The Lovely Suicide Children

Chapter 67: Sunny's Return

Julia flew me down. A few kids were outside playing, looking at us as we stood. They asked us if we wanted to play, but Julia told them we had things to do. She looked at the palace then to me. "Do you remember how you got to the field with the crows?" she asked me.

"Yes," I replied with a nod. "I was in the palace when we did it."

"Darn," Julia slowly began walking towards it. I followed behind her. "there's no way the guards will let me in without your mother's permission."

"I have a friend there. We'll talk to her. She's on our side." I had the perfect plan to get Julia inside. I needed to talk to Ava. Julia put her hand out in front of me for a quick second before removing it. Before I could say anything, she gave me an intense stare then turned around. I felt the presence of someone before I looked behind me.

"Olivia."

I was so relieved when I saw Ava standing there. She smiled at us. "What's the occasion?" She asked.

I wasn't sure whether to tell her what we were doing right away, but I didn't. Smiling in return and pointing to my friend, I introduced her. "This is my friend, Julia. We're walking around."

"Not staying out of trouble, I see," she said then turned to Julia with an outstretched hand. "I'm Ava."

"Hey," I said softly to get her attention. "what do you mean staying out of trouble?"

"I was behind you the entire time," she said, looking disappointed. "you must make sure you plan privately, or someone will hear you. The trees have eyes, you know."

I nodded. "Thank you. Have you seen my mother?"

"She's meeting the few newcomers. It's an all-day thing. You won't see much of her anytime soon," Ava replied. "That's enough time to get to the crows."

"You're really helping us?" Julia asked. She checked to make sure no one was behind her or listening.

Putting her hand on Julia's shoulder. "No more suicides. This whole place-" she eyed the sky. "is wrong." She focused on me. "Now come one. Try this fast."

Ava lead us into the palace. The guards stood straight, seemly tense. However, Ava rested her hands in the air and their worries faded. "It's for a good cause," she whispered to them. Using her hands, Ava made sure Julia and I were facing each other. She placed my hand on hers. "I can't come, but I can guide you there. But-"

"But what?" Julia asked.

"When you get there, it'll seem like it's daytime until the crows bring darkness," she said. "The thing is, no one has ever been there without Morphan. I don't know how the crows will react. Now-" she patted my back once. "quickly. Think about Earth, horses, fields and fly down. That's how you'll get there. When you want to come back, think about the palace. But do this quickly."

"Thank you," I told Ava.

"Thank you," Julia said.

The guards looked at each other, unsure about what was going on. They stared intensely as Julia, and I focused on what we had to do. I held tight to Julia's hand. Wasting no time, I felt us go down. Like before, in a matter of seconds we were already in the field. The animals detected us and ran off. The unreal blue sky began diming then darkening and we heard the crows.

"They're coming," I said, scared. What would happen if they saw that it was just us too and not their master?

Soon enough the crows came in waves over some trees in the distance, flying towards us. Julia who seemed frightened took a step near me for a quick second then stood her ground. The crows cawed and began flying around our bodies in a circular motion, without dropping anything. Their screeches were loud. Together they sounded like a machine that malfunctioned terribly.

"What do we do?" I asked Ava.

With wide eyes, she shrugged at me. "I don't know. Find Sunny, I guess?"

Without knowing what to do, I felt the need to get on my knees. So, I did. The crows continued flying around us as if they waited. I raised a hand in the air. Julia gave me a weird look. However, I felt that it was the right thing to do. Julia took something out of her pocket.

"What's that?" I asked.

"A sack. In case we have to bag one of these things," she replied, now bending down next to me to get on her knees.

Looking back at the twirling blackness surrounding me, I finally spoke out. "Sunny, if you're here. It's me-" I began to stutter. "Olivia. I want to save you. I want to save all of you."

Nothing. The twirling continued.

"Sunny Averisky!" I yelled.

Pretty soon, a single crow flew into the circle. It cawed once, staring at me with these intense black eyes. It didn't seem normal for a real crow. No pupils. Nothing. Just a void of darkness staring at me. "Sun-" I was about to ask again but the crow release a loud screech.

"It's her," Julia opened the sack and grabbed the crow. She handed it to me and was about to take my hand, however, something fell on her head. It was someone's severed finger. Soon enough, parts of humans dropped on us. Onto our head, hands, and feet. What followed was a dramatic laugh somewhere in the distance followed by a dark voice.

"Welcome," the voice became an echo like in a dream-airy and calm. "my lovely suicide children."

The crows opened up space and walking inside of it was my mother. It only took her a few seconds to change in front of us. Her wings spread and she looked at us with those evil wide eyes.

"Mom-"

Before I could say anything, a hand from her wings stretched out and quickly grabbed Julia by her arm. "Let me go!" Julia tried to yank the arm away.

My mother grabbed her into her wing, covering her up. "Mom, what are you doing?" I stepped closer, but a hand from her other wing pushed me back to where I had been standing.

"I knew I couldn't trust you," the dreamy voice became dark once more.

Right before my eyes, using the hands from her wings grabbed Julia around each part of her visible body. The grasp was tight, causing Julia's skin to turn red. With each powerful grasp, I heard Julia's bones cracking. Her legs, arms, ribs. My mother was slowly crushing her. Julia let out agonizing screams. The crows continued swirling around us, silencing their caws. The parts of the body started to attract to my mother like magnets. Like I thought before, those parts weren't for keeping track of the suicide children. She needed their parts.

"Please-" I cried, watching Julia cry and almost crumble to the ground. "Stop!" Her eyes slowly closed and opened and closed. She was...dying though she was already dead. She felt the pain. Then right before me, my mother snapped her wing over Julia. Like a magic trick, she was gone.

My mother lifted her wing to show me. "No more," she smiled. She raised her hand again, but something else caught my attention. It was a hand. A hand reaching out of the bag the crow was in. It grabbed me, and I felt the weight like something wanted to pull me down. I closed my eyes and thought of Robert. It felt right. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by the Horrendous Squad, while holding the bag in my hand. I looked at it. It was empty.

"Where's Julia?" Emmitt pushed pass, Robert. However, I couldn't answer that. One reason was that the truth was too terrible. The second reason I couldn't talk was that I saw her. Standing behind Robert, gasping for air and holding her hand while looking around.

Sunny.