Tala

Chapter 2

Nathan wakes up in sweat, again. Teenage years are weird, he knows too well being a teen will be the worst of his life, and his dreams have become more vivid and more horrid. He wipes off the sweat with his towel as he hears his mom yell at him to get up. He stopped watching scary movies like his parents advised, but some of the shit he sees...there’s no way he has seen it before. He is convinced he should be a horror writer, he has a bad ass imagination.

It’s 06:45 am and he needs to be at the swimming pool for practice in 20 minutes.

He grabs his gym bag and starts to change.

Jay is in the kitchen packing his lunch as Martin sits in the dining room reading his students' essays.

“What time will you be home today?” Jay asks as she hands him his packed lunch.

“When I feel like it…” he says and walks out without making any eye contact with either of his parents.

Jay smiles slightly..and obviously in fear.

On his way to practice he tries to remember the dream he had, no... the nightmare. There was a wicked demon looking at him in the mirror. No, that’s not right, he had turned into a monster? No..that’s not right either, there was a ghost...but he can’t recall what happened next, except that he was terrified. Sometimes the dream changes into a darker one, where he is inside darkness, or he dies, yet he can see blue fire somewhere in the distance. Sometimes there are grey eyes watching him and other times, he feels the eyes watching him even after he wakes up.

After swim practice, he skips school to smoke some kush with his friends. They would smoke in the park deep in the bushes. Well, not exactly his friends, since many at school have taken a hobby at ignoring him. He gets it, he’s odd, he’s been odd for a long time. He knows the whispers about him, he doesn’t mind. In fact he knew before entering high school that it would happen. A little voice told him that he wouldn’t fit in.

During class he sometimes stares off into space, or dozes off. Sometimes he doesn’t blink for a long time, and even though he had lived in Washington state all his life, it always seems to get colder everyday. His big puffy jacket is known around the school. There goes the jacket boy. His pale face is ghostly and his speech is sometimes off. No one teases him, instead they fear him. They fear being near him. Except for a few potheads who don’t seem to even notice his off vibe.

“So Nathan, Chin says he will be able to get us those fake I.D.’s by Friday! So all we need to do now is gather another $70 bucks for the bus ride,” said Lau, his swim-teammate.

Nathan took a hit and blew it into the sky.

“I can get seventy tonight, no problem,” Nathan says as he hands the blunt to Chin.

“You gonna rob your old man again? Man they let you slide too much!” Chin says, “You know my asian ass parents would disown me if they even knew I was hanging out with a white guy. They always say, white people are a bad influence. Racist am I right?”

“I guess we are.”

“You guys are gonna be on T.V. as missing kids. I’m telling you this is a bad idea. Then they’ll interrogate me! And you bet I'll tell them everything,” Alo says, as he rolls the next blunt.

“Snitch all you want, you don’t even know where we are going,” Lau says.

“I will. And then I'll see you right back here. You little punks won’t get far,” Alo explains as he finishes the blunt.

Chin smirked at him, and pulls Alo’s long dark braid. “Don’t be a pussy. You know you want to come with us.”

“Yeah right. I don’t want to be homeless.”

“Enough, let’s get rolling before the fourth period starts. That’s the only class I need to be in,” Nathan says as he grabs his backpack.

After school, Nathan heads towards the trail near the school and heads to the junkyard to get more pot. The dealer is waiting for him wearing a hoodie as he petted his pet chihuahua dog.

“Fifty,” he says, as he hands him a small bag.

“What? Last week it was twenty,” Nathan replies.

“Take it or leave little guerro,” the dealer says, gesturing to give him some money.

Nathan takes out another twenty dollar bill, but as he does, his hand starts to shake. It starts to move on it’s own, he felt it become detached. His hand grabs the dealer's neck as he starts to choke him.

Not again...

“What the fuck?” the dealer says as he takes the money from Nathan's hand, pushes him away and runs.

Nathan tries to pull his hand away from the air now, just to get it back in control. The hand grasps towards the dealer who is now far from reach, but Nathan falls to ground and starts to pound his arm.

