Of Scarlet

That winter as hibernation approached, islanders said the woman who walked the cliffs had returned. Few who saw her were in any doubt, but all were baffled as to how in twenty years she hadn't aged.

Lila hadn't heard any of these stories. She had no idea of the damage she was causing as she stood alone on the edge of the tide. Lights marked out the headland behind her, and from a distance it looked like she was waiting for something, but anyone drawing near would see that Lila's eyes were glassy. Her body swayed in the breeze, while the fingers of her left hand twitched.

She had navigated difficult paths, and narrow crevices to settle here on this particular spot, where the caves channelled deep into the rock and the island looked out onto nothing but the churning waves. Each time Lila found herself in an unfamiliar place through sleepwalking, it felt like it was for a purpose she could never remember. These night walks were frequent, as if there was something drawing her to these places. As the sea fret fell onto her face, there was a faint sigh at her ear and consciousness flooded in. Lila blinked once; twice before stumbling backwards. It was the beach again, and this time someone was waiting there for her, on the edge of the tide.

Lila shook her head free of the blurred image and turned back to look at the cliffs. She was unwilling to admit there was something there, so she felt for the necklace resting in the hollow of her throat. The clasp had been fastened. It looked like she had managed to dress herself in brown cords and a white t-shirt too. The only things missing were her shoes, and coat.

There was no sign of anyone in the direction of home, but she knew dawn would bring back Aunt Millicent from the island port, along with her cousin Richard. The two cousins had never met as adults, but Lila knew Richard was being brought in to watch over her and her 'problems.'

Lila's breathing quickened. She clenched her fists, imagining the awkward scene on her return. Her aunt would want to use another sleepwalking episode against her. There would be another argument, where nothing would be resolved or explained, but Lila knew this couldn't go on for much longer. Her long, black hair streamed back behind her in the wind. Lila raised her head to follow the line of the land, she nodded to herself and then began to run.

That winter the Hibernation period observed by islanders was forecast to come early. Being caught outside at night when temperatures dropped well below freezing was unwise, and any islander who knew the Haslin family history would draw their own assumptions. They would hear about a teenage girl found wandering alone on a beach in the early hours, and they would whisper 'like mother, like daughter.'

Lila wasn't aware of this as she ran just under the cliff face. Her fingers felt for the jagged rock as she pulled herself up onto the edge of the path. Crawling along on her belly, she could hear the sound of the waves at her back. She turned to see an offshore snow storm circling the peninsula, contained like a child's snow globe in one spot over the waves. As Lila stood up, she broke into a sudden run up the path. It felt like she was being chased. The heightened panic reminded Lila of being a child racing up the stairs of her house, afraid of all the unseen things that could harm her.

Lila stayed focused on the cliff path, whilst looking upwards for the House at Nine. The last house on the right at the end of the peninsular stuck out as being the oddest structure around for miles. In the darkness its silhouette held no comfort for Lila, because as she edged closer she could see a light on downstairs. They were home.
The wind was skating around the house, building up into a circular motion as she walked towards the back door. It caused Lila to look up and see that the sky had lightened. The snow clouds would be on their way soon.

Lila's reflection in the kitchen window revealed just how tired she was. Sleepwalking, no matter how short the journey, always exhausted Lila to the point of dizziness. She placed her hands on the window frame. Although it was dark, Lila could feel marks all along the wood as if someone had bitten into it. She pulled her hands back from the marks at first, then tentatively ran her fingers over them. They were like neat, little teeth marks. When Lila touched them she felt odd, as if something had slipped underneath her skin and refused to fade.

It was relatively easy to see inside the house, as Millicent and Richard were sat on the sofa in the lounge framed by the kitchen doorway. The scene unfolding between mother and son made Lila uneasy. She watched as Millicent reached out to touch her son, running her fingers along his shirt collar until they came to rest at the back of his neck. Lila could only see so much, but what she saw was enough. Millicent's fingertips brushed the nape of Richard's neck as she spoke to him. Their words didn't reach Lila, and she couldn't see Richard's expression. Her own was a mixture of horror and fascination. She gazed through the glass open mouthed as Millicent moved closer to her son. There was a moment, and then they both seemed to turn and look at the urn on the mantelpiece. Lila felt the blood drain from her cheeks. That urn had been in the same place for the last thirteen years. It was ignored by Millicent and regarded by Lila as the part of her life that no one had ever fully explained. She was here and her mother, Rachel Haslin was not.

