Black Hellebore Read online

  For the first time this evening, Orlando sees Liandra smile. She is watching the spinning carousel in awe, her eyes open wide, almost childlike. She is so pretty when she smiles. Without her even noticing, he buys two tickets from the vendor who seems to be half asleep at his till.

  “Came a few days too early, it’s because of the Christmas market” he murmers while trying to suppress a yawn.

  Orlando steps behing Liandra and places the tickets in front of her face.

  “I bet you have been on a carousel countless times. Did you know this was here?”

  She quickly shakes her head, keeping her eyes fixed on the bright lights.

  “I don’t come to the beach very often.”

  “Not even when you were little?”

  “No, I have never been on a carousel.”

  Her words really surprise him “Well then it’s about time!” he calls as he jumps on the carousel, which has begun to slow down. Holding on to one of the bars, he holds his hand out to her again, and this time she grabs it, letting him pull her up to him. Compared to his, her hands are fiery hot. A jolt shoots through his entire body and makes the hairs stand up. His neck starts to tingle and he can do nothing but watch her as she walks through the carousel, laughing like a little girl. Her blond hair blows in the cold wind, carrying her sweet strawberry-like scent to him. He moves quickly to catch up with her, and they sit on two horses beside each other, which move up and down in time to the music.

  Liandra sticks out her arms, her fingers gliding through the cold air as her cheeks glow pink and her hair blows onto her face. She closes her eyes and starts laughing heartily. Orlando can’t help but love her laugh. It is so pure and honest that it almost makes his heart ache. Liandra is entoxicating. She has a way of drawing him in and making him forget everything else. He is no longer the century-old vampire, but only a lovestruck eighteen year old boy.

  They hold hands during the ride, and dreamily get off the carousel when it ends. He playfully spins her around and they dance to the end of the song on an invisible dancefloor. Just as the music finishes, the smile disappears from her face, and the serious look returns to her eyes. His hand is still on her back, and their faces are so close that their noses are almost touching. He bends down toward her in the mixture of the pale moonlight and the bright lights of the carousel and gently places his lips on hers. He realises that this is the first time he is really kissing her. What she said to him all makes perfect sense now, because this is not the same girl as before and their kiss feels completely different. It is missing the fire and intensity that it had, but that is now replaced by something else. This kiss is warm and tender, and though it is not like the intense heat of an open flame, it is the kind of heat that warms him from the inside out, starting deep in his heart and making its way over his entire being. There is a word to describe Liandra, even with her strange behaviour; loveable. She makes him happy.

  The rest of the walk is spent in silence, their arms occasionally touching, making them glance shyly at each other. It is very clear to him that he will not be taking her to bed tonight, even though in spite of everything, he would still happily do that. Even if he has different intentions this time, it seems wrong to just climb into bed with her again for some wild, uninhibited sex, when he now knows the real Liandra. It wouldn’t be the same now. He would love to stroke her soft hair and watch her slowly fall asleep, her breasts rising and sinking as she breathes. He would love to watch her all night long, saving her from any nightmares she might have, and that feeling is totally new to him. She awakens his protective instincts like Mary does, but in a completely different way. She makes him feel like he is actually a good person, unlike what he and most of the people he has met throughout the centuries believe him to be. With Liandra at his side, he can forget everything and it seems as if they are the only two people on Earth.

  The short car journey back is spent in silence. They are both distracted and don’t know what this is all supposed to mean or what could become of this. Amazingly, it is Liandra who manages to find her voice first, as she nervously glances at the dark pine trees that line the Green’s estate.

  “How old are you?”

  He doesn’t want to lie to her, but he also can’t tell her the truth.

  “Young” he replies with a cheeky smile.

  “Are you still at school?”

  “No”

  “Are you at university?”

  “Nope.”

  “Do you work?”

  “I don’t need to.”

  “What do you live on then?” she asks impatiently and he smiles again when thinking how to answer.

  “You could say I inherited.”

  “Do you live around here?”

  “Why do you ask that?”

  “I saw you in my tree the other night.”

  Well yes. But instead of admitting it, Orlando starts to laugh. He is done with the honesty.

  “In your tree? How would I have gotten up there and what exactly would I have been doing? Do you think I’m crazy?”

  Lia frowns at him. She is certain that she saw him there

  “Do you follow me sometimes? You can admit it, I won’t be angry”, she assures him, but this time she is totally wrong. If he could, Orlando would watch her much more often, but the sunlight gets in the way. So he wasn’t imagining it when she seemed to be able to see him.

  Something is scaring her, as if she feels like she is being followed. He also starts to glance out at their dark surroundings, but there is nothing there, not even a twig snapping or the sound of wind blowing through the leaves.

  He opens the car door for her.

  “If you are not going to tell me anything about yourself, can you at least tell me your name?”

  It is forbidden for him to reveal his identity to any human, but it is just as forbidden to even meet with them, so it doesn’t really make a difference to him anymore. Why shouldn’t he do her this little favour?

  With a courteous bow, he stands elegantly in front of Lia and takes her hand in his.

