Irene, My dead best friend [Wattys 2015]

Chapter 29: Only you

Chapter 29: Only you

“Wait, what? Your dad’s experiments?” I couldn’t wrap my head around the logistics of it. It didn’t make any sense. I was still in shock from all the information she had laid down on me and it was going to be impossible to process it all at once.

“Yes. But, please, let me finish. I’ll explain everything, I promise.” She looked at me earnestly and all I could do was nod my head at her.

“My father was greatly inspired by the story Mary Shelly had written ages ago. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it. It’s called Frankenstein.” My eyes bulged out in horror and I gulped audibly, “Ahh, I see you have heard of it. He wanted to create the best possible human….creature…call it what you want, who would do and say as his master would say. I don’t know how he did it but I do know that he experimented on the town’s poor. When I finally saw the centaurs for the first time, I could see it all so clearly. The heads were human, people from my town but their lower halves were animals. He had chosen bulls and horses. Any four legged, powerful animal he could find and ended up combining the two. The hooves that we saw in the tree hollow earlier yesterday, they were from the centaurs. My father had successfully produced around 10 centaurs before he was killed. The creatures somehow managed to reproduce and their population increased steadily. It turns out, they live on blood and flesh which is why they attacked the town’s people too. Plus, there’s not much to pick from in this abandoned forest. No human has lived here since the entire town died down in that one night and animals are slim pickings. They can’t survive on rabbits and birds.”

“So there’s about as many left as were originally there. I have a feeling they might just be the original 10 because no way a race of those creatures would survive. They were experiments at the end of the day. The problem now is that they’ve caught your scent, Jason. When you were near that waterfall and you saw them? Yes, they caught your scent and they’ve been on your trail ever since. You’re the only living human that has passed through this forest in more than two decades and now they’re out for you. That’s one of the reasons I hurried you this way,”

I couldn’t let her continue then. No way had she thought I had missed that.

“What do you mean I’m the only living human that had passed this forest in more than two decades? You’ve been lost here for a while and I live right at the edge of the forest. Besides, you mean they smelt both of us and are after us….right?” The look on her face had me in utter doubt.

“About that, Jason. There’s more. You ARE the only human they’ve smelt in two decades.”

“What do you mean?”

She sighed loudly and took a step in my direction, “I…I’m dead, Jason.”

“What?” I all but shrieked, taking a step back. Why was I so shocked? I had had this feeling since the very beginning. Heck, I’d even suspected it so why was I so afraid? Perhaps it was the realization that by doubt was true. Or perhaps it was the knowledge that I after all, was a medium, someone who could see and talk to the dead, communicate freely with them. Or more than that, more than anything else that bothered me, it was the fact that I could and would never ever be able to be with Irene. Something in my chest shattered, broke to a million pieces, an aching sensation spread throughout my chest, the pain in my leg now only a mere annoyance. There’s so much I wanted to ask her, question her about but I couldn’t. Did it even matter anymore? I had run away from my home, my parents, with a GHOST, a dead person, thinking that I was helping her out, that I was saving her life, that I was in love with her. She had emotionally managed to manipulate me and I just went along with it. I wanted to just turn around and go back home and I would have if it hadn’t been for the centaurs.

“I know, Jason. I know. I led you this way, got you so involved, but honestly, I didn’t even know it then. I didn’t know anything till you made me realize it in that tree hollow last night. It all came rushing back to me then. When I had gone deeper into the forest to look for someone who was alive that night, I had just kept on going. Hungry and afraid, I ended up hiding in some bushes, eating berries and things but I couldn’t carry on. I died in my sleep from hunger and thirst in a week and a half. I was a weak little thing who’d never been able to take care of herself from day one so it wasn’t a surprise that all this happened. I’ve been roaming around this forest ever since. I couldn’t remember why I was in the forest but I just was. I guess you could say I was never able to “move on”. I didn’t know how to. After years and years of wandering through the forest…I met you. I felt like a little kid who was going to get saved. You were kind and helpful. I just thought I was lost. Your mom was amazing. I still can’t believe she can see me too. No one but she or you had been able to in nine decades. I think you may have gotten your gift from her.” That hadn’t even occurred to me. How had my mother been able to see Irene if she was a ghost? Was that the one elemental similarity that mum and I shared? I was more like her than I’d thought. If I ever made it back, I’d have to ask her about it.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to two things, Jason. One- that I’m dead and there’s only so much I can do. Two, that the centaurs are out there and we can’t let them roam these forests forever. I believe I haven’t been able to move on for a reason. I think it’s because I need to finish what my father started. Those beings are unnatural and they are a threat to people, to humanity. To anyone who dares come into this forest and most of all to you. I can’t do anything considering I’m a ghost. I’m surprised I can even touch you but that is what it is. I need your help to finish off these centaurs, Jason. For yourself and for years of people to come here. Also, maybe I’ll finally be able to rest in peace.” She looked at me earnestly and hopefully. She was certain that I would do anything to help her out and she was right.

I didn’t give a rat’s ass about myself right now. The centaurs, in my head, seemed as fictional as they were but I knew I’d seen them at the waterfall and they were a danger to people. More than that, however, I still wanted to help out Irene. There was a reason why the universe had chosen me of all the people in this world to get stuck in this situation and so I had to do something about it. I had found myself as a man through this journey, and it was time to grow my metaphorical abs and step up to the plate, movie style. It was time to show Irene I was her hero, even if she was dead. I still cared for her and if I couldn’t love her, I could still be her friend. Her best friend. Or she could be mine at least.

“How will I finish off these centaurs, Irene? I mean, look at me. How can I?” Self-doubt was ever present to lend a helping hand but Irene only smiled and took a step forward,

“It’s only you who can, Jason. You’re strong and brave, you’ve been ready to save me from the second you met me. I saw it in your eyes,” she grabbed my hand and closed the distance between us, “it’s only you who can and no one else,” and she smiled. A smile that touched her eyes and filled my heart. She had faith in me, she believed in me and that was all that mattered.

“But how does one even kill centaurs?” was all I could ask. I wanted to cherish the moment. Cherish and love the fact that I had her hands in mine and that she was praising me but now was not the time.

“There’s a way, Jason”

©Hafsa T.M (aka HTMwrites)