Lila stepped back away from the window. She didn't want to see Millicent and Richard, acting as if they had never been away from each other, when she had nothing. Her mother was dead, and no one wanted to talk about it.

The fact that Richard had arrived like this, in the early hours, never seemed to be a problem for Millicent either. Lila let her back slide down the brickwork, crouching low underneath the kitchen window. She immediately started to bite her nails.
It wasn't enough that Richard had come back from university on the mainland after so many years to watch over her. Now Lila suspected something unsettling had developed between her only relatives. Maybe it had been there during Millicent's visits to boarding school.

She rubbed a hand over her face and around her eyes. The wind swirled upwards, taking dried twigs, sand and detritus at the back of the House at Nine up with it. Lila's sleepwalking had left her with the nagging sensation that she wasn't alone in this. Up until now she had ignored the feeling someone was with her, behind her, in the corner of her eye, but now she let her feelings take over. There was after all, no one else left to share them with.

The wind had dropped. Everything was still around Lila. If she let it, the shapes in the scrub -land before her could have frightened her. There was a shrill humming sound that turned into a voice.
“This is what I'm offering you,” it said.
Lila still had her head in her hands.
“I wanted to...”
Lila heard it, and the muscles in her arms tensed up. She didn't want it, whatever was coming she didn't want any of it.
“Skate on....an iced...lake of prettiness.”
The voice was in Lila's head. It wouldn't go away. She thought it was because of the sleepwalking, but it was clearly a girl's voice, and it wasn't going to leave her alone.

“Why do you do that? Why are you like that? Why?”
Lila twisted around and reached up for the back door handle. She burst forward into the kitchen and was on her feet. The light from the lounge dimmed as she stood in the doorway. Richard and Millicent had both turned around and were staring at her.

The only sound was Lila's heavy breathing. She passed a self conscious hand over her face after noticing that Richard was staring hard. Millicent's eyes only flickered over her niece's dishevelled form.

“This is Lila,” Millicent said, turning away from her niece and standing up. She walked to the large bay window at the other side of the room and looked at the long road leading away from the House at Nine. “Whatever's caused you to look the way you are, Lila I don't want to know about it. Now Richard's here, hopefully all this will stop.”
Richard's gaze immediately made Lila feel uncomfortable. She stayed still, waiting for something to happen that would break the spell. The voice in the back yard hadn't followed her inside, but the kitchen door swung back and forth on its hinges behind her.

There was the trace of a smile on Richard's lips. His expression was one of amusement, and Lila didn't know whether she should smile back. He had one of those faces that made her want to stick up for herself, but on looking at Millicent decided that wasn't the best option.
Haslin children were generally considered odd, socially inept beings. It was a joke that both cousins had trouble keeping hold of their fathers, as no man had lived in the house for fifteen years. Richard and Lila didn't grow up together, as Millicent sent her son to boarding school as soon as Lila had arrived on Doore.

“Wherever it is you've been, I expect you'll be wanting to sleep off the last of the night before breakfast.” Millicent said without hesitation. “Now leave us alone, we have things to discuss.”
Millicent turned around and it was then that Lila saw how bloodless her complexion was. She clutched the long metal necklace dangling almost to her waist as if it were a lucky talisman. Lila wanted comfort from the night she'd just experienced. She took one step forward and realised it was the wrong thing to do. Millicent folded her arms and purposely looked at Richard.

“You'll probably want to explore the island before hibernation comes too. Walking is just about the only thing Doore is good for.”
Richard spoke in soft but persistent tones. “I'm not going to be here forever, mum.”
“It's not a short stay though,” Millicent replied, blinking back whatever she felt by Richard's response. “We'll need you to stay for a while, just because, well, look where you are Richard, you can't decide to leave Doore on a whim at the beginning of the worst season ever. People who do that are never seen again.”

Nobody had said it would be the worst season ever, Lila thought. They said it would come early, but nobody said it would the worst. Millicent, in her own way was pleading with him to stay. It didn't seem to concern Richard, who was still taking in the sight of Lila, who by now had walked over to the lounge door and was trying to leave as quietly as she could.

