Breaking Through

"Maybe someday we'll have to listen to you play," Kayla said with a smile on her face. "I'm sure you're amazing." She tucked her book back in her bag and leaned back in the chair, resigned to not knowing how long she was going to be here. At least it was somewhere with wifi and food! "I'm pretty excited to read more of the book. Where do you think the plot is going to go?"

Eric shrugged, taking a bite of his muffin. "So far it seems like the typical McGuffin story. They set out to find this really important thing which really is just a means to get them out of their current lives. We've heard about this soul cube thing, but hopefully they explain what it is more before too long."

"You don't seem that enthused, Eric," Damien teased. "I'm with Kayla, though. I'm ready to see how all of the characters meet each other. It seems kind of scattered, so far."
 
"Oh, I'm nothing special," Rose said, embarrassed, "'Those who can't do, teach' and all that. I don't even feel comfortable calling myself a musician... but if you ever need inoffensive mood music, that's all they let me play at the restaurant I work part time at, and at the school I'm not really allowed t'play anything difficult, because I'm the only training most of my choir students have, so..." she looked away, "I know any number more talented than I am. Proper artists."

"Don't sell yourself short, but if you don't feel comfortable playing for, I'd be glad to play with; I play the harp," Daizi said, and turning her attention to the book conversation said, "I can see how the soul-cube is a McGuffin, but I don't think that's nessecarily a bad thing. Even tropes can be reinvigorated if they're told well enough, and anyway, all ensemble pieces need something to bring the characters together. Technically the One Ring is a McGuffin to assemble the Fellowship, but Lord of the Rings is still one of the greatest stories ever told, and if we were in a story, our club would be the McGuffin to bring us all together."

Rose cracked a smile when Daizi said, 'I see' and then worried it was a mean thing to do... but then again, if Daizi couldn't see it... "I like that it's slow t'get int'the action," she said, "it feels more realistic that way, and makes the world feel larger."
 
The conversation continued while the rain streamed down onto the little hamlet. When it became apparent that it wasn't going to stop any time soon, Damien started to grow fidgety. He checked his phone repeatedly, the interval growing shorter and shorter until he finally stood. "I have to go," he murmured, pulling his hood over his head and zipping it up all the way to his chin.

Kayla and Eric waved goodbye, smiles on their face. "Try not to get too wet, bud. We'll see you next week!" Eric winked and Damien wandered out the door, quickly disappearing into the downpour. "He is an interesting character, isn't he? I hope he starts to open up a little more. I mean, his intro story was pretty open, but he comes across as pretty guarded, you know?"

"Yeah. I'm sure he's just shy. Give him some time." Kayla turned to Rose and Daizi. "I hope this isn't too big of an inconvenience to you. You both seem to have much busier lives than Eric and I!" She laughed and clicked to the next slide on her computer screen, only paying minimal attention to it. It seemed to be for some sort of writing course. "My evening will probably consist of watching TV and eating a bowl of ice cream. Riveting."
 
"Bye, be safe." Rose said cheerfully, and Daizi followed with in a demure tone, saying:

"This, too, shall pass," and then turned and responded to Eric's comment about opening up, "it's easier to share about the past and how it did affect you. It's much harder to talk about the present, and how you're still being affected. Especially when talking to strangers. We're all divorced from our souls, and we act like they can be fixed the way our bodies can. The differences between the physical and metaphysical are stark, and--" she paused, and realized she had gone off on a tangent nobody asked for, "well anyway," she said, "waiting here isn't an issue for me, and in the evenings I'm not so busy."

Rose nodded, and sat with her legs crossed on the chair, "Normally I'd have to leave by now, but my side job is cancelled today, so it isn't an issue for me. Anyway, I'm not riding my bike in this!"

There was another crash of thunder, and in the lightning flash , for a moment Rose could have sworn she saw the shape of a man in full armor, but then it was gone, "What's that you're working on, Kayla?" She asked, leaning over to focus on something she knew to be real.
 
"Oh, I'm just doing an online writing course. I've always liked writing, but I don't feel like I'm any good. So I decided I'd try this free course my friend took last year and see if it helps." Kayla turned the screen so Rose could see it better. "This unit is on setting a scene without boring your reader by over-explaining. One of my issues in particular."

