Wickedness After Dark

As if my evening couldn’t get worse, the storm blew in. Pulling on my hoodie and wrapping my arms around my mid-section the 2km walk through the park and home seemed like 10km. Checking my wristwatch the time read 11:26pm and I knew I was in trouble. Sneaking out with some friends always seems like a good idea until it isn’t. I had no idea that they were… well I’m not entirely sure what they were. Jona asked me to meet them and some of their friends at the pergola in the park to catch up. The summer holidays feel exceptionally long when your family won’t let you near your friends, even though they need you. It is really easy to push away the bad things when you are with your mates, jumping into lakes and swinging off rope swings but as soon as the night ends and you need to leave. That is when life catches up with you. I didn’t want to leave, not tonight.

If your family has never been through a messy divorce, you probably wouldn’t understand the pain that Jona described to me. Being used as a pawn is not a comforting feeling. Knowing that dad is trying to screw mum over by making her pay child support when he doesn’t actually want you. Threats of boarding school looming over your head as your family plays tug of war with you takes a toll. So, when you meet your old best friend from middle school at the bookshop in town waves of relief roll over you.

Jona approached me quietly. Asking me what books I was reading while subtly passing me a note. Being the good friend, I am gave them my suggestions and we quietly chatted in the corner until my uncle found us and made me leave. I still got to buy my books but didn’t even get a parting word. Thankfully Jona knew what sorts of people my family was and when I unfolded the note it looked something like this:

Hey old friend,

I know life has been tough on both of us and that your uncle despises my family, I assume that if I get a chance to talk to you, we will not finish our conversation. Do you remember the old pergola in the Walter park? I would like to meet there on Tuesday night, roughly 9:00pm. With the season it should still be almost light.

Our old water science experiment should add some depth to this letter…

Enjoy the book!

There was no name attached to the paper but I did in fact remember the science experiment they spoke about. When I got back to my uncle’s house, enduring a lecture about talking to people I shouldn’t, I went into my upstairs bathroom and started filling the sink. We made a sort of invisible ink that is only visible when the paper is spread across water. I normally would have got a tray from the kitchen and covered the surface with water but desperate times called for desperate measures. Laying the paper over the water there was a phone number. I scribbled it onto a notepad I had brought in with me and once I was finished and the paper was a mushy blob on the counter there was a full phone number. Evidently Jona knew about my old number getting deactivated so she gave me her new number to call.

That night I called and we chatted, they told me all about how moving to New Zealand was terrible, how their dad was cheating on her mum with one of their neighbours and the divorce. Jona was being used as a bargaining chip in the divorce but didn’t want to share any more details other than that over the phone. We confirmed for Tuesday night and Jona told me about some of the other people that would come. I didn’t understand what they were talking about. The others would be weird, (so what? most people were a bit weird in their own way) or they might get aggressive, (I had been in plenty of school fights. This wasn’t a worry for me). Brushing this ominous warning off I told Jona that I looked forward to seeing them and ended the call.

Passing the next few days was easy, I just did the holiday homework that I neglected for the last few weeks, but when Tuesday came around, I was unusually jittery. This wasn’t my first time sneaking out but when 8:00pm rolled around I was itching to get out of the house. I told my uncle that I would be upstairs reading and not to be disturbed. Playing into the grumpy teenager persona, I told my uncle that I would be upstairs reading. We would normally hang out together in the evenings so as compensation I promised to meal prep for the next week the following morning. That seemed to satisfy him and so I trudged up the stairs to my bedroom and closed the door. We are in a habit of locking the doors. The area isn’t that nice and it is better to not take any chances with thieves. I locked the door, threw on a dark hoodie to hide my face and slipped out the window and down the trellis.

The walk the Walter Park isn’t too bad so long as it is light, but in the dark, it is a different story. As I walked away from the meeting, hugging my midsection I wished that I took Jona’s warning a little more seriously. It probably could have saved my life but as I stumbled the rest of the way home. Dragged myself up the trellis and flopped onto the bed in my room. Looking at my hands they were coated in a deep crimson. Unlocking the door to my room, I stumbled into the bathroom, crashing into doorframes and leaning on the white countertop. Pulling off my hoodie to inspect the scratch marks across my mid-section, I sucked in a breath, staring at the ceiling. Never would I have thought that the creatures in fantasy books, vampires, werewolves, sirens and witches, truly existed in this world. But now I was bleeding out on my bed the red of my blood pushing past the bandages I hastily wrapped around my injuries, I wonder if my uncle knew about Jona. Maybe this is why he told me to stay away from them.