Lila had no idea that one human being could look at another like that. As he leant forward to reach for a half empty wine glass on the coffee table, Lila found she couldn't go upstairs. She couldn't stop looking, just as he had found it difficult not to look at her only moments before.
“Why were you outside?” Richard asked.
“Couldn't sleep,” Lila replied, pulling her crow-coloured hair over her shoulders so that it covered her neck. “It's not easy, when the wind gets up.”

“Most people get themselves a glass of water. They don't decide to go for a walk on the beach,” Millicent interrupted Lila's focus on Richard. “That is where you've been, I assume?”
Lila nodded, as if in a daze. Light had begun to filter in through the bay window behind Millicent, and in a corner of the room something shifted. Lila saw it fully now. Whoever had been speaking out in the courtyard had followed her into the House at Nine.

It gave Lila a jolt to the heart to see someone standing there, watching all three of them. The little girl's hands emerged from the sleeves of her faded, pink coat. She placed them together, as if offering something to them all. But no one else had noticed, which only alarmed Lila more. She stood still, anticipating that something awful was about to happen.

The girl, whose hair hung in matted ringlets, simply stood there with her hands held out. As she spoke the words Lila knew that this girl was offering something to her only. Millicent and Richard weren't included in this. They couldn't see her at all.
“You have to help me. You have to. I'm going to help you, so it's only fair.” The girl's voice was quiet. “It's good that you can stand this. It's good that you're finally listening. Don't walk away. . . ”

Lila shook her head. She couldn't listen because that would mean something terrible. If she made a fuss, if she shouted out, Millicent would find even more reasons to watch over her. So Lila took one step backwards, before walking out of the lounge and into the hall.

Lila avoided all of Richard's bags at the bottom of the stairs, which were filled to the brim with books. She felt flustered at the sight of so much change and made her way upstairs as quickly as she could. As she sat down on the rickety single bed in her room, Lila noticed that there were knotted hairs tied around the bedposts. It was her hair that had been gathered up and tied into neat, little bows.

Lila put one hand up to her head and played with a few strands of hair. As she brought her hands down she could see they were shaking. She could think of nothing else to do, but curl up in bed and close her eyes.

Something was very wrong the next time Lila woke up. Her jaw ached and her eyes were sore, as if she hadn't even closed her eyes. The figure at the end of the bed sighed, causing Lila to leap up in fright. It was the little girl in the coat again. This time her ringlets had been combed out, and her upturned palms were offered out to Lila. There was a small mountain of earth resting in the girl's hands. She raised her eyebrows in the hope that Lila might take it from her. But Lila was still fighting the truth that what she had seen in the lounge was real. Panic could be heard in her every breath, as she backed up against the wall.
"Calm down," the girl whispered, "you'll wake everyone up!"

Lila kicked her bed-covers back, narrowly missing the girl's head by inches.
"You have to calm down," she repeated, moving forwards with the offering. "I'm not here to hurt you."
"What are you here for?" Lila asked. It was odd how even at these moments she found herself concentrating on insignificant details. The girl's rounded collar, for instance, was stained with what looked like orange juice.

"You're going to help me, and in return I'm going to help you." The girl smiled. "It's only fair, after all, we're not that different from each other."
"How can you help me?" Lila thought about her relations and the way they treated each other. "How can anyone help me when I live in a house like this?"
"They can stop lying to you for a start." The girl moved along the left side of the bed so she was level with Lila's hip. There was a space on the mattress where she dropped the dirt into a neat pile. Lila noticed that in her palm the word 'Scarlet' had been written in blue pen.
"I wrote this down so I wouldn't forget it." Scarlet held up her palm. "Things aren't that easy to keep hold of when you're where I'm from."
Lila was about to ask exactly where she was from, but Scarlet continued. "And I brought this mud up here so you could see things clearly. It's from that urn above the fireplace."
As if to demonstrate Scarlet picked up a clump of mud and let it disintegrate between her chubby fingers. "You know everyone's been lying to you. They're still lying, except now you know the truth, now you can't just carry on sleepwalking everywhere to avoid it.”

