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julie

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Though he won't admit it, even to himself, Mathias is slightly nervous.

He's made the best preparations he can, managing to take over the television in the basement for the time being, although he hasn't had as much luck with the bookshelf as he'd been hoping. It seems to know he's looking for something in particular and so has been giving him all sorts of other movies. Eventually, it gave up two monster movies, though neither of them are from the fifties and he's a little disappointed by that. The titles, however, are especially ridiculous and so he hopes they're still entertaining enough.

He's telling this to Julie as he leads her down to the television, holding both movies in his hand. "So our options for tonight, anyway, are Sharktopus or Two-Headed Shark Attack. I am not sure which one sounds more absurd." They both look to be fairly recent, too, perhaps even made after his time and Mathias isn't sure what that says about the modern movie going experience.

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Mathias raises his eyebrows at the explosion, his head tilted slightly at the screen. "Poor Sharktopus indeed," he says, although he isn't sure if they're really supposed to feel sorry for the supposed villain of the piece. "Do you suppose most monster movies end with you liking the monster better than the people?"

"I wouldn't know. I thought you were the expert. Did you entice me here under false pretenses?" I tease. "I do tend to prefer underdogs, though. Or undersharks, as the case may be. I think it comes of being Scottish."

"Mostly false pretenses," Mathias agrees with a solemn nod. "I have to admit, I've seen very few monster movies. Mostly the older ones made their appearance in my home, but the bookshelf seemed intent on giving me this one."

He pauses, looking at the screen. "It is too bad the undershark didn't win, then."

"So I've been tricked into an acquaintance with Sharktopus." I shake my head sadly and force myself not to smile. "I suppose we can blame the bookshelf. It does seem to enjoy being mean to me."

I frown slightly at the end of the film.

"Probably just as well. I'm not sure what kind of future he'd have to look forward to. Seems like it would be hard to be a sharktopus in the world."

"In my world, he would have been famous," Mathias says. "But it would have all gone wrong in the end, I imagine, much like it did with King Kong." It's been some time since he's seen that movie, but he does remember that it doesn't end particularly well. "On the other hand, I suspect he's much less misunderstood than the giant ape."

"I wonder if they'd be friends." I like the idea of King Kong and Sharktopus having whatever passes for tea among movie monsters. "I cried buckets over King Kong," I admit. "At least Sharktopus isn't quite as tragic, even if they technically ended the same."

"Yes, King Kong does have a bit of a different feel to it," Mathias agrees. "It's amazing how movies based on monsters can have such different tones given who's in charge of making them." And, he supposes, what exactly they want to get done. He imagines the makers of Sharktopus are pleased with the result of their movie.

"Much as I'd like to see Sharktopus try to climb the Empire State Building, I'm sure they're both in the film they're best suited to."

I may be bold, but this has been officially defined as a date and I think it's past time one of us did something like it when I reach over to take his hand.

"This is probably the most serious conversation anyone has ever had about Sharktopus."

"Except for the people who made it," Mathias answers with a smile, although that may not be true at all. The people who made this movie may well have not taken it seriously in the slightest.

He glances down when Julie takes his hand, still smiling, then asks, "Would you like to go for a walk?"

"No. I've seen it now. There's no way the people who made it were as serious about it as we are." I love that, for the moment, at least, I have a life where I can be so silly about something like this ridiculous film.

"What if we run into Sharktopus?"

"Perhaps I should have brought my hammer," Mathias says with a straight face, although it breaks a moment later and he smiles, looking down at the couch briefly. "I think we will be safe here. Sea monsters always seem to bring the entire island together in an effort to fight and protect one another."

"If there's a possibility of being witness to a battle with a sea monster, I absolutely would like to go for a walk."

I do believe the tales of sea monsters and other beasties, but as I haven't seen one yet myself I'm fairly comfortable about the attacks being few and far between. Certainly nothing to keep me from the beach, at least.

"Good," Mathias says, then stands, still holding Julie's hand. "I suppose if that's what we're looking for, we should probably walk by the ocean. It seems like the most likely place to find sea monsters."

"And that's what every girl's looking for, really. Sea monsters." I stand and give him a brilliant smile. "It's a secret we're not supposed to give up to mere men, but you look trustworthy. It's the reason we're always going on about moonlight walks at the seaside."

I do love to spin a tale, the more outlandish the better. That I feel no need to actually make him believe me, or that anything at all other than silliness rests on what I might say, only makes it more fun.