Eric scrolled a little further on his phone, seemingly having lost his attention span for the meeting. He became vaguely aware, then, of the strong scent of camp fire. He stiffened and glanced around the cafe, trying to locate the source of the smell. Kayla noticed and tilted her head in questioning, but Eric shook his head in response. "The scent of ozone seems to be particularly strong. Must have been a crazy lightning bolt, there."

He didn't really believe his own explanation, but what else could be going on? There wouldn't be a campfire inside of a cafe, especially not suddenly. And the likelihood of one being outside in the downpour was even lower. "I think I'm going to order a sandwich or something. That muffin didn't last very long..."
 
"I don't smell anything," Daizi said, raising her head. She found it odd she couldn't, considering not only had she always been pretty good at detecting scents, ever since the 'onset of her condition' she felt as though she could smell forever, and was about to comment on how strange it was, when Eric mentioned getting a sandwich, which distracted her, "I wish I could too, but I'm going out to eat with my husband after this, so I shouldn't. Actually, I should call him, let him know I'm here, and not at home." She bent at an awkward angle to dig through her purse to retrieve her phone--still an old blackberry, because she liked having buttons--and then heaved herself from her chair, and headed to the restroom so she could speak privately.

"I took a poetry class at the rec center last year," Rose said, leaning over to look at it, "I thought it would help with songwriting. I guess it did a little, but I'm still not a great lyricist. I had a ton of fun in the class, though, is this one fun?" She had never bothered much with prose, because she preferred telling stories through song. Oh, she had written hundreds of little ditties about characters from legend, or wrote songs for her favourite book characters or historical figures, but she had never bothered with writing a story.

When Daizi returned, she sat down in her seat with a sigh, still being rather assaulted by little feet, especially with any major thundercrash, and she turned to Eric and asked, "So, you never said what you're majoring in. What classes are you in this semester?"
 
"I'm actually a chemistry major," Eric replied with a laugh. "I know it seems odd, but I needed some upper division elective credits, and English courses in general don't have many prerequisites. They're easy to get into without having to think ahead or take extra courses. Besides, it is rather nice to get away from numbers for a while."

Kayla finished her slideshow and closed the laptop. "So what time is your husband coming, Daizi? And what are you planning to have for dinner? In fact, both of you. What are your favorite types of food? I really like Thai food, Japanese food, and of course good old Australian." Eric nodded in agreement, feeling his stomach rumble at the very thought.

"I'll be back. I'm going to go order that sandwich. Do you want one, Kayla?" He waited long enough for her to nod and pick out a ham sandwich from the menu before wandering off.
 
"Oh, I'll eat anything. I can't afford to be picky. I eat Thai food, probably too much Thai food," Rose laughed, looking out the window at the storm, knowing if it didn't end soon she'd have to bike home in it, which wasn't something she particularly had an interest in. Still, it wasn't as though she could stay at the coffee shop all night if it didn't end, "although nothing beats a good bow of hearty Irish stew. Just thinking about it makes me want to go home."

"He should be here in just a little while, but I'm not sure where we're going to eat. We were torn between Laotian and Italian, so we'll probably end up at a place serving completely unrelated cuisine. At home, though, we generally just stick to Middle Eastern cuisine, because I'm Egyptian and he's Iraqi. Of course we vary it sometimes, but it's our staple. My husband is the one who cooks most of the time, though, he says housework makes him feel like a provider, so he does all of the cleaning, all of the laundry, and most of the cooking and decorating."

By the time Eric came back with the two sandwiches for himself and his sister, an extremely tall, handsome man entered the building, and shook the water from his umbrella before setting it in the holder by the door. He scanned the floor, and when he spotted the little book club he made his way over in long, confident strides.

"Are you ready to go, Tarot?" He asked, and Daizi swiveled around in her chair.

"I said I was going to meet you in the car," She said, although she wasn't upset he had come in to get her. He, meanwhile, picked up her purse for her, and then helped her to her feet. To the rest of the group, Daizi said, "this is my husband, G.M. Dark."

"I did not want you to have to walk in the rain," he replied, kissing his wife hello. Then he stepped back in surprise, and put his tattooed hands on her abdomen, "she is really moving a lot tonight, wow... Oh," he turned to the group, and took the time to shake everyone's hand, saying, "it is nice to meet all of you."
 
"Nice to meet you, too!" Kayla replied, smiling brightly. "I'm Kayla, and my brother here is Eric. Congratulations on the little girl, by the way." She winked cheekily with the confirmation of Daizi's pregnancy. Eric waved, his mouth full of roast beef and sourdough. He chewed and swallowed quickly, reaching out his hand for a handshake.

