I was scared, curious, but scared. Who was this boy? He’d saved my life but had also taken me away from Nanna and Mary. I could hear his curious, raspy breathing somewhere in the dark. I wondered if he would try to hurt me. He shifted into the light of the fire. I barely dared, but I looked above the campfire into the face of my rescuer, and caught my breath.
He still wasn’t looking at me, but I saw the pale face, incongruous with his depthless eyes. His black hair tumbled over his nearly naked shoulder. He was shaking slightly under a ratty shirt and I saw that there were several holes in his black trousers. He turned to face me.
He reached behind him and I flinched as he tossed me a blanket. It was fuzzy and warm so I wrapped myself in it.
“Boy, thank you for saving me.”His face jerked upward and he stared at me for a whole minute, but he didn’t answer me.
I could not tell his age. His eyes were old, and yet his body that of a boy. A sense of emptiness surrounded his entire being and it began spread over me. All hope seemed to be drained from his life. I felt sorry for him.“Don’t you speak?”
He simply stared at me.
“What’s your name?”
His eyes were so penetrating and curious.
“I’m Anna. I will call you Dead Boy, since you don’t speak.”
“Anna.”
“You do speak!”
“Anna.” He leaned toward me, his face in mine.
I immediately wished that he hadn’t. He was picturesque, an image, aided with my imagination, from one of my vampire books. His skin wasn’t just pale, but translucent. He suddenly looked very dangerous. Tight muscles quivered through the rips in his shirt as he steadied himself to look into my eyes. Images flashed through my mind: vampires, caves, bats. I pictured myself laying on the cold cavern floor, blood oozing from a mysterious bite wound on my neck. I was thrilled, fascinated, encased in wonder, and also nearly terrified.
“Anna. Are you frightened?”
“Ah, no. That is, you are curious.”
For all my show of bravery I imagined a mixture of fangs, blood and creepy bats, and I fainted.
Somewhere in my blissful black I felt strong hands lift me and set me in the warm sunshine. I snuggled down into the grass and felt the chill leave my body.
I don’t know for how long I slept, but when I awoke I was alone, and to my dismay, laying on the floor next to a smoldering pile of burnt sticks and coal. No happy sunshine or flowery meadows. Next to the fire was a sharpened stick with a piece of meat on it. I was hungry, but not quite that hungry. I looked around me; the boy was nowhere to be found.
I stood up, making sure he wasn’t hiding in any nooks, and ran for the mouth of the cave, convinced that any moment a rush of bats would come tearing after me to take me back to their master.
Of course, no such thing happened and I was obliged to stop at the end of the tunnel. A hazy light met my eyes and I couldn’t even make out much more than the nearest of trees. Everything else turned into a mixture of slate grey and eerie, diffused light. I sighed. There would be no venturing out in this weather. I wasn’t even sure that I truly wanted to leave. This boy was just so curious, but I was sure I had already missed breakfast time at home. In any event, I was going to have to wait.
So wait I did. For hours. The fog thickened and I retreated back into the cave where it was curiously drier. I heard a shifting noise in the back and jumped around, my heart in my throat. Then I got angry. The boy was sitting next to a renewed fire, roasting something crackling on the end of a stick.
Anger got my fear. “You!” That actually made him jump, giving me some satisfaction. “You drag me all the way up here, kidnap me, abandon me all day, then sneak past me without even saying a word!” I wasn’t quite making sense, but I was sure that the dead boy was at least getting my tone. “You! You...you make me mad!” I yelled, my voice echoing off the walls.
I stood there with my hands clenched into fists at my side. Then the boy did something I didn’t expect. He smirked at me.
“Here.” He said, shaking a stick at me.
I rolled my eyes and sat down across from him. I looked down my nose at the stick. “What is it?” No answer. Big surprise. He proceeded to ignore me and roast another kebab as I silently studied the meat. I sniffed. It seemed ok, though nothing like the spiced sausage I was used to. I was also sorely missing the porridge, eggs, and tea. I shrugged and sank my teeth into it, hoping I wasn’t chewing on bat, or worse.
“You’re a little spoiled, aren’t you?”
I choked down the meat and tried to glare at him.
The next few days went by like this. I was torn between tears and frustration. No matter how much I prodded the dead boy, yelled at him, or begged him, I couldn’t get an answer as to where I was and when I was going back home. At one point he simply answered me with “The weather.” Admittedly it was pretty bad. When there wasn’t a dense fog, there was a biting cold windstorm or a thunderstorm. I was hoping that he would take me home when the fog lifted, but i wasn’t counting on it, so I spent my time planning my escape. I didn’t get very far, though.
Spending my days alone was tiresome and I grew lonely. Dead Boy’s returns at the end of the day became a shining event in my boring days that I began to look forward to. He was at least some sort of company. But mostly I looked forward to the food that he brought with him. Eating once a day, when you were used to eating three times a day (not including afternoon tea) wasn’t something that I was planning on getting used to. It was also making me very, very cranky.
Dead Boy came back to the cave as usual that night. This time he brought some fruit and packaged bread. My heart leapt. He must be stealing food from a nearby village or house! I glanced at him suspiciously. He spent all his days outdoors, and I wondered why it was ok for him to be outside, but it wasn’t ok to take me home yet. I tried to quell the sinking feeling that I was further away from home than I had thought.
“Dead Boy, where are my clothes? Are they dry?”
He regarded my silently and nodded. “Follow me.” Blessed conversation! I tripped after him in the darkness. He moved like a cat, never stumbling, never pausing. A dim light filled my vision. Water reflections danced on the ceiling and the narrow cavern tunnel opened up into a room. The source of the light came from a hole in the ceiling above a circular pool of water. I itched to bathe. I could feel the grime in my hair and under my fingernails.
Dead Boy had been staring at me this whole time and when I saw him out of the corner of my eye I jumped. “Don’t, you’re making me nervous,” I snapped. He only gestured with his hand. My clothes were hanging from what looked like a makeshift clothesline. I walked over to snatch them down. “OK, don’t look. I need to change.” But when I had turned around he was already gone.
