I remember my father to be a strong, righteous and capable man. He ran a mining business up north, and in my eyes, there was nothing he couldn’t do. Every day I got to spend with him was one I treasured. In 1925 I was 8, and the third child of four. To me it felt like my brothers and sister got all the attention. So sometimes I would even fake being sick just so that he would have to take me to work with him. I would wait in the truck while he drilled into the frozen ground and play with my model car as if I was helping him.
We lived in a small mining town, Tesoro. Originally a town settled by immigrants in the early 1800’s, it was a strange place just on the outskirts of civilization and had its own unorthodox culture. In the centre of the town square was a stone sculpture of a naked woman in a chariot led by cats, of all things, beside an equally nude man riding a boar. Apparently, there had been a third man in the sculpture; although only his torso remained as the stone cracked and broke off one summer a few years back.
There was a blind lady in town, ‘the kook’ my father called her, who would stand beside that statue shouting day and night about bad omens. Her eyes were partially closed and weeping with a milky yellow moisture that I dared not speculate on. It was said she had gouged her own eyes some decades prior. Her hair was unkempt, and the skin along her hairline was crusty under her hat. If I’m honest she scared me, and I was always sure to avoid her when I could.
I didn’t understand the nature of mental illness at that age, just like I didn’t understand a great many things about my life. You see, my father’s mining business was a failing one. He had borrowed a large sum of money from the banks, and in all his prospecting had very little to show for it. My parents argued often, yelling so loud I could hear them through the walls and it kept me awake most nights.
Sometimes in the morning I would come downstairs to find my mother crying over her cereal, while my father would leave early for work. He insisted he would strike pay dirt any day now. Only that day seemed further and further away. One of the days he took me out with him we saw the blind lady standing in the middle of the road leading out of town, and my father stopped. It was unusual that she would be so far out.
“Do you need any help there Anna?” My father offered reluctantly, rolling down his window.
She turned to us slowly, her watery eyes seemed to stare right through me, and I sunk down in my seat to hide. “It’s in the eyes. It’s in their blue EYES. Don’t look in their eyes!” She spoke in a strained octave and her expression was wild. I thought she might have been talking about my father. His eyes were light blue, and mine were gray-blue, so it worried me.
My father hesitated, he adjusted the collar of his coat awkwardly and tilted his head to her, “Ahh, a good day to you then ma’am.” He responded politely, disengaging from the conversation. None of what she had said made any damn sense. It was broad daylight, and way too early for such nonsense.
“Couple screws loose.” One of the workers with us commented, from his expression, he was just as repulsed as we were.
We set out into the wilderness shortly thereafter, leaving the lady to ramble on to herself as she seemed to be headed back toward town after talking to my father. I always liked going out of town; the forest around was peaceful. Tall pine trees stood stubborn against the wintery conditions with weighted-down branches and clouds covered the sun so the daylight wasn’t blinding. The trucks struggled to push through the snow and I waited in anticipation. I had made sure to wear my big coat and gloves so that I could play outside this time.
I waited until my father started his work and then I got out of the truck. It was a little high up for me, and I struggled to get down without slipping then headed a ways off into the woods. The idea that wandering off alone could be dangerous never occurred to me, I didn’t even think to tell anyone where I was going, and I wasn’t worried. The sound of machinery undoubtedly scared away any dangerous animals that might have been lurking, and I had never thought about the possibility of getting lost.
Carefree I chased snowflakes through the trees, and beat the snow off branches with a stick. For some reason, watching it all fall off the leaves into a pile on the ground was fantastically entertaining. That was until movement in the near distance up ahead caught my attention, and I hesitated. I was certain that something had just hidden behind a tree and fear crept into my bones. “H-Hello?” I called anxiously.
A long moment passed, but no response came as I stood frozen in place. Then a boy around my age peeked out from behind a tree. He seemed just as surprised to see me still there as I was to see him there at all, and we stared at one another for what seemed like forever. His hair was dark, and he was wearing a thick winter coat.
“Who are you?” I called once I found the courage to do so.
His eyes widened and he ducked back behind the tree so I approached slowly. I came from the right and found him still behind it. Only he was looking around to the left so he didn’t immediately see me, “What are you doing?” I asked, and he jumped, startled.
“I’m not here!” He exclaimed, his face flushing bright red as he covered it with his hands. His voice was weird, soft in a way that was disarming. I hadn’t heard anyone talk with the accent he had, and I almost couldn’t understand what he had said.
“I can see you…” I said quietly apprehensive. What was he hiding from? Should I be hiding too?
“No you can’t!”