"Yes, I'm Eric. Thank you for letting us borrow your wife for an hour or so during the week, by the way. She tells me you're a professor at the college? I'm a chemistry major there, but I take a lot of other subjects as electives. Might as well get a well-rounded experience while I'm there, right?" The blonde man took another bite of his sandwich and leaned back in the chair, endorphins flooding his brain. "I suppose we ought not to keep you too long, though. I'm sure you want to get off to your dinner."

Kayla looked out the window and noticed that the rain seemed to be slowing down. "Looks like the weather is clearing up a little. No idea if it's just a break or the end of the storm, but it's good news either way!" She turned to Rose, "I love a good Irish stew as well. Perhaps some time we'll have to have our meeting at the little pub down the street? The food there is great! Cannot attest to the liquor since I don't drink it, but it's an Irish pub. It's probably fantastic."
 
Daizi blushed, and said, "Please don't congratulate us until she's born and healthy. I don't want to get into specifics, but... well, the doctors are a bit more hopeful, this time." She shrugged her shoulders, and told her husband she was going to run to the bathroom quickly, and then they could leave.

In the meanwhile, Dark stood, in his full three piece suit, with his wife's purse over his shoulder--he wasn't the sort of man who felt uncomfortable about being seen with a "woman's item"--and didn't mind chatting briefly with his wife's new friends, "Oh, no, I am not letting her... that is, she did not, does not, need my permission. Anyway, it is good for her to do something that is only her's... even if I began to read the book, too. And, yes, I do teach at the college, I started working there when Tarot, I am sorry, Daizi, started working at the museum. I needed to find work that would let her pursue her aspirations. I teach history, and a single anthropology course a semester."

"Well it's very nice t'meet you, Sir," Rose said, and then to Kayla said, "I haven't tried it, but I'm sure it's fine, although I can't promise it'll beat the taste of home. I wouldn't mind going there as a club, at some point, it'd be a nice change." She glanced at Daizi's husband and desperately wanted to toss in her own congragulation, but since Daizi had requested they not, she did her best to hold her tongue. Thankfully, not too long later, Daizi returned from the bathroom, and the couple made their goodbyes.

After they were out of earshot, Rose happily expressed, "They look good together. They both have that sort of gothic look to them, it's fun."
 
Kayla and Eric nodded. "They're adorable! I couldn't help but catch the 'this time,' though. That makes me very sad for her." Kayla set her sandwich down, suddenly a little less hungry. "I have a dear friend who has lost three pregnancies so far, so I feel for her. I feel kind of dumb saying the wrong thing, too..."

Her cheeks blushed and her hands started to twitch. Eric, seeing his sister's typical signs of rising anxiety, put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, chill, sis. There's no way you would have known that a typical congratulations to a new mom would be unwanted, and she didn't seem to be offended. Take a breath and do your grounding exercise."

He watched as she nodded and closed her eyes, pulling in deep breaths. After a few moments she reopened her eyes. Eric smiled. "Feeling better now?" She nodded again. "Very good. Go ahead and finish that sandwich, and then I think we should head home. It's looking a little brighter outside now. We could definitely meet in the pub next week if you wished. A little change of scenery would probably do us good."
 
"I wouldn't feel too bad," Rose said kindly, "when you hear hoofbeats you don't think zebras, right? I would've congratulated her, too, you just beat me t'it. Anyway, you're not a bad person for not immediately seeing the entire picture. It's like when someone sees me out on a date and they think I'm meeting up with a sister or a friend, there's no malice in the mistake... I suppose it explains why she danced around the topic so much, though... but hindsight is 20/20."

As Kayla completed her grounding exercise, Rose gathered her things, and then after Eric made the suggestion they go to the pub the following week, she said, "I'd love that, but I we have t'make sure Daizi and Damien know. That would be something t'feel guilty for: forgetting to tell them we switched the meeting, and they both showed up here instead."

Meanwhile, Daizi sat beside her husband in the car, and was saying, "I should have thanked Kayla for congratulating us."

"You are allowed to express that you are not comfortable with it, Spider." He replied, glancing at her for a moment before looking back at the road. She had taken off her sunglasses, because there was no point in wearing them around someone who was completely comfortable with the fact she couldn't make eye contact, and was rubbing her face.

"I know, but I could have said, 'thank you anyway.'"
 
