Deerhill

Chapter 6 - Helia

Chapter 6 - Helia

The whole day had sucked. Their Caribbean Reef Octopus at Shayside Aquarium had escaped his tank, and it had taken the entire staff a very panic-filled hour to find him. A group of middle schoolers had gone through for a camp’s field trip, and at least three of them had something to say about Helia’s hastily done french braids. By the time her shift was over, she was tired, sore, and frustrated.

She had gotten a message from Jeremy around lunch time, asking if she wanted to head to the beach after they both got off of work, and it was the only thing that pulled her through to the other side. Helia’s friends were an afterthought, and she begrudgingly looped Leo in. She had expected his usual reaction, which was some sly remark, or heavy hitter. But instead she was met with the thumbs up emoji, and that was it. Somehow that was much worse than a lecture.

Jeremy had agreed to pick her up from work to go straight there. Which meant she couldn’t change, and there would be no surfing. But even if she did want to surf, she’d have to have Drew or Leo get her board out of the garage for her, and she didn’t want to deal with their heavy and disapproving looks. Skipping the trip home was, unfortunately, a necessity.

She was all smiles when she got into Jeremy’s car, and he leaned over once she was in the car to give her a quick kiss. “Ready to get out into the sunshine?”

“Oh yea,” Helia said, shutting her door and fastening her seat belt. “Thank you for coming to get me. Work was rough.”

“Surely the goldfish didn’t give you that hard of a time,” Jeremy joked as he pulled away from the curb, and Helia let out a heavy sigh.

“No, but one of the seals nearly took off my hand when I was feeding it. Oh- and our octopus escaped.”

“Escaped??”

“Yea. Not the first time it’s happened, either. The second time. And no, before you ask, it wasn’t my fault. This time.”

“I feel like there’s a story there,” Jeremy said with a chuckle.

Helia shrugged, sinking down into her seat to put her feet up on the dash. “Well maybe when I first started working here, I didn’t put the cover down on the tank all the way my first time feeding him. And maybe he escaped and terrorized a group of ten year olds during snack time. And maybe I cried all of my mascara off because I thought I was going to get fired.”

“Wow,” Jeremy said after a moment, chuckling. “That’s quite the story. You’re sure it wasn’t you this time?”

“Yes,” Helia said, rolling her eyes with a smile. “One hundred percent sure. Anyway, how was your day?”

“Long,” he said, stopping abruptly at a stoplight, a little too close to the car in front of them for Helia to be comfortable. “Boring. I work in an office, so, surely nothing beats your work stories. The most exciting thing about my day is when someone’s lunch goes missing.”

“Yea, but you like it,” Helia said, watching out the window as Jeremy inched closer. “I think that’s close enough, Jer, you’re going to hit them.”

“I’m not going to hit them,” he said. “And I do like it, I guess. I don’t know, how much can you enjoy accounting?”

“You like your coworkers- Jeremy I’m serious, just be patient,” Helia said when Jeremy inched forward again. “The light will turn green any moment.”

“Do you have little stickers like that on your car?” He asked, squinting at a mint colored ‘go green’ sticker plastered on the front car’s bumper.

“Uh,” Helia squinted too, then breathed in relief when the light turned green. “No. But Drew and Leo’s car does. My mom told me I wasn’t allowed to put anything on my car when they bought it for me. You like your coworkers.”

“They’re okay,” he shrugged.

They stopped for food, then made it to the beach in record time. Jeremy was pushing ninety the whole way, but they made it nonetheless. She wasn’t shocked to see that Leo was already there with Drew. She was irritated that they had decided to crash her date, but it had been something she had anticipated while hoping against. The sight of Indigo with them, however, made Helia stumble down the beach trail. Jeremy caught her arm to steady her, and she gave him an appreciative ‘thank you’.

Leo, hearing her arrival, turned and gave her a slow spread grin. “Oh hey beautiful, what’re you doing here on this fine day?”

“Haha, Leo, wow,” Helia said, trying to pretend like him being there was entirely coincidental and not at all premeditated by him like a psychopath. “Great minds must think alike.”