“Yes I can!”
“Go away!”
“I was here first!”
“No you weren’t!”
I folded my arms annoyed, “I’m going to get my dad.” I announced, but as I turned to leave he grabbed the hem of my coat and drag me back. I was surprised because he was strong enough to pull me over with very little effort, and I landed heavily on hard ground. Immediately I wanted to cry.
“Wait, no, please don’t cry, I’ll get in trouble.” He begged as tears welled in my eyes. It was only then that I noticed how he looked. He was younger than me, and his eyes were a dark blue like I had never seen before with long lashes like a cow’s. Moreover, he looked sorry, and anxious as he looked around to make sure no one had seen, “Please, I’ll get in so much trouble if you cry… What’s your name?”
I sniffled, my big brother James always called me a crybaby and I was determined not to be, “M-my name is Charles, but my friends call me Charlie…”
“…My name is Eiríkr.” He introduced himself as he offered me a hand up.
As I stood up and brushed the ice off my clothes I realized that he was actually a little shorter than me and I couldn’t believe he had been able to pull me over. “You have eyes like a cow,” I grumbled.
“W-what?”
“Your eyelashes are too long.”
“Oh…” He mumbled, embarrassed, blinking awkwardly as he looked away, as if that would make it better.
“Why are you out here anyway..?”
“There were lots of sounds in the woods… I wanted to see what they were.”
“Oh! That’s my dad, he’s mining.”
“Mining?”
“Looking for stuff in the ground.”
“Has he found anything?”
I shook my head, and he looked like he understood.
He was unusual in a way I can’t quite explain, but I never felt like I was in danger or threatened. Instead, we played and talked together for what must have been hours. I don’t even remember what we talked about. However, gradually, it grew darker and colder, and I started to get tired. I’m not sure if it was the late hour or the cold, but I was starting to slow down.
“Are you alright?” Eiríkr asked uncertainly as I sat down to rest.
“Tired…” I mumbled quietly, I was shivering violently, maybe I wasn’t as okay as I thought I was.
In the fading light his eyes seemed particularly blue, it was almost like they glowed and even when he stepped back, I could see them. “You shouldn’t sleep out here.”
“I just want to close my eyes for a minute.”
He seemed more nervous then, “It’s really not a good idea for you to do that.”
I ignored him, my eyelids were too heavy, and I gave up resisting them. The next thing I remember after that is hearing distant voices calling my name and seeing spotlights shine through the trees. When I came back around Eiríkr was no longer there, but his coat was laid over me, “I’m here.” I called softly. How anyone heard, I’ll never know.
My father scooped me up, and I was safe. “What are you doing out here?” He scolded me.
“I was playing with my friend…” I explained shyly and he hesitated.
“What friend?”
“Eiríkr.”
“… And where is he now?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged, but my father seemed nervous as he looked around. I got the impression there was something he wasn’t telling me, or that I had somehow done something wrong. When we got home I was wrapped in blankets and treated to a mug of hot chocolate while my parents argued in the kitchen.
“He could have died out there in that weather!”
“He wasn’t gone that long, he’s fine.”
“You’re lucky you found him at all!” My father was quiet then and so my mother continued, “You are too obsessed with working, your own son went missing and you didn’t notice for hours!”
“Of course I’m obsessed, there’s no money left Pearl!” My father shouted and they fell into a heavy silence before my mom spoke again.
“What do you mean..?” She asked more quietly. “You said you hit pay dirt, you showed me the gold nuggets…”
“Those were the only ones I found. There’s been no more… Nothing else…”
“So then… All that money…” She whispered, it sounded like she was crying and I shuffled over to the doorway to help.
My mother was sitting down heavily in a chair at the table, holding her head in her hands, while my father was standing by the stove. Supporting himself against it with his head in his hand, “I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner…”
“What are we going to do…?”
“…I’ll go to the bank tomorrow, see what can be done.”
I didn’t fully understand the severity of the situation. I knew that it was bad to run out of money, but I didn’t truly know what it meant.
***
The following day my brothers and sister went off to school, and my mother went to work. I got to stay home because I pretended to be sick again. That wasn’t exactly my plan, I had hoped I would get to go with my dad to work, and that maybe I would see Eiríkr. But mom said I had to stay at home instead. It was boring. There was only so much I could do at home by myself, especially since I was supposed to stay inside. However, I thought that I could play outside, and be back in before they even knew I had gone out.
