Deerhill

Chapter 2 -Helia

Helia was finishing strapping her surfboard to the roof of her car when another car turned into the otherwise empty parking lot. It was Leo’s station wagon. Helia knew he was driving because the car’s front tire slammed into the curb by taking too sharp of a turn in. She saw someone new in the passenger’s seat as Leo drove into a parking space one away from her.

Helia smiled a little at the new friend Leo must have made. It was in his blood to collect new people, though they rarely stayed for very long. It was a trait he had inherited from his father. Considering this was a surprise visit, and one that Drew had not attended, this one was fresh off the boat.

Helia finished tying her board to her car, then gave Leo an excited wave when he opened the door and stumbled out. "Barely six am and you're already blasted?"

"Oh yea baby, had a lot of fun last night," he replied cheerily, his hands patting her bare back with a 'smacksmacksmack'. "Met a new friend, got her high last night. Got to see her soul. It was pretty cool. Helia, meet Indigo." He let go of her and gestured to the woman in the passengers seat, who was staring at Helia intensely.

Helia bent so she could see into the car better and offered a wave, not missing how Indigo's eye contact with her intensified after glancing down at her chest. If she had known Leo was going to be joining her, as well as bring a friend, she would have at least put a cover on.

"Like the color, I like it," Helia said, adjusting the strap on her blue bikini in a vain attempt at gaining some modesty. "I'm Helia, like the sun god."

"Helios," Indigo said, finally reaching up to shake Helia's hand. "Greek, right?"

"That's the one," Helia nodded, shaking Indigo's hand. "You know, a lot of people mix them up with Apollo, who's the god of light. Not the sun."

"Fascinating," Leo said with a bored tone, hip checking Helia lightly in a silent command to get out of the way. "Helia, we're off to get breakfast."

"Oh yum, the usual place then?" Helia asked. They frequented a small diner in downtown Deerhill, one with bright yellow walls and vibrant red booths. It was cozy, and the food was good, and the waiters all knew them by name and addressed them as such. They went every Saturday morning together as a group.

“Yea,” Leo said. “Where else? We gotta go home to pick up Drew.”

“You couldn’t have come by when I was at home? When I didn’t have my surfboard on my car?”

“No, why would I do that?” Leo asked. “I like throwing you through a loop. Pretty people deserve to suffer.”

“Okay,” Helia said, a laugh tugging at her throat. “Alright. Want to follow me home?”

“Yes,” Leo said, opening the drivers side door and sliding back into his seat. He closed the door after waving to Helia and said something to Indigo that Helia didn’t catch, and Indigo smacked his chest for it. That made him dissolve into a cackle.

With her friend in good hands, Helia unlocked and entered her own car, switching the engine on and buckling her seat belt. The cool morning air was beginning to turn, and she took a deep breath to steady herself out again. Surfing had helped to ease her amnesiac nightmare, and she hoped that breakfast with her friends would aid in more comfort. She pulled out of the parking lot gently, and glanced in her rearview mirror to ensure that Leo was following her.

For the past six months, once a month, Helia would wake up on the forest floor covered in dirt and blood and wounds. The first time it had happened, she went to a psychologist. The fourth time it happened, she locked herself up for a week to deal with the acceptance of what had happened to her. She was still figuring out how to live with it. Last month she cried about it. This morning she turned to her safe spaces. Surfing had always been a good way to clear her head, more so when she lived back in Hawaii. The rocky shores and freezing cold waves of the Washington coast was no reminder of home, but the feeling of flying when she was up on the board would never leave.

Her father was currently a Rear Admiral in the Navy, and he had been stationed in Hawaii for the first few years of Helia’s life. From there they moved around a lot, to wherever it was her father was stationed next. It wasn’t until Helia was in high school that her mother decided to stay in Washington and give Helia a taste of stability. It was a big jump for Helia, with little forgiveness toward her taking her time to adjust. There were a couple of beaches within an hours drive that she found she could manage to surf at if she braved the cold water, and they became her solace.

The ocean water had washed the dirt from her hair and out from underneath her fingernails, and her tattered pajamas now lay at the bottom of her laundry hamper. She no longer felt the sting of the exposed cuts and scrapes on her skin, and only tasted salt, instead of metallic blood. Leo’s imposure on her slow morning aside, it had been the best choice of dealing with the bloody aftermath of her unknown nightly adventure yet.

Helia drove down the freeway with her windows down, allowing the wind to dry her hair. Leo followed her easily, not that he had to, and Helia pulled up to her house in no time. She pulled into the driveway to park, and Leo parked alongside the curb to idle. Drew’s car was undoubtedly in the garage, so she would either have to risk the surfboard getting stole, or make him help her take it in.