“Or something like that,” he said, the light in his eyes hungry. Starved for more chaos. Helia had no idea what his plan was, but she knew he was planning something, and that never meant anything good. “Jeremy, wonderful to see you again. Have you met Indigo?”

“New class pet?” Jeremy asked. The wrong thing to say, judging by the immediate shift in Indigo’s shoulders. Leo was used to his jabs, so he only responded with a casual shrug.

“You must be Helia’s hobby,” Indigo responded, reaching over to extend her hand. Helia’s face burned, and she looked at Jeremy, watching as he swallowed a mean comment back. He took Indigo’s hand and shook it once, then the both of them dropped their hands as fast as they could without being rude. “I’m Indigo.”

“Pleasure, I’m Jeremy.”

“My friend,” Helia added. “Not a, hobby.”

“Of course,” Indigo said, turning an expressionless look to Jeremy. “My mistake.”

“I picked this one up a few days ago,” Leo said, patting Indigo’s back. “I’ve been trying to get her out around the town, into the sun- while we have it. Indigo just moved here.”

Indigo gave a slow, purposeful nod. “About a week ago. I saw Leo and Drew performing at the bar downtown, and he picked me up from there, with his weird hand trick.”

“Ah, the buzzing” Jeremy said, holding his hand up and wiggling his fingers. “It didn’t work for me. I sat there feeling like an i***t for a whole five minutes until he gave up.”

Indigo looked at Leo questioningly and he gave her a shrug. “I wanted him to pass real bad, I was trying to give him as many chances as I could.”

“He still talks about it like it’s not just some kind of prank,” Jeremy said with a chuckle. Helia couldn’t confirm or deny that claim. Leo had something special about him, and she herself had felt the buzzing. And he was- generally- good about using his little hand trick to vet people. It was like he could always just, sense someone’s mood, and what they needed. But still, to someone who the trick didn’t work on, of course it would sound ridiculous.

Again, Leo was used to Jeremy’s less than charming behavior around her friends, but Indigo was not. She fixed him a sour look coated in fake curiosity, her green eyes sharp and intense, as if trying to pierce her gaze right through him. “I heard that it’s usually a bad sign if it doesn’t work on you.”

“Did he tell you that?”

“Interesting,” Indigo said, standing a little straighter while taking a step back at the same time. “Do you talk to Helia’s loved ones this way because she’s always allowed it, or because she’s given up trying to correct your bad behavior?”

“I’m not saying anything,” Jeremy said, looking at Helia for help.

Helia had a second to choose a side, and she decided to take Jeremy’s. Leo and Drew would still love her for it, and she didn’t know Indigo enough to really care if she would forgive her or not. Even if she was beautiful, and mysterious, and Helia wished that if she had to be there she would have at least been wearing that little green bikini again. If she sided with her friends, Jeremy may toss her out for the rest of the summer and wait until Robin came home. She wanted to make this last as long as possible, and was afraid of missing the chance she’d been given.

“He doesn’t mean anything by it,” Helia said, and the look Indigo gave her made her feel like she’d been shot. “Really. Jeremy’s a skeptic, it’s endearing.”

“It’s-”

“So Jeremy, talk to me about bugs,” Drew said, walking over and interrupting Indigo’s sharp response by looping an arm around his shoulder and dragging him down the beach. “There’s a few critters by this log down there that I have some questions about.”

“I’m not an Entomologist,” Jeremy said modestly, but followed Drew anyway. Helia let out a breath of relief at the near escape from disaster, happy to face being in the lion’s den with Leo and Indigo alone.

“Real charmer you got there,” Indigo said, making Leo laugh. “If he’s brave enough to talk to us like that, I can only imagine how he talks to you in private.”

Helia opened her mouth to respond, but her phone singing the national anthem startled her, and Indigo’s stern expression shifted into concern and confusion. Helia fumbled through her pockets until she found her phone and pulled it out, sighing at the ID titled “Dad” flashing across her screen. “I gotta take this.”

“f**k Hels, I forgot I did that,” Leo said. He had stolen her phone and changed her ring tones for her parents a few months ago, and it had been so long since either of them had called her that Helia had forgotten too. “Oh that’s gold, that’s really gold.”

