually just tried to befriend him, and he’d shot them down? It was more likely that it had been a trick – a means of getting Elex to relax so he wouldn’t suspect it when they found a new way to humiliate him. But still, there was a chance he’d just missed out on a golden opportunity and it stung.
By the end of the day Elex was feeling slightly better; Devlin and his gang had left him alone, and he’d received a heaping amount of homework from his other classes. He was all set to inhabit a good bench and get started, but barely made it off the front stoops of the school before running into trouble.
“Hey!” Devlin called to him. “Oswald!” For a moment Elex had held hope that Devlin, in fact, wasn’t talking to him, but the use of his last name crushed it. On the other hand, maybe this was his second chance at making a few new friends. Survival and an annoying need for teenage-acceptance warred with each other; acceptance won.
Elex hiked his bag up higher on his shoulder, cautiously approaching the group. He knew all of the faces; Kyle Shill, who always looked bored and uninterested in anything his friends had to say. Si Ackles, who appeared to be Devlin’s right hand. Jonathan Michel; he was always smiling, and laughed even when something wasn’t meant to be funny. Last but not least was Adam – last name unknown – who had never spoken as far as Elex knew, and looked like your average six foot, Jr. High killing machine.
As he got closer, though, Elex saw a new face. This boy was clearly older than the rest, likely in high school, and was grinning from ear to ear at Elex. He looked somewhat like Devlin; they shared the same dirty brown hair and bronze skin, but the older boy had grown into his features while Devlin was still scrunched up and a little chubby.
“Oswald, huh?” the older boy slapped Elex on the back and urged him to stand closer. Reluctantly he complied, trying not to wince at the new sting in his shoulder blade. “Tell me something, Elex; you wouldn’t happen to be related to Kaydence Oswald,” he paused, now grinning slyly, “would you?”
Elex licked his lips, suddenly unable to hold still. “Yeah,” he answered slowly, “she’s my sister.”
“Well hot damn!” the older boy slapped him on the back again, and Elex nearly face planted as a direct result. The older boy didn’t seem to notice.
“This is my brother, Eli.” Devlin was smiling too, but it was different. Almost evil, in a way Elex couldn’t possibly explain.
Eli waved off his little brother’s comment. “Man,” and now he was suddenly eager, looking at Elex like he was a shiny new toy. “I’ve been trying to hook up with your sister since freshman year!”
Elex’s stomach hurt, and he had the slight urge to both throw up and scream with rage. What did he care if Eli had been trying to ‘hook up’ with his sister? That was none of Elex’s business. Kaydence would murder him if she ever found out about this. “Uh,” Elex wasn’t sure what to say, which was perfect because Eli went on without needing a response.
“She’s a fine piece of you know what – your sister. Can I have her number?”
Something strange happened just then. The ache in Elex’s stomach turned into a surge of fire exploding inside his chest, and he snapped under the weight of it. His arm shot back, nearly elbowing Si Ackles in the face, and then immediately flew forward to collide with Eli’s smug, goofy expression.
The punch just barely nicked his chin and was only powerful enough to snap his head around slightly. But apparently that didn’t matter. His goofy face turned red in an instant, and his brown eyes lit up with fury. In the silence that engulfed them you could hear a cat meow from blocks away; no one even took a breath, it was as if the entire world was frozen in shock.
Elex was stunned most of all. He’d never hit anyone before, and hadn’t planned to. His reaction was so unlike him that he wasn’t even sure it had actually happened – but then Eli’s deadly expression told him otherwise. Right before his very eyes the mood quickly began to change; even Kyle was glaring at him now. “Get him,” Eli’s hoarse, dark command shook Elex to his core.
So he ran.
Problem was – Elex wasn’t a very fast runner.
He made a daring move across the street, cars honking at him left and right as they just barely managed to avoid crushing him. He was only partway down the adjacent block when Elex heard even more horns going off in response to his pursuers’ dash across the road.
“Get back here!” Devlin’s infuriated voice bellowed above the noise of traffic. Elex’s heart had never beaten so fast in his life; not even when a bully from his last school had nearly thrown him off the roof. It thudded painfully against this chest, threatening to crush his ribs. His lungs were on fire – no amount of air could satisfy them, and Elex could tell it was beginning to slow him down. His legs ached as if he was wearing a pair of lead boots, and when all was said and done he just wanted to be able to stop. He wanted to collapse in a tub of cool water and drowned himself.
When he rounded the next corner Elex searched for a place to hide; he couldn’t keep running, and the boys chasing him barely seemed fazed by the wild amount of exercise. There was nowhere to go, though – not a single high fence or bush to hide behind. What kind of neighborhood was this?
His all-out sprinting turned into a gimpy half jog. His knee was burning with a sharp pain, and wouldn’t work properly. Elex must have twisted it somewhere in the middle of running for his life, but couldn’t remember when the pain had started.
Sweat poured down his face and into his eyes, clouding his vision and sending a sour smell into the warm air. He needed a place to hide, but could hardly hear himself think above the noise of his own wheezing breath.
Then, so suddenly he didn’t notice it until he’d nearly stumbled passed it, a rotting wood fence no less than six feet hide popped up out of the ground like a beacon of life. Elex didn’t question why he hadn’t seen the fence before, or the strange house it surrounded. He didn’t have time to, and pushed passed the ajar gate, slamming it shut with his back as he collapsed to the dirt below. Seconds later he heard voices, now slightly out of breath and even more enraged in tone.
“Where the hell did he go?” that was Devlin’s voice, Elex knew.
A car screeched to a stop a few yards away, the engine sputtering and roaring. “Get in!” Eli shouted over the noise. “We’ll chase him down.”
