Alimuom | Unedited

𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝟔

It was a couple of days after the incident and despite it being a small occurrence, the townsfolk managed to know about it. 'I guess the movies are right about small-town gossip. It spreads faster than a forest fire.' Everywhere he went, eyes followed him. They looked at his bandaged arm to his lightly bruised skin. He huffed in exasperation, wishing he didn't run out of food so he could have just stayed in his house.

As he passed by the city hall and into a relatively empty street, the sound of a door opening alerted him before hands gripped his uninjured arm and chest and pulled him inside. Richard was pulled inside before he could scream.

A familiar voice hushed, swiveling Richard to face him. It was John Levi Sawyer.

"Yawa! Gago man ka John Levi!" Richard cursed out loud, smacking him harshly on the shoulder. John Levi gave him a quick look over, noting his bandaged arm. "What happened to you?" Richard gave him a blank stare as if to say, 'really?'

"You didn't hear the gossip? The latest thing to happen to the alien boy in town?"

John Levi winced, looking at Richard with an apologetic look. Letting go of his shoulder, he apologized. His crystalline blue eyes teared up and his hair blended with the shadows and made it appear droopy and sad. 'Like a puppy drenched in the rain.' Richard sighed, ruffling hair and removing his glasses. He shuffled towards the sofa and patted the seat beside him. Richard thought he imagined a tail wagging behind John. "Anyways, I'm pretty sure you know but I'll just tell you cause you're adorably pathetic." Coughing at the unintentional slip, Richard decided to move on before It got any more awkward.

As Richard regaled to John everything that had occurred previously. He blushed as John looked at him with his crystalline blue eyes with such an intensity that he felt like self-destructing. As they talked, the sun had surprisingly shined upon the town. The colored rooftops gleamed with the natural light and illuminated the shop with the few rays that pierced through the blinds.

'Somehow, despite his boisterous personality. John doesn't really fit the extrovert type.'

"So, since you've become Princess Aurora In the junkyard. Did you feel anything strange in there? The natives say that there's something... cursed about that place." John took a seat on the leather couch, the springs creaked and the dust that settled, rose into the air, swirling and visible despite the meager amount of light that shone. Richard scratched the back of his neck, feeling goosebumps rise and an unnatural cold seeped into his bones. "I might have felt something like that, yes. But, nothing that one could call as paranormal."

"Hmm, still." John shrugged, looking at Richard lazily a soft smile on his lips. "You should probably ask the only tribe here that's been around for centuries. If nothing else, it'd make for a great anthropological trip."

Richard stood, dusting off any lingering traces of dust on his body. He rolled his eyes as John reverted back to his overeager puppy phase as he rushed to open the door. Fog from the air seeped into the building, into small cracks and crevices. The fog curled up against anything it could in the ground and around Richard's leather boots.

Breaking into a light jog, mindful of his bandaged arm. Richard felt the crisp air filling his lungs and as he exhaled, he could see his breath rise as clean and pure vapor. He made his way into the market, the scent of fresh fish and animal blood slowly wafted towards him. He could hear the vendors shouting and the rhythmic pattern of the butcher's knife against the wooden cutting boards. It reminded him of home. When he went to the local merkado and saw people crowding around, haggling prices, and the scent of the market lingering in his clothes even as he went home. 'Though,' Richard thought, 'The markets here have expensive and foreign-looking fish, then the ones at the local market.'