03: Martha's Testament

Laura had never met someone who could bluntly say she resembled someone they knew. Then again, she wasn’t the type to have a stranger stop and casually hang with her for a second or two. She was, after all, that weird newbie in the neighborhood whose name was branded with the curse of the Gaunts. Perhaps, her grandmother knew things would be this way, which was why she had decided to enroll her not in their village but in the neighboring city. What she might have overlooked, however, was the fact that news had wings. No rumor was ever safe for the ears of gossipers who were more than satisfied to feast on other’s despair.

She was all over those. Bearing those kinds of treatment for almost fourteen years, she found that these strange and curious things about her were more like a conjoined twin tied to her for merely being one of the elusive Gaunts.

All the same, she couldn’t quite resist a smile knowing that somewhere out there, someone didn’t look at her as this strange kind of existence, though Martha did look at her as though she was seeing a ghost or, more like, a killer or something closer to that. It was weird, but it was easy to ignore since Zheria, whom she uncannily resembled so much, was also conjoined to this bizarre confusion.

It was almost as though her desire to see a vampire was blurring the line of illusion and that her merely knowing about Zheira was never a coincidence.

Somehow, it was sending her shivers.

“I told you I’m not that certain,” Martha had repeated, sighing deeply for the third time as Laura asked the same question for the third time in a row. “I only saw her twice.”

“But the fact that you see her in me must mean something, right?”

“I don’t know, but I think you’re looking at this quite differently. Why are you so keen to know—and, may I just add—thrilled to have some likeness in feature to that, well, monstrosity?”

“Am I?” Laura raised a brow, clearing her throat. “But what made you think we just resemble each other and I wasn’t really her?”

“Are you?”

She looked up for a moment before chuckling. “I wish.”

Rolling her eyes, Martha crossed her legs. “You wouldn’t want that if you’d seen what she did.”

The two ladies sat side by side on the couch. Laura had ordered them both a cup of milk teas, yet no one had taken a sip. She was busy confirming whether or not she really resembled this rumored vampire. It gave her this unexplainable glory she couldn’t quite compare to anything else. It overshadowed the grief of losing the only living relative she once had.

As for Martha, she had quite a bad week. Ever since the release of the newspaper, folks were coming in and out looking for her. Their manager never would have cared if only she mentioned not a single thing about the Martins. No one knew why they hushed the fact that they had a daughter, but Martha took a stab that the press wouldn’t have been kept on the bay if they got a whiff that the crowned pillars of mining harbored such a child of pure evil—and she busted it for them. She wasn’t even sure whether these folks wanting to meet her believed a single word of her story. She hadn’t met them anyway. The manager didn’t want to. It was why she was transferred to the monitoring team. Quite lucky not to get fired but still really unfortunate.

While Martha was occupied with her thoughts, Laura used the opportunity to glimpse at her features on the screen of her phone. She was born with hair of ivory, but she never did like those pale yellowish colors defining her tanned skin. So, when she was in tenth grade, she visited a salon and colored her hair ash-gray, the same tint as her dull almond set of orbs. It quite complimented her skin and made her diamond-shaped face a bit highlighted. The little flesh way in the middle of her Nubian nose had with it a silver earring, which she wore in the past to make friends with the cool guys at the school. Since it took quite a hit before, she thought wearing it would give anyone a reason to take notice of her, but no one did. Out of custom and the fear of being called out, she always wore it and, in the long run, had found it a little harder to not wear at all times.

When she became a little bored at merely staring at her face, she put her phone down and stared instead at Martha whose eyes were intent on the post in front of her, yet it was unfocused. It was as though she was sitting there with her, but her mind was somewhere else.

Sighing, Laura snapped and Martha blinked rather rapidly, turning toward her as though it was her first time seeing her there and that she was rude enough to not announce her presence a little earlier.

“I am Laura, by the way. Laura G—” she paused, her hands stretched in the air; if she were to tell her she was a Gaunt, would she react the way others do?

But, as it appeared, Martha didn’t care about it, for she accepted her hand without even letting her finish.

“Martha. You’re here for the article, right?”

“How do you know?”

Martha half-smiled. “I’m telling you, I’m not the kind to be famous. With these looks, I won’t even be allowed in a circus. I scare kids, see. They just don’t like being in my presence. Oh well, it’s not my loss. I don’t like them either.”

“You look fine. You just need a little confidence.

“You’re just saying that.” She brushed her hand in the air, snorting. “Right. Can we get on the point? I’m rather in a hurry for lunch. I still need to go back to work, if you don’t mind.”

“Won’t you get in trouble?”

“No, I don’t think so. It’s my break, so I guess I have the leeway to spend it with someone even though that someone is someone I don’t know.”

“Wow! That’s a lot of someone there.” Laura chuckled, looking at her. When their eyes accidentally met, they ended up laughing fit to burst.

It took them quite some time to settle down. Somehow, they appeared to have the same wavelength. It wouldn’t come off as a shock since they were the same age, but it was a little strange for Laura. How was it that she was able to connect way too easily with a stranger than her schoolmate who she had spent most of her days with both as a child and as a teenager?

Prejudices really came a long way.

“Anyway, Laura, what do you want to know? Shoot it away.” Martha gently patted the corner of her watering eyes with her forefinger, slightly looking up.

“I want to know more about Zheira and what you personally think about her.”

