Inked (The Ink Keepers Book 1) Read online

  “Can you show me your teeth?” -The man asked as soon as Mackenzie turned around.

  “What?” -Mackenzie asked a little annoyed.

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” -The man apologized. - “I am a dentist. I couldn’t stop noticing your teeth are gleaming white. Can I see?”

  Mackenzie opened his mouth with bad temper. It was easier to show his white teeth to the man than to hear him asking for it ever again.

  “Impressive! How old are you? Your teeth are still from milk. Baby teeth, I mean. Have you ever lost a tooth in your life?” -The man kept asking questions that Mackenzie didn’t answer. - “You must see me in my office if something happens. You better take care of that mouth.”

  Without giving much importance, Mackenzie walked to the school. He looked at his surroundings. It was something he had never seen before. He remembered the kids playing at the gardens he used to spy on and remembered what little boys said about a place like this: school. They feared and hated it and they rather be somewhere else than in there. Schools make kids older - one of those boys said once. Since that moment, Mackenzie had thought to have an adventure of his own in a place that could be that awesome. Maybe that was the reason why he had ended up there. But he must not forget the commands he had now.

  A girl… the man told him about a girl he must follow, but when Mackenzie looked around him, girls of all types were coming and going freely without even noticing him. He tried to wave at them, but none of them gave him a single look. Mackenzie got mad. These girls were all like that bird girl that once broke his heart. Pink princesses in high heels that avoid looking at the mud, the place where apparently he was standing, and it didn’t feel glorious to Mackenzie to be watched by the corner of the eye.

  “Mr. Kensington?” -Mackenzie heard someone calling at his back. - “Good morning, Mr. Kensington.” -Mackenzie turned around to see the source of such a disturbing voice. Not even the crocked pirate’s voice was so annoying. A tall woman was standing just few inches away from him. She was looking down at him through her strange spectacles. Mackenzie had just seen something like those glasses back in Alter Land, but it was not glasses, but some crystals from the Indians tribes. - “Are you Mr. Mackenzie Kensington?”

  Mackenzie was confused. Of course, he was Mackenzie. That’s the only thing he knows about himself. Kensington? How could he know? He remembered nothing about himself. This woman must be playing tricks on him; that was for sure. The un-aging boy looked right behind the woman and right behind him. There was no other boy nearby. It must be him.

  “I am Mrs. Rose. Come with me, Mackenzie. I understand you must feel lost and confused. Your uncle called and made arrangements for a tutor and a guide to help you through school.” -Throwing the pile of papers the dentist gave him, Mackenzie followed the lady, but while she walked and talked and talked, Mackenzie just heard an aching echo of bla… bla… in his head. This woman really has terrible voice. If only she could meet Sirina, she could learn how to have a better tone of voice. There was no voice as melodic and dramatic as Sirina’s. She could sing and make the fish dance endlessly; the moon obeys her commands and the shadows of the night bow at her sugary voice.

  His shadow- Mackenzie cannot stop thinking about it. Sirina’s father was the only one to blame in Mackenzie’s childish imagination. Hopefully he can find his shadow, his only companion, during this journey.

  “Is your uncle alright? He said he cannot come because he is delicate of health. I hope he improves soon.” - Uncle? What uncle? Thought Mackenzie. He was alone as far as he could remember. A child without mother to love him. Without father to teach him. Without siblings to play with. And now he has a mysterious uncle? Nope. Mackenzie was sure she was talking about the man who sent him to this world with a mission he was almost forgetting. A girl, artifacts, moon, magic, and him. That was all Mackenzie remembered. - “Mackenzie? Are you here with me? I think you are in the space. How old are you?”

  “Old enough.” -Mackenzie answered. He didn’t lie, as he really felt to be extremely old. Maybe “rascalishiously” old as Sirina used to tell him. The lady laughed politely and told him how funny and clever he was.

