Suzy Adams was excited. It was one day before her
birthday and she was turning sixteen.
Now no longer a child or a teenager, she would be an
adult, well at least in her mind.
Her father had promised her something special, something
that every member of his family had been given on their sixteenth he had said,
though Suzy was a little unsure. Her father had seemed a little preoccupied
lately; well more than usual.
He was a strange man, all the other kids at school said
so, none of their father’s had trained their daughters how to use a knife or
how to watch the people around them.
He was her father though and he still made time to check
that each morning she carried the knife he had given her on her fourteenth
birthday and that she watched what went on around here and made sure she had
her lunch and hugged her.
But recently he had told her to keep an eye out for
anything strange.
She had asked what he had meant by 'strange.'
"Just unusual, girl. Things that don't belong or
seem too weird for you," he had said in his gruff manner.
He often called her girl when he was trying to not sound
serious even though he was. So she kept an eye out for anything ‘strange.’
So far all she had seen was Mr Johnson carrying a large
sack into his cellar one afternoon when she had been walking home from school.
He had dropped the sack waving at Suzy with a smile. She had waved back and
told her father what she had seen when she got home. Mr Johnson had moved away
two days later, something about a sick mother, or so people had said.
Ever since the strange man had tried to take her and the
others away on her thirteenth birthday Suzy's father had been training her to
keep an eye out, to watch those around her.
She still had the bone flute she had taken from the piper
man all those years ago, it was in a small box she kept under her bed along
with a few other items she had found. Like a red feather three inches in
length, no birds in her neighborhood had such feathers or the twisted stone
that never quite looked right.
It was after a long day at school where they taught, to
Suzy, unimportant things which she learnt anyway that she finally walked up the
steps to her front porch. The bus always stopped too far away from her home so
she had to walk five extra blocks every day. Suzy did not mind though , the
walk let her think and now it let her watch for strange things. Also Suzy liked
the exercise.
Suzy stepped into the front hall and shrugged off her
coat hanging it up behind the door, winter was on its way and the afternoons
had become cold. Her father had not yet returned home so Suzy walked to the
refrigerator and took out a carton of milk, as she poured herself a glass she
looked at the post on the table.
One envelope caught her eye, it had the crest of the
Raven Home Mental Institute. Only her
mother sent mail from there.
She had been locked up ever since Suzy had turned three.
Her father never spoke about Suzy's mother or why she was at the mental
institute, or the nut bin as her friend Jessi called it.
Suzy smiled as she heard her friend's voice saying nut bin.
Suzy opened the letter and read a surprisingly lucid account saying how proud
her mother was of Suzy's upcoming sixteenth birthday. It went on a little about
rather normal things when the last paragraph caught Suzy’s eye.
Beware the Jabberwocky, my girl.
The jaws that bite, the hands that grab
This made Suzy pause, why would her mother include an old
Through the Looking Glass poem, and it was not even correct.
Well she is in a
nut bin thought Suzy to herself, and put the letter down.
As she finished the glass of milk she heard her father's
truck pull up into the driveway. She ran out to greet him and help him unpack. The
rest of the night passed by rather uneventfully and Suzy said goodnight to her
father at 9:30, she had a big day the next day and wanted to be up early.
Thirty minutes the fifteen year old Suzy Adams lay her head down and fell
asleep.
Suzy sat bolt upright in her bed, something had awoken
her. She sat in the dark listening to the house around her but all she heard was
the crickets outside and the murmur of the downstairs TV. So she lay back down
and closed her eyes thinking that it must have been a bad dream when she
remembered her father saying always
listen to your instincts, girl. Listen to what they say before making up your
mind.
Her instincts had woken her so Suzy breathed in deeply,
calming the chattering in her mind and really listened. What she heard first
was the TV or what she thought had been the TV.
Her father's voice floated up quietly along with another voice.
She had never heard a voice like this before, it hissed and burbled as it
spoke.
Suzy climbed out of her bed and grabbed her knife from
next to the bed and held it tightly in her fist. She creaked open her bedroom
door and listened again, the voices were clearer now.