Last edited:
"Oh, of course," Eric replied, pulling his phone from his pocket. "Good thing we shared contact details last week!" He typed up a quick message and hit send before slipping the device back into the pocket and looking out the window. "Yep, it looks like the rain has stopped almost all the way. We should try to get home before it starts back up again."

Kayla nodded and put her laptop back in her bag, standing and stretching. The anxiety attack had left her exhausted and she wanted nothing more than a nap in her bed before dinner. "See you next week, Rose. Chapters 3 and 4! I hope they are good." She waved and followed her brother out the door into the misty air.

The gutters were full to the brim and running fast, with water leaking out over the lower parts of the sidewalk. Kayla and Eric lifted their umbrellas over their heads to ward off the rest of the lightly falling rain and started up the road toward their flat. "That was super embarrassing...I hoped I'd never have a stupid panic attack in front of these people."

"It was fine, Kales. We are all adults. It's not like school, I promise. They aren't going to make fun of you for it." Eric flashed his sister a smile and she sighed, unconvinced. "Come on, now. I know that face. Just forget it happened. I'm sure they will before you do." They walked the rest of the way in silence, making it to their door just as the rain began to pour again.
 
The following afternoon, when the rain finally broke, and the sun shone down, Rose decided to go on a small hike through the nearby forest. She was inspired mostly by the lingering smell of rain in the leaves and soil, but she was also pushed to explore by the book. She had been reading it the following night as she ate dinner, alone, except for the plants she would be buried in, and upon reading a passage where her favourite character, the ranger, was tracking another character in the woods. She soil was still damp, and so it should have left soft impressions of Rose's feet when she walked, but unbeknownst to her, she left no tracks traceable by even the most skilled.

But she didn't look behind her, and she didn't look at the ground. Rose only looked at the trees and the leaves, because they somehow looked more vibrant and detailed than they ever had before. She could see how they stretched on for miles.

"How have I never noticed that before?" She asked herself, and it was like she could hear everything. Every animal call, the way the breeze touched every leaf. Then, she turned, about to tread a new path, somehow daring enough to leave what was already marked for her, when she saw, in the distance, a flash of white, and it glimmered, and it was magnificent.

Rose thought she must have been losing her mind, or that she was tired and emotional, or that she had simply been reading far, far too much of In Olden Tymes, but in that moment she swore on her life it was a unicorn. And she turned and ran towards it, with many silent footfalls. Unlike all the other bizarre sights she had witnessed over the last two weeks, since she had begun to read the novel, it didn't disappear when she looked back at it, and although she knew it could not be real she hoped. The little girl locked somewhere deep away inside of her wanted too desperately for it to be real to not hope. It wasn't running, it wasn't even moving, it sat in wait for her.

But then, behind her, she heard footsteps, crunching leaves, and voices, and she whipped around sharply, fearing the worst--and completely unsure why she should feel such panic in her chest--only to see two men and their young child happily walking through the forest, and they were at quite a distance. Rose laughed at her foolishness, and when she turned back down the path she had been following, there was no unicorn, only a simple, white rock. She sighed, and sat down on it, and waited for however long it took for the family to pass her by. Then, and only then, she began to play her fiddle, which she had brought with her thinking, "I can't bring my bow, but I can bring my violin's bow."

It settled her down, or nearly had, when she heard more leaves crunch to her left, and she looked to see a deer, a real one, not a figment of her imagination, walk up to her, and not flee when she spoke. She played a few notes on her fiddle, and still the deer remained. Rose didn't know how she was supposed to explain this to anyone; they'd lock her up as soon as she tried.

"O day and night," she murmured, quoting Hamlet, "but this is wondrous strange."
 
Eric found himself antsy. He wandered from point to point in the apartment, trying to decide if something was bothering him or if he was just bored. When a fifth trip to the fridge did not provide any answers, he put his feet into his boots and his hat on his head.

Looking up from her book, Kayla shot Eric a quizzical glance. "Where are you off to? Isn't it still raining outside?"

"It is," he replied, shrugging. "I'm just going to go get some air. I'm feeling a bit cooped up for whatever reason." Eric tossed on his raincoat, picked up the umbrella, and left the flat with nothing more than his umbrella and keys.

He wandered down the sidewalk, not quite sure where he was going, but not really caring. Might as well let his feet guide him where they wanted to go. The familiar sights and sounds of the little hamlet did little to ease his growing discomfort.