“Why you killing yourself bitch-ass?” Chin chuckles behind him.

Nathan grasps for air as his body comes back to him.

“I..,” gasp, “I wasn’t.”

“You dumb idiot. Where is the good stuff?”

“He left,” gasp, “He left and took my money.”

“That damn cholo. I swear, they all sketchy, don’t care about our health except money!”

“Health?”

“Weed, opens the third eye my homie, health. Health over wealth. You feel me?”

“You’re fucking high.”

“I am. High as something. C’mon, lets head to my place. Folks are in some meetings with their clients.”

Nathan takes Chin’s hand as he stands up and dusts himself off.

As they arrive at Chin’s extravagant house located in a private community, Chin starts to talk about Alysa, the girl he has been stalking.

“I figured out her whole schedule. First period, AP English. Second, statistics, third period, gymnastics...fourth. Fourth is Anatomy.”

“I don’t care Chin. Either way, that’s creepy.”

“It ain’t creepy if she don’t know.”

“You’re gonna get caught.”

“Chill white boy, I’m telling you. I have the perfect plan!”

“Stop calling me white. I ain’t white. I hate people who always assume I’m white.”

“Boo boo, you look white. You white. No one out there knows white Mexicans exist.Trust.”

“My last name, is Sanchez…”

“Everyone’s last name is Sanchez. Now, imma need your help with my little plan.”

“Yo, I really don’t want any part of your creepy ass plan.”

“You’ll want to be when I tell you Isabella is involved..eh?”

Chin pokes Nathan’s stomach as he winks consecutively.

“Stop! And no! Like I care,” Nathan says and pushes Chin away. Chin grabs his cellphone and starts to pull up Isabella’s photo.

“Wow, she has some dude in this pic with him. Have you seen?”

“I deleted all my social media. Look I gotta go. It’s getting late.”

“Like your parents care?”

“Whatever. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Nathan left Chin’s house and started to walk the same path as always.

He felt his hand once more, just to make sure he could move it. Sometimes some body part would shake..or twitch, but that was normal. This though, this was different and new. It only started to happen about a month ago and he is too terrified about it to tell his parents..who already fear him,

As he arrives home, his parents are talking in the office. They don’t hear him come home and are still talking loudly.

Nathan comes near the office to say he’s home, but stops before being seen as he hears his name.

“He’s not ours...not anymore.”

“I know..,” said his dad.

“No. I feel it. I see it. He’s not Nathan. He hasn’t been Nathan since that stupid witch saved him. He would've died...he shouldn’t be alive. Look at how he turned out!”

“You don’t mean that. And this has nothing to do with Tala. Nothing.”

“Then how do you explain him? How do you explain..the unexplainable? Huh? How do you explain his random movements he makes, his language...the words? Something is wrong with him. I don’t want to wait any longer. The sooner he is out of my house the better”

“You’re jumping to an unreasonable conclusion Jay! If we leave him now..they will suspect us. We need to wait until he’s 18. Then we can legally get rid of it..him.”

“Martin, you don’t...you don’t remember what Tala said. She said…”

Nathan backs away. His chest feels heavy. He wants to cry, something he had never done since turning 10. He opens the door again and leaves. He walks quickly and then bursts into a run. Running to the darkness of the forest again.

He knew his parents didn’t like him...but he didn’t know they hated him this much. He remembered there were times where they did like him, when he was younger, there are pictures for proof even! But something changed, somewhere down the line, he started to act differently and they took notice. He noticed too. I mean, he even looked different. He remembers his baby pictures and you could tell he was his parents' kid, he had the same complexion as them, tanned. And some years later, his skin turned white..white like a gringo. He blamed it on Washington and it’s lack of sun, but...to turn this white..it was weird. He didn’t know why he behaved the way he did, he just did. And they didn’t like it...but he also hated it. What was confusing was that they always say your parents will love you no matter what, but here he was..hearing they wanted to get rid of him.

As he neared the end of the trail, he realized he had walked to where Lee and his husband Raul lived. He quickly walked towards the last house on the left which had a huge Texas flag. The two story house was lit fully, and Nathan could see Lee inside reading by the window.