Mumbled bits of complaints and frustration faded into the background as doors opened and shut, the vehicle snarling like an angry lion as it sped off down the street. Elex waited until the sound of it dwindled into non-existence, all the time gasping and gulping air in an attempt to sooth his aching lungs.
His heart still thudded in his throat as he got to his feet, cautiously peeking out from behind the gate. Devlin and his brother hadn’t left a man behind – there was no sign of them, or anyone else for that matter. Still, Elex was wary. A few more minutes safely behind the fence wasn’t a bad idea, so he closed the gate and decided to take the prudent path rather than risk his wellbeing.
Turning around he finally took in the full view of the shack-like dwelling. “That,” he gasped, swallowing a mouthful of thick saliva, “can’t be up to code.” The strange house wasn’t a house at all, but various bits and pieces of other houses glued together.
The front of the house was a yellow farm home on one side, and a pepto-pink Spanish vineyard on the other. The side of an old, rotting cabin jutted out on the left, and the right reminded Elex of an old shed. A similar shed, this one barn-red in color, sat halfway on top of the home and halfway hanging over the edge.
There was no grass surrounding the house; only dirt, as dry as a Utah desert. Even the fence, which had saved his life, was falling apart in many places and looked older than his grandfather’s favorite pair of shoes. With Elex’s luck a whacky older serial killer lived in the home.
Shaking his head he retreated, spinning around so quickly he nearly ran face first into the gate. Elex stumbled out onto the sidewalk, looking over his shoulder for any sign of danger. When he spun his head back around, an upside down face was all he could see.
Elex yelped, jumping back so quickly he fell and landed painfully on his backside. “Ah, you see Jubie!” the character cried with joy, swinging with their legs from a low hanging branch in the tree overhead. “Tell me, young mortal, do you possess any floss?”
Elex stared wide eyed. This person was even odder than the house. She…or he – it was hard to say – didn’t seem any older than his sister Kaydence. He/she had a head of pale gold hair, almost gray in some ways but not, and it was long enough to swing several inches below its upside down head.
He/she wore a strange outfit consisting of a neon green long sleeved shirt that was much too big, a yellow tank top over that, coveralls cut into shorts, and brown knee high socks. To bring it all together, and add to the abnormality of it all, he/she wasn’t wearing any shoes.
The thing that got him, though – that thing that halted him and made him forget to breathe – was the pair of bright honey colored eyes staring at him. “W-What?” he blinked, shaking the haze from his mind.
“Floss; a human thing. My favorite human thing,” He/she said, still swaying from the tree by its legs.
“Human thing,” Elex repeated drily, slowly getting to his feet, being careful so as not to get too close. He took a step back, ready to flee in the other direction.
“Jubie doesn’t often find mortals who can see,” he/she told him, the voice flowing outward in a mix of beautiful music and the too-high chirping of a bird.
“Why wouldn’t I see you?” he asked. To spite his better judgment, Elex couldn’t help himself. He had to know.
The character laughed. “Jubie is a faey, of course!”
“Is that another word for girl?”
Suddenly the character was very serious. “Would you like Jubie to be a girl? Jubie can be either or both.”
“Either and both are the same thing, really,” Elex muttered, getting frustrated.
“Precisely,” Jubie, as she called herself, nodded earnestly at him; smiling.
Elex felt a headache coming on, gnawing at the inner most part of his skull and steadily spreading outwards. “Right, well, I better go,” he said, slinging his backpack over his bruised shoulder.
“Wait!” Jubie waved her hands in the air wildly, and very suddenly slipped from her spot in the tree and came crashing down to the sidewalk below. Elex watched the events unfold with a flat, tired expression. He didn’t like zany people, they were too loud. “You believe. Surely you must have questions,” she said, slowly untangling herself and pulling a stray leaf from her now chaotic hair.
“Questions about what?” he sighed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He should just turn around now and walk away. Unfortunately, Elex was too curious for that.
“Faey, of course!” She jumped to her feet, her face twisted with shock and a tinge of hurt. “Fairies of the other realm, how big foot really got his name, why pickles are so popular!”
“Pickles?” Elex raised an eyebrow at her. “Look, Jubie, is it? I’m not some kind of conspiracy fanatic, or big foot believer; so I’m going to go now, kay?” He didn’t wait for her to answer, instead turning around and walking away.
But Jubie was quick to stop him, stumbling into his path with a breathless huff. “You don’t believe? You can see Jubie and you don’t believe?” she looked more than frazzled by this; completely shocked and offended.
“There’s no such thing as fairies,” he told her, giving her a dry look.
Jubie gasped, her breath catching in her throat as if she were choking. Her hands shot up to cover her mouth, and her eyes were wide and brimming with tears. “H-How…?” she sucked in a rough breathed, holding back a sob. “How c-could you?” her eyes squeezed shut and a few tears escaped them, falling down her face and clearing away any dirt in their path.
Elex wasn’t sure whether to feel bad or annoyed. “Look,” he said carefully, leaning away from the crying girl. “I’m sorry – don’t cry. I just…don’t believe in that sort of thing.” The crying didn’t stop. Elex gulped down a lump forming in his throat, awkwardly shifting from one foot to the next. “I’m sure plenty of other people do.” But trying to find her a bright side to look on didn’t help. “It’s just, well, there really is no such thing as-”
“Shut up!” her shrilled, horrifying voice cut through him like a dagger. It ripped out of her like a terrible beast of some kind, and she was no longer a strange looking girl but an enraged, murderous human being. She removed her face from her hands, scowling at him fiercely. Elex stumbled away from the sudden outburst, his eyes widening as Jubie’s shifted between coal black and pale gold.
Things happened very quickly after that.