She sighed as she turned off the car’s ignition and got out, shutting the oor behind her and turning to watch as Leo got out of his car too. He smiled and leaned against the side, waving to her.

“Hey sexy, come around often?” He asked, and she gave him a look.

“You really need to stop lighting up and driving,” Helia said, standing at the end of the driveway with her hands on her hips, her keys hanging from her fingers. “How long have you known this one for?”

“Like a day,” he said sheepishly. “Listen-”

“Drew inside?” Helia asked, starting up the short walkway to the front door. “I need him to help me with my surfboard. Meaning I want him to put it up for me.”

“No idea,” Leo said, ducking down again to invite Indigo inside.

“I’m telling him you’re driving high again,” Helia threatened as she unlocked the door and went inside. The door opened first to the living room, with the kitchen not far behind. Down the hallway were two rooms on either side, and then a bathroom to the right. To the left, just before the bedroom, was a rickety staircase that led to a second above level.

It was cozy in a kind of messy way. Lived in, definitely. Jackets and other miscellaneous clothing items were tossed over the backs of chairs or couches, and Drew’s skateboard was propped up against a wall. A pile of mail sat unopened on the kitchen table, which was small and square, able to fit maybe four people. The entire house was perfect for four people, fitting her and her friends comfortably.

Drew was sleeping spread across the couch with some kind of reality tv show on for ambient noise, and he was snoring softly. Helia smiled warmly and reached over, waking her friend up with a tap on his shoulder. She should have known better than to touch him by now, because he woke up violently, swinging his elbow into the couch cushion. He pushed himself up but stopped when he saw Helia, as if remembering where he was.

“Good morning,” Helia said.

“What time is it?” Drew asked, rubbing his eyes.

“Seven thirty, eight,” Helia guessed. “Give or take.”

“Mm. Early,” Drew said. “Time for breakfast?”

“Yes, Leo’s outside.”

“You go surfing?” Drew asked, probably assuming that was why Helia was up so early. “Want me to bring your board in?”

“If you would,” Helia admitted, and Drew nodded and stood up.

“Yea, you got it,” he said as he stretched, giving a low groan as he leaned to one side. He sighed softly, still waking up as he got his sandals on to go outside. Leo was constantly calling them ‘Jesus sandals’ and begged him every day to get a pair of crocs. That being said, Drew would rather die than give into any of his boyfriend’s fashion advice.

“Your boyfriend picked up a new stray,” Helia said as she went into the kitchen, finding one of her many tossed about water bottles hidden in a cabinet.

“Oh joy,” Drew said back, his southern drawl heavy with annoyance as he hit a button by the door, opening the garage. “Make him give it to his mother, it can be her problem.”

Helia chuckled to herself as he left, filling her water bottle from the dispenser on the fridge. She heard the two meet just outside of the doorway and exchange half hugs and a quick kiss before Leo came inside. His soft footsteps padded over to her, and she gave him an expectant look as he entered the kitchen. “No Indigo?: She couldn’t help but ask at his empty side.

He offered her a half shrug. “Her name is Indigo.”

“Like the color, I remember.”

“Yes. She’s nice, she’s scary. I really like her. And I think you’re really going to like her too,” he said, not being as subtle in his intentions as Helia knew he thought he was being. “She has a lot going on, but I can tell she’s good people. Hey I did the buzzing test.”

Helia considered arguing. Leo had a habit of picking people up and placing them in their lives like they were running some sort of ‘foster a friend’ organization. He wanted to save the whole world, and Helia knew that, and Drew knew that. But it was hard when most of those people left them the same way they had met them- broken. Leo's heart was in the right place, but he just couldn't seem to grasp the fact that sometimes people were alone for a reason.

The last person Leo had brought in had trashed their home and stolen their money. Drew had made the rule; no men, and Helia was pretty sure it was the only reason she was still alive. That being said, Drew would kill anyone who made a wrong move toward her or Leo. Their last had been their worst, and it had caused a huge blowup fight between the couple. Helia was shocked that Leo had gotten up the balls to bring in someone new, test passed or not.

“You and that goddamn test,” Helia said with a small shake of her head. “Walk me through that logic again.”

“If I feel sickness in their soul they’re no good,” Leo said. “If they have life in them they get to stay.”

“Have you considered perhaps that someone can trick you into thinking their soul is good?” Helia asked. Leo was a ghoul, a creature that needed human flesh or blood to survive. Not quite the same as a vampire. Ghouls had powers, touches of divinity that vampires didn’t have. Besides that, ghouls were alive. They lived and breathed and could eat human food without getting sick. They were easily injured, and were practically immortal until either succumbing to a rare sickness or being killed.

