My knees trembled as we exited the cafe, and my heart went thumpity thump thump. A very foolish inane grin spread across my face.
Peter smiled, ' I think you like that idea don't you?'
We walked arm in arm down King Street towards the tattoo parlour. As we passed the station, I saw a group of red shirted people giving out 'Preserve Newtown' pamphlets. Peter saw them too.
'Let's cross the road' He suggested.
'No.' I could feel the fury burning within me. 'No I want to talk to them'
'Daisi, I dont think that's a good idea.'
I ignored him, anger boiled through me, my breathing got deeper and I strode purposefully towards those cretins who were handing out the flyers, dragging Peter with me.
As we grew closer I noticed that Louisa was with them. I detached myself from Peter and ran towards her and as I did so, a large muscled figure stepped directly in my path. He looked familiar.
'Get out of my way, I want to talk to Louisa.'
'What about?' He snorted
'None of your business, she's my cousin, I can speak to her.'
Louisa, dressed in a flowing red skirt with flowers adorning her red hair spoke up from behind his back. 'let her through, I'll speak to her.'
'What do you think you're doing? Are you crazy? ' I spat at her. ' My friend got hurt a couple of nights ago and your thugs were responsible. You've just lost it and now somebody's got hurt. Please Louisa, just stop this , leave Newtown and my friends alone.'
I took a breath,
'Just wait a minute Daisi,' Louisa spoke quietly and slowly. ' I don't know what you're talking about. I've been staying at my friend Gavin's house, I haven't hurt anybody. and I resent you calling these fine young men thugs. They are upstanding citizens trying to maintain the purity of our culture.'
'Purity of our culture? What culture? What are you talking about?'
'I'm talking about freaks trying to take over our way of life. It's time that the people of Newtown learned about the freaks who live amongst them.'
I looked at Louisa in disbelief, her face had an inner glow, she was smiling broadly, happily performing for the crowd that had started to gather. And then, she bent towards me, widened her smile and I could feel her red hair brushing my shoulder. She whispered softly, ' Does my friend, Gary, seem familiar to you? You met him a while back, near the Court House Hotel. Do you remember him?'
I took a step back, and the big solid man who had first greeted me, stepped forward. He looked at me and smiled, revealing yellow teeth rotting in his gums.
But then I felt a hand on my shoulder and looking up spied Peter standing behind me. He stood as tall as Gary and over my head locked eyes with Louisa's thug. Gary looked away first, ' Get out of here little girl' he snarled and raised his hand, but Peter pushed me aside.
'Don't touch her'
'I'll touch who I please.'
The two men stood face to face, the tension mounted. From down the street a voice hissed, 'Coppers' as a pair of police loomed in the background. Gary and Peter parted, slowly.
'Let's go Daisi' Peter took my hand and we walked away. As we turned our back I could hear Louisa sing in a lilting voice.
'Farewell to your bricks and mortar, farewell to your dirty lies'
Peter was angry. He was attractive when he was angry.
'What were you thinking? Don't you know who those people are? They're dangerous.'
'She's my cousin.'
'She's a nut. They're all nuts. All those preservers or whatever they're called.'
'They hurt Anna.'
'I know, and they'll hurt you too if you bother them. Much better to leave them alone and not antagonise them. They're not worth your time.'
I looked at Peter in disbelief. 'Leave them alone? '
Peter stopped, he took my hand in his and turned me towards him. 'Daisi, I care about you. People like that, they're not worth worrying about. They're sick, they need help. If you ignore them, they eventually find some other cause to champion.'
'Ignore them? But they're dangerous, they could take over. They could..'
Peter gently kissed my fingertips, dropped my hand and caressed my cheeks , I was dizzy,
' Honey, they're only dangerous when you confront them. If you ignore them they'll just give up. Besides, ' He looked thoughtful , ' maybe they have a point. Maybe there are too many freaks in the world'
I was drowning in his touch, I couldn't hear his words, I just felt the warmth of his fingers on my face, the softness of his hands on my skin.