Our yard was pretty big and ended at the tree line into the forest. I wanted to build a snowman, and decided I needed sticks for the arms, so I went a little way into the woods to find them. However, as I had just found the perfect stick a small pile of snow fell on me from above, and I yelped in surprise as ice slid down the back of my shirt.
There was a giggle from above and I froze in place, slowly looking upward. Crouched in the upper branches was Eiríkr. “I was worried you wouldn’t come into the woods again after what happened,” he smiled as he made his way down.
“How did you get here?” I asked, amazed.
“I walked.”
“Do you live close by? Where’s your house?”
He ignored my questions and asked instead, “Can I have my coat back? Mamma and papà won’t be happy if they think I’ve lost it.”
“Oh, it’s inside. Come with me!”
He seemed surprised when I took his hand to lead him back to the house, but he didn’t protest until we reached the edge of the forest. Then he stopped abruptly, very nearly pulling my arm out the socket as he did.
“What’s the matter? Come on, my house is just there.”
“I’m not supposed to leave the woods.”
“Why not? My mom and dad aren’t home, you don’t need to worry about getting in trouble.”
Eiríkr still hesitated, glancing back through the trees, “…I have to be quick then.” He agreed after a moment of deliberation.
Despite his concerns, we got distracted. I toured him around the house, and showed him my room as I explained that I had to share with my youngest brother. Somehow we ended up laying on the floor reading comic books, playing board games and building puzzles so that we forgot about anything else. He was frustratingly good at almost every game we played but he struggled with the comics.
“You can’t read yet?” I teased and he pulled a face.
“I can to!” He protested, then added more reluctantly, “…This English is just difficult.”
In school reading was my best subject. Actually, I was so good at it that I got bullied a lot for it. Which is why I faked being sick so often, I didn’t want to tell my parents but I didn’t want to have to go to school either. I thought he might make fun of me for it as well, however instead he asked me to teach him, and we spent even longer as I showed him what each word was.
Eventually the sound of squeaky brakes out front alerted us to my siblings returning from school as the bus dropped them off.
“I have to go.” Eiríkr said quickly, and he was gone before I could protest. Part of me wanted him to meet my family while at the same time I liked that he was my secret friend.
“Reading your nerd books again?” My elder sister commented as she came to find me. “No wonder you get bullied.”
“Don’t be mean Hazel.” James chastised her and she rolled her eyes before leaving.
“Thanks..” I mumbled.
“Is Dad home yet?”
I shook my head.
***
For the next few days I was forced to go to school, and then the weekend came. I accidentally mentioned Eiríkr in passing and Hazel teased me about it. She insisted he was my ‘imaginary’ friend, since she had never seen him and I didn’t have any other friends.
“He’s not imaginary!” I exclaimed exasperated.
“Oh yeah? How come no one has ever seen him then? And how come he doesn’t go to school with us?” She continued, holding one of my comic books out of my reach.
“I don’t know, but he is real!”
Truthfully I couldn’t explain it. There was only one school in town, and there weren’t even enough kids for separate year levels so some were combined. This meant that everyone knew one another, and no one knew him. He had always appeared from the forest whenever I had seen him, and always only when I was alone. The only exception to this came one day during lunch.
Some of the older boys had chased me out of school into the forest. They had stolen my backpack and were throwing things from it at me as well as balls of snow and small rocks or twigs. “Stop it!” I shouted pleading. I was hoping James would find me, but I think we were too far out for him to notice I was gone.
“You gonna cry?” The biggest of them asked, and I didn’t answer, I was most definitely going to cry. The rocks hurt and the ground I was curled up on was cold.
I just wanted this to stop, they were all laughing at me until a new voice spoke up. “Leave him alone.”
Eiríkr’s voice was distinctive, I think I could have recognized it anywhere, and the other boys fell silent.
Snow crunched under boots as someone came to stand beside me and I uncurled up slightly to see Eiríkr standing in front of me.
“He talks stupid.” One of the others laughed.
“What are you going to do about it, pipsqueak?” Another commented.
They were like a pack of hyena’s taunting us until one threatened to throw a punch but Eiríkr stood firm in place. He didn’t flinch and gradually they got the idea to back off. When they were gone, he took a breath in and I realized he had been holding it probably the whole time.
“I really thought they were going to punch me.” He said quietly. To my amazement it looked like he was going to cry. He must have been just as scared as I was and it was relieving.
“You didn’t look scared at all..” I grumbled as he helped me up.
“I was just pretending, I don’t truly know how to fight.” He laughed as the anxiety left him.
“How did you know I needed help?”
“I saw them chase you from the school.”
“You were at school too?”