As Nathan knocked, Raul quickly opened the door.

“Oh, it’s you. I thought it was my pizza. Come in. Where are you parents?”

Raul places his hand on his hip as he gazes above Nathan to see if the pizza guy was near.

“Nathan! What brings you here? Did you text me and I’m just old?” Lee said, as he got up and hugged Nathan. Lee was the only person Nathan let hug him nowadays and it felt good.

“Oh, baby boy. Why the long face? What happened? Get in a fight with your parents?” Lee asked as he patted the lush purple couch for Nathan to sit.

“I...I heard them. I heard them say I should be dead,” Nathan whispered towards the floor.

Raul froze at the door and eyed Lee. Lee shooed him away.

“Darlin’ they probably just jokin’ you know how silly they are.”

“No Lee. They didn’t even know I was home. I heard mom say clearly, I shouldn’t be alive. And mentioned a witch named...”

Nathan wiped his tears as his red eyes became puffier.

“Now hush luv. You know your parents love you. And Tala wasn’t a damn witch. Just some weirdo with a gift.”

“You know who Tala is?” Nathan looked up at Lee who’s expression on his face had now changed.

“It was a long time ago darlin’ long long ago.”

“Who is she? Tell me.”

“Nathan, sweetie. You don’t have to worry about the past. Just the present.”

“Please Lee. If you know something I don’t I want to know. I need to know. What did my parents mean I should’ve died?”

Nathan’s pleading eyes looked up at Lee as he walked back to the windows loveseat.

“Your parents would kill me, we promised to never talk about it. No , it was more like an unspoken agreement.”

“Please…”

“I'll tell you and drop it! Don’t tell your parents. They already think I’m doomed since I called Tala a damn witch!”

Nathan nodded.

“You were five months old.”

After Lee told him the whole story, Nathan felt comforted. He assumed, no, he knew that’s the reason he felt off all the time. And it surprised him, that he believed and accepted this story so easily, it was like he always knew deep inside, he wasn’t Nathan.

“So Tala. She said, she would take someone else’s life?”

“Yes, in place of yours. Who knows if that’s true. But all I know is after that no one saw her again. Your uncle Erin tried to find her the following week, since he didn’t remember much. But she was gone. Poof! Just gone. Her apartment was empty. No trace. Even her employer, the local book store downtown, said she just stopped showing up.”

“Where did she go?”

“Who knows. No one knows. And everyone blames Martin. And by everyone I mean Erin. Erin loved her, and didn't care about the whole witchy shit. But just like that she left without a peep. Jay was also pissed at Martin, because she had questions. Questions about you.”

“What type of questions?”

“I don’t recall. I think she just wanted to know that you would be okay. And also, wanted to thank her for saving you.”

“I didn’t turn out okay. I’m weird. They hate me. Everyone fears me, even you fear me. I can see it in your eyes.”

“No, no, no darlin. Trust me, they love you. You’re just a little quirky. A little different, a little dark. No biggie! You’ll grow out of it sweets.”

Lee crosses his legs uncomfortably as he tries to keep his composure.

“I don’t feel like they do. They don’t care about me. I could run away and they wouldn’t even care. I know they wouldn’t.”

Nathan grabs the fluffy white throw pillows next to him and smashes his face in it.

“Now hush. Don’t let this little story get to you. It’s just...a story.”

“A story that actually happened. You were there.”

“I know. But you’re fine. And who knows if that woman actually saved you, who knows..maybe you just hit your head...and, and then you were okay.”

“No I’m not. They’re right. I’m not me. I’m something..something else. I want to talk to Tala. She will know how to fix me.”

“Darlin’ you talking about talking to ghosts. I told you, she gone gone.”

“Can you at least show me a pic of her? I want to see her, maybe i’ve seen her before”

“Well luv, back in the nineties we didn’t have fancy phones. We have to go look at the album. Go fetch it. It’s in the hallway closet.”

Nathan quickly jumps up from the sofa and goes to the closet which had many albums and boxes of picture frames.

