Cries of the Stars

The Calm Before a Storm

Hot water is pouring down on me, washing away all the filth from my hair and skin. The white tile gets stains of blood mixed with water, making look sort of marble-ish.

My new home is small, and I have to share quarters with a boy named Heath, he's usually away which makes me alone in here, the door is always locked, so the only person who can come in without me opening is he. Honestly, I don't mind charing this space with him, i've been alone for a very long time and just the fact that he's just a few steps away from me, sleeping on the couch, makes me feel so much calmer.

I turn the knob and the water stops, I step out onto the soft rug on the bathroom floor and I look at myself in the mirror, my ice blue eyes stare back at me, my long, red hair lies licked against my neck and shoulders. I look healthy, for once. The dark circles under my eyes have almost disappeared completely. I can't help but think that I look beautiful.

Heath is sitting on the couch when I come out from the bathroom.

"Hey," he says, a small smile in his eyes as his lips pronounce the word. I haven't gotten to know him yet, I haven't been here for more than a couple of days, the only thing he's said to me before was that I could have the bed, and that he was happy to take the sofa.

I tried, I really tried to tell him that I wouldn't need it, but he insisted for me to have it.

"Hi," I say, can't keep myself from smiling back at him. It feels really good, smiling, feeling happy, feeling safe, feeling normal.

"So, uhm, I'll be staying out quite late tonight, I have that map to figure out, you know?" he says. He's really different from all the other people I've met, because when he speaks to me, even though it might just be a couple of words, I can really feel that he's talking to me, and me only. I don't know what it is about him, maybe his eyes? No, maybe the tone of his voice? I don't know, but I know that he wants me to feel like this, I don't know how, I just do.

"Oh, okay," I say, looking down at the wooden floor, "so, do you have any ideas? Of, what the next step is?"

"I have some, but they're all just guesses, so I have to look into the old archives and see if I can find anything," he answers. I nod. I turn around and start walking towards the bedroom, I stop, turn around again, I look at him and I say, "thanks by the way, for letting me stay here" and I smile, he looks up at me and answers "of course" and then he returned the smile.

That night, when I sit at the desk in my room, with the bedspread still on top of my bed, in maroon coloured chair, with one leg over the other, with one of the many books from the bookshelf in my lap, I feel so at peace, like all the bad things that have happened to me in the past three years never happened, i feel like I'll make it through this, and I know, in my heart, that everything is going to be alright.

Just a few hours before sunrise, when all my candles are burned out, I get up from the chair and walk out to the hallway, I make my way towards the living room, because I swear I think I saw candlesticks here somewhere. But when I approach the door vault, I notice a warm light coming from inside, I see orange and yellow feathers of light dance over the bare walls, i take a couple more steps, hypnotized by the show of colour before me, I now stand right under the great vault, and I see it, I see the source of all the dancing lights.

By the table, just over the sofa, hangs a ball of fire, silently, it rotates in the air. And just under the fire sits Heath, his golden eyes shimmering in the light of the flames, his hair glowing in the reflection. And I realize something, something that now as I know, makes me feel so stupid for not understanding earlier.

Heath, the boy with the warmest smile, with the warmest heart, with the warmest eyes, is a Phoenix.