“No… I was in the forest.” He admitted, and I fell silent. That was perhaps the first time I allowed myself to see how unusual that was.
“…Why are you always in the forest?” I asked reluctantly. Maybe he was just a figment of my imagination after all.
He looked uncomfortable then, however before he could answer a female voice spoke up from behind us.
“Eiríkr. Cosa stai facendo qui? Quante volte ti è stato detto?” I didn’t know what they were saying, but she sounded angry. The woman who spoke was maybe in her late teens, and looked very alike to Eiríkr. Only her hair was long and her eyes were a paler blue than his.
“Mi dispiace, mi dispiace.” He answered quickly. Her hair swirled as if disturbed by a breeze and her eyes darkened as they came to rest on me. “Aspettare! Per favore, non fargli del male. Lui è mio amico…”
“Amico?” She repeated the word skeptically.
“Yes. Please, Brigeta…”
The girl looked irritated but seemed to consider his pleas.
“What did she say? Is that your sister?”
“She’s my cousin..” he explained briefly, though had not the time to say anything else as she continued.
“I’ve told you a thousand times to stay in the village.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”
“Oh? No? What did you mean to do then young man?” She scolded him, “Tuo padre si arrabbierà!”
“No, no, please don’t tell Papà!”
Brigeta glanced over to me, then back to Eiríkr, clicking her tongue in annoyance as she tried to decide what to do. “Human child. Leave. You will run back to where you came from. Now.”
I looked to my friend for guidance and he gestured for me to go back towards the school. “It’s okay, go… I’m sorry.” He murmured.
“O-okay…” I said uncertainly. Gradually I turned, then ran back. By the time I had reached the fence and stopped to look back they were gone.
***
I didn’t see Eiríkr again, and life returned to normal. After speaking with the bank, it seemed that everything was sorted, and my father hit true paydirt not long after. We were by then the richest people in town, everything was going well for our family. Of course, I looked out into the forest for Eiríkr almost every day, only to be disappointed and I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened.
Then there came a day where my dad took my younger brother and I out shopping with him. It wasn’t late, but it was getting dark quickly as the days were short. “You have angered the gods, and they will come for us all!” It was crazy Anna that shouted in the streets. The statement seemed oddly directed toward us and we avoided her as best we could.
However it was not long after that a man stepped into our path. He was tall and wearing a suit just as nice as my father’s. His hair was dark brown and combed back neatly, while his eyes were ice blue. “Good evening, Leonard. Might we have a word?”
The moment he spoke I gasped in surprise, his accent and voice were identical to Eiríkr’s. In fact, as I stared at him in pure dumbfounded astonishment the more I came to notice that not only did he sound similar, but he looked similar as well.
My father cleared his throat nervously, “Another time Mercury?” He suggested, avoiding eye contact with the man. Then picked my brother up and took my hand as we sidestepped him.
“Very well.” He responded calmly. Even as a child those words sent a chill down my spine, and my father began to jog so that he was nearly dragging me along.
He didn’t slow his pace until we reached home, and I was breathless by the time we burst through the doors into the house.
“Pearl, Pearl!” Father called for our mother. I had never heard the strained note in an adult’s voice like that before and I knew something was wrong. Panic gripped me as I waited anxiously unsure of what to do.
“What? What’s going on?”
“We need to get everyone together, get all the guns.”
“Why?”
My mother’s brow creased in confusion as she tried to understand why her husband was sweating.
“I don’t have the time to explain, just do as I say!” He shouted and she apprehensively did as she was told.
Before long word had spread and all the locals had taken up arms. I didn’t understand what was going on. It was stressful, and I wanted to cry purely because I didn’t know what was happening. All the men had gathered at the edge of town, facing the dark forest with guns and torches. Most of the women and children were ushered inside, but my father handed me a gun,, and with very little instruction, expected me to be able to handle it.
I noticed that I wasn’t the only one. Every boy over the age of 5 was armed and standing among the adult men. Even some women were with us. The turnout was reasonably impressive, but I still couldn’t piece together how speaking so briefly with that man had caused all of this? What was going on that my father hadn’t told me?
Before I could gather the courage to ask him, they appeared.
Emerging from the darkened tree line were shadowed figures with dimly glowing blue eyes all wearing black clothes. They approached with no urgency and as they came closer I could see them more clearly. To me, they looked like ordinary people. It was a mixture of men and women, with ranging ages. There weren’t many of them compared to how many of us there were and all had dark hair with blue eyes.
“Fire!” My father shouted the moment they reached the road, and in a sudden uproar of deafening gunshots the approaching people fell one by one.