Nathan brings back the first box of albums which are covered in cloth with hand sewn floral design.

Lee flipps through a few, muttering to himself as he tries to remember where he could find a picture of Tala.

“Ah, there. Here’s a good one. This was your baby shower. Right there in the corner of the photo, that’s Tala,” Lee says and takes the photo out for Nathan to look at.

Nathan grasps it quickly and examines Tala.

She was holding a drink, looking serious compared to everyone else. She wore a long emerald dress and wore her dark raven hair short with big hoop earrings.

Uncle Erin was hugging her.

“Wow…”

“I know. She didn’t have much style.”

“No. I mean, she’s beautiful. No wonder Uncle Erin hated that she left.”

“She aright. Nothing jaw dropping.”

“That’s cuz you’re gay.”

“Don’t say that word, Raul hates it.”

“Homosexual, whatever.”

“And that’s why your parents hate you,” Lee teases him.

Nathan ignores him and puts the photo in his hoodie pocket.

“I’m off.”

“Now now, where you taking that photo to?”

“I’m taking it so I can search for her.”

“Oh Nathan. You’ll never find her.”

Back at home, Nathan quickly goes to his room and ignores his parents who are in the living room watching the news.

He takes his phone and takes a picture of Tala. He then uploads it to his computer and does a search on the photo. Zero results.

He then looks up the local book store downtown and finds the website which hadn’t been updated since the internet came to life. He scrolls through the community forum and see’s a question posted by kittylove about 1 month ago. They asked if they had a certain book, and a person named LeBookeNerd replied saying they did.

He looks up the address and opening times.

Instead of going to school the next day, he goes to the bookstore called, “Le Booke.”

It’s a hidden shop located at the end of the downtown strip. It’s crooked letters and dusty windows make it seem like it’s abandoned, it makes Nathan wonder if it was even open anymore. But as he creeps neerer, he sees a very small sign on the corner window with the words “yes, we’re open” scribbled in sharpie.

The door rings as the bell swung in. The book store is old, dusty and smells of moldy wood. There are books up to the ceiling with spider webs in the corner. A bald man stands up from behind an old desk piled with books.

“A customer! Oh my! Come in, come in!” he exclaims as he wipes the mayo from his beard.

“Oh, hi. Um, I um. Have questions?”

“Ask away! Looking for a book?”

Nathan walks further in until he is close to the bald man. His breath smells like mustard as he sees the bread crumble on his overalls.

“No. Not really. More like someone. She used to work here. Tala?”

“Oh my Tala. How I miss her. Well you’re a little too late. She hasn’t worked here since.. Oof! Years years ago!”

The bald man sits back down in his brown leather chair and starts eating his sandwich again.

“Well, do you know where she went?”

“No, she just stopped coming. How do you know her?”

“My uncle knew her, and I just wanted..to find out about her.”

The bald man looks at him suspiciously and leans in.

“Why do you really want to find her? Hmm?”

“I just want to ask her. Something.” Nathan says as he puts his hands in his hoodie.

“Mmm. Well too bad. She’s gone. Like I told her boyfriend, she probably got tired of this place”

“Did she leave anything here? Like a note or something?”

“I’m telling you she just left. Never came back for her stuff, books, journals, stationary. Nothing. Gone.”

“She left her things here? Do you still have them?”

“I doubt it. I donated all her stuff.”

“Even her journal?”

“Look kid, if you really are that interested in her crap, you can go look in the back room where I keep all the donations and people’s crappy books. They are ordered by year..kinda, so you can look at 1990. That’s the year she left. I still keep some of my prior employees belonging in case they come back, so good luck finding something.”

The bald man points to the back of the store, where the exit sign was located.

“Thank you! I won’t take long.”

The bearded man waits until Nathan is out of view and quickly takes out a pen and green paper from his drawer. He draws a quick figure and places his hand on top of it. Smoke vanishes from the figure.

Nathan quickly goes to the back before the bald man changes his mind.

The bald man turns on the radio and starts humming to some 1950s tune.

