The Century Curse

005

Diana was fearless in Ian's eyes. Scooting herself across the top of the metal guardrail, he wondered how she was unflinching as the cars zoomed past on the bridge. It was equally impressive that in doing this; she kept her eyes not on her balance, but at the fish leaping from the lake below. It was their feeding time, snatching bugs from the air. And with every successful catch, he'd hear a giggle from the girl. He started his way across, but had an opposing process, choosing to place his feet on the concrete below the rail while holding on to the top of the metal beam, slowly shifting across that way. The boy was careful not to lean his head too far forward, as he'd end up losing it to one of the passing vehicles. Unfortunately, without Diana's regenerative power, this would mean certain death. Several times he saved himself from slipping, but he was making decent progress, though it wasn't quick enough for the white-haired daredevil.

"Ian! Ian! Hurry! You're missing it!" Her playful child-like tone made his heart palpitate irregularly for a moment. But it was hard to discern from the heavy thumping that was consistent through his terrifying journey. The cool summer breeze on this sunny day relaxed his mind, but helped little with his profusely sweaty hands. He felt like he could wimp out at any moment, but as long as he kept his eyes off the water that was roughly two stories below them, he'd survive. The rhythmic movements he made became second nature, leading to a sprout of confidence in closing his eyes to keep calm.

Left foot concrete, left-hand banister, right foot follows, then right hand.

Ian kept up this game until the moment he bumped his shoulder against the calmly seated girl. He peeked nervously. It was obvious who he had just collided with. But now the fear of her retaliation due to disrupting her balance worried him. But, to his surprise, he found her blushing. She'd been doing that a lot today. His face changed hues the same, even more so than the exhaust showing from his trek over to her.

"I... I'm sorry." He slowly took his seat, balancing himself enough to not fall too far either way.

A smile grew across her face as she rubbed the shoulder he'd run into. It didn't seem to be out of pain or soreness, but out of some sort of fondness, as if she enjoyed the bump.

The two of them sat on the oddly shaped metal, quietly staring down at the rippling water. After this carried on for a bit, Diana showed a sudden expression of forgetfulness. She let out a 'duh' before making a finger gun and shooting herself in the temple. Sliding her hand down into her right pocket, she pulled out a sandwich bag of wheat bread chunks.

Looking oddly at her, he watched as she opened the bag, broke off small pieces of the dried crust, and tossed some into the water. They floated for a moment, until large lips rose from beneath, breaking the surface. The creature sucked in the scraps like a vacuum. Ian let out the tiniest of "woes," though he didn't mean to. However, as he did, she giggled again, looking over at his excited face.

"Have you never seen a fish before?" She said, bouncing her bottom up and down on the rail.

It took him a moment to reply as he was still reeling from this exciting view. "I mean, Citrus took me to an aquarium when I was younger, but it wasn't anything like this," he said. "This is so natural."

Continuing to look at him for a second, she again dug through the bag before holding out her fist. First, he looked at her reassuring smile, then her fist. She shook it once while he watched, insisting he display his palm. Conceding, he placed his hand under hers. She gently grazed her fingernails against his skin. The bread fell, absorbing the nervous sweat beading on his skin. She shook her fingers, attempting to get off the last bit of crumbs left behind.

Looks like she's as nervous as I am.

Fixating his attention on the flakes and crumbs, then the water, he tossed the entire hand full down. Once again, he was in awe of the amazing sight. Different fish would break the surface, consume the bits, then scurry off with a flip of their tail. This experience was quite the splash.

However, there was a question that'd been bothering him all day. A difficult question he knew he'd have to ask, eventually. But this beautiful moment in time they shared was enough to curb the fear he held of her. He still hadn't any answers for what she did to him, and why. Citrus was right to advise him to drive around with her and ask, but he was worried. Ian had feelings for the girl, but they were confounding him. Each passing instance, he felt more hopeless. If he brought up anything now, it would just ruin the mood. Flashes of the events that transpired in the shower tattered his mind with inconsistency in his judgment of what steps to take next.