  “Then you must tell me your secret, Mr. Kensington. You look out-earthly gorgeous.” -She answered, lowering her spectacles to watch him with just the bare eye.

  “You must move to Alter Land.” -Smiling, Mackenzie answered, without thinking about what he said. The lady sat back, watching Mackenzie as if he had insulted her. How daring boy! Mackenzie had killed the smile in the woman’s face, but his own smile remained there, unharmed. After all, Mackenzie cared nothing about other people. He just wanted to grow old.

  Someone knocked on the door as soon as the lady was preparing her self-defense repertoire. Someone came into the room without waiting to be called in. Mackenzie didn’t turn to look, but he breathed deeply and discovered the world’s most precious scent in the whole world. It smelled like lily flowers, and orchids, and honey, and any other sweet smell his memory could recall. He was dancing in a river, or it was in the full sky?

  “Mackenzie… Mackenzie?” - Opening his eyes, Mack expected to be back in Alter Land. - “You fainted! What happened to you?”

  “What?” - Mackenzie dared to ask. He was just dreaming awake, no way he fainted!

  “I said you fainted… passed out… swoon… just like that.” -Mrs. Rose said. Mackenzie felt ashamed for the first time. He had fainted… like a jellyfish falling to the bottom of the sea. Ridiculous! His shameful face was impossible to imitate. Someone laughed behind him. He turned around, to find a girl was there covering her face. A girl completely different to any other he had seen. Yes, maybe she was common to the looks yet so different in Mackenzie’s imagination.

  “This is Kyra. She will be your guide and tutor. Everything you need, let us know. Now, both of you can leave. The bell is about to ring.”

  Mackenzie followed the girl trying to be extra careful not to be drooling over his only set of human clothes. Kyra guided Mackenzie through the school and Mackenzie found out that she was as invisible to the other kids as he was. He found that quite amazing.

  “Nobody waves at you.” -Mackenzie told Kyra after almost an hour she had been trying to make him say something.

  “You talk! I’m so happy. I was beginning to think you couldn’t. Answering your question, you are right. Nobody does, because nobody cares about me or you, only themselves.”

  “These boys are crazy ignoring you like that.” -Mackenzie continued.

  “What does that mean?” -Kyra asked turning red.

  “You…” -Mackenzie thought about what to say without scaring her. He had made the same mistake many times before. The bird girl. - “You... smell good!” -Shyly, he said at last.

  “Oh!” -Trying to be unnoticed, Kyra smelled her choice of clothes. She smelled like every other day. It was true that her family and close friends have always told her about a particular essence she had, but a boy had never noticed it. She tried to suppress the redness in her face, but she was too ashamed to succeed, so she did the best she could, looking around, searching for her friend Ash.

  That first day passed by slowly and Mackenzie was impassive. Kyra was something. Soon everything has vanished from his memory. The verses he must not forget where nowhere in his mind, already forgotten. They were gone, and Mackenzie could only think about the sweet smell that the wind was bringing every time Kyra’s hair found a way to get loose from that silly hair band she liked to wear.

  At lunch time, Mackenzie got lost. Kyra forced herself to look for him. She didn’t have to, but her best friend Ash was sick and absent as for the whole previous week. Mackenzie was nowhere inside the school, so Kyra went to the gym looking for him. She heard him talking a lot of nonsense sentences. Hiding behind the lockers to watch what he was doing, Kyra felt bad. She had never spied someone before, apart from her stepsister. But Mackenzie was doing something Kyra knew was not right.

  “Too fat... too short... too wimpy...”<
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  Kyra was shocked. Mack was opening more lockers than the one that belonged to him. From inside the lockers, Mackenzie was taking clothes and trying them on. If something fitted him, Mackenzie threw it to a bench in the middle of the hallway, if something didn’t fit, he just dropped it in front of the locker where he took it.