From his vantage point atop the hill, Eric could see a large crowd gathered at the bottom. He squinted through the rain to see that it appeared to be a accident of some sort. His pulse quickened and he found his feet pounding the pavement as he rushed to the scene.

It didn't appear that emergency services had arrived yet, though many of the people nearby held their phones to their ears with wide eyes. "Probably inundating the emergency dispatch center," he chuckled as he pulled up to a stop in front of the area.

Two cars had collided head-on, it seemed. Whether the cause be a slide on wet pavement or inability to see was unclear, but it was bad. Gasoline leaked into the street, giving the surface of the rain water an iridescent shimmer.

Something inside pressed Eric into taking charge. "Back up, everyone! There's gasoline in the water!" The rest of the crowd retreated and the blonde man stepped up to peer inside the vehicles. The one traveling north was empty; the woman driver stood shaking a few feet away. Eric, still feeling an odd compulsion, walked over to her.

"Ma'am, are you alright? Emergency should be here soon." He held his umbrella over her and found himself reaching for her forehead. She looked at him with wide eyes, but he placed his palm on her forehead and breathed deeply. The look of concern on her face melted into one of confusion as her shaking ceased.

Eric was no less confused, but he found himself turning back to the cars to check the other driver. He didn't seem to be alert, but Eric could see the man's chest rising and falling in a regular pattern. Relief washed over him and the nagging feeling disappeared. He seemed to come back to himself with a firefighter tapping him on the shoulder.

"We need you to back away from the scene, sir," the man requested, his voice gentle with a hint of a smile. "We'll take over from here."
 
"I am going to visit Cooger," Dark told his wife, gathering his things, while Daizi played with their dog. It had been, largely, a mundane, simple, mundane day for them. Until that moment, it wouldn't have been memorable for them at all. It would have been another day like thousands of other days, blending into the tapestry of their domestic homelife.

But as soon as Dark mentioned he was going to visit his friend, Daizi's blood ran cold, and she could hear the screech of wheels on pavement, could smell gasoline, hear the crash of metal, and feel the heat of flames. Her fingers felt cool letters, and all she could say was, "Don't take Alabaster, go the long way."

"What?" Her husband asked, concerned.

"Don't take Alabaster." She didn't move from where she sat, and she didn't react when their dog licked her face, all she could focus on was the smell of fire and gasoline. Her husband began to ask why, but she only repeated that he couldn't take that road. Then... it passed. All of it. The entire swirling, chaotic environment which had surrounded her a moment before, and the fear, it was gone. As if it never happened. She remembered it, but, it didn't feel quite so real anymore.

Daizi convinced her husband that she was fine, that she was just tired, and headed upstairs to take a nap. He was hesitant to leave, after her sudden outburst, but she essentially commanded him to, so he left, and took the long way. There was no way he was going to take Alabaster, not after Daizi's bizarre outcry. And again, the whole situation would have been forgotten, written off as a bizarre anecdote to be recalled at dinner a few months later and laughed at, were it not for what happened next.

A few hours later, he came home, and walked up the stairs to where his wife was playing her harp, completely recovered from her morning fright, "Hey, Spider?" He said, lingering in the doorway. She couldn't see, obviously, but he was pale, and his tattooed hands trembled, slightly, "I did not take Alabaster... I took the long way, like you said... um, there was an accident. On Alabaster, a, uh, two car, head on collision? It happened right around the time I would have been on that road coming back, so..." He swallowed. He heard about it on the radio, heard that it was bad, but that was all he knew. The station he was listening to didn't say if anyone survived, and at the moment, he didn't care. The whole situation was too strange.
 
"Kale, it was literally the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me!"

Eric was still shaking with adrenaline. After being told by the police officer to leave the scene of the accident, the blonde man had sprinted all the way back to his flat. His clothing was dripping wet as he stood on the tile entryway and his chest heaved. His lungs burned from the exertion and struggled to supply his body with the air it was demanding.

Kayla looked at her brother with confusion written all over her face. She looked from his flushed cheeks to his closed umbrella, his soggy clothing to his wide eyes. "What kind of mess did you get yourself into, Eric? You look like you saw a ghost or something."

"There was a car accident at the bottom of the hill. For some reason, I felt like I had to get down there and help. So I ran all the way down the hill, and when I got there I found one of the drivers starting to go into shock. I like...put my hand on her forehead, and felt this weird jolt, and she stopped shaking. I have no idea what happened..." Eric shrugged off his raincoat and boots, dropped his jeans to the floor, and fell onto the couch. Kayla sighed that he was lounging around in his boxers again, but it was nothing new.