Then he kissed me and I was drowning in the taste of him, the tangy sweet essence of his mouth on mine, his arms enveloping me. We kissed and it was heaven and it was my heart thudding in time with his and it was magnificent and romantic and overwhelming and nothing mattered except this moment when Peter and I were one, on King Street in Newtown.
And we walked home together and I forgot about exspellers and preservers and cousins who were crazy and I even forgot about Anna and Mark, until we got to the Presidio and the clouds gathered over the sun as it shrunk in the west and my Peter escorted me to the front door and then...
'Oh Daisi, is that the time? I gotta run honey.' He rushed in the door as the sun set behind us and disappeared up the fire escape leaving me staring in stunned shock behind him.
I dragged myself home, confused, tired, exhausted. Madden was waiting outside my door.
' Daisi, there you are. Aaron and Eliza are coming over tonight. Do you want to join us?'
I gave him a dazed look. 'No, I'm tired'
'I know how you feel' he answered. He put a cold hand on my shoulder, 'get some rest then. If you hear voices later, it's just us talking OK?'
'Yeah'
After dinner, I sat and wondered about Peter. Our wonderful day, the kiss, the encounter with Louisa, it was all messed up in my head. I was angry, hurt, and strangely ashamed. There was a yearning to see Peter again, and a feeling of rejection that just wouldn't disappear. I just didn't know if he liked me, or if, perhaps, it was just a convenience thing.
When darkness fell, the noises started again. At first I thought it was my friends, speaking loudly, having dinner, moving cups and furniture around, but the sound came from upstairs, not from across the hall.
It disturbed my already disturbed thoughts, and I was sick of it. Sick of people thinking they ruled the building, sick of people feeling that they could interrupt my thoughts and life with their inconsiderate, spooky chain rattling, furniture banging and cutlery clattering.
So with a spurt of energy, I decided to confront them about it.
I took the stairs and quickly reached the second floor.
Turning left, I counted the doors, after a brief computation, I worked out that the noise was coming from the third on the right. I knocked, there was no answer .I knocked again, an irritated voice said something indistinctly, the door opened slowly with a creak, the light gradually illuminated the hallway and blinded me, and behind it, a waft of incense smoke met my nostrils.
A woman, a very strange woman stood there. She was an indistinct figure and I had to rub my eyes to keep her in focus. There was a smell about her, a salty, damp odour, and I wasn't sure, but there was something a little strange about the shape of her feet.
She scuttled out into the hall.
'Wad do ya wan?'
'Huh?' I asked
She spoke more slowly as if speaking to a child, ' What do you want?'
'Oh, I was wondering, that is, the noise'
' You hear it too?' She asked, 'Been keeping me awake for the last two weeks. New fella two doors down.'
'Oh, sorry.'
'No worries luv.' She scuttled back inside. Mmmm perhaps I miscalculated.
I went two doors down, raised my hand to knock, and to my surprise, the door creaked open into darkness.
It was a bare room, there was no furniture that I could see, and everything was shrouded in a dim dusky light coming from two big windows. I tried the ligh
t switch, but it didn't work. It was creepy and I hesitated a moment before slowly making my way further inside.
I turned into the living room and saw some shapes in the gloom, a very long couch, a chair and a table with a photo on it. I drew close enough to see the picture, and picking it up held it close to my nose. My eyes were getting accustomed to the light, and the people in the image were just visible. There was a woman, pretty, about 30, with long hair and a man beside her, older, greyer, and in between them a young handsome boy.
A loud noise erupted from the corner and just as I identified the boy I saw it.
It was tall, it was bent double and had long thin arms which almost dragged on the ground. One of them was chained to a ring on the floor. Its legs were short, stubby, and it had hair, long lustrous dark black hair all over its body. It looked half human half animal, a hominid covered with fur, and it smelt mouldy, an animal smell, a familiar smell, a smell I associated with....
'Peter? What have you done with Peter?' I waved the photo at it, I had recognised him as the young boy.
The thing reached a long arm towards me, and its elongated talons screeched as they scratched the floor.
I backed away, 'Well, ummm, I'm sure you've done nothing with Peter. Just tell him Daisi popped by OK? ummm thanks for that, I'll just leave you to , umm whatever, bye.'
