PENUMBRA

Chapter 5

Six years since the death of my grandmother, Agnes, my father's mother. Since her death, he has never been the same. When I set foot in the kitchen, I could feel the heavy air rushing into my lungs weighing me down. Peter sitting in his armchair watching a baseball game, as he always does on Agnes' death date. I feel my hands sweat, but I swallow hard and ask, "Dad aren't you going to the cemetery today?" He doesn't answer, "Dad!" I yell.

He looks at me in surprise, "No Evelyn", he responds dryly, "For the last six years I've been almost always going to the cemetery", he looks me up and down, "But not you. I think it's only fair that you go to the cemetery today and pray for your grandmother."

I feel chills creep up my legs, "But dad-"

"No more Evelyn", he gets up and hands over the truck key, "Now go".

He pushes me out of the house, I feel the cold gale against me, I huff, "I hate cemeteries." I run to the truck trying to escape the cold, and head to the cemetery. Florence is a small town and it is not difficult to find the only cemetery in the city. A sad landscape if one asked me, today being the worst day ever. Heavy rain, fog not to mention the intense cold.

As soon as I park the truck, and stop in front of the entrance to the cemetery, its gates open, I feel a chill along with butterflies in my stomach making me look around anxiously, as if I'm being watched. But it must just be my impression.

It wasn't hard to find my grandmother's grave, it was the only one with old flowers on the front. I sat on the wet grass and looked at her grave attentively, "Grandpa, I'm sorry but I don't know what to say to a mort-AH!", I jump feeling a hand on my shoulder, making me get up in distress. Behind me, a young boy, must be two years younger than me. Slender, tall with long black hair as gorgeous as a shampoo program, perfect. Her perfect olive skin against today's tense rain.

He laughs out loud, "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you", he backs away a little, "But that's not nice to say to a dead man"

I huff, "And why not? She was my grandmother," I cross my arms.

He walks up to me, "The dead have ears and so do their souls," he holds out his hand, "I am Arthur Davidson, son of Otto and Nova of the Siuslaw Reservation," with a smile as big as a gummy bear.

"I'm Evelyn", I look at him attentively, "Sorry, I forgot we used to play together as kids".

He sits on the grass, "Don't worry, I also ended up forgetting a lot of childhood things", he pats him next to him, "My grandmother, Nenna, was a very good friend of your grandmother. They were always together."

I look at him startled looking around, my gaze landing on his bloodshot eyes and finally taking in his weak voice, "Oh my God! Did your grandmother die too?" he just nods, "I'm sorry Arthur", I give him a small hug which pulls me into a tight hug, "Arthur", my voice weak, "I can't breathe", he lets go of me.

"Yes, she died three weeks ago", he coughs, "I think we better get out of the rain", the rain got worse.

"So you're, what, fifteen?" I asked, trying not to look like an idiot as I fluttered my eyelids the way I'd seen girls do on TV.

"I just turned sixteen" he confessed, flattered.

"Really?"My face was full of false surprise. "I would have thought you were older."

"I'm tall for my age," he explained.

A silence hung between us towards the exit, "So how are things at school?"

"All good"

"Is everything really all good?"

I roll my eyes, "Yeah everything not counting Andrew Wright"

Arthur grabs my arm tightly making me turn to him, "Did you say Wright?" I agree with wide eyes.

"Let go of me Arthur!"

He looks at my arm and blurts out, "Sorry Evelyn, it's just that the Wrights are not welcome in certain parts of town."

​​I stared at the deep-voiced boy, taken aback, but he was looking away toward the dark forest behind us. He'd said that the Wright's didn't come here, but his tone had implied something more — that they weren't allowed; they were prohibited. His manner left a strange impression on me, and I tried to ignore it without success.

Jacob interrupted my meditation. "So is Florence driving you insane yet?"

"Oh, I'd say that's an understatement." I grimaced. He grinned understandingly.

"What was that you said about Andrew Wright?" I asked innocently.

"The Wright's? Oh, they're not supposed to come onto the reservation, neither the Siuslaw river, nor the beaches, much less the cemetery." He looked away.

"Why not?"

He glanced back at me, biting his lip. "Oops. I'm not supposed to say anything about that."

"Oh, I won't tell anyone, I'm just curious." I tried to make my smile alluring, wondering if I was laying it on too thick.

He smiled back, though, looking allured. Then he lifted one eyebrow and his voice was even huskier than before.

"Do you like legends?" he asked ominously.

"I Love them," I enthused, making an effort to smolder at him.

Arthur strolled to a nearby driftwood tree that had its roots sticking out like the attenuated legs of a huge, pale spider. He perched lightly on one of the twisted roots while I sat beneath him on the body of the tree. He stared down at the rocks, a smile hovering around the edges of his broad lips. I could see he was going to try to make this good. I focused on keeping the vital interest I felt out of my eyes.

"Do you know any of our old legends, about where we came from — the Siuslaws , I mean?" he began.

"Not really," I admitted.

"Well, there is this old legend, only the natives knows, that my people once protected this area from anyone who would come here with bad intentions, on my tribe there was the ones named Wiccas - they supposedly had the power of a witch but much more connected to the nature and life and death, been able to give someone life and taking life from them" He smiled, to show me how little stock he put in the histories. "Another legend claims once there was a powerful wicca couple who lived by the Siuslaw river, Kendrick and Amelia, there names was, they had a beautiful baby daughter who was born terrible ill and was on the edge of drying" His voice dropped a little lower. "They tried everything they could, every spell, but nothing of good magic would work, so they used dark magic. On the day of full moon, to save their daughter, they used a dark spell of sacrificing twelve pure souls of little kids from the trible by cutting their throats in front of the river by the full moon while saying the dark magic spell, that made the full moon become a red moon. Everything was working correctly for them, but before they could kill the last one, the others Wiccas from the tribe arrived at the scene and together they killed Kendrick by having him burn to death and Amelia drown to death, because they used magic that no Wicca should ever use for not been from nature, dark magic, but what the Wiccas didn't know was that the dark magic spell used was reversed and end up creating the ones who cannot die - vampires. The magic of the red moon created the vampires, the little kids became enemies of their tribe, and went on rage killing everyone not been able to control themselves. Only then they realized the couple had the intention of bringing their baby back as a vampire, but it was too late and the Wiccas seeing humans outside of the tribe getting killed, had to use a powerful spell on young adults of the tribe, making them wolfs and werewolves, because the main animal at our area was wolfs. There was huge fights between the vampires, wolfs and werewolves, but none last for long, as the vampires moved away from this area, and now my tribe lives by the water where Kendrick and Amelia were killed to prevent the dark magic there from raising again, and to secure the rest of the twelve souls sacrificed for their baby to become a vampire"

I looke at him in wave, "This is an incredible legend, but vampires?" asked, not faking my intrigue now.

"Yes vampires. They are cold and survive by drinking human blood to stay young forever. My grand-mother once told me that years ago after the vampires got banished from this area, a very noble vampire came here, with yellows eyes."

"Werewolves have enemies?"

"Only one - vampires"