  “What are you doing?” -Kyra came out of her hiding place trying to keep her voice as low as possible. She didn’t want to be discovered spying in the boys’ dressing room. Mackenzie jumped as soon as he saw Kyra. He hid his hands behind his back trying to hide something from her. - “Are you stealing, Mackenzie?”

  Mackenzie didn’t answer Kyra’s question. Nor answered the many, many questions flying out of her mouth. Hundreds of questions per seconds. He felt annoyed. A girl with a smell so great that could make him faint, with hair so unruly he could play with it all day long, with skin so fair and delicate as a white rose petal, but with an unstoppable urge for information.

  “Maybe I have met my match” -Mackenzie thought. - “Inquisitive… just like me. A little intrusive, but with that smell I can manage whatever it takes.”

  “Hello? Are you still in here? Not going to pass out again, right?” -She asked. Mackenzie looked back at Kyra, returning from his self inducted trance. - “This is bad, Mackenzie. You can’t be doing this. The police will get to you sooner or later.” -Mackenzie got ashamed when Kyra scolded him. She was acting like that bird girl he once took to Alter Land. She didn’t understand. She would never understand. - “You have clothes… do you?”

  Mackenzie just stood there. He was too proud to be crestfallen, but he didn’t dare to look at Kyra. If something Mackenzie hated was to be treated like a little child, though he was acting just like one. Wasn’t it easier to tell her the truth? Nah! She won’t believe him. She will never understand- Mackenzie kept repeating in his mind.

  “Come on… Mackenzie. You can talk to me. You can tell me. I will help you if you want.” -Kyra walked towards him. The boy retreated a few steps, moving away from her. Will she truly help me ? Mackenzie asked himself, looking at Kyra this time. - “I asked you something, Mackenzie, and I demand you to answer.”

  “No.” -Mackenzie answered with an aggressive tone of voice.

  “No what, Mackenzie?” -Kyra asked.

  “No clothes.” -He answered looking at her defiantly. - “What are you going to do? Are you going to turn me over to the police? You can’t prove anything, silly girl, I have nothing, and the only one in problems will be you, spying boys in the dressing room.” -Mackenzie said with rebelliousness.

  “In fact, no. FYI, I was not going to turn you to the police, but to help you. Thank you, ungrateful brat!” -Kyra said, turning her back at Mackenzie. She ran the fastest she could, but Mackenzie was soon in front of her. - “What?” -Kyra asked in disbelief. She looked back and forth a few couple of times trying to give credit to what her eyes were seeing.

  “Alright, I’ll accept your help only if you offer it the appropriate way.” -Mackenzie told her.

  “What appropriate way?” -Kyra asked, frowning deeply.

  “Don’t you know the face girls use to offer help?” -Dumbly, he dared to ask.

  “This is the only face you’ll get, Mackenzie.” -Kyra answered, showing her maddest face.

  “Come on! You must have a special face to do this sort of things.” -He proceeded. - “The courtship, the formalities...”

  “Get lost, Mackenzie. You are such an idiot.” -Kyra told him, planting her hand to his face. Instead of dodging him, Kyra bumped against his shoulder.

  “Use the special face, Fairy Girl!” -Mackenzie’s voice was so loud a flock of birds flew away scared.

  “How did you call me?” -Kyra walked to him this time. She was not happy with the new penname Mackenzie was giving her.

  “Special face?” -He made a dumb pause. - “Oh, Fairy Girl!”

  “Don’t you ever dare to call me that way ever again.” -Kyra punched Mackenzie several times in the chest. - “Am I clear?”

  “Oh, well, then… how should I call you, Fairy Girl?”

  “I have a name. And you better remember it.” -She threatened him, almost digging her index finger deep into his face.

  “Will you use your special face to offer me your precious help, Kyra?”

  “Sorry, Mackenzie. You’ve been living in the wrong story for too long.”

  Chapter 4: A boy not too polite

  Monday afternoon

  Kyra was still mad at Mackenzie when the bell rang after lunch. This time the noise rumbled strenuously in Kyra’s ears. She took her time, delaying going back to the classroom where Mackenzie for sure would be waiting for the dummy tuition. She went to the bathroom and washed her face slowly, watching closely every inch of her fair skin.

