Julia Lelieveld and the battle with the underworld
~6~

“Julia, wake up.”

I heard Renzo talking softly to me in the distance. His arm was still around me as if we had fallen asleep after our first time.

He squeezed my shoulder gently. I didn’t want to wake up at all. I wish I could stay like this forever. Still a little dazed, I opened my eyes and looked at Renzo.

He looked back at me lovingly. I got up a bit and gave him a kiss. He kissed me back passionately.

I leaned over him for a moment to look at the clock radio on his nightstand. It was half past five in the evening.

“Are you late?” he asked cautiously. I shook my head.

“No, dad thinks I’m shopping.”

He nodded and laid his head down again. I took advantage of the situation and laid my head on his chest again. I stroked his belly and stopped at his tattoo for a moment. What would it mean? It looked like some kind of symbol or sign. I couldn’t place it.

He probably felt me ​​doubting his tattoo. Automatically he brought his free hand to his tattoo and rubbed it for a moment.

“It’s the family crest of the Lucifers. It represents the Lucifer family tree and e-warriorship. So you understand I’m not proud of it,” he said, a little dejected.

“It’s been a part of your life, you may not be proud of it, but try to give it a place.”

In response he gave me a kiss on my hair. I grabbed him for a moment and realized I was really starting to care about him.

After lying like this for half an hour, it was really time to go home, even though I didn’t like it. Reluctantly, I separated myself from him. I could tell from Renzo that he didn’t like it either, because with difficulty he let go of me.

I got dressed and went to the other room. Renzo, alone in his pants, followed me. When I saw him like that, the muscles in my stomach tightened again. I walked over to him and put my arms around him and kissed him. He kissed me back passionately, but before we could continue we were interrupted by his phone. With a big sigh he broke away from me and looked at the screen of his phone. He brought his eyebrows together for a moment and seemed to hesitate to answer. And before he made up his mind, it had already gone to voicemail.

“Are you okay?” I asked him.

“Yes.” He was lost in thought. I was curious who had just called, but I didn’t want to embarrass him. If he wanted to talk about it, he would. But he was silent, so he probably didn’t want to talk about it.

I grabbed my coat and my bag and walked back to him. “I have to go.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Unfortunately yes.”

“Shall I come to you tomorrow?” he asked cautiously.

“Gladly.”

And with those words we said goodbye and with my head in the clouds I got on my bike home. Who expected that? I still couldn’t quite get my head around what had just happened.

Daddy wasn’t there yet when he got home.

I made dinner and went to bed on time. I was really exhausted.

The next morning I woke up with butterflies in my stomach. Renzo was supposed to come by today.

I did my homework and housework and was done by mid-afternoon. Dad had arranged to work out with his colleague, so he would be gone all afternoon. They were supposed to go to the assault course on the military compound just down from here. He probably needed to let off some steam, because I don’t think his research went as it should.

I turned on the heating and snuggled up on the couch with a blanket, cup of tea and a good book. I was so engrossed in my book that when I first looked at the clock it was already two hours later. I really expected Renzo. Would everything be okay?

Slowly I started eating. I made a pasta casserole so Dad would have enough when he was done working out. After the dish was in the oven, Renzo still wasn’t there. I was really starting to worry now. I had not known him for long, but we had already been through so much together that I could trust him at his word. I didn’t want to come across as dodgy or whiny, but I called him. My phone rang twice and then I heard Renzo on the other end. “Julia, I’m sorry, something has come up. It’s hard for me to talk about it now. Can I explain tomorrow?”

He sounded worried, uneasy. “Yes of course, can I do something for you?” I asked. “No, thanks, talk to you tomorrow?”

“See you tomorrow.” And with a numb feeling I hung up. What could be going on? Maybe it had to do with that phone call yesterday?

I tried to push it off me and cleaned up the kitchen. Just when I was done I got a message from Dad that he was going to eat something with his colleague. Well that was nice, there I was with my good behavior.

Devastated, I went to bed. That night I slept restlessly, I dreamed about all kinds of strange incoherent things.

When I was finally in a deep sleep, the alarm went off again. Shit, that promised something for today.

As if it couldn’t get any worse, we started math on Monday. Fortunately we had a test, so we didn’t have to communicate much with Mr. de Wit. Every time I did that, I had a high probability of detention.

Renzo got to the room just in time, so I didn’t have time to talk to him. He looked tired.

It wasn’t until the lunch break that we had time to talk to each other. I found a secluded table and he came to sit next to me.

“Hi.”

“Hi,” he said back. I looked into his eyes and the fire inside me immediately started to fan. I saw his eyes darken, they became that colour when we got intimate. Fortunately, I had the same effect on him as he did on me. We smiled at each other for a moment. He took my hands. “Sorry about yesterday.”

“What happened?”

He seemed to think back to yesterday for a moment. His eyes returned to their normal color. “My father was suddenly on the doorstep.”

“Your father? But why? I didn’t know you were in touch with him.”

“I haven’t either,” he said affirmatively.

I looked at him questioningly.