Leo’s power was being able to touch souls. He could sense it within a person, and if he touched them he could see their souls. He had touched Helia’s soul, once, a long time ago. She remembered it as an intense buzzing sensation, like her body was hosting thousands of bees. They had titled it as ‘the buzzing test’ after that.

Leo met her with a shrug. "Either way, she's too stressed out to come inside so I told her we'd meet her in the car. You're driving."

"f**k I am,"

"Drew's driving."

"Better answer," she said, giving him her water bottle when he made a grabby hand for it, watching as he took a long drink. "Did she know what she’s getting herself into, or are you just going to throw her into our lives like you always do?"

"Hey," he said, pointing the water bottle at her. "Don't take her side entirely just yet, you've barely even met her. Just because she's pretty doesn't mean she's some weak little doe."

"Cute," Helia said, feeling her face get a little hot. She heard the garage door close again and took her water bottle from Leo. "Be in the car in five, I'm gonna put a shirt on."

"Aw come on baby, shake that ass for some Kohl's Kash," he called as she went over to the staircase, and she shot him a nasty look as she went upstairs.

Why her friends had let her basically take over the upstairs escaped her. It was simple, and small, just a large room with a separate bathroom. But they had left it up to her to furnish it, and she had clothes scattered everywhere, along with varying electronics and beauty supplies. Her actual bedroom may as well have been a spare. Maybe it was because she was a girl, so they thought she needed more space. Maybe it was because they were fine kept in the confines of the living room and their bedroom. Helia could speculate for months without running out of scenarios.

She swiped a green top off of the floor and gave it a once over, deciding that it was clean enough to wear, and simultaneously untied her bikini top to trade out. Once the green top was on, she opted for longer pants to hide how shredded her ankles and legs were from stumbling around the brush all night and early that morning. No one had commented on it, and somehow her arms had stayed miraculously clear.

She sprayed some perfume on and traded the bottle out for a tube of lipgloss, which she stuffed in her pocket. On her way back downstairs she passed by a mirror and gave herself a once over. Her hair was drying in a worryingly frizzy way, and she gave a sigh as she pulled it up, dreading having to put it in a hair mask later on to try and salvage it. On her way out the door she refilled her water bottle, then was on her way to the car.

Both the left driver's seat and passenger's doors were open, and Drew was standing with his arms resting against the top, talking to the passengers sitting below him. Indigo had moved into the seat behind the driver's seat, and Leo was now side passenger. Which put Helia behind him and next to Indigo. She had no idea what they were talking about, but caught "gardening" and settled into the right passenger seat with a small huff.

"I miss much?"

"No, Leo got the new girl f****d up and did the buzzing test on her," Drew said, finally getting into the car now that their whole party was together.

Helia couldn't help but laugh. “So I heard?"

"She passed!” Leo said.

"Forgive him,” Helia said. “He grew up rich, he thinks he’s entitled to everyone’s time.”

"Ha ha," Leo said dully. "Indigo like the color, what kind of music do you like to listen to?"

Helia barely missed the way Drew hissed at him, but he was always stubborn about the type of music they played in the car. He was the only reason their band was functioning, so they let him have that little bit of control over the radio for the most part. But every now and then Leo pushed the limit by bringing a newby into it.

When Indigo hesitated with a response, Drew glanced into the rearview mirror at her. Helia knew that he thought she had heard him quietly chiding Leo for suggesting it, but there was much more on her face than social anxiety. Indigo's face was twisted slightly, like it was something that she had to really think about. Helia could think of a million channels and playlists and artists she'd rather be listening to that wasn't the classical music clambering through their speakers, so to see Indigo struggle with it was strange to her.

Eventually Indigo settled with "it isn't really something I've ever thought about." She said it matter of factly, like that was an answer in and of itself. When she was met by confused silence, she seemed annoyed, rather than equally as confused. "I have more important things to worry about."

"Oh yea, like what?" Drew tested. Indigo's lip curled in a mean way and she turned her face to the window, watching the trees pass on the streets and sidewalks outside. Helia began counting the minutes until they would be at the diner downtown, the same place they always went for Saturday morning breakfast. The car let the conversation drop, until they were startled again by Indigo's voice.

"Rock," she said, less strongly than she had said "nothing", but at least it was a real answer. Helia heard Leo laugh through his nose, and at Drew's smile knew why.

"That's Leo's favorite too," he said and reached down, flipping the station over to the one Leo usually had on. Indigo gave a gentle nod and set her head against the window, sinking into the background as Helia and her friends picked up conversation about something else.