Nathan opens the back door that is filled with cardboard boxes full of books. He struggles getting through the first row of boxes labeled from the 2000s but quickly finds the boxes labeled 1990s and starts to skim through the boxes.

Many of the books are old and ripped. He goes through five boxes of books, until he finds one with journals. Surprisingly there were many journals for the year of 1990 and he wonders why people would donate journals? Many from females who used to work here and oddly they all ended abruptly in the end. He wonders why the bald man would even keep his prior employees journals? Or if these were other people's journals. Before he gets too deep in thought, he rushes to find a journal that mentioned his Uncle Erin, he is sure Tala would have mentioned him in her journal, or even himself. But as he searches each journal passage, his hope dwindles. He’s been searching for a good hour and flipping through these journals starts to get overwhelming. Skimming people’s awful handwriting is also pretty challenging.

He skimms a fat green journal next which smells like pot, and he notices that the writing changed and so did the dates...they changed dramatically. It went from a 1860s entry to a 1900 entry...this person..

He then starts reading a journal entry titled “Regret.”

They hate me. I knew I shouldn’t have done it, yet here we are. I saw their auras change, and I saw Erin’s change to black. I can’t be here anymore. My actions have caused everything to change. It’s all my fault. This life was beautiful and lovely, but it’s time to go back to the Devils mount.

Nathan’s hands go stiff. Here she is. This is Tala.

“Was this a suicide note? No, she said leave, not go. What the hell is Devils mount?” Nathan asks himself.

He stuffs the journal in his hoodie in case the bald man won’t let him take it.

He walks by him and thanks him. The bald man waves and keeps humming.

Nathan goes to the nearby library and starts to look up Devil’s mount. He finds a place in Wyoming named Devil Tower, but there is no way she could move there. It was a desert. He looks back at the journal and starts reading earlier entries about his Uncle Erin, his mom Jay, the book store owner Mr. Link, food, hikes she would take and lot’s of writing about trees. There are also many entries about “auras” that she saw. He was confused as to what she meant when she would say I saw the mail man's aura become bright orange today. I’m so glad he is in good spirits.

Or other entries like, It’s black. It’s turning black. He will be gone soon. I can’t be here when that happens, I can’t.

The entry was near the end, so Nathan wondered if that was about him? Or someone else? Who’s aura was black? The more he read, the more he believed Tala was truly a witch.

As he keeps reading he finds out that Tala’s real name isn’t Tala at all. She didn’t say what it was, but this explains why no one could find her. Did Uncle Erin know that?

Nathan didn’t recall much of Uncle Erin. When Nathan turned seven, he remembered he went to a funeral and later he found out Uncle Erin passed away. He committed suicide. It makes sense since he probably felt guilt for dropping him, but also maybe because of Tala. Uncle Erin was never really happy as he recalled. He remembers Uncle Erin walking like a zombie.

If Nathan was going to find Tala, he couldn’t just search Tala. He needed her real name.

Maybe her last name?

“Nathan!? What are you doing here?”

Nathan turns around and sees Isabella. Beautiful brunette Isabella wearing her famous orange sweater, with her curls and thick glasses. Not the most popular girl in school or noticeable, but to Nathan, her nerdy beauty was unique.

“Isa..Hi.” He awkwardly stands as she comes towards his desk.

“It’s 11:30, shouldn’t you be in school?”

“I could tell you the same thing.”

Isabella smiles, and giggles while covering her mouth.

“Well don’t tell, but Mr.Finn’s class bores me.”

“I wouldn’t think you were one to skip class.”

“Only when I know I won’t miss anything important.”

“Oh. Well...that's good.”

“What are you looking up?” she asks as she peeks at his screen.

“Oh just, some dirt stuff..earth things,” he says as he tries to cover the journal.

“Tsk tsk! You have someone’s diary!”

“Shh! And no, it’s not like that!”

Isabella grabs the journal from the desk.

Nathan tries to take it from her but she turns around and gives her back to him.

Her eyes widened as she looked at it.

“You...can read this?” she asks. For a slight second, he notices her voice change pitch.

“I’m not stupid...I know how to read” he replies, and snatches it away from her.