The thing reached out again and howled, it pulled and tugged at the chain and then with its free arm lifted the table and threw it directly at me.
It hit me, hard, on the shoulder and I fell. The creature continued to howl, pulling desperately at its bonds, and the chain, link by link began to break until finally the animal was free. It stretched its back and straightened, gave one long scream to the air and took two hesitant steps towards me.
I stumbled to my feet, my shoulder a sharp mass of pain, I scrambled to my knees as the creature took another step towards me. It swiped with its arm and I ducked , just in time to avoid a scratch. Adrenaline started pumping through my veins, my mind screamed run, and I managed to get to my feet just as the thing made another lunge towards me.
I dashed out the door, the monster followed, It's long arms hampered its movements, so I was quicker. I ran to the fire escape and reached the entrance, just as it loomed in the hallway. Frantically attempting to flee, I tried to slam the stair door, but one long hairy arm stopped me. It swiped again, it was faster than I thought. I screamed,' Help, help, help...' over and over and fell down the stairway.
The steps bit into my body, bruised my ribs, my arms, my head, but just as I reached the next landing I fell right into the path of a pair of strong, cold, white arms, which broke my fall and lifted me in one swift smooth motion, out of the monster's path.
And then, as I was swept away, another body took my place, and in a swirling blurry shadow, this being wrapped its arms around the pursuing monster and they both rolled down the rest of the stairway in a banging, crashing, rolling maul.
I heard screams and growls and yells and howls and loud smacking, broken glass and suddenly there was silence.
The pain in my body was intense and as the silence fell a sickly grey fog overtook my senses and I fainted in the arms of my saviour.
There was water dripping down my cheeks when I woke , and Eliza was sitting beside me, trying to mop blood off my forehead with a wet cloth. 'Stay still' She hissed,' you're hurt'
She wiped some of the blood away with her fingers, then draped the cloth over my eyes.
'You'll get a black eye too if you don't put something cold on it.' She licked her hand.
Suddenly she stood up and almost tipped over the couch on which I lay, 'Madden.'
I heard a sucking wet sound as they kissed , and was glad that I couldn't see very well under the cloth. I started to shiver, tried to sit up, a wave of nausea overcame me and I threw up all over the carpet. Then I passed out again.
When I opened my eyes again, it was Aaron sitting next to me. I felt clean and my shoulder was immobilised by bandages. My whole body ached, but I needed to get up. Where was Peter? What was that thing? Why was Peter's photo there? I needed answers. I tried to sit up again, but Aaron gently laid a hand on my arm.
'Stay still, you've been hurt.'
'Please help me up, I need to find Peter.'
Aaron repeated, ' Stay still, Peter is fine, you're the one that's injured.'
Still I struggled to sit. Aaron sighed and helped me. My head spun and I felt dizzy, Aaron steadied me and moved some cushions to make me comfortable.
'Where's Peter?'
'He is upstairs. Madden and Eliza are watching him.'
'Can I see him?'
Aaron looked at me closely, ' You know you can't see him.'
I was struggling to understand, I didn't want to understand. 'What was that thing?'
Aaron breathed deeply, ' Do you want me to say it?
'What was that thing Aaron?'
'Daisi' He stopped and stared into my eyes. 'Daisi, you know what it was, you know who it was...'
and Aaron said the words I didn't want to hear.
'It was Peter.'
I cried, I cried a lot, and Aaron was pretty good about it. He handed me some tissues and waited until I was composed. Then he explained. ' Peter is a Yowie. They're creatures related to the Yeti or North American sasquatch. Human hybrids really.'
'Like werewolves?' I asked. ' but it's not a full moon.'
Aaron was puzzled, 'Werewolves? Werewolves are imaginary. We're talking about Yowies. They're an ancient race. Some people say that they were the original inhabitants of this country and once roamed it freely until the arrival of man 40 thousand years ago.'
'Really?'
'Indeed. there is a clan at Katoomba.'
I gazed at Aaron suspiciously. ' How do you know so much about them?'
