The One

Twelfth Night

Hi. Let the fun begin.

(P.S.-
Wayne is again the narrator. )

Story Continues

Life continued .
It felt oddly peaceful. Sunny skies and soothing breezes. Soft showers of rain, cooling but not chilly.
Natural. Calming.
Normal.

Though the strange weather change, during our return from Church, did felt weird to me and even raised my hackles, the situation happened only once. Because of the absurdity of the whole thing and as none of my friends later commented on such strange happenings it made me think of the whole scenario as a mere hallucination or illusion. But even then I felt restless as I couldn't deny my instincts of danger and moreover, Gwen closed herself in her room. This troubled me so much that I decided to stop thinking about it.

Remembering that atmosphere made me desire to flee. As if something kept waiting to hunt me down and they would only need one chance to do so. The whole situation made me paranoid and scared, though I won't admit it. I woke up in cold sweats, unable to recall my nightmare. The fear of unknown gripped my consciousness, sneering lips and wailing cries haunted my dreams. I felt trapped, suffocated, isolated.

Well, go ahead and call me a mental case. But I dare you to feel normal when you find yourself unable to sleep, to close your eyes when you sense the presence of a predator waiting outside your door, breathing shallowly, calling and teasing you to open that door, to let him enter. To let them rip you in pieces. 

With barely two weeks before graduation, bunking school seemed irresponsible. Besides I needed something to take my mind off the gloomy thoughts. It didn't helped much. With my insomniac tendencies on rise, I became easily irritated and lost my temper very quickly. My arguments with Gwen became a ritual, she tried to help but I just couldn't listen. After too many fights and taunts, she took the hint and started avoiding me completely. I did felt guilty but my own troubles left me with no reprieve.
At school I tried behaving normally, with the team and coach already tiptoeing around me because of deaths, snapping on them would have been the last thing I needed. My grandfather's words kept ringing in my ears -
"Deny your fear, don't let it devour you. Losing to fear means losing everything, don't let it overwhelm you. Deny and fight."

On the twelfth day, after the funeral, my school scheduled my basketball match. They invited sponsors and selectors to take part in our tri-school competition, to chose their students. The team, as a whole, planned for this day for months; we performed as the model students, earning good grades and keeping out of trouble to receive scholarship.  The team needed this chance to better their future, as did I. We did spent months of our schooling in studying the opposite teams, planned our matches, targeted individual players, learned their weaknesses, improved our strengths. This game meant much to us, the world to us. As their captain, their believed it to be my job to assure our victory. Our hopes and dreams depended on this match, as in the last two sessions we managed to maintain our State championship, losing this game would mean the end. But my lack of concentration did no good for team's confidence. Coach seemed ready to bench me if I showed even a hint of slipping. But he couldn't do it knowing my importance for the team. Not to brag but I got my  captaincy as team voted for me unanimously in our very first game, when I presented them my plan and we won because of it. After that I planned every single game and we won all of them. Their 'lucky card' , they called me. Benching me would have done the team no favors,  thus the coach took me out for a chat and pointedly told me to cool my head. I nodded to him and prepped the team.

My team planned to win, as it could be our last match together and we wanted to go with a bang. But, in all the tension of match and my own dilemmas, I managed to forget one little thing. I only remembered it as the day of match arrived and Gwen wished me -
" Happy birthday Wayne "
What astonished me more about the whole thing was that Gwen wished me normally.  With the way I treated her the whole week, I wouldn't be surprised if she pretended to forget the day and ignored me as she did these days. But as I controlled my surprised expression, I realized that something felt off about Gwen's expression as well. She seemed shifty, nervous as if wanting to say more but didn't know how to continue.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
" Nothing, just" she visibly struggled to finish, " listen Wayne, uh.. ..your game today, when does it begin?"
This question really bowled me over, Gwen never attended my games after our last argument at the age of fifteen, when she changed school. She did attended before that, but after that fight she stopped asking about my games at all. I couldn't think of any reason for her to ask that, unless...., unless she feels worried for me because of the absence of my parents. I didn't know how that thought came to my mind, but it enraged me. I could have snapped at her, raging at her for daring to mock me, but my words got swallowed back as I heard her continue
" Well my recital ends by four p.m. , so if your game begins after that I might attend. "
This threw me off track and diffused my temper in a second. Her recital, I didn't even remembered that. I never needed to because none of us ever attended it, neither me and my parents nor her father and brother. I never took any interest in music, 'cause I am pretty much tone deaf, thus I never asked her anything about her piano recitals. Our parents also didn't cared much, they didn't cared as long as she maintained her grades, which she did. But I knew Gwen took her music seriously. It did came to us as a surprise, just after changing school she announced about joining piano lessons, even paid for it herself. But as I said none of us cared much, it might reflect poorly on us but hey, you couldn't force someone to do something they didn't like.
Again, I got caught in my thoughts, the sound of chair scraping as Gwen got up brought me out of my funk. A look at Gwen made me realize that she  kept waiting for the answer.
I cleared my throat and told her that my game begins at four as well. As the defending champions, we would play only one game with the team that won the semifinals. She nodded and then said something weird-
" Wayne, do you remember the timing of your birth?"
It felt strange to me because I couldn't think of any thing that might led her to ask that, but I answered -
" 9:55 at night. Right?"
"Right, listen it might feel weird, but I would like you to return home with me tonight before eight."
"Why?"
"Please Wayne. Just for tonight.  I need to tell you something. It could have waited, but ...."
I didn't know why I felt nervous? But her pleading, almost scared, tone again brought back the ominous atmosphere I tried to ignore.
"What's wrong?" I asked again. But she shrugged me off and ran to her room. She came back with an amulet with a weird picture on it. She made me wear it with the promise that I would not take it down until tomorrow's sunrise. I tried to refuse her, but her requests worn me down.
It felt absurd, I never knew Gwen to be superstitious. But I couldn't shake off my own fears at the moment. It might seem strange but wearing that amulet brought me peace.
I took another glance at it, the pattern on it seemed familiar but I couldn't place the memory of it.
Well, I told myself,  here we go. I finally became superstitious and foolish like others. I mocked myself but didn't remove the amulet.
As Gwen left, with shouts of " call me  Rain, not Gwen", she again reminded me of my promise of keeping the amulet on me and returning home before eight. I asked her about the piece she chose for her recital. " Twelfth Night " she answered. I always find the play creepy with its deceptive nature and lies, but I never understood literature so I didn't paid anymore attention. But it did brought a wry smile on my lips, afterall the performance of us both got scheduled on the twelfth day of our parent's funeral. Quite a coincidence, no. And my birth would take place on the twelfth night of their funeral as well. Truly ironic.

As I locked the house, before leaving,  I again felt watched. I suppressed the shivers it arose in me, all the while checking nook and cranies for any suspicious person,  but I remained empty handed.
Oh well! Let's the game begin.