I was too scared to fire the gun I had even once, but it seemed I didn’t need to. They all lay dead within a moment, they never stood a chance and I’ll never forget the sound of air leaving lungs for the last time or the way their blood froze on the snow. Cautiously some of the men stepped forward to inspect the bodies, checking them one by one for survivors.
They had only had the time to look over half of them, when the first body twitched. It was one of the women. She rolled over slowly, hair covered her face as she coughed violently and then she spat up a mass of blood onto the snow. In it I saw something metal and my eyes widened as I realized it was a bullet.
Her nails were blackened, and when she looked up there were strange black markings on her face. The men closest to her backed up as she began to laugh and one of them shot her again at point-blank range as she slowly pushed herself off the ground. However this time, it had little effect. She shuddered but continued to move. Spitting the second bullet out as she stood to face them, then she attacked.
Launching herself at the man who had shot her like a wild animal, ripping and tearing at him. Biting into the side of his throat like a rabid dog as he went down. She wasn’t feeding; she was just- killing. Then the others began to rise as well. Among them, I recognized Brigeta and the man my father had spoken to. “Divertiamoci~” she purred.
In that moment, I dropped the gun I was holding and turned to run as the creatures rushed at us. Behind me, I could hear men screaming and firing their guns uselessly as they were attacked. Part of me already knew there was nowhere to run, nowhere to go where they wouldn’t find us. I had no idea what had brought them to us; maybe it was me, maybe I should never have played with Eiríkr.
It didn’t matter now, I ran blindly until someone grabbed my arm and pulled me back. I landed hard on the frozen ground and screamed as a hand covered my mouth. “Shhh, be quiet,” Eiríkr whispered harshly.
Although he hadn’t been with the rest when they came from the first, I could tell for certain that he was one of them, his eyes glowed softly in the darkness, and he was wearing the same uniform that they were. I struggled against him to push his hand away and escape but he held me down, he was so much stronger than I despite being physically smaller.
“You need to be quiet.”
“You’re one of them,” I mumbled as tears rolled down the sides of my face into my ears.
“I’m not going to hurt you…”
“M-my family?”
“…They’re dead, everyone here will be dead, and I can only help you if you come with me right now.”
I didn’t want to leave my family, but I also didn’t want to die. I let him lead me away. We moved through the streets quietly, and he navigated through the darkness without a fault. I was so scared I was trembling and if not for his hand in mine I would have undoubtedly given up. We made it to the forest and he seemed to have a very specific direction.
From a distance, I could see the town was on fire and slowly the screams that rang out in the night air quieted down until an uncomfortable silence settled over the forest. It had been an abstract thought previously, but that was the point I truly understood that my family and everyone I knew was dead. What was I even going to do without them? I dropped to my knees and Eiríkr stopped.
“Charlie, you need to get up, we’re not far enough away yet they’ll find you.” He urged.
“There’s no point, there’s no one left to look after me!” I wailed helplessly, and tears froze on my face as I cried in ugly uncontrolled sobs. I could tell the emotion was foreign to him, he couldn’t understand why I was scared or what I had lost.
“You will be fine. I’m taking you to other humans but you must hurry.” He was remorseless for what his family had done and callus to my pain.I don’t know how I found the strength to keep going, or how long we traveled for before we reached a road. “I… I have to leave you here.” He announced.
“There’s nothing here…”
“There is. Continue straight down this road until you reach the crossroad. Then turn to your left. Do you understand?”
I looked down the length of the road and I could see the crossroad. Honestly, I was completely lost, it didn’t look familiar to me, and had no idea where I was.
“Charlie, Charles. Do you understand?” He repeated more firmly, and I nodded weakly.
“Yeah…”
He hesitated, “…I’m sorry…”
“Why did they do it..?”
“Your father… He didn’t pay what he owed… My family are like debt collectors, and the interest is steep..”
At the time I didn’t exactly understand, but I began to walk without saying another word. There was nothing else I could do.
When I reached the cross road I turned to the left exactly as I was told and before long I came across a town. It was quaint and homely. A couple out walking spotted me as I stumbled down the road and I was taken into the hospital to be cared for. I was adopted into the Walsh family and I grew up well cared for.
I never told anyone where I had come from or how I had gotten there. I understood that saying anything about it was probably a bad idea and I was by then doing my best to forget it anyway. Some years later I married, had my first kid when I was barely 18 and nowadays I even have a set of great grandkids. One was named after me.
Of course when I had my midlife crisis I tried to look up the town I grew up in, as far as I could tell there were no records of it anywhere. As if it simply didn’t exist.