Ravens, Flowers and all the other Bloody stuff

Friends always help

Those were the last things my so called „parents" had heard of me. I didn't even say goodbye. Why should I even? It's their fault I'm leaving and they don't deserve a goodbye. I had not much with me, just a backpack and a bag where Alduin was sleeping inside. They didn't hurt him. At least. If they would've hurt him, they wouldn't be alive anymore. I got out of the window, down the fire escape and went to the next bus station. The location I was going to was near the Central Park Zoo. Cleo lived there with her brother and her mom. For now, her place was the only one I thought to stay. I knocked on the door and a middle-aged boy with short white hair opened up while saying in an annoyed tone: "Who's there?", I waved a little and asked: "Hey, uhm... Is Cleo at home?" Surprised to see me, the boy called behind him: "Cleo! It's for you!" Cleo came down from upstairs, her hair in a towel and in her pajamas. Looks like she was in the shower. She was surprised to see me as well. The boy went inside and Cleo came to the door asking: "Wendy? What are you doing here so late?", "Well, you see... I kinda don't have a home anymore and we really need a place to stay, for the night." She raised her eyebrow: "We?" I opened the bag, showing Alduin to her, who was still sleeping. At first, she looked at Alduin and then at me. Then, with a sigh, she said: "Come inside. I ask my mom if you could stay for tonight." I got inside and sat down at the brown, leather couch and waited while Cleo asked her mom. After a few minutes she came to the living room and said: "My mom said it's ok. You can stay here as long as you can't find another place to stay.", "Thanks, I'll see that I don't stay for too long. Not that I become too much of burden for you all.", "BUT", she interrupted me "there are rules in this house. No smoking inside the house, " I was about to stop anyways. "Your little friend comes into a cage. He's not going to poop all over the place." Good to know. "And you need to lock up, if you go to the bathroom. My bro comes in, without asking, if you don't lock it up. He's a bit weird." From the kitchen you could hear Cleos brother yell a short "Hey!" while having his mouth full with Skittles. We ignored him and I agreed: "Of course. Thanks again, I didn't know where else to go and since you wrote me if we could hang out together again, I thought of your place. If you wouldn't have told me your address, I could've never found it.", "Don't worry about it. Come, you can sleep in my room." We went upstairs, leaving Cleos brother alone, who lied down on the couch and watched TV.

Her room was full of photos from all kind of different things. She always dreamed to become a photographer and she was really good at it. On a little whiteboard on her desk, was a photo of the gang. We all made silly grimaces. I put down my stuff, while she made the bed for me. After that we sat down on her bed and she asked: "Now, could you tell me, why you don't have a home anymore?" I took a deep breath and told her everything. About our argument and what they did to Alduin as well to me. She just listened to my story quietly. After I was done, she gave me a hug and told me, I made a good decision. We talked almost the whole night. None of us could sleep. Except for Alduin. He lied in a little, old hamster cage, that belonged to Cleo. She had a hamster before, but he already died of old age. We put some warm and cozy things inside, I feeded Alduin one last time and put him inside as well. Now we lie here, not able to sleep. Suddenly Cleo said: "How about we have a little party with the gang? Ian could come too, if he wants to. We could celebrate your freedom." We laughed. "Yeah, that would be cool.", I agreed. "But, we still need a place, where we can have the party. My mom probably won't allow it, so we can't do it here. Rhy doesn't like parties at his home, because of the mess afterwards, Mira lives in a caravan, that is too small and we can't do it outside, because of the cold weather. Connor has a big family and I think we rather have the party in a small group and Derek....I don't really want to know what's going on in his household. So where do we do it?" We thought about it and for some reason, the only place I could think of, was Ians house. "Maybe I could ask Ian, if we could do it at his house. He lives alone and it's big enough to make a party there.", "Yeah, that would be cool, but he doesn't need to say yes. If he doesn't want to have the party at his home, we can find another place." Looks like it's set.

The next day I called Ian, while Cleo told everybody else. At first Ian was not so sure about it, but after a little while, he agreed. I was kinda excited about it. Having a party with my besties is so cool. We planned on having the party in the afternoon today. It was Miras and Cleos idea. They really wanted to have it as fast as possible, because Cleo already spoiled them, about what happened to me. Now everyone wants to know. We packed some stuff together like snacks, games, etc. We even decided to take our pajamas with us, if the night would go on longer than thought. After telling Cleos mum, we went on our way. We wanted to be earlier there, to make everything ready.

After half an hour we got to Ians house. Ian opened the door, greeted us kindly and let us in. Everything was still like last time. Not a single cloth lying around and pretty well clean. We got everything ready and then talked and waited for the others to come. "Oh, Ian! It could be that we'll sleep here. Because I have a feeling that it's gonna be longer today. I hope that's ok.", said Cleo. Ian reassured, that it was fine for us to stay, but somehow his face expression afterwards told me something else. I could've been also just my imagination. I mean it's Ian. He loves things like this.

In the afternoon everybody else came. Derek was, as usual, the latest. "My mom couldn't bring me here and my dad was still at work. I had to run all the way to the bus stop and then wait for like one whole hour!!, "It's fine Derek. At least this time you didn't forget it yourself.", meant Mira with a cheeky grin. Derek just murmured something about a series he wanted to finish and then forgot to look at the time. They were all very curious on what happened exactly. They squeezed every last bit of information out of me. I told them everything. From the Start till the End. Rhy nicely said after I was done: "We are glad, that you're finally out of there. And everyone can agree, that we are proud of you." Everyone agreed with Rhysand. "Thanks guys. You're the best. I'm so glad, that I found you.", With a big: "Awww.", They all hugged me. Ian was leaning on the kitchen door, smiling and watching us. I looked at him with a smile and reached out for him. "You're part of the group now too, you know.", Surprised but happy about what I said, he came up to us and joined the Group hug.

This night was really long. Like long, long. We had a lot of fun, played games and watched movies. I guess we went to sleep at midnight or even later. I don't know anymore. But in the middle of the night, something woke me up. There were strange noises coming from the kitchen. Still a little sleepy, I got up and went downstairs, to the kitchen.