Trickster

HELL´S HUNDRED ACRES (continued):

"You came back, I´m quite sure you´ll have a story to tell." said Caroline.

She certainly looked different now; for some strange goddamn reason she was of rabbit ears on, but that would be the least of my worries.

"Well, um, yes, little missy. I have one thing to say...are you familiar with the name Hell´s Hundred Acres?

Caroline fainted yet she landed on her knees. She immediately covered her face weeping heavily. I approached her to see if she could calm down, yet she said,

"I wasn´t supposed to die that day..." she answered with a very deep voice. "I came to save my mother..."

"OK, did you listen to what I just said?" I asked again.

"I´m familiar with that, Adrian, thank you. This used to be a very nasty neighborhood, yet we had no better choice. We moved from Jersey, right after Daddy passed away. Yet, I had a bad feeling about this place from the beginning."

"a BAD feeling? Like a premonition?"

"YES! Now that I remember I used to have them ALL the time. Mommy wouldn´t believe me and thought I was just being lazy or stubborn, but I knew about the fire that day...you see, I had a vision where everything went up in flames, just like you see now. The sky was red and you could see it from miles away, a huge puff of smoke..." She threw herself on the floor covered with ashes, "but it was no use, you don´t know what it´s like when you know something before anyone else sees it and there´s nothing you can do about it...have you ever had that feeling?"

I answered politely, "no, but I´ve seen some very crazy things this fall, all of which I wrote down..."

"THAT´S EVIDENCE! I never had that opportunity, but you do now! You have noticed what you call coincidences, right? You think of something and then somebody else does it..."

I was amazed for a while, "Yes, it´s true. It´s like I have this connection with people, well, not all of them just the ones that I think are very creative..."

"Like me and that singer girl...it´s no surprise..." She took my hand and took me to one a corner of the room. There, to my surprise I saw things that I had seen, and drawn before...a black rabbit with the infinity symbol on its back. I was breathless.

"Why does it looks so similar to my style? If it is, I didn´t paint that."

"NO, I did it. Remember one night when Edith was not around and you woke up at exactly 3:15 AM?"

"How do you know that?"

"Nevermind that...you drew something...this." Then she showed me the same picture of the funny looking man in the middle of a forest.

"I suppose you have an explanation for that?"

"These are the Thousand, people like us, like you and me who are truly gifted. The rabbit, you see, is one of our many faces..."

This was getting too weird, even for me, so I interrupted her. "OK, kid this might sound like a very nice story and all but I just don´t get what you´re trying to say, you´re dead and you´re not coming back."

"Then if I´m dead then how come I can do this?"

I felt a stabbing pain in my chest, like a butcher knife passing through me...suddenly Caroline ran and hugged me very tightly, "Oh...I´m sorry, I´m so sorry, I didn´t mean to do that, it just happens when I feel threatened , can you please forgive me? please, PLEASE."

"Alright, you seem very strong, ow...but, what do you want from me?"

"The Thousand, don´t you remember, the story you loved when you were little?"

"What? You really believe all of that? Of course you do, you´re just a kid, anyway," I said as I walked across the room and kicked some papers that seemed from that specific time. I picked up one of them and said, "Duncan Soap Factory, 1953. Now hiring. Nobody does it like Duncan...weird."

"Sometimes I feel exactly like that little rabbit, a seer. I was there with you, every step of the way, the paintings..."

"What about my paintings?"

"There´s something in each and every one of them that will attract the Thousand..."

"There´s that word again, why do you call them that way? Oh, yeah, the book, right. So you mean to tell me that the paintings have, like messages of some sort?"

"YES!  Only some people will truly understand them and they will come to you."

"Listen, you didn´t HAD to do that, this is serious business, not child´s play."

"Deep down, you´re still a child too! I know you refuse to leave this place, but it´s because you have to fight for what you want! Didn´t you work very hard to get here?"

"That´s already decided and I´m not staying just because some dead girl said so, do you realize how insane that sounds?"

"Then take me with you, or else..."

"Or else what?"

"YOU know..." I think she was referring to the unusual power she had to hurt me, "Oh, that? You can´t kill me, you wouldn´t."

"NO! I wasn´t talking about that. If you leave me here all alone, then I could probably hurt others, probably your loved ones..."

"You wouldn´t..."

"I KNOW! I don´t really want to, but sometimes I can´t stop."

"Wait a minute, why do I get the feeling you caused the fire, I knew it was an accident, a simple accident which causes an explosion, maybe you did it on purpose to get out of this place when it was a wasteland, huh?"

This kid was clearly out of her mind and the worst part she was starting to piss me off really bad.

"So what if I did? What are you gonna do about it?"

"You´re dead, you can´t do any harm, ever again!"

"Oh, not me, but you sure could if you´re not careful enough..."

(continued):