‘What do you want?’ I yell, glaring at the woman sitting in front of me; she is just a pathetic human being. I am fed up with her endless questions. Her long, thin face makes me sick. She reminds me of a leech that crawls very slowly, sucking into the skin, tearing it apart to search for blood.
‘Don’t talk to your mother like that,’ interrupts Anthony, the person whom I refuse to call my father; he is pathetic too, trying to defend her. She played her role so well during the years.
‘She is not my mother,’ I tell him, clenching my fists.
‘Niamh! Just tell us what happened to you! How can you not remember where have you been for over a year?’ she continues, pursing her lips together.
I’ll call her Shirley from now on, because she doesn’t deserve to be called my mother. She’s just a liar – they both are. We are sitting in our pristine white kitchen, in the place that I called ‘home’ most of my life. California hasn’t changed much during the year that I was away. Shirley is sitting up straight, piercing me with her gaze. I have always found it hard to say what her exact eye colour is – the shade is not exactly green or blue, it’s a mixture. It’s Tuesday and she went to the hairdresser this morning, as usual. Her blonde highlights make her look younger and she uses Botox, but she would die before admitting that. Anthony, on the other hand, is less stuck-up and he doesn’t care what’s going on in the house most of the time. He is more interested in his political career than us.
‘Stop asking me these stupid questions. I don’t remember anything. I woke up in a different country for fuck's sake,’ I shout again, feeling my pulse rising.
Shirley hates it when I use inappropriate language and I am glad that I can annoy her. She closes her eyes for a moment. She has been doing this more often than usual to calm down, trying to drain out the negative emotions. Anthony runs his hand through his silver hair and gives me a sharp look; he exhales slowly and pats Shirley on the back, trying to comfort her.
‘So why did your sister disappear so quickly? We need to know in order to find the person who held you for so long,’ adds Shirley, laying the sarcasm down on the word ‘sister.’ She still doesn’t believe that Ania is my twin sister. I roll my eyes and toss my red hair.
‘She is my sister. She is the exact mirror image of me. You must be blind if you can’t see it. Why didn’t you tell me that I was adopted?’ I ask her, turning the conversation around so I don’t have to make up some more lies about what happened in that cave.
Anthony’s eyes narrow and he glances at Shirley, expecting her to explain. He is wearing a suit and keeps looking at his watch. I forgot that he has a plane to catch. He is flying to another state for the campaign that he is running. I am not surprised that they are married; they are a perfect match. He is calm, handsome and in excellent shape and she is blonde with long eyelashes and full lips; her makeup is always immaculate, exposing her high cheekbones and long, thin face. Shirley raises her eyebrow and a flicker of uncertainty passes over her face.
‘We have already apologised for it. We made a decision a long time ago, just for your own good,’ she pauses. ‘Your father has to be at the airport soon, so please tell us whatever you remember about the filthy man who took you away. The doctor said that you weren’t drugged.’
‘I don’t know, just leave me alone. I’ve got better things to do!’ I shout, getting up abruptly from the stool.
This kitchen is too damn perfect. The sink is never filled with dishes; the tiles on the floor are too white, reminding me of an institution for mentally unstable people. I open the large, expensive, silver fridge and take out the orange juice. I drink straight from the carton. Another point against me; Shirley hates when I don’t use a glass.
‘Okay. I have to go. I’ll be speaking to the police tomorrow. They still haven’t got anything else and the police in Wales are useless,’ states Anthony, brushing his suit with his right hand. He kisses Shirley on the cheek and he leaves the kitchen. For a moment I think that he is going to kiss me as well, but he changes his mind instantly, knowing that right now I am in a bad mood.
‘Just think about this Niamh, we are very worried about you. I know it’s hard for you to understand why we haven’t told you the truth, but you will understand this in the future. I want us to get back to our normal life…’
She keeps talking, but I can’t listen to this any longer so I leave the kitchen, passing through the large hall. The wooden floor makes this house looks bigger and emptier. The living room is clean thanks to our maid, Valentina, who cleans everything with great precision. She starts work early in the morning and leaves in the afternoon. Valentina’s greatest efforts make it so I always smell bleach everywhere, but this is just a minor detail.
I know what Shirley is going to do next. She will look through the papers, aggressively flicking through the pages, looking for information about me, about Anthony. She spends at least an hour a day, trying to find out what the media are writing about our family. My brother is the only person that I can talk to. He’s studying most of the time, while I try to deal with the creatures that I have started seeing ever since I opened my eyes for the first time in that dark, wet cave.
I didn’t understand anything when that girl, who apparently is my sister, made me drink some magical water. It was supposed to help me to get back on my feet. She had to leave to save someone’s life. I didn’t understand any of that, but the water certainly worked its magic. A new and unexpected energy rushed through me, and I was able to walk again. I still don’t remember what happened last July, early on a bright and sunny morning. A Sprite came to the house and he took me away; that’s what I have been told. I only remember that I was getting ready to take a shower that morning. After that it feels like there’s a black hole in my head. I am glad that I haven’t got any recollection of what happened to me when I was with him. When I finally opened my eyes in that cave, I was confused, dizzy, thinking that I was still dreaming.
After Ania left me I was in a state of shock. The police arrived hours later and I was taken to the hospital in a helicopter. I was still puzzled about what really happened in that cave, confused how I even ended up in Wales, the United Kingdom – a country I had never even intended to visit. Everyone kept asking me if I knew who I was, but I wasn’t able to explain what had happened. I shut myself down; images of the Sprite’s dead body next to me were playing on my mind. The dead body of the one who abducted me.
I spent a week in a hospital in Wrexham, making a slow but painful recovery and getting used to seeing Sprites. Ania visited me a few days later; she clearly hadn’t forgotten me, even though I wondered if she might. She looked exhausted but she explained everything. She had to fight to see me because at first Anthony and Shirley didn’t want to let her in to see me, but I have my ways; I told them that I wouldn’t be coming back to the States unless they let me see her. No one believed that she was my sister until they saw her. She then explained everything going back to her first year in university – her first experience with a Sprite. She talked for over an hour, going through her life story and soon I began to understand. The last part of her story didn’t make much sense but I listened. I was always very cynical when it came to love.
‘He is alive, but he is not the same. He doesn’t know what happened between us, he only remembers his life before I started seeing him – before we fell in love,’ she explained. Her eyes were empty and it was obvious that her heart was broken. I have never been in love, so I couldn’t empathise with her, especially since I couldn’t understand why she even slept with this guy who no one else was able to see.
‘Maybe his memory will come back and one day he will run to you, realising how hot you really are,’ I told her then. It worked because she smiled.
I still couldn’t believe that she is my twin sister; she has the same eyes and the same annoyingly red hair. I have always dyed my hair because I couldn’t stand to be called ginger. I was hoping to see Shirley’s face when Ania arrived, but I was chained to the bed so I missed it. Apparently, she almost fainted.
‘Gabriel has a fiancée. Before I was able to see Sprites, they all were forbidden to reveal themselves to humans; he broke that rule for me,’ Ania said.
‘You will get over him. I will help you,’ I assured her.
Ania’s story was overly complicated. She then explained that Gabriel saved her life when some other Sprite tried to kill her over two years ago. Her lover made a shield out of his own body and he ended up with knife in his chest. This sounded pretty dramatic and I continued to listen to how she spent the year trying to find the cure to help him to recover.
