Havermouth, Five Years BeforeA hammering at the door woke Aislen. It was late afternoon, slipping into dusk, and Toby snored on the mattress next to her. The room was littered with debris from their day, scattered clothing, take away food wrapping, the nearly empty whiskey bottle, the bong, the bag of drugs on the table, and the cigarette ashtray overflowing.“Your time is up room twenty-three!” A man bellowed from outside.“Yep,” Toby snorted awake and yelled back. “We hear you. We’re going. F-k,” he sat up and looked around him blearily, his eyes focusing on Aislen. “F-k,” he winced. “How old are you again?”“Eighteen,” she realized. It was her birthday, and that fact had completely slipped her mind in the drama with her parents and the Triquetra. “I’m eighteen.”“Thank f-k for that. Not that it makes any difference. I’m probably going to jail anyway,” he muttered as he began to dress.“Because they drowned,” she said softly. The memory was fuzzy of him weeping out his confession s
Havermouth, Present TimeTalen released his hair from the bun, and ran his fingers through to loosen it, flicking it back over his shoulders before beginning to undo the buttons of his shirt, watching Aislen through heavily lidded eyes with a small smile on his lips. He deliberately teased her, taking his time, and turning just as he reached the last button, in order to shrug out of the shirt with his back to her.“I like this view as much as the front one,” she told him, enjoying the display of muscles shifting beneath the lion’s mane fall of blonde hair as he undid his belt and toed out of his boots.“Hmm,” he flicked an amused look over his shoulder as his jeans sagged off his hips. He left them on, the top button undone and the fly straining to contain his erection and took a sip of champagne as he walked over to the armoire.He opened the cupboard door nearest to her, blocking her view of what he did within the cupboard, but she heard the buzz as he tested the charge on a vibrato
Havermouth, Five Years BeforeAislen could hear her parents arguing in the kitchen through the too-thin walls of the house.“It’s been three days, Patrick!” Tiffany was furious. “She barely talks, barely eats, and, although she leaves the house every morning in her school uniform, she’s not going to school – they’ve been calling to ask where she is.”“I don’t know what you want me to do, Tiff,” Patrick snapped back. “We’ve both tried talking to her. She won’t even look us in the eyes. She flinches every time I go near her.”“You did give her a black eye,” Tiffany reminded him. “And that’s why you won’t do anything about it now. You’re afraid that she’ll report you. When did we lose control of this situation?”“If my mother was still with us…” Patrick said in a softer tone of voice.“I blame your mother for this. Aislen changed once she started going to stay with her over the school holidays. I thought it was just… hormones. But what if… What if she was abused?”“She wasn’t abused,” Pa
Havermouth, Present Time Talen eased his teeth from her, his tongue stroking over the wounds to heal them. He had drunk no more than he normally did, she thought, though it had been enough to give her the light-headed feeling of having had slightly too much wine. If he intended to make a habit of sating his appetite with her, he was waiting until she had used the vitamins for a few days in order to compensate for his drain on her. And that made sense to her. You are reasoning out the circumstances in which a vampire feeds from you, she told herself, testing to see her own reaction to the bald truth of the situation. She didn’t care. There was almost a reckless absence of self-regard to the lack of caring, an absolute surrender to the opinion of Havermouth in that she held no value in herself other than her usefulness to the supernatural creatures that inhabited the town. She couldn’t find the anger with Talen that seemed all too ready with the Triquetra, and she didn’t know why. Per
Havermouth, Five Years Before“I’m letting you off with a warning,” the policewoman was the same one as had interviewed Aislen on Taylors Road. She leant against the gazebo's table in a companionable way. Her male partner stood a little back, his eyes scanning over the graveyard. “Because of what happened on the weekend. I have actually been trying to catch you at the high school, but they said that you have been absent. I know that Mr Edison has already been to see Ms Grace, the school counsellor, which is a wise thing to do, and I’d really like you to do the same.”“I will,” Aislen lied and shrugged. “I just haven’t felt like… I can concentrate at school, you know?”“It was a traumatic discovery,” the policewoman nodded. “But skipping school and spending your days drinking is not a healthy way of dealing with the trauma, Aislen, and whilst I am going to let you off with a warning today, I am going to have to report to the school and your parents.”“Aww, please, I’m in enough trouble
Havermouth, Present timeTalen kissed her as he leaned over the bed and she reached up automatically, opening her eyes as her hands encountered cloth. “You’re dressed!” She accused.He chuckled. “It is almost dawn, little demon, and I must go.”“Oh,” she sat up. “You will be back tonight, daddy?”“Of course,” he adjusted the collar around her neck so that the infinity knot sat in the hollow of her collar bone. “Eat healthily and drink lots of water,” he smoothed his big hand over her hair. “Sleep and stay out of trouble.”“I’ll try,” she slid out of bed as he eased back, following him to the bedroom door. “I’ll think about you all day.”He cupped her chin and leaned down to kiss her. “I will be back as soon as the sun sets.”She watched as he let himself out and sighed. There was no point to returning to the bed, she decided, it was just lonely without him there. She went to her childhood bedroom and pulled on her dressing gown before going into the kitchen to boil the kettle. She dr
Havermouth, Five Years Before Rhett turned up the music, blocking out any opportunity to talk further, and Aislen sighed and looked out the window, fighting back tears, a sense of shame tight in her chest. It was no different to going to the motel with Toby, she told herself. She was becoming the whore that everyone thought that she was, accepting the role, and compromising her pride in order to become it, because no matter how degrading it was, she wanted to be with the Triquetra. She could not explain why she wanted to be with them so badly, just that not being with them left her feeling lost and hollow. It was worse not being with them, than being with them, no matter how awful they were to her. Was it love? She turned and looked at Rhett. Her heart ached in misery. Perhaps that was how love felt. Music and books described love as suffering and wanting to sacrifice all to be with the beloved, so maybe it was love. Despite her gift, despite all the glimpses she had into other’s
Havermouth, Present Time Aislen swaggered along the main street feeling pretty pleased with herself. She stopped into a couple of the boutique clothing stores and found a pretty, sheer ruffled blouse and a black wriggle skirt that paired together were perfection. A lingerie shop had her fantasizing about Talen as she selected a few matching sets, lace topped stockings, and a satin camisole and shorts pairing. The Secret Keeper was visible in all the businesses, along with the pool that each shop was running, and someone had begun adding “Vote The Secret Keeper for Mayor!” posters. “The Secret Keeper for Mayor?” She commented to the shop assistant as her purchases were tissued wrapped and bagged. “It’s looking that way,” the woman was amused. “But honestly, he couldn’t do worse than the current mayor. At least he’s got a policy of transparency,” she laughed. “He?” “Ah, well, you know,” the woman shrugged. “There are a few theories going around about who it could be. The most popu