The details of the story sunk into her brain, and she shook her head. "I think you were just hopped up on adrenaline and your brain invented the whole thing about the driver. She probably just calmed down when you talked to her or something." She stood and fetched a towel from the linen closet, throwing it at her brother. "Here, get yourself dried off. I'll make some soup for supper to warm you up."
 
"Babe," Daizi murmured, "Relax, it's okay. You're safe, that's all that matters. Don't let it get to you." Naturally, she found it strange, too, but what could she do? The entire experience was unnerving, but there was nothing for her to do but focus on what she could explain and focus on.

Dark could not shake it off so easily, though. He walked further into the room and sat, on the floor, beside his wife, leaving his burdens at her feet, "But how did you know? I always take that road, and you warned me, before I left, not to take that road. You have never expressed any opinion about any road in all the time I knew you, and then, suddenly, today, I..." He trailed off and pressed his forehead against her shoulder, and she ran her spider like fingers through his hair.

"It's been storming," she shrugged, trying to convince herself as much as him, "and you always say the road is harrowing when it's wet. I don't know, I guess it clicked. And it isn't like we haven't been stressed. Go lie down, love, I'll put the kettle on, and we can forget about it."

"You know, Tarot, you're really starting to live up to your name, and it scares me. I saw the inferno reflected in your eyes."

Rose, meanwhile, was far from nervous about the high strangeness she was encountering. Was it weird how the animals in the forest did not run from her? And how she didn't leave footsteps? Or how it seemed like she could see for miles? Sure, but it was fun, and if she was being honest, she didn't even connect it to anything out of the usual. The weather was, in her opinion, beautiful, and she thought she was just appreciating it more than she had in the past.

Come the next meeting, Rose was perfectly fine about everything she had experienced, and although she did not plan to mention it, it weighed little on her mind. Plenty of other things did, unrelated to the oddity and the book club, but the deer who sat and listened to her? It was nothing. Daizi didn't feel that way, she kept experiencing moments where she predicted something before it happened. Nothing as severe as the wreck, but even the simple things were overwhelming, and it was not a symptom listed in any of the pamphlets her OB/GYN had given her. She too, like Rose, had begun to notice a general heightening of her senses, with the obvious exception of her eyesight, but this she did write off as a weird pregnancy symptom. Her sense of smell, for instance, had already been increased due to it, so it wasn't until her husband was dropping her off at the Irish Pub and she realized the strange drumbeat she kept hearing was her own baby's heartbeat that she even noticed it was happening.
 
Damien frowned, digging through his pockets yet again. He rifled through the pile of things he had pulled out of his backpack. Still nothing. His eyes fell on the doorknob and he sighed. Where in the everloving heck did his keys go? He wracked his brain for any sort of clue as to where they may have fallen from his pocket, but came up blank. "Great. Fabulous. Exactly what I needed today." He put his belongings back in his pack, slung it over his shoulder, leaned back against the wall, and tilted his head back, allowing the raindrops to fall on his cheeks.

A sound from the alleyway brought his head snapping back down. His eyes narrowed and he peered into the darkness, making out the dim form of a large man. Damien ducked into the stairway on the other side of the flat, hoping to remain unseen. He knew he lived in a sketchy part of town, and this was not the first time he had come across a lurking stranger. The thought of the memory brought a pain to his side and he instinctively placed a hand over the scar.

The man stepped into the circle of light produced by the street lamp for a brief moment. He wore a jacket with the hood up, and both his hands were shoved deep into his pockets. He turned and stepped up to Damien's apartment door. Damien's breath caught in his throat as he watched the man jiggle the handle. It didn't open, obviously, and the man peered in through the windows. Seeing no lights on inside, he pulled a lock pick from his pocket and began fidgeting with the lock.

Not again. Damien looked around the bottom of the staircase for anything he could use to distract the would-be burglar. A medium sized stone sat tucked behind the stairs, but no sooner had he picked it up than a set of headlights shone on the front of the complex. The man jumped and joined Damien in the stairway, not bothering to remove the lock pick from the doorknob.

Instinctually, Damien ducked behind the stairwell and softened his breathing. He stared at the burglar between the stairs, seeming to have escaped the other man's notice. The sound of car doors slamming and voices reached the stairwell and Damien's neighbors stepped up to their own door. They turned all of their lights on, and as soon as their door closed the burglar slipped into the darkness and disappeared.