"She was never part of the deal," this was her
father's voice.
"I've decided to change the deal," the other
voice hissed.
Silence followed the remark and Suzy crept forward to
peer over the stairway banister. She could see a light coming from the TV room
but not either of the speakers so she quietly made her way down the stairs
making sure to avoid all the creaking floorboards. After a few minutes of
creeping in which the conversation had restarted, though Suzy had missed most
of it due to her concentrating on the boards underfoot, she stepped noiselessly
onto the ground floor.
As she walked past the old clock in the hallway she
glanced at the time, it was 11:30.
Who could be
visiting so late, wondered Suzy to herself as she peered around the corner
into the TV room.
There she saw her father, still dressed in his work clothes
and a stranger.
Not a stranger,
someone strange said Suzy to herself as she looked and watched the
stranger.
It was a tall man with short black hair wearing a suit
but no tie which surprised Suzy. In her town suits and ties went together like
Halloween and costumes, not open collared shirts, fancy jackets with
handkerchiefs sticking out of the pocket.
Her mind made up Suzy took a quick breath and walked into
the TV room.
"Dad?" Suzy asked with a yawn, "What's
going on?"
The two men stopped talking as the teenager walked in and
Suzy's father said "Nothing girl, go back to bed."
Before Suzy could answer the man said "Is this your
daughter Jack? My she has grown."
"Yes well, she has a big day tomorrow and
should…"
"Ah yes, her big day," said the man and turned
to Suzy, "It's your birthday, isn't it Suzy?"
Suzy nodded and did not answer as the man pulled
something from his pocket, "I have a gift for you."
It was a silver ring with two small yellow stones, which
to Suzy looked like eyes, "Sorry but I can't take such an expensive
gift."
"You heard the girl, now I…" her father started to say when the man looked at Jack and his mouth shut with an audible snap.
"You know the rules, Jack. No interfering."
"You heard the girl, now I…" her father started to say when the man looked at Jack and his mouth shut with an audible snap.
"You know the rules, Jack. No interfering."
Suzy looked at her father who simply looked at her then
at the ring unable to say anything.
"Go on, don't worry about the price, I managed to get it for cheap," said the man smoothly.
"Go on, don't worry about the price, I managed to get it for cheap," said the man smoothly.
Suzy's hand slowly lifted to take the ring, out the corner
of her eye she saw her father shaking with anger.
If you see
something strange…
"Sorry but no thank you. It is a lovely gift but not
for me," said Suzy after a minute of silence.
The man glared at the teenager and growled "Take it
you little bitch, or your father will suffer for it."
Suzy looked at the man in fear and extended her trembling
hand unable to take her eyes off the man's. They were black, not dark like she
had originally thought but pitch black. As her hand stopped above the ring she
took a step forward and stabbed her switch blade into the man's leg.
He roared with anger and threw the ring to one side, Suzy
darted back and her father picked her up in his arms as he dashed out into the
hallway.
"Clever girl, foolish but clever… now listen go to
my room and get the box under my bed,"
"But," Suzy started to say.
"Just go, we don't have time. Now run!"
Her father pushed Suzy in the direction of the stairs and
took a walking stick next to the old clock, while the fifteen year old ran up
the stairs into his room. She heard shouts and growls, the strange voice she
had first heard was back and now it was angry.
"I'll have that little bitch, Jack! She can't escape
me!" it hissed.
In that instant her mother's letter flashed through her
mind:
Beware the Jabberwocky
Suzy burst into her gather's room and fumbled under the
bed and dragged a large black wooden box from it. She turned to run downstairs
when she realised it was quiet, very quiet.
Clutching the box Suzy stumbled downstairs suddenly
afraid of what she would find.
She dashed into the room and stopped.
Her father hung in the air in front of her, simply
floating there. The stranger sat on one of the chairs bleeding from a wound in
his expensive jacket, the blood soaking the chair, next to him a slim sword lay
broken on the ground. It had been inside the walking stick.
Suzy did not look at the blood, she only saw her father
in the air.