“It’s complicated, he wanted to know if it was true that I was with you and if we fought Lucas together. And why Lucas is always following you. He replaces Lucas changing. He’s afraid of losing him too.”

I let this sink in for a moment. Why did his father want to know if we were together? And what did he mean by Lucas changing?

“And?” I asked him.

He raised his shoulders. “I’ve been honest, that was the only way he would leave soon. So I admitted that we were together and immediately told him to stay away from you.” I saw him get angry as he said this. I squeezed his hand, hoping he would calm down.

“And I told him about the battle and what Evil ordered Lucas to do. That’s why he’s so often around you. And I can’t tell if he’s changing. I don’t speak or see him enough for that.”

He was silent for a moment.

“And what next?” I asked him.

“I hope he leaves me, but certainly you, alone. He will fight for it if he thinks Lucas is changing. He went through that with me and you don’t want to see him like that again.”

A shiver went through me for a moment, the way he is, I don’t think you should argue with his father. Well, you shouldn’t do that with Lucas or Renzo either, so the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

“I’ll be careful, okay?”

He nodded. “You guessed that right,” he said affirmatively.

It’s tough, being so isolated from your parents. I felt sorry for him. He was alone in that apartment and the contact he had with his family was difficult.

“Hey, what are you thinking about?” he asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Honestly? I was thinking of you, being somewhat forced to break up with your family. That hurts me.”

He looked at me lovingly. “It’s better this way, really. I can be myself now.”

I nodded. He was right about that.

The buzzer sounded through the cafeteria. We looked at each other for a moment and then got up to go to the next lesson. The lessons passed quickly. We almost only had tests. After saying goodbye to Renzo and the rest, I made my way to Hannah. I hadn’t spoken to her since dinner at their house. I went to dinner with Eva and Bas and then went to a club with Bas and his friends. There I had met Sam, whom I had previously dated. Bas then had a bad evening and took it out on me and we broke up with an argument. I took a taxi home while Hannah was supposed to take me home, so I had some explaining to do.

Weird actually. At that time, nothing was known about what had happened in the past week. That I could suddenly control the fifth element. That I would come face to face with Evil. I shook off the thought and stopped at her office. I stepped into the homely waiting room and sat down on the green sofa. I was curious what we were going to talk about. Last time it was mainly about my father. I was startled from my thoughts because the door of her office opened. A big boy stepped out of the office. I recognized him immediately, it was Olaf. He had given me a lift when I was almost late for Eva’s practice match. What a bad day I had then.

He looked uneasy when he saw me.

“Hi Olaf,” I said kindly and smiled at him. He looked a little less uncomfortable.

“Hi Julia, you too here?”

I nodded. “Yep.”

“I’ll see you at school again,” he said, walking to the door.

“Bye,” I called after him.

Geez, so you see you’re not the only one who couldn’t figure it out on your own. There was, of course, nothing wrong with getting help, but coming out about it was different. Many people somehow looked at you differently if they knew you were seeing a psychiatrist.

“Hello Julia,” said a friendly voice.

I turned my attention to Hannah. “Hello.”

“Come in.” And she walked into her office and sat down on the chair that was in the middle of the room. She motioned for me to sit down. I sat down and looked at her. She studied me for a moment and then asked, “How are you? You look tired.”

“I’m fine, I just slept badly,” I admitted.

She nodded.

“Is everything okay with Bas?” she asked. So she was direct. Let’s discuss that right away, then we could move on with my problems.

I told her everything that had happened, why we broke up like that that night and how we talked about it the next day. I also told her that I had told Sam everything. That was the first time I had told someone who didn’t know what had happened to Mama and me and my father.

And that it had given me such a free feeling. That it had turned out differently against my expectations than I had thought all along. That I would instead be a wreck, just a little piece of my heart had opened up to feelings and desires.

Hannah was visibly very pleased with this progress. We continued on the feelings released, that this was a positive spin on something very difficult. Maybe it stimulated me to tell more people. She was so pleased with my progress that we made another appointment for next week and then in a month’s time. So that wasn’t until the new year. Nagging in the back of my mind about what it would be like then. What would have happened then? I would probably have met the Elders and maybe I would come face to face with Evil. I quickly shook off those thoughts. I said goodbye and went home tired. It costs a lot of energy. It was almost dark already. The days are getting shorter now. At home, I was surprised to see Dad’s car parked in the driveway and the lights on. I quickly put my bike in the garage and walked into the kitchen, where he was sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper. I didn’t know what I saw, a newspaper. Not even work.

“Hi Dad.” I walked over to him and gave him a kiss.

“Hi sweetie, everything okay?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Nice. I got some Chinese for tonight, tasty and easy. I just put it in the microwave.”

“Yummy, I thought I smelled something.”

I walked over to the microwave and beeped out the food and set the table as it reheated. Dad got us a drink and so we ate our food with taste. We chatted and it was nice. Geez, this was a long time ago. After we had cleaned everything up, we went to watch some TV. In the meantime I did some math solutions, because despite a test we got homework and after that I went to bed satisfied.