He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest, and suddenly, in a flash of intuition a thought came to me, Aaron, the chief juggler of Newtown, wasn't exactly as he seemed.
'You're not just a juggler are you Aaron?'
He frowned, opened his mouth to deny it and then smiled. 'You're very observant young Daisi. You're right, I'm part magician. I rarely admit to it, they're very unpopular beings.'
'Magician's aren't beings'
'That's exactly what they want you to think.' he chuckled. ' But that is irrelevant. You asked me a question. I know about Yowies because my life was saved by a Yowie clan when I was a young man. In fact, it was Peter's clan. But I am afraid I have let them down . Peter's father asked me to keep an eye on him whilst he was here, and although Madden helped, I fear I have failed in my task.'
Aaron shook his head sadly. 'That's probably enough explanation for now. You should rest Daisi.'
I didn't know what to say, a strange feeling of exhaustion was overwhelming me. I felt numb. The pillows were soft and inviting, I leaned back into them and slept.
**********************************************************************************
The next morning I woke in my own bed, my body was aching, but it was nothing to the pain I felt in my heart. Peter was a yowie, he had tried to kill me. I wondered what that meant. Did the kiss mean nothing? Did he still like me? My head spun with odd thoughts mixed with the pain
My shoulder made getting dressed difficult, and it was with aching bones and sore muscles that I managed it . My mind wandered, through echoes of Louisa singing songs of farewell, to visions of the hairy ape like creature that was Peter.
Suddenly there was a knock at my door, and there he was, Peter, standing there looking distressed and disturbed. Behind him was Madden, looking worried.
'Can I come in?'? Asked Peter
'Yeah' I stuttered.
Madden announced to nobody in particular. 'I'll guess I'll leave you two to it' he stuttered, 'by it, I mean...ummm, just let me know if you need anything?'
I barely heard him, my eyes were full of Peter and my heart was thumping with a sickening sore beat.
/> Peter hesitated. 'ummm'
I gestured towards the couch and he sat down. 'Are you OK?' he asked
'ummm yeah.'
We sat in silence for a long, long time, and then he reached out and took my hand,
'I'm a yowie.'
'Yeah, Aaron explained that.'
'I'm a freak.'
'No, no don't say that' I protested. ' Everybody here is a freak, so nobody's a freak if that makes sense.'
'Nah, it doesn't.'
'Oh' I was disappointed, I thought I had expressed myself well for once.
'I'm a freak' Peter repeated. 'I'm a freak and I don't want to be a freak. My cousin and I, we're working on a cure. That's why I work at the zoo.'
'Oh. but you know I don't care about that right?' I protested. 'I ..'
It was too soon to admit my feelings to him, but I wanted to comfort him.
'I'm going back home to continue working on the cure. It's too dangerous for me here, with the Preserve Newtown people '.
'You're going back home?'
'Yeah, I thought Newtown was a safe place. But I was wrong. Your friend got hurt, and if they found out about me, well..'
'Oh, you don't want to stay?" I was crushed, I didn't understand what was going on.
Peter played with my hand gently, 'I like you Daisi, I really do, but I've got stuff to do. Like find a cure. '
'But you could find the cure here right? I mean you don't have to go back home.'
'It's impossible with the exspellers. It's just too complicated and stressful with them here. '
Peter packed up and left the next day.
Words cannot describe the soul destroying pain I felt after he left. The bruises and aches on my body were nothing compared to the searing hot scalding destruction of my spirit. There was nothing left for me in life any more, Peter had left, the world was a dark, dank and dismal place. I spiralled into a despair so deep and so hopeless that I barely left my bed.
One night, two weeks later, while I was crying into the cushions on my couch, I heard a noise above my head. It sounded like furniture was being moved, and then there was a clanking sound as if chains were being rattled. For a moment the cloud over my heart lifted and I thought Peter had returned. But that hope was dashed when I heard a female voice singing.
'Farewell to your bricks and mortar, Farewell to your dirty lies'
Then I heard the sound of knocking, the singing stopped, there was the creak of a door opening, a loud hiss and a sudden blood curdling, ear shattering scream of terror, followed by a series of banging and crashing sounds.