"Hey!" she said, interrupting his thought process.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

He swallowed what felt like a lump in his throat. His mouth dried, his hands shook, his balance wavered.

Was this girl a mind reader, as well?

"It's been on my mind a lot lately. Like a lot, a lot. The way I treated you, what I did to you. I know you could probably never forgive me."

'Twas true!

Did he stop her? Did he reassure her? Ian wasn't sure what to make of the words coming out of her mouth. He didn't want her tearing herself apart. A simple explanation would suffice. Besides, the incident in the shower didn't bother him at all. At least, until the moment she bled all over him. Did he find it necessary to accept her apology? The thoughts jumbled together like a poor game of scrabble. But the one thing the boy refused to do was stop her. No, instead, he continued to listen tentatively.

"I... I'm sure you could probably guess, but I have a lot of issues." As she said this, a single tear ran down her cheek, leaving a streak glistening in its wake. "And not just this thing that's happening. I've always had problems surrounding me. And now, you and your sister are the only ones offering their help. The only people I can even talk to about this, and I could never repay you for that kindness. But what I did to you..."

She raised both palms to her face, weeping. The tears streaming out and down her arms becoming part of the lake. "I don't deserve your kindness."

Ian lifted his hand. Her shoulder shouted out for the comfort of someone's touch. But, he couldn't do it. Rather, he paused, then unpaused, and paused again. The lingering question nagged him, begged, pleaded. It even whispered deep in his ear canal.

Ask her. Ask her. Ask her. Ask Her. Ask Her. Ask Her. ASK HER!

"Then why?" The words sharpened as they slipped from his lips. The tone he spoke with was that of a deadman, seeking revenge. Surely, it stricken'd her heart, but she deserved the pain. In looking at him, his eyes spoke it all. He was furious.

It was then that he felt his heart, along with his composure, breaking. What he'd felt only moments ago was untrue. Ian wanted her to tear herself into pieces. An explanation wasn't nearly enough. He wanted her to grovel at his feet. Not only the shower, but nearly every interaction they'd had until this point had been borderline torture for him.

She paused her tears and wails for a moment. He could feel his forehead wrinkling, displaying the rage he'd been holding back all this time. And then, the dam broke. She sniffled once, then twice, before letting out a choir of yowls and hiccups.

"I'm so scared!" She could barely start her confession. Her chest looked as if it constricted her lungs. Then the hyperventilation set in, but he did nothing to help. Besides, it wasn't enough. The knuckles in his fingers cracked as he clenched a fist. "I'm so scared of dying! I'm terrified! Terrified!"

Her screams carried on for some time. But with each confession, she calmed down. With each tear, she caught her breath. With each passing moment, they both settled. It was a good thing too. The passing glances of drivers seemed threatening. Together, they turned back to watching the calm waters; the scenery dissolving the tension. An hour of silence passed before she found the strength to confide in him.

"I had a kitten when I was younger. I had to be... gosh, I don't know, eight or nine at the time. It was right around my birthday, so it's always hard to remember exactly when." She said, wiping her nose with a napkin she produced from her pocket. "These boys at school, they liked me... I guess. They followed me around every day on my walk home from school. There were four of them. One, two... yeah, four of them, and they just wouldn't leave me alone. So one day, I told them, I'd finally told them to just back off."

Diana wiped her nose again, but refused to blow it. Maybe she thought the sound she'd make was obnoxious, but he wouldn't have cared. It's something everyone has to do. Though his thoughts lingered, he caught the glimpse she stole. Nodding his head, he reassured her of his attentiveness. But perhaps it was a glance waiting to hear his judgements during or after the story. Maybe this was finally the time. Ian raised his hand and laid it on her shoulder. He didn't want to interrupt her with words, but he hoped sharing this sentiment would clear her mind of any negative thoughts trying to convince her to lie to him or otherwise. No, from this point on, it was all or nothing for both of them. They'd owed each other that much.