  “You are just normal as any other girl” -she repeated in her mind. But sometimes she had her doubts too. Strange things always happened to her. Maybe call it paranoid, but Kyra thought that even the animals acted weird around her. Yes. Paranoia is the name of her self-diagnosed illness. Maybe her mother suffered the same illness, and that’s the reason why her father never talks about her.

  Kyra felt sorry for her father. He was not to blame. Kyra understood him more than anybody else. How to blame a father that protected her dreams, even if he was supporting a crazy behavior of calling unicorn every horse? Poor man. His teenage girl has an imaginary unicorn as pet. Not to blame. NOT. TO. BLAME!

  At least this year nobody was laughing about her, not yet anyway. But maybe this Mackenzie had come to ruin the little peace Kyra was enjoying. Don’t think Kyra was the kind of girl that shimmer and glimmer her room with fairies and butterflies, she was everything but that. The imaginary unicorn as pet… that was something else.

  Kyra collected her courage and walked straight to the classroom. She walked fast to her seat when the professor was writing in the board. The chair besides her was empty. Mackenzie didn’t come to class. Maybe she was supposed to guide him there again, as with any other class this very first day. She was too mad at him to even punish herself for failing in her “tutor-for-the-silly-new-boy” role.

  A wind so refreshing as nothing Kyra has tasted before filled the room. Every paper neatly accommodated in the professor’s desk went flying. The other kids tried to catch them, but Kyra remained seat. A paper descended into her hands. It was folded as a wing. HA! Very funny, she thought. Kyra opened it just to discover a note.

  “I need to sneak into the S.W.’s office. She has something that belongs to me. Help an ungrateful brat?”

  Ungrateful brat? Obviously this was Mackenzie. He was the first one she dared calling names. Only that name. Well, and others that had appeared in her imagination too, although Kyra hadn’t wanted to say it out loud. She would never have dared to do it anyway. Why had he wanted to enter without permission to the Social Worker’s office? Why not just ask for what belonged to him?

  Professor Radisson called the class to attention. The classroom had gone mad after the flying papers, jumping and yelling and laughing like if in the yard. Kyra remained seated for another second, but her curiosity won over and she stood up and left the classroom walking to the bathroom again. She whispered over and over that it was better to go back to her classroom, continue with the history class which was going to get particularly interesting to her, because Professor Radisson was explaining the origins of the French Revolution, than get caught sneaking into the Social Worker’s office.

  “Hey, Fairy… Kyra. Ready to help?” - Mackenzie asked Kyra, coming out of his hiding place behind the vending machine. Kyra jumped in surprise.

  “I’m not sure about this. Why don’t you go and ask Mrs. Rose for your belongings?” -Kyra asked suspiciously.

  “Will you give me back something you don’t know belongs to me and I have not many ways of proving it is?” -Mackenzie inquired.

  “Maybe no.” -She answered without doubt. - “What’s all this about?”

  “That is the p
oint. My backpack is there.” -Mackenzie was telling, but Kyra interrupted him, looking behind Mackenzie.

  “I think I am watching your backpack right now. It is right behind you, Mackenzie.”

  “The thing is, Fairy… Kyra… you don’t believe me either. But I am telling the truth. If you help me find my stuff, I promise I won’t call you Fairy Girl ever again.”

  The promise sounded very tempting. Never being called Fairy Girl ever again? That was definitely something she could live with. Being called like a mythical creature of fairy tales was irritating enough to a girl so bonded to the real live. She thought for a second and knew that she must use her special ability- eye-licker-tutor- to enter to that office ASAP.

  “Alright. I’ll help you, but you have to keep your word.” -She said at last.

  “Word of honor I swear to you.” -Mackenzie said, making a cross over his heart with his pinkie finger.