"Now … be a good girl and give me the box,"
hissed the man in the strange voice.
Numbly Suzy looked at the man and held the black box
tighter, the man clenched his fist and her father groaned in pain.
"Give me the box or your father suffers,"
growled the man.
Suzy opened the box and looked inside, after a few
seconds she looked up at the strange man and said “I think I understand now.”
With that she took out an object from the box and let it
fall to the ground, items scattering all over the floor. In her small hand Suzy
held a large metal sliver that looked like it had been broken from a bigger
metal item.
The man drew back in anger and fright, it was the sliver
of an ancient weapon that had hurt him ages ago.
Suzy flung herself at the man as her father dropped to
the ground hard, the stranger’s magic released. The teenager clawed with the
sliver at the man’s face as he reared up from the chair. It only managed to
slice into his stomach as he stood.
To Suzy’s horror the man roared in pain as the wound
started to smoke. Swatting at the teenager with a backhand the man sent Suzy
crashing back into the hall. Suzy fought back her tears and the blackness at
the corner of her eyes as she hit the wall and crumpled to the ground.
Get up! Get up!
He’s coming! her mind screamed at her, she tried to get her hands
underneath her. But the blow had been too strong for the teenager and she was
too groggy.
A shadow appeared above her.
The man stood glaring at the girl, his eyes were now
completely black, not an inch of white showed around the iris. Suzy raised her
head defiantly to look at the man as he reared, back arched. He spat and roared
in an infernal voice.
I’m dead, said
Suzy to herself and tried look her killer in the eye but he whipped around and
smashed a hand into her father who had stabbed him from behind with the metal
sliver. Jack went flying the length of the room to hit the fireplace on the
other end, the stone breaking around his body.
The man continued to roar out as smoke streamed from his
entire body. The infernal voice soon stopped hissing and a man’s voice croaked
out in agony as the stranger fell into a heap on the floor and died.
It was many minutes before Suzy could get up without her
vision almost blacking out from pain. But in the end she levered herself to her
feet and limped to where her father lay crumpled.
“Suzy?” he whispered as she touched him.
“I’m here Dad,” she said, keeping the sob from her voice.
“Help me up,” Jack said softly.
Suzy helped her father into a sitting position as he said, “I need you to do one more thing.”
Suzy helped her father into a sitting position as he said, “I need you to do one more thing.”
The teenager looked at her father as in the distance
sirens sounded at the approaching police, a neighbour had heard the commotion
in the end.
“In the box was a bead bracelet… get it,” whispered her
father.
His voice scared Suzy as she limped back to where the box
had fallen, she had never heard him speak so softly before, so weakly. Suzy
sniffed as she looked around where the box had fallen trying not to cry as she
looked under the chair where the man had sat, trying to ignore the blood.
There lay a bracelet made from dark red and black beads,
it looked like a Buddhist prayer bead. She scooped it up and hurried over to
her father, kneeling next to him.
“Dad? … Dad, I have it.”
“Huhn?” said her father as he fought the rising darkness.
He put his hand over hers and said “This is for your
birthday. You’re no longer a little girl.”
Suzy glanced at the clock on the TV room wall, her father
was correct. The time was 12:15, she was now sixteen.
“I’m proud of you my girl,” her father whispered, “You
did good back there… I’m … so…”
“Dad?” said Suzy quietly, “Daddy?”
Her father was dead.
Suzy started crying then unable to keep the tears back
any longer, “Daddy? … Please?”
Her voice cracked as she sobbed and hugged her father for
the last time.
A few minutes later two policemen burst through the door
and stopped. They had not expected to see a dead man, his eyes wide open and
with a look of sheer terror stamped on his face or a sixteen year old girl cradling
her father’s dead body.
“Dispatch, we need ambulances here immediately, this
one’s bad,” one of the patrolmen said into his walkie-talkie holstering his
gun. His partner approached the crying girl who did not even acknowledge is
existence.
Suzy Adams had reached sixteen, no longer a child but an
adult. All she wished for was her father to still be alive.
