The Last of the Pure

Five

I didn’t speak to anyone when I got home. I made my way up to my bedroom, closing and locking the door behind me. I fell onto my bed and was suddenly overcome with grief, so much so that I found myself crying, something I very rarely do.

I don’t know what it was that caused the hysterics, but I couldn’t make myself stop. I kept thinking about the little girl and the woman, Zanthe and I. I wanted to know her, to meet her again, but she was gone. Everything was different now, that much I knew. And as much as I wanted to ignore everything that had happened this afternoon, I couldn’t. I wouldn’t forget.

I needed to know more. I wanted to know everything, but at the same time, I wanted to stay in the dark. Ignore Serena and her brothers at school, and allow everything to go back to normal.

But if what Thomas said was true, nothing would. This was just the beginning.

But I couldn’t have gifts, not like he had. I couldn’t sprout flowers or generate fire from the palm of my hand. I didn’t know what other gifts there were, but I showed no signs of any kind of abnormality.

I stayed in my bed after the crying had stopped until I fell asleep. I heard my mother call me down for dinner, but I couldn’t face them, not just yet. I wouldn’t know what to say or how to act, so I just stayed where I was until she gave up and I dozed off.

I did pretty well at ignoring the three of them at school the next few days. I ate my lunch in the library and sat towards the back of my classes they were in. By the end of the week, they had pretty much given up on trying to communicate with me. At one point I told Paul that I needed time to sort things out and if what I had been told was true, I’d eventually need to come back to them. They seemed desperate though.

The weekend came and my parents made a trip to Oklahoma to visit my Aunt Lonnie in Tulsa. I was supposed to join them, but I told them I wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to spoil their trip.

It was Saturday night and I was lying in my bed, listening to one of my mom’s old records on my player when I was hit by another headache like I’d experienced at Serena’s. It was quick, but excruciating. The light even brighter than the last time and accompanied this time by a soft but piercing ringing. I lay in my bed, paralyzed momentarily, until it began to recede and all that was left was a dull throbbing at the back of my head and my accelerated pulse and breathing. It was almost nine then, but I knew what I had to do.  

I pulled into the driveway of the beautiful brick house, noticing the l lights on in the house and decided to knock at the door.

It was a man I didn’t recognize that answered and the way he looked at me was like he’d seen a ghost. He cleared his throat, smiling softly, and opening the door a bit wider.

“You must be Al—Nora?” he said. I nodded and he stepped aside, gesturing for me to come in. I walked into the house, still struck by how glorious it was, when I caught a glimpse of Thomas descending the staircase.

“I’m James,” the man said. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Everyone else was freaking out,” Thomas said as he joined us in the foyer. “I knew you’d be back soon enough.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just shrugged.

“She took it pretty well,” he said to James. “Better than anyone I’ve known did. You know, minus the whole, ignoring everyone for a week deal.”

“I’ve been getting these headaches,” I finally said in a small voice. “Not like anything I’ve ever experienced. They’re—well, honestly, they’re pretty intolerable.”