Mathias laughs, a soft huff of breath before he composes himself and looks at Julie with the utmost seriousness. "Then I'm glad you have decided that I am trustworthy. I've always wondered about moonlit walks on the beach and why they are so appealing, but now I know. I have to admit, it does take some of the mystery out of women, however."

"Oh, don't worry. There's plenty of mystery left. I myself frequently make no sense at all." I start toward the stairs, still holding onto his hand. "The beaches in Scotland are very cold, and I'm sure there are ghosts in the moonlight, but no sea monsters that I've ever seen. At least not in Aberdeenshire. I'm curious to see what this warm ocean might turn up, though I imagine it won't be quite as hardy as a Highlands beast. I'm sure we're quite safe."

As they climb the stairs and then exit into the cooler evening air, Mathias thinks briefly about all the things he's seen on the island. In the end, there have been too many dangers for him to really think they anything bad will happen on this walk and he nods his agreement.

"I think we are more than--"

Just ahead of them, a vine slithers across the boardwalk and Mathias falls silent, staring at it. It's not real, he knows. It's not there at all and Julie won't see it, but it doesn't go away.

He stops so suddenly, and everything about him changes. I freeze, too, and don't let go of his hand.

"What's wrong?" I ask, my voice hushed. I don't even make a joke about sea monsters or anything else, because I can feel how tense he's become and it isn't funny in the least. There is clearly something to be frightened of here, even if he's the only one who's noticed it.

"It's nothing," Mathias says, even as little buds appear on the vine, then open, blooming into beautiful flowers the colour of blood. The leaves unfurl into something vaguely like the shape of a hand and they rustle. In that rustle, he hears the sound of laughter.

"I just thought I saw something in the trees," he says, forcing himself to look at Julie. The vine cannot be there. It's not there. "But I think it might have just been a bird."

"Before you get into a habit of lying to me, I should tell you what I did in the war." I keep my tone light, but I am dead serious. "I was an interrogator. They set me to pulling truths from enemy prisoners. I wasn't like... them." He's seen my scars; I don't think I have to spell it out. "I didn't need to be. So you can choose to tell me the truth, but I might feel compelled to get it out of you anyway."

I realize what I sound like, and drop his hand because I am awful.

"I didn't mean that to sound like a threat."

For a moment, Mathias doesn't move or say anything, but then he reaches down to take Julie's hand again. This might not end up being anything at all, but what he knows is that lying to a person by omission is still lying and if Julie's going to get to know him at all, then he has to tell her what happened in Mexico. It's still there, every day.

"Come," he says, starting to walk again. "Remember that I mentioned my brother died? That he's buried here on the island? Before I came here, he and I went on vacation to Mexico. He met a woman there, said he was in love." He pauses and shakes his head, smiling slightly. "Henrich could be very... impulsive and sometimes he did not think things through. He followed this woman to a dig site in the jungle. Something off the maps. He did not come back to the hotel and so I decided to follow him with some American tourists that I'd met. It was a very bad idea."

I'm surprisingly happy that he takes my hand again. He might just be a bit of fun in the end, but I do like him very much.

"Well, you know Americans," I say, though I don't really mean to make a joke of what is clearly a very serious story he's trusting me with. "I'd have followed him, too. Any of my brothers, I'd go after if I could. That's what family does, isn't it?"

He smiles briefly at the joke, looking down as they walk. "I've taken care of Henrich all my life, I was used to it. The Americans and I invited a Greek tourist as well, even though we couldn't understand him and he couldn't understand us. We traveled to this site that my brother had drawn on a map and when we got there, several men came out of the jungle. They tried to make us leave. One of the Americans, Amy, she stepped back toward this hill and stepped into a tangle of vines..."

For a second, he pauses, trying to find his place in the story. It's almost as if he's getting ahead of himself, but he can't think of where else to go. "They chased us up the hill with weapons. It was the vine, you see. They didn't want it spreading and once we'd touched it, we couldn't be let go."

"Because of a vine? That makes less sense than war." I tighten my grip on his hand, because I already know this tale doesn't have a happy ending. "Heinrich ran into the men with the weapons too, didn't he?"

She's right about that. It doesn't make any sense, even after all this time. "He did," he says. "Like I said, he was impulsive. I think he probably tried to make a break for it and he was shot with an arrow." Three arrows, but he doesn't think it's necessary to share that with Julie.

"By the time we found him, he couldn't have been dead for more than a day or so, but the vines had grown over his body," he says. "They'd stripped away a lot of the organic material. Half his face was gone. The vines had done that."