  If you will allow me the pleasure of introducing myself; my name is Orlando Adam Moundrell. It is an honour to make your acquaintance.”

  With a look of surprise and amusement, she stares at Orlando. Her smile seems to come from deep within her, and it is so honest and pure, that it makes him feel warm inside.

  “Lia” she answers, not knowing that he already knows her name

  His dead heart wants to jump for joy, but he stays very cool while her name plays melodically over and over in his head. So short and snappy, yet so lovely. Lia...but in his heart she will always be his Liandra, the woman that bewitched him.

  “Lia, you are an unusual girl, but I like that.”

  With one last cheeky wink, he leaves her standing on her doorstep and drives away. He can feel that she is watching him leave, making him feel eighteen again, the age he was when he met his fate.

  - 11. Lia Green -

  Tru was right, Orlando refused to admit his age, but how could Tru have possibly known that? It really isn’t that big of a deal to tell people how old you are. When people reach a certain age it is not really polite to ask them anymore, but Orlando really doesn’t seem to be anywhere near that kind of age. Maybe he is a few years older than her, she won’t exclude that possibility, but that he is so much older than her that he should feel self-conscious about it seems impossible. But even if Tru is right about that, Lia is not in the least bit ready to stay away from him. Especially not now, as now she sees Orlando through completely different eyes. He is not just another nameless guy amongst many. He got through to her and really kissed her, even after she revealed all the crazy feelings going on in her head. Other guys would have thought she was crazy and gotten as far away from her as they possibly could, but he even said that he likes that about her.

  But Tru also intrigues her, because she knows something and Lia has to find out what.

  In all her thoughts about it, she only gets anywhere
when she arrives in the chemistry lab, just as the last of her classmates get there. Normally she sits in the back of every class, but today she wants that to change. She sits in the front row right next to Tru, and is immediately met with protest.

  “Hey, that’s my seat!” Alicia complains loudly and looks at Lia as if she were mentally ill. Her friend Pepe, whose name is really Penelope is standing beside her watching Lia with the same diminishing look. She never usually has any problems with these two, as they normally stay out of it, but this time they have a reason to be annoyed; Lia did take their seats after all.

  “So are you going to move or what?” Alicia asks again, looking very annoyed. Lia turns to Tru for support, but she doesn’t seem to be too affected by any of this. She just shrugs her shoulders and says; “just go and sit in Lia’s seat.”

  They hesitate for a moment, but then they give in and walk to the back of the room, complaining loud enough for the whole class to hear. Lia would love to know whether Tru helped her because she really wanted Lia to sit next to her, or if it was because she just wanted her peace and quiet, and really doesn’t care who sits next to her.

  As Mrs. Petronelli enters the room, she raises her eyebrows when she sees Lia sitting in the front row, but doesn’t comment on it. Today’s class will consist of an experiment. While the teacher writes chemical formulae on the board, Lia’s head is already beginning to buzz. She really wants to pay attention so that she doesn’t embarrass herself in front of Tru, but she doesn’t understand any of it, and all she can think about is him; Orlando Adam Moundrell. His name makes him sound like a prince from a time long passed, who has climbed right out of a children’s fairytale. She gets lost in her thoughts as she thinks of his ice-blue eyes and the bright lights of the carousel reflected in them. She got very dizzy just from his stare, and his smile gave her butterflies in her stomach.

  “Lia!”

  Startled, she comes back to reality and looks at Tru.

  “Will you please give me the pipette?”

  ‘The what?’ Lia asks herself, but Tru points towards a small plastic suction pipe.

  “Do you never actually listen? That is the third time I have asked you for that, Mrs. Petronelli has already looked over here.”

  Lia quickly reaches for the desired object, but as she hands it to Tru, their fingertips touch and she immediately drops it. It’s like an electric shock passes through her body. Tru’s skin is quite cold, not as cold as Orlando’s fingers were, but still unusually so. Lia tries to stop thinking about it and quickly bends down to pick up the pipette, but Tru has the same idea and their heads knock against each other. Dazed and confused, Lia stares at Tru who is annoyed and narrowing her eyes at Lia to show it. But even when Lia sees this, something else diverts her attention. The pulsing. It’s loud and strong like a beating drum. It sounds so unusually familiar. As opposed to Tru, Lia can’t hear her classmates laughing around her. It’s as if they were the only two people in the room, which seems to be filled with Tru’s enormous life force, making the the room quake. Boom, boom, boom.

  As Lia once again tries to reach for the pipette, Tru snaps at her to just sit still. The drums in Lia’s head momentarily stop pounding long enough for her to hear the hooting and whispering going on around her, and she sees something happen to Tru which she has never seen before; her face goes red. The situation makes her feel very uncomfortable. She has embarrassed Tru and feels terrible for it. This was not her intention, and feeling very guilty, Lia doesn’t dare speak to Tru or even look at her for the rest of the lesson. She only gets the courage back when Tru offers to write down the results of the experiment for her, and as she writes, Lia asks; “How did you know that Orlando wouldn’t tell me his age?”

  “I am surprised he even told you his name.”

  “Please don’t change the subject.”

  “I just know people like him.”

