“Like I said, keeps me calm.”
‘Party’ is a loose description for the strange gathering. Tom appears to be stuck half-way between a kid’s party and a student party. Tom’s made a bizarre collection of party nibbles, including the cheese and pineapple chunks stuck on cocktail sticks protruding from a tinfoil-wrapped pineapple half. Some of the partygoers conclude he’s being ironic. I suspect he isn’t.
Nobody approaches Alek, apart from Tom and Grace. Alek’s disdain for Tom morphs into amusement, and then interest, as Tom fills Alek in on things he’s learnt. After ten minutes or so, Tom switches his attentions to me, and Alek wanders back to his corner.
“Did Finn say he was definitely coming?” asks Tom, munching on crackers.
“Yes.”
“Are you okay? You seem unhappy tonight.”
“I’m tired.”
“Maybe you’re lacking energy?” he asks. “You don’t feel like you’re going to...you know.”
“What? Eat someone?” I snap.
“No, faint.”
My cheeks heat. “Oh, sorry.” An awkward silence follows. “Can you get me another drink?”
I glance at Alek as Tom disappears into the kitchen. He’s changed position and sits on the floor with his long legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. People need to step over him to move and anyone who knocks him is greeted with a withering look. I eye the girl from earlier who I’m sure keeps checking him out. Part of me would like her to approach him, so I can watch what happens.
As if aware of my scrutiny, Alek looks up. He beckons me with one finger and I turn away. Power struggles will always be a feature of whatever we have, that I’m sure of.
Ten minutes later, I walk downstairs from the bathroom and find the place packed with more bodies, the volume of voices and laughter jar. There’s a group in rugby shirts who bump each other raucously then head out to the garden.
Finn has arrived, too, his tall figure in the corner of the room, chatting to a girl, who’s playing with her hair and standing close. Something surges. Jealousy again? What right do I have? No. Fear for her. I don’t need to look at Alek to know his scrutiny is trained on Finn. There are many similarities between Finn and Alek, apart from their paranormal existence. They dress similarly, although Finn prefers hoodies to leather, and even though Finn is marginally taller, they are a similar build. The muscles beneath Finn’s shirt match Alek’s as far as I know. Alek’s, I clearly know about. If they fought, who would win? The Reaper or the psy-vamp? Even when I worried Finn was responsible for the hospital deaths, there was something inexplicable that attracted me to him. Not in the same, intense way as Alek, but a desire for his calm friendship.
Finn makes his excuses and crosses to where I hover at the bottom of the stairs.
“Are you okay after our talk?” he asks cautiously.
I shrug to indicate the subject is closed. Alek shakes his fringe from his eyes and stares across the room at us.
Finn looks over his shoulder to see what I’m looking at. “I see Crazy Boy is having fun.”
“Don’t speak to him,” I warn him. “He’s wound up about you.”
Finn turns around and gives Alek a small wave. I make the mistake of pushing Finn’s hand and withdraw as soon as the cold hits. Finn’s mouth turns down.
“What do you feel when that happens?” I ask him.
Finn inhales and holds his breath before exhaling slowly. “Your life.”
“But I’m dead.”
“No, I said you’re alive, but your soul is broken.”
“I don’t want to talk about this.” I edge away from him to sit on the stairs. Finn joins me, all the while under Alek’s watchful eye.
“Why’s Alek not sitting with you?” he asks.
“I’m not sure. He’s odd like that.”
Finn chuckles. “Odd. Really?”
“I mean he’s very hot and cold with me.” Why am I speaking to Finn about this?
Finn sits next to me, close but not touching. “You have a weird connection.”
“You’re telling me…”
“No, I mean literally, a weird connection. There are few of you around, and as well as the physical reaction to each other, there’s a fear of being alone, I think.”
His insight is uncomfortable. I’m not telling Finn about how the unity with Alek feels more than physical, or the need for him, which intensified the night we had sex.
“Not as weird as the connection with you,” I inform Finn.
A flicker of something I can’t fathom crosses Finn’s face. “I know. It’s only because I gave you life, though.”
“Did one of you create Alek, too?” I ask.
Finn chews his lip. “His creation was different to yours. He knows a little, but not everything.”
I glance at Alek, unsure if I should go to him or not; if Alek doesn’t know, maybe I shouldn’t know either. But Alek has moved from his position and isn’t in the room anymore.