"They didn't care for my rejection, but after that, they stopped bothering me, but they still followed me. They were preventing me from making any friends, having any time to myself except at home, and worse of all, I didn't feel safe. Anyway, a year passed, and I'd stopped seeing them around. And even though things weren't great at home with my parents, it was at least back to normal."

Diana swung her feet back and forth as far as she could take them. "Then one day, I made an actual friend. Something I'd never felt I truly had. It was this tiny golden kitten, abandoned by the world, just like me. I stopped by its alley every day after school to feed it and play with it. Safe to say, I spent more hours in that alley than I did my bed during that time. Then one day when I was stopping by, Spencer, my friend, didn't run up to me. No, instead I spotted a flickering light coming from a nearby garbage cans."

Ian felt a twist in his stomach. The face she made petrified him. It was as if death had taken her soul as she was sitting there. It resembled that of a corpse, but one that experienced immense pain before being frozen forever.

"The smell. That smell of something burning stayed with me ever since. Spencer screamed at the bottom of that trash can, and I could do nothing but stand there and watch." Blood streamed from her mouth, her canine puncturing a hole in her bottom lip. Ian was unsure if he should maintain his position or attempt to comfort the girl further. But slowly she snapped herself out of whatever dark vision she was seeing, though she never cleaned the blood. He felt certain she wasn't even aware of her self-inflicted injury, but felt it wise to hold off on informing her.

"I went home and cut my wrist that night. I made sure to dig the razor as deep as I could. But as I laid there on my parent's kitchen floor, a fresh feeling came out." Looking over at him, she let loose once more. "Fear. One moment, I wanted to die, but when my consciousness started to fade, I screamed, I cried, I yelled for my parents, and in the end, they stopped the bleeding. They say humans have an instinct to survive, and when I felt it for the first time that night, I realized something. I knew the fear of death."

Diana wiped her face with her forearm, after which, she looked directly into Ian's hazel eyes. "This is going to sound selfish, and you can do whatever you have to after I tell you, but... I just wanted someone else to experience the pain I am suffering through."

Ian's heart shattered. It'd been weakening all along, but her last confession shattered it to pieces. The anger fell away, and though he still harbored indifference for the girl, a wave of forgiveness came forward. Fear of losing his life consumed him the night she attacked, but she'd been experiencing that same fear for practically her entire life. The thought of living like that terrified him. The fact was clear. She's a formidable individual. And she'd have to persist in order to carry on with her new daily routine. This curse, this damned power, was now that fear being conjured and amplified by infinity.

Deep down, his hatred still brewed for what she did to him, but it had subsided... for now. But for the moment, his hand still rested on Diana's shoulder and it was time to pull away. But as he did, the girl turned towards him and reached her arms around his chest, embracing him. Butterflies fluttered around in his gut. However, he wasn't certain if their presence was due to the embrace or caused by the sensation of losing his balance.

Regardless, the fact was that they were both falling off the bridge. At first, he felt fear, but not a moment later, he reached his arms back around her, returning her hug. This was it. He felt this was a suitable way to die, and with his back facing the water, he was sure it'd lead to death or a disability. It seemed proper to close his eyes before his demise. Thinking back, the lake water was too murky to determine how deep it was, but if this was his time to depart from this form into the next, he accepted it. Her warmth was calming, after all.

As they landed, it felt as if he'd crushed his back against a hard surface and the water flew up around them. Letting go of the girl, he floated in the dirty liquid, listening as the rain they caused pitter pattered above him. His back was tingling, but that seemed to be the only damage. Ian regained his sense of direction, and the two of them popped back up out of the water. Shock showed across both their faces, but giggles followed, as they were not only safe but happy. They swam back to Citrus's car and contemplated how they were going to drive back without soaking the seats.

#

Citrus, back at home, her head deep in the occult books she'd borrowed from the library, felt a sudden irritating chill down her neck.