Black Cloaks

Twenty One - Timeline

 

One Month Later

　

        Jade traipsed and trudged through the mud, muttering venomously as it clung to her bare legs. She cursed herself over and over in her head but it didn't make a difference to where she was now. Stuck.

        They had agreed to have a casual date. None of the expensive restaurant stuff that most couples do. They agreed on the park near Jade's home. They would leave around tea time and take a picnic there to have on the grass. They had to wait for a month however so John could get settled in. Although he didn't have many things to move in with, considering he had been homeless, he still needed to be registered into Jade's school. Jade was excited to have both John and Isabelle in her year at school, she would no longer have to be alone. John however, was not excited at all. It turned out that he had left school at a young age when his parents wrote a note to him saying that they were going on a small holiday and never returned. He had no money and was too young to work, so he was kicked out of the house his parents rented. From then on he couldn't go to school as he was always moving around. He had never learned to read very well and his writing was sloppy. Jade felt sorry for him and wanted to help him, but it just made him feel awkward. After Blue had arranged things with the school and John was properly moved in and comfortable, they planned for their date.

        At the moment though, Jade would hardly call it a 'date' more of a death wish. Jade had never known that the park had a closing time, she thought it would just be open all the time like a normal park, but no! She had lived near this park for eleven years and had never known. John had lived there for one month and he knew. He left a note.

        Jade,

        Park's closing now! :(

        Meet me by the trees, you know where.

        -John x

        'The trees' is what John called the mini forest outside the park. Jade wondered why John would choose a forest out of all places considering what they had been through, but Jade had headed there nonetheless. And regretted it instantly.

        It was a warm, Autumn night, so she put on a pair of shorts, high tops and a t-shirt. Now she was sure that her high tops were drowned in mud, and soon so would she.

        'I survived a year in a dungeon without food, and now I'm going to be consumed by mud. Great.'

        "Aeughh!" she shouted as she tripped. She thankfully stuck her arms out to protect her face from being caked in mud.

        "JOHN!" she bellowed.

        What a bloody great date this was.

        "Jade?" she heard being called. "Jade? Are you there?"

        "John! Help, I'm stuck in the mud!"

        She saw John come from around the corner behind a tree with a face that was desperately trying to hide his laughter.

        She scowled. "If you laugh, I am going home as soon as I get out of here."

        He zipped his lips immediately and reached out to grab Jade's hand.

        "Y'know, there is a path. Paths are supposed to be used."

        "I thought this was a short-cut," Jade mumbled.