“Aah, Zheira Martin, right?”

Laura nodded, sitting a little straighter.

“Well, she was timid. She fidgeted in every single noise. The first time I saw her, I was really weirded out by the way she dressed. She was wearing this thick of a jacket, thick sunglasses, and a mask. I’d understand the mask and the sunglasses. But the jacket? It was a boiling afternoon, so it was really strange.”

“You said you saw what’s behind the mask twice, right?”

“Yes, I did.” Martha closed her eyes, pursing her lips. “The first time was when she fell from the rooftop and the second was when she was descending from the stairs.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone what you saw?”

“Pardon?”

“You said in the article that they were looking for the patient the nurses were supposed to bring in the hospital, but they found only the corpses of the nurse.”

“How should I explain it to them?” she barked, a little more accusatory than she intended to. “That I saw Zheira being carried in the ambulance but was already safe and well just the night of the incident? I already told the press about this and they understood why I acted that way. Besides, I was not in the right state of mind then. I was worried sick for my friend’s sake. That Zheira and her shits were the least of my concern.”

“If you don’t mind, who’s this friend you’re talking about?”

To her surprise, Martha laughed. “You asked like a journalist. Are you perhaps one?”

“No.” Laura shook her head with a small smile. “But I minored one in my third year. I was a fine art major.”

“That’s nice of you. I always wanted to try one, but you know, parental pressure, so I ended up with HRM.”

“I get the feeling you don’t like it.”

“Slightly, but enough of me.” She cleared her throat, stealing a glance at the counter where the front desk Laura had met earlier was eyeing them as though wanting nothing more than to jump toward where they were seated. “I mentioned Celestine in the interview, but I guess her story wasn’t interesting enough to be inscribed on the paper.”

Laura waited for her to supply, but she seemed to have been lost in thought. “Is there something wrong, Martha?”

Martha waved her hand in the air with an awkward laugh. “Just reminiscing the good old past. Nothing to worry about.”

“Oookay then. What’s the story of this Palestine—”

“Celestine!” Martha hissed, glaring at her.

Laura pursed her lips. “Aight, aight! I was just teasing.”

Still eyeing her as though scrutinizing her very soul, she sighed for God knew how many times. “Celestine was unfortunate enough to be chained by poverty. Her mother was on the verge of dying. She didn’t have a proper-paying job before. She barely graduated high school, see. No one wanted to take her.

“She was jubilant when the manager took her in. He was a friend of mine and a colleague of Celestine. Although her taking the job had one condition that she didn’t make a mess, she didn’t mind it. She said she would do her very best because it was her mother’s only chance. However, when the Martins came by, the order of things was destroyed. Their daughter made sure of that.”

A glint of mad frustration masked her face, but she hid it with yet another fake smile. It was impressive how easy it was for her to shift from one expression to the other. It has always been this way with people. Vulnerability was a hateful thing they didn’t want to waste their time with, let alone to think about, so they hid everything that they came to be in the pretense of their made-up smiles.

“For just a scratch on the cheeks Celestine had nothing to do with, she lost her job. The Martins wanted to press charges, didn’t you know? Not only because of negligence but also for improper treatment. I argued for Celestine that the court won’t sway for the Martins, especially because they weren’t to blame for the unforeseen circumstances. But Celestine wanted no trouble. She resigned on her own and we spent the night in a bar. We were both drunk. I should have taken her home myself, but she told me not to, and then… and then…”

“She died, right?” whispered Laura, breathing rather heavily.

Martha gasped but did not supply.

Biting her lips, Laura allowed the silence to reign once again between them. She merely listened to the murmurs of people walking in and out of the hotel, passing through them like a bland movie she was merely forced to watch. She understood the heavy tension in the air. Death was, after all, a foe through which an invisible, incurable scar was dented not to those he took but to those that would be left behind. They said dying was the worst. Laura thought otherwise. It was seeing death steal the very people you held dear that was almost unbearable.

But nothing good resulted from grief. Wallowing over the loss and forgetting to live was giving the reaper all the more reasons to enjoy taking you with him as well. So, suck it all and move the hell on.

“So, is that all?”

Laura smiled sheepishly, brushing the back of her neck. “I have one last question.”

‘’Just the one.”

Leaning closer toward her, Laura pursed her lips. “Do you believe in vampires?”

“I do but I also don’t.”

“Why?”

“Uh, uh, uh!” Martha wriggled her forefinger, smiling from ear to ear. “You said it’s the last question.”

“But—”

“Next time, Laura.” Patting some invisible dirt on her skirt, she clicked her tongue. “Oh, the next time we talk, at least treat me a piece of steak.” She winked at her before going out for lunch, essentially leaving her with more questions buzzing at the back of her head.

“Well, shit!” Laura stomped, glaring into nothingness. “Now, this will make me sick!”

Fuming still, she trailed on Martha’s footstep, keen on whiffing out more answers from her, thinking a steak would do. She hadn’t eaten anything anyway. Might as well do it with some ulterior motives for a change. She snickered at the thought.

“Martha,” Laura called, “wait! I’ll treat you to lunch.”

Martha stopped just outside the hotel, smirking. “You did get the hint.”

Shrugging, Laura smirked as well. “Well, it’s no biggie.”

Their eyes met and both of them ended up laughing as they made their way to the nearest restaurant.