  “People like him? What does that mean? Did you go out with him, is that it?”

  “God forbid!”

  Tru packs up her stuff in a hurry as the school bell rings, and Lia hastily follows behind her, but Tru doesn’t head to the lunch room like Lia thought she would, but rather heads out to the yard. She knows that she is being followed, but makes no effort to stop Lia.

  They walk across the frozen field outside of the school together, and sit down on the icy bench under the only tree that’s standing tall and wide as the wind roars in their ears. Lia wraps her down jacket a little tighter around her thin school uniform and looks at Tru, who amazingly doesn’t seem to be cold at all.

  “Do you always come here at lunch time?”

  “Not always, but the lunch room is always too full for me. Too many people with too many negative thoughts.”

  Their arms accidentally graze each other, and their jackets make a rustling sound. Despite the cold, Lia suddenly feels very warm. Her cheeks turn a fiery red colour. What is going on with her?

  While Tru had readily accepted Lia following her around, she is now looking curiously at her.

  “Why are you even here? What happened to your friends?”

  Lia hangs her head saldy and begins rubbing her hands together as her breath forms little clouds in the air in front of her.

  “We are apparently fighting, but I don’t even know what I did wrong.”

  The sudden sensible tone of Tru’s voice and the compassionate look in her eyes surprises Lia.

  “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

  “There’s not much to tell. We went out on Friday night and I went off with Orlando, and just left them there. Lindsay hasn’t spoken to me since then and Mike is just making excuses, but at the same time acting like he is not mad at me.”

  Tru goes silent for a moment, but then she starts with the same old familiar topic.

  “That is exactly what he wants. It’s better for him if you are isolated so that you can’t talk to anyone about him.”

  “Are you talking about Orlando again? He didn’t force me to leave them there, I made that mistake myself!”

  “That’s what you think, but he has the power to influence you without you even noticing it.”

  Lia groans. She like Tru a lot, but she is slowly starting to get on her nerves with the way she constantly hints towards things that she doesn’t explain fully. If she knows something, then she should say it, but if she doesn’t want to tell her then she should just keep her opinions to herself.

  “You say I should stay away from him, but if I am going to do that, you need to tell me a reason why.”

  Tru hesitates and thinks about this for a moment while Lia looks at her attentively. She is so naturally beautiful, and the small bit of make-up that she wears seems totally unnecessary. As she fixes her warm gaze on her, Lia holds her breath.

  “I’m afraid that if I tell you the truth you won’t believe me.”

  Tru’s voice is riddled with disappointment and it hits Lia like a ton of bricks. The feeling of disappointment at nobody believing what you tell them is all too familiar to her.

  “Why don’t you just try me anyway?” she says encouragingly, feeling suddenly more connected to Tru.

  “It is not as simple as you think, but I am willing to show you. Are you free tomorrow night?”

  Lia stares at her in disbelief. Does the inaccessible Tru want to meet up with her? As tempting as the offer is, and as much as she wants to say yes, she has to honor her word not only out of duty, but also out of guilt, and so says; “The Christmas Party that starts off the winter holidays is tomorrow isn’t it?”

  “Were you actually planning on going to that?” she says astonished, raising her eyebrows.

  “I promised Mike, and if I cancel on him now he will probably never speak to me again.” As if to apologise for it, she adds; “I don’t want to lose him.”

  “Well then just come by beforehand. Here, I’ll write down my address for you.”

  Without any hesitation, Tru grabs Lia’s hand, which she pulls back in shock.
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  “Sorry” Tru says quickly, her gaze facing downward as she briefly strokes Lia’s open palm, making it tingle, and then writes down her address in her impeccable handwriting. She has thin lines from already healed scars on the back of her hand just like the ones all over her back.

  “What happened there?”

  Tru shrugs her shoulders. “Burned it. Come on, class is about to start!”

  Burns don’t look like that. Tru quickly stands up and holds out her hand to Lia. As Lia looks up at her outstretched hand and looks into Tru’s friendly eyes, she knows that she trusts her, even though she barely knows her. It is a trust that is just there without anyone having done anything to earn it. A trust, that is deep-rooted in her soul, like a child that blindly trusts its parents. Tru makes her stronger and helps her to believe in herself. When she is near, she feels more complete, and not like a puzzle whose pieces are being shuffled about.

  She appreciatively takes her hand as she helps her to her feet.

  “Thank you” Lia whispers quietly as she stands at eye-level with Tru. She is grateful for so much more than just for helping her up. It is a symbol of their friendship and even if it is just for a split second that they catch each other’s eyes, it means so much more. There is something connecting them.

  They barely make it inside the building before Lindsay steps in front of them. She stares daggers at Tru before asking through clenched teeth; “can I speak to you alone for a minute?”

  Even though she is happy that Lindsay is speaking to her again, she thinks her behaviour towards Tru is very rude and doesn’t understand what her problem is. Tru hasn’t done anything to her, but Lindsay’s bitchy behaviour doesn’t seem to bother her at all, and so she shrugs her shoulders and walks away. Lia would like to stop her, but instead she looks back at Lindsay concerned about her.