“Annoying is what it is,” she said and took a deep breath before answering the phone and stepping away. “Hello?”

“Helia,” John Mathas's usual, serious tone greeted her. “How are you?”

“I’m good,” she said. “I’m at the beach. What’s up?”

“The fire station is doing an event for The Fourth of July,” he answered matter of factly, and Helia knew exactly what was coming next. “I expect you to be there.”

The fire station held a barbecue every year for the Fourth of July, as well as an indoor auction afterward. The whole community was invited, of course, and they did it to raise money for the station. Helia thought that they deserved to just have the funding, considering that they saved lives. But her parents were bitter from their own military backgrounds, and held fast to the idea of everyone needing to struggle more than necessary for what they had. Her father had spent roughly thirty years in the Navy, and had been an E-9 rank as a Sergeant Major since Helia was twelve. Helia’s mother had stayed put in Washington once she’d reached middle school, but that didn’t mean they would ever get away from the community’s government jobs. From banquets to fundraisers to presentations, Helia was expected to show up for it all.

Show up, and behave. She was good at one, less good at the other. She had struggled with the pressure of it all since she was a little girl, going alone with her mother to military events as physical proof that her father existed while he was overseas. And even then, Helia preferred it to when he went with them. When he came with them, she was expected to be perfect, a reflection of him and his high standing reputation. Even if it was for something as simple and fun as a fourth of July barbecue for a fundraiser for the fire station.

“Of course,” was Helia’s response. “Yes, sir, I’ll be there. Same as last year, right?”

“Yes,” he answered. “Me and your mother are coming to visit, as well. So we will be there.”

Helia’s heart dropped, and she felt like puking into the sand below her. “Oh,” she managed to sound more enthused than she really was. “You will be? Good.”

“We’re flying in on the third, we’ve already booked the hotel. We’ll be there for the weekend,” he said, his tone nearly accusatory. “I hope that won’t be a problem?”

“Of course not,” she lied, her heart hammering in her chest. “Why would it be a problem?”

“We’ll want to see you,” he said, as if that was supposed to be a good answer. “I just mean with your friends, and all. You’ll find a way to carve us into your very busy schedule.”

“Carving time out for you and mom is never a problem,” Helia said, a bitter taste starting to swell in the back of her mouth. Every sentence that came out of her father’s mouth made her feel more and more unstable. Like the ground was going to open up under her and swallow her whole. “I’d love to see you two, I’m very excited. Um, can I bring someone to the fundraiser?”

“Who?” Her father asked, his tone dark. Sharp, and full of distrust. It was well deserved, but still hurtful, and it cut Helia deeper than she anticipated.

“Jeremy,” she said. “Can Jeremy come with me? I’ve brought him to things before, with mom. You met him at the military ball last year.”

“That’s right,” he said. “Valencia, I remember him now. Yes, he can come with you. He was, fine. He kept you upright for the better half of that event, so I suppose it would be foolish to tell you no, if record still stands.”

Again, his words were hurtful, but fair. Helia had spent most of that ball so drunk she couldn’t see straight, and the only reason she’d made it through was because of Jeremy. He’d kept her decent, and kept her steady every time she had to walk, and brought things to and from their table. She’d certainly paid it back in full that night when they went to his apartment, but all her parents knew was how terribly she held her liquor. “Maybe I got a little crazy. I won’t drink this time.”

“Don’t make me false promises,” her father said flatly. “We both know you will. Your melancholy proceeds you, and so long as you won’t put a gun to your lips, you’ll replace it with a bottle.”

“Hey I gotta go, dad,” Helia said, tears stinging her eyes. “Was that all you called me for?”

“Yes. I’ll update you with details to follow,” he said and hung up before Helia could try and coax an ‘I love you’ out of him.

She pocketed her phone again with a heavy sigh and took a moment to herself before having to face her friends again. But when she turned around, Leo and Indigo were gone. She spotted them way down the beach, instead, talking with Drew and Jeremy. Judging by the tense set of Indigo’s shoulders, and Leo’s wide grin, it wasn’t going well. Helia shook sand out of her flip flops and headed down the beach after them.