Damien had no idea how the man had not noticed him lurking in the tiny stairwell, but he figured he was just distracted by trying not to get caught attempting to break and enter. As soon as he left, Damien felt his muscles relax and his breathing deepen. That...could have gone much worse than it did. But one problem remained...how was he going to get into his flat?

The dark haired young man again stepped up to his door and noticed the lock pick still sticking out. He had never used one of these before, but he thanked his lucky stars and began to fidget with the contraption. Before he knew what was going on, the lock clicked and the doorknob turned. Damien grinned and slipped the pick into his pocket, figuring it might come in handy in the future. For now, he was simply grateful to step into his warm flat and remove his soggy clothing.

~

"Now you eat up, and don't complain that I put peas in it. You need green vegetables at least once a week, not just pizza and sandwiches." Kayla handed Eric a steaming bowl of potato chowder with leek and peas. She sprinkled shredded cheddar cheese over the top and inserted a spoon, knowing he was perfectly capable of serving it up himself, but not caring.

As she expected, Eric wrinkled his nose and prodded the little green balls. "You couldn't have just like...put them on the side?" he asked, digging around them to get the potatoes. Kayla shot him a dirty look and he sighed, scooping up a few peas and putting them in his mouth. "There, happy?"

"Yup. Now eat the rest of them." Kayla turned back to the pot and served herself a dish, sitting down at the table to eat. She was very tired for some reason and closed her eyes. "It's been a long day, somehow. I think I might turn in early tonight. Can you please clean up the kitchen before you go to bed?"

She turned to her brother, who reluctantly nodded. "I guess I don't have much of a choice if I want to keep the status quo of not having to cook my own dinner." He stuck his tongue out at Kayla, who rolled her eyes and finished her soup quickly. She dropped her bowl in the sink and retired to her bed, closing her eyes immediately after crawling under her blanket.

The sound of the rain on the roof of her flat was comforting, a rhythm-less white noise that had always helped settle her nerves. As she began to slip away, the rain seemed to be accompanied by the jingle of metal, like keys or chain mail. It struck her as a little odd, but she figured that Eric was just washing the silverware or something.

Her eyes opened into what had to be a dream. She found herself in a field of yellow daisies, holding a small ball in her hand. It was made of gold and steel, and seemed to point in one direction no matter which way she turned it. "A compass of some sort?" she thought, turning it curiously to see that the needle indeed continued to point to the same place. With no landmarks or frame of reference she didn't know if it pointed north or not, but she figured it probably did.

"Find it," a voice whispered, and the ball disappeared.

~

The twins stepped into the pub, immediately being hit by the scent of beer and fryer oil. They were unsurprised to see Rose and Daizi already sitting at a table, and Damien arrived just moments after them. "Hello hello!" Eric called out, slipping into the bench across from the women with a large grin on his face. "Three meetings in a row and everyone is here. Everyone is exceeding my expectations!"

He laughed, and Kayla rolled her eyes. Damien didn't seem to know how to react, so he simply sat in the chair at the end of the table and placed his bag on the floor next to him. He fidgeted with the lock pick in his pocket and debated telling the group about his experience, but figured he would wait until someone asked how everyone's week had been. And if nobody did, well? Then apparently nobody wanted to know.
 
"Eventually I'm bound to miss a meeting," Daizi replied with a teasing smirk, "because I'm a time-bomb. I hope that won't crush your expectations too terribly, when one day there's only four of you."

"The meeting after that one will have six of us, so it will balance out," Rose replied, "but it is nice t'see how we haven't all jumped ship so soon. When I first moved here, I tried to start a folk band, and went through all the effort of recruiting members. We picked out a name and played together our first meeting, and then they never came back. Haven't spoken t'any of them since. The name was dumb anyway, I never liked it." Rose had only been in the pub for about ten minutes, but already looked very much at home. Notably, already her accent sounded thicker, just by being in a more Irish environment.

"What was it called?"

"Ah, Fwass? It was an acronym for 'Four Women and Some String.' There was a string hanging from the ceiling in the room we met up in, and none of us knew why it was there, so..." She shrugged, and then smiling broadly said, "Well anyway, how have you all been since we last met? The book got a bit more intense since last week," she glanced up at Eric, "I hope it's less contrived for you, now."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top