Different (a Manon Maxim Novel) by Mel Hartman - HTML preview

38.

A week has passed now. Although summer is breaking through outside and the sun is warming us, it has been a dark week for us. Never before have we needed to take such drastic and horrible steps to keep the otherkinds secret. The first nights my dreams were filled with the most terrifying nightmares that even kept creeping in my mind after waking up. If only I’d kept something positive out of it, like knowing whom my parents are, I maybe could have bared it better. Although I strongly doubt it.

The sore spots all over my body and my still painful nose make me remember the events over and over again. Worse are the psychological scars, the feelings of guilt and the constant thinking about: what if…

When I think about Lucas I feel nauseous because I still miss him so badly and because I’m convinced he could have taken a special place in my life. I grief over him, go to sleep with him in my thoughts and wake up with it. Diedie tells me vamps can indeed hypnotize each other. It’s a cold comfort Lucas didn’t end up in Selena’s bed voluntarily.

I catch myself that I suddenly, without any reason, start to cry and then let off steam on the punching bag on the attic. Or I run into the garden and let me comfort by Bass and Bonkers. Sometimes I transform into a Doberman and live it up by running with them through the garden. They both sleep on my bed and sometimes, when I wake up screaming from a nightmare, they’re lying closely to me, as if they also want to protect me in my sleep.

I hope I’ll never cross Selena’s path anymore, because I won’t be responsible for my acts then. She took Lucas away from me and murdered him in that glazed house. Something I’ll never ever forgive her.

That week we walk around lifeless like zombies, without any energy to do something. We barely eat and talk, as if we’re afraid when one of us starts about it, it will strengthen the pain.

From time to time I find Diedie crying in the kitchen, she doesn’t even follow her usual soap series anymore. Jabar hides between his plants and herbs, but doesn’t do much. I catch him staring at a plant in a pot for minutes and sometimes shaking his head in thought. Oded is going out a lot, coming home heavily drunk, stinking of booze and cigarette smoke and falling asleep next to his bed on the ground. Other moments he drags himself to his new pub he’s decorating. He let the old location break down and sell to a real estate developer. He refuses our help and thinks he needs to cope with this alone. Because the fire brigade and the public prosecutor couldn’t prove a deliberate arson, the insurance at least makes up for the damage.

I call Sharon a lot and although she can’t help me with this because I can’t tell her anything, her happy events are a band-aid to the wound. She got backstage to Placebo indeed and above that, which doesn’t surprise me at all, she slept with the singer. Her suspicions seemed to be true.

De Doc gave himself up to the police. The papers were full of it; massive and horrible massacre in which many people got killed and after which the culprit burned down the house. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and that the only news that gave me a short moment of jubilancy that week.

Noël Borgax has really done a moonlight flit. Jabar still called one of his companies and it seems he‘s selling all businesses and staying on an unknown address. Nobody can tell us where.

We still think it’s strange Noël only set up four angels as security. He must have known it was as easy as falling off a log to us to break into the house. We suspect he was maybe hoping we would clean up his mess for him.

What Noël doesn’t know, or maybe he does, is that Morgan Tahon died even before my birth in a tragic car-accident. Jabar didn’t tell me earlier because he’s still having a hard time dealing with it.

Jabar has sent all our contact persons over the entire world a description of Noël with attached everything we know about him, his transformers-gift, and so on. The chance is very small he’ll be seen somewhere, but it’s all we can do.

Somewhere we of course hope it’s all behind us with this, but a monster like Noël wont quit that easily. A hurt man with a deep-rooted grudge and a lost love will certainly lay new plans to give us and others a hard time.

Until we get that far I’m not planning to give it a moment’s thought.

Whether I’ll succeed to do so is the question.

Our life has now started to take its normal routine again, but we all know those terrible images will stay in our minds forever.

Because of the nice weather I’m in the garden with Bass and Bonkers again. It’s a windless day with a sultry temperature and I feel fairly better today. The two rascals make me smile when they cut crazy capers, especially when they think they’ll catch a bird in their umpteenth attempt. Luckily those little animals fly faster than they can get caught.

Jabar is busy in his herb garden and Oded is helping Diedie in the kitchen.

A few minutes later Jabar and I get called. When we enter the kitchen, Diedie plops down a cake on the table with a demonstrative gesture. It’s a high, dark brown chocolate of which the chocolate is dripping off and which smells yummy.

‘And now,’ she says firmly, ‘it’s all done and over with grieving! We’re all snugly going to eat this cake and leave the past behind us. With every bite we take, we’ll feel better.’

‘Is that a spell?’ I ask smilingly.

‘No, Manon, it’s an order,’ Diedie answers and looks tenderly at me.

‘We can’t ignore that one,’ Oded chuckles. ‘If only it is because that cake looks enormously delicious.’

We all take a seat at the table and the cake is being served. Diedie could have just used a spell, because it seems as if I’m indeed feeling better with every bite I’m taking. I look suspicious at her.

She winks at me.