“No one's lying to me,” Lila said quietly.
“Oh, I know you don't want to hear the truth, but if you accept it they'll be no more sleepwalking, I'll make sure of it."
Rachel's ashes had to be real, Lila reasoned. It was the only thing that meant there was something more to her life than just Doore Island. Even if Rachel was never mentioned, it still mattered that someone else had once existed and cared for her.
"Wherever your mother is, she's not in that urn downstairs," Scarlet added, before she stepped away and walked around the room. She began to tap the walls lightly with her fingertips, before pushing the door handle in and out several times. This girl was making promises to Lila, that no one had ever made to her before. Scarlet spoke as if all they had left was each other.

"I waited days for my mum. She didn't come and find me like she said, she promised she'd come for me and she lied." Scarlet began to play with the buttons on her coat. She did them up, pulling the collar up to her throat whilst walking to the window. The road out over the bridge was unstable, and lonely to walk on especially in the dark. The landscape caught the little girl's attention. "I don't want that home any more, far out there, and you shouldn't want that urn downstairs, not now it's full of mud."

The first threads of a migraine were beginning to affect Lila's vision. She could see blurry shapes at the right side of the room. When Scarlet turned away from the window and focused on the teenager, the coloured shapes formed a halo around the little girl's head. They flew within inches of her ear and became tangled in the forest of curls.
“You're not real are you? You're haunting me," Lila said.
“You could put it like that, I wouldn't though,” Scarlet replied, smiling.

It was still early morning, as the last minute customers who came to buy from Millicent before hibernation hadn't yet arrived. Scarlet seemed to sense Lila's tiredness and placed herself at the foot of the bed, ready to protect her charge.
“We should both be somewhere else,” Scarlet said, untying a strand of Lila's hair from one of the bedposts, and wrapping it around her own finger. “Whatever's coming you need to be prepared, much more than I was.”
Scarlet tugged at Lila's thin bedspread hoping for an answer, but the teenager had already fallen asleep.

****
Later that day the sound of raised voices could be heard in the hallway of the House at Nine. Lila was stretched out on her bed. She raised her head and opened one eye. Scarlet paced the floor in front of her.
“She's angry, very angry. I should've come to you sooner.”

Lila could see that Scarlet's hands were shaking. There was a seam unravelling on the pocket of her coat. The thread had coiled up in the corner.

It was Millicent's voice that Lila could hear downstairs. It was loud and insistent, and most of all defensive.

“Don't leave the room. That's the best thing you can do. Just don't leave the room.” Scarlet held out her right hand as if to grab Lila as she walked past, but it was useless to try,

Lila stood at the top of the stairs. Her aunt's shadow could be seen through the stained glass of the porch. The voices continued.
“She took a walk because she couldn't sleep, that's all.”
“It didn't look that way to me. It looked like...”
“Like what?” Millicent's tone was an impatient one.
There was a sigh from the stranger. “It looked strange, like she wasn't all there, like she was sleepwalking.”
There was a pause, during which Lila gripped the upstairs bannister. Someone had seen her.
“It's a bad sign. You need to keep her inside. It's a bad omen Millicent.”
“I didn't notice anything different when I saw her.”
“You didn't see the state she was in?”
Lila saw the small movement of Millicent's head through the glass. “I don't want to discuss this any more. It's no-ones business what happens here.”
“People make it their business. Keep her inside, that's all I'm saying.”
There was a rustling sound as Millicent handed the stranger a package. “Is that all you've come for?”
“Remember what I've said. The last thing you need are comparisons being drawn.”

The sound of the front door closing jolted Lila from her spot at the top of the stairs. She turned, only to find Richard watching her, turning a copper coin over in his palm.
“It's rude to listen to other people's conversations.”
Lila straightened herself up, brushing bits of dirt and sand from her cords.
“You look like your mother when you stand like that.”
“I don't,” Lila said.

“Millicent keeps you inside for a reason, doesn't she?”
Lila remembered the mutual fascination created by her sudden entrance last night and felt her cheeks begin to burn. At that moment Millicent charged up the stairs past the two of them. In one hand she carried a rolled up tube of notes. In the other was a bundle of writing paper. Her bedroom door slammed. There was the sound of a lock being slid across the inside of the door.

“You don't know anything about me, or this house.” Lila looked at the floor, concentrating on the old fashioned pattern in the carpet, of circles within circles. “If you knew the real reason she wanted you here, you wouldn't have come at all.”

Lila couldn't stop herself from looking up then, just to see the effect her words had, had. He glanced at Millicent's bedroom door, cast a worried eye over Lila, then pressed his own door firmly closed.