Moonchild

CHAPTER SEVEN

Nothing's better than a nice summer rain.

I could hear each drop falling softly onto the burning pavements and streets of Limassol City. The summer rain started softly, but after some time, while Mr. Peter was trying to relax his muscles and stop his head from shaking in shock, none of the two of us noticed that it was raining hard, now. The clouds moved rapidly and darkened, the trees moved as if they were dancing, and for some reason, I didn't feel as troubled anymore.

'How did you...' he said breathlessly.

Mr. Peter tried to continue speaking, but stopped. I was standing and he was sitting on the pavement behind me.

'I went super slow for you, sir.' I said calmly.

'I didn't... BLEAUUUGH'

I jumped by the sound he made, and I turned around. I never heard someone vomit this way before. I asked him if he was alright, he nodded, then vomited once more, and I turned away from him.

'Should I get you some Sprite?' I waited for a second and then glanced at him. I saw him gasping for breath, so I turned the other way again, because he vomited for the third time.

I tried the think of something else, in order to give him some space to calm his senses. I wanted to walk away because the smell of the vomit reached me, but I didn't want to leave him alone here. I turned towards the trees at the far end, and wondered if the crows were here still, after so many years.

I heard him stand, so I turned towards him again.

'Sorry about that.' He said weakly.

'I should have told you to hold your breath.'

'It's alright.' He managed to smile.

Mr. Peter rubbed the back of his palm on his mouth, and looked for his Rothmans. I gave him the lighter back. 'Where are we, anyway?' He asked.

'This is were it all began, sir,' I nodded my head towards the stairs. The carved half-moon shape was staring at me still.

It's been almost three months since I last came here, and everything looked pretty much the same: The massive door was still there, and the roof seemed ready to collapse like the other times I'd been here. The only thing that was different on the building, since the day of the incident, was that a small window appeared on the top of the front side of The Dark Place.

I checked many times on what was behind the window that now appeared on the outside, but never found anything.

Or anyone.

'It's... lovely?' Mr. Peter glanced at the building and then back towards me. I felt the concern that he might feel for me, so I looked him in the eyes and smiled.

I managed to explain in detail what happened here; how the crows followed us, that long gone day, all the way to the Dark Place from the park, just by seeing a black leathered book; I told him about the interior of the building and how there were many windows from the inside and none from the outside; I told him then how the book charged me with all the radiation and power it contained, lifting me up in the air, while my friends, my best friends, were one on the floor unconscious and one hiding a the bathroom down the high-ceilinged hallway; I told him how the crows followed the orders of the hovering one who was kind of connected with me, surrounded me like I was trapped in a tornado; and...

'...while George saw Marie on the floor, he started cursing me, and blaming me, for what happened to her.' I stared at the ground, feeling the tears forming in my eyes, and voice shaking by the image in my head of what happened. 'Then the hovering crow, or the master of the flock, or whatever it was, screeched at the other crows, and they took them.' Tears ran like waterfalls down my face, and I didn't care wiping them. 'They disappeared into thin air. Just like that!'