She had just opened her mouth to greet them when an ugly look crossed Jeremy’s face. Helia didn’t hear what Indigo had said, but she did see the hand come up to strike her. She caught Jeremy by the wrist and held him there, the look on her face fierce, and unafraid. As if him trying to hit her didn’t even rattle her. The shocked and appalled looks on Leo and Drew’s faces made her feel less insane, and they all stood there in silence for a moment.

“Ooh,” Indigo said, holding tight when Jeremy moved to pull his hand away. “Careful. You don’t wanna lose your cool.”

“Did you just try and hit her?” Helia asked, startling them all out of their shock. Jeremy looked over his shoulder at her and pulled his hand back again, this time Indigo letting him go. He managed to laugh it off and shook his head.

“Nah, nah of course not Helia. We were talking about fighting, and Indigo was talking about how she’s stronger than she looked, so I told her to stop my hand. My mistake, I didn’t believe her. I see how that may have looked, though.” To Indigo, he added, “which, now I’m sorry I misjudged you. You could probably kick my ass.”

“I know I could,” Indigo said. Leo and Drew’s mouths had closed, and they didn’t immediately try to disprove what Jeremy was saying, so Helia chose to believe him. Although it didn’t do much to settle the sick, icy feeling in her stomach.

“I gotta go, I have errands to run,” Jeremy said apologetically to Helia. “I know we just got here, I’m sorry. You can come with me..?”

“That’s okay, she can ride home with us,” Indigo said before Helia could take him up on the offer. Helia opened her mouth to argue, her body tense with need and a desperate want for release, but Jeremy beat her to it with a hesitant smile.

“Thanks,” he said before Helia could plead her case, and let go of her. “I’ll see you later, Helia. Text me, okay?”

“Okay, I guess,” Helia said. He was brave enough to press a kiss into the side of her head, and then he was climbing back up the beach toward the parking lot. Helia spun on her heels to fix Indigo a mean look, her insides churning with anxiety, and her only source of release leaving her there to die. “Do you have a f*****g screw loose or something?”

“You can find better men to sleep with,” Indigo said coolly. “He’s not doing you very much good.”

“You met him for five minutes. You don’t know him.”

“And I’m assuming you do?” Indigo asked. “How intimately do you know him?”

“f**k you,” Helia snapped. “You’re a freaky little weirdo that Leo picked up, and that’s all your opinion means to me. I’ve known you for two days, if that. And if the record still stands, you’ll be gone in a month. I don’t want your opinion on things that you don’t understand.”

“Then go home with him,” Indigo said, nodding towards the parking lot. “He hasn’t left yet. He’s not even to his car. You can catch up. If deep inside your soul, you think I’m going to be more insufferable to be around than him, go home with him. No one is making you stay here with us.”

“Indigo’s right,” Drew said after a moment of silence, and it hit Helia deep inside her stomach. “I think it’s better if you come home, Helia.”

“My dad called me, my parents are coming to town,” Helia said, feeling guilty now for lashing out without even telling them what was wrong. “For The Fourth.”

“Fuuuck, that’s right,” Leo said as Drew reached out and stroked her arm comfortingly. “The fire station’s barbecue. That fundraiser they do every year. Your dad’s coming, really? Normally they just trust you to show up and spend their money.”

“Yea, we won Leo’s dad a new grill set last year,” Drew said. “Really, both parents?”

“Both of them,” Helia said miserably. “And they’re going to want to see me for the whole f*****g weekend. I asked if Jeremy could come with me, and at least my dad granted me that.”

“Hold up,” Leo said. “Run that by me again. Why Jeremy?”

“Jeremy always comes with me. They like him.”

“Bring Indigo this year!” Leo suggested brightly, placing his hands on Indigo’s shoulders, despite her confused expression. She looked totally lost on what was going on, but that didn't stop Leo any. “Come on, she’s so serious and sober your parents from the black lagoon will be obsessed.”

“I can’t Leo,” Helia said. “They will never let me bring a girl with me anywhere ever again.”

“Eh, throw her hair up and she could pass for a boy,” Drew said, making Indigo tilt her head in consideration.

“How imperative is it to your safety that you have a chaperone?” Indigo asked.