She stares at him, and then the screen. Her eyes then go back to her usual self.

“Devil’s mount? Is that what you’re searching for? That sounds earthy.”

“Uh yes, kinda.”

“They meant mountain.”

“Mountain?”

“Yes. Devil’s Mountain. Try looking that up.”

Nathan quickly sits down and types Devil’s Mountain. The search pops up a place called Seven Devils Mountain, now that sounds better. There are trees everywhere, like Tala likes and it was in Idaho, not too far from here.

“That’s it. I think.”

“Are you searching for someone I assume?” Isabella now asks in a more serious tone.

“Kinda. Yes. A little. Just someone I need to talk to.”

Isabella sits next to him in the empty chair.

“Idaho is far from here. Who are you trying to find?”

“Um, my Aunt Tala.”

Isabella again goes quiet...and stares at the screen.

“Oh, does your family not have her address? Phone number?” she then quickly adds.

“No, they lost touch. Thanks for the help.”

“Of course, but Seven Devils Mountain is a mountain range. The chances of finding her there, and if that's the correct location is rare. Not sure there is any residence there.”

“I know.”

“You’re still going to try?”

“I think so...I’m not sure”

“What?”

“I said I have to.”

“I don’t know what you mean...Nathan.”

“It’s hard to explain.”

Isabella looks at Nathan with confusion and gets up and leaves towards the fiction section and disappears.

Rude. But okay...I know I’m weird.

So now that he kinda knows where Tala went, it was the matter of getting there and finding out where she was exactly, maybe a cabin in the woods? AS the thoughts of the journey circulate, he realizes that this is the first time he feels he has a purpose. Tala is his answer, she would complete him and make him normal. She is the key to his life. She has all the answers.

Nathan came back home around 4:30pm, which was actually the time he was always supposed to come home, but never did.

His mom is cooking and his dad is still at work.

“Hi mom,” he says as he approaches her.

Jay stiffens up and smiles gently.

“What’s wrong?” he asks as he gets closer.

“Nothing sweetie. How can I help you?” she says stiffly.

“What is this? A customer service desk?”

But he knows, he knows she’s scared of him, but for once, he wants to hear her say it.

Jay's eyes start to turn red, as tears start to run down her cheeks.

“Please Nathan. Just tell me what you want…” she almost whispers.

“Mom? What the hell is wrong?”

Nathan goes near her, but she is already backing away from him.

“Are you scared of me?” Nathan asks as he stops moving towards her.

“Nathan, please. Just get away from me. Don’t get closer.”

“Mom what the hell!”

“Please just leave!” she yells and runs across the kitchen into her room.

Nathan stands in shock, what had just happened. Is he that scary? He diales Lee quickly and tells him to come over, something is wrong with mom. But Lee just keeps saying, “Boy, I don’t understand. What you saying?”

“I said, come here! Come to our house!”

“Boy you better stop fucking with me! Now it’s not the time to be fucking with me with your wierdness.”

“What! It’s mom, something is wrong with mom!”

“I swear, Nathan I will kick the living shit out of you if you keep talking like you is. What language is that anyways? Porteguese?”

Language? What the hell was he talking about!?

I’m talking...I’m talking...holy fuck. I’m not talking English.

He almost drops the phone as he opens his mouth.

“Rebo irnh...no. NO. I am speaking english,” he says out loud now.

He goes outside just to think, just to listen.

“Je, je n ma iwlmcnjv ljvbnir..” he says, but there is no English, just this language..this tongue he doesn’t know.

How?

In that instance..he feels a click, a change inside him.

His body becomes icy cold, more colder than usual, he feels nauseous and feverish..he falls to the floor and starts to see the world in two. He sees the grass beneath him, but the fire inside the Earth.

He hears the night sky, but also hears the terrors..

He sees his backyard, but also the shadows..

This whole time, he was speaking some weird language to his mom, no to everyone? No wonder everyone fears him. But how come it took him so long to understand himself, to hear himself? Why didn’t he notice it?

Is that why Isabella had walked off earlier? Was he speaking..this language?

How long has this been going on?