“What do you mean, my safety?” Helia asked. “And it’s not a chaperone, it’s… I’m bringing a guest. A friend. Just someone coming with me to hold my hand while I deal with my parents. Trust me. It’s not something you want to go to.”

“And your go-to person is Jeremy?” Indigo asked.

“He’s very well behaved in public. My parents like him a lot.”

“What if Robin comes home before the fundraiser?” Drew asked, making Helia feel cold from head to toe. “Are you willing to risk being stood up for that date?”

Helia hadn’t thought about that. Robin probably wouldn’t be gone for much longer, and the fourth of july was a couple of weeks away. A backup wasn’t possible with her parents, they’d just take it as another chance to see her and her loved ones as unreliable. And they would need to know yesterday if Helia was bringing a girl, so that they could pretend to be normal about it to her face. As much as she wanted to believe that Jeremy could pull through, she wasn’t sure she wanted to risk it.

That being said, her parents would kill her if she brought a girl. The beach darkened into an office, a bitter taste filled her mouth. Her heartbeat pounded her skull like a mallet while blood rushed in her ears, her fingertips starting to go numb. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t-

“I’m going to talk to him about it,” she said. “I’ll ask him to go, and we’ll figure out the Robin details later.”

“Wait you’re- Helia are you serious?” Leo asked as she turned and started back up the beach. “Helia, do not go home with that man!”

“Gotta go over the battle plans Leo, it’s life or death,” she called back over her shoulder.

“You’re cohorting with the enemy! I’m telling you, Indigo’s right here!”

Helia waved him off. She had just started on the trail up towards the parking lot when she stumbled over some driftwood and hit the sand. She managed to catch herself on her hands, and was giggling when she straightened up. As she turned to tell her friends she was okay, she saw the body laying among the driftwood. A woman, her age, torn to shreds. Her jaw had been broken and hung open in a horrible way. Her entire abdomen had been cracked open like a red fruit, and there were chew marks on her rib case. Some of her organs were in tact, her heart was missing.

Helia had no idea who was screaming until she realized it was her. Her friends rushed over to her, and Jeremy started to come down from the parking lot, hearing her scream. Drew had her wrapped in his arms as soon as he got to her, and Leo had his phone to his ear to call the cops. Indigo tilted her head as she examined the woman, arguably the calmest one out of the four of them.

“What happened?” Jeremy asked, coming back up over the sand hill. His eyes swept over all of them before falling on the body, and he took a startled step back. “Oh, s**t. I didn’t even notice her.”

“I tripped on her arm,” Helia said, her view now being smothered by Drew’s quilted jacket. “I think it was her arm. Oh, god, I don’t know.”

“What’s left of her arm,” Indigo said, making Helia shudder.

“Cops are on their way,” Leo said, hanging up his phone. The friends shared a silent look of worry, and Helia wished she could remember where she had been a few nights ago.The body looked old, old enough to have been paired with one of her strange disappearances, and it wasn’t the first time Helia had woken up with blood in her teeth.

Making her way back to her house, covered in blood that wasn’t hers, missing a shoe or a nail or an article of clothing had become a once a month occurrence. She’d woken up in ditches, front porches, and the middle of the forest. Last time it was the town’s only Walmart parking lot. She prayed that it was too far away to have any correlation to this body.

Six months ago Helia had gone to a party her ex-girlfriend Molly was going to. They’d broken up, but Helia, dopesick and desperate, went looking for one more fix. Instead, what she found was Takaan Dowry. Tall, beautiful, and pushy with alcohol until Helia had been spinning. She didn’t remember a lot of the night. Just a gnarly bite deep into her shoulder that had taken forever to heal. Jeremy hadn’t even asked what happened the next time he’d seen her naked, and she wasn’t going to tell him that she slept with another man.

She did remember, however, a silent ride back home with Molly and her feeder, August. She faintly remembered August having to shove her through doorways and practically carry her out to the car while Molly held back Takaan. She had gone for Molly, and left with nothing she had wanted. She didn’t remember what Molly had told Leo, and Leo refused to talk about that night first. Helia wouldn’t bring it up, in fear of finally being reprimanded for it.

Still. It was days like these that she was in near tears for answers.