Page 76 of Fallen Thorns
A further ten minutes passed. Perhaps I drifted in the chair. Nothing changed.
Then it did.
“I was wondering how long you were willing to wait.”
The voice —that voice —came from behind me, as it always did, and everything melted again.
My breathing quickened in a panic. I dared not move, though I was compelled to do so regardless.
I was about to meet thisthing,yet I couldn’t escape the sensation we had met before. Had we?
I could have sat there and waited for it to reveal itself, or stand and walk around to meet it. Oddly, I chose the latter.
There it stood: a silhouette in the blackness, with leaves and tendrils curling around its body.
My creature.
Though the creature was merely… a man.
Upon seeing me, he strode over to me as a friend might; one you had not seen in a while but shared a long history with. A close friend.
One might have looked at him and seen a student, barely older than I: Long, biblical, white curls flowing down his back and over his shoulders, a lengthly black coat not too dissimilar from mine hung over a tailored, pin striped suit, one that was tie-less and opened deep at the collar to expose his pale collar bones and smooth, unmarked chest. A thin gold chain poked out from underneath the material — highly inappropriate for this time of year, but his unfazed manner told me all I needed to know. He was otherworldly.
I glanced down to his smartly polished shoes and watched as they reflected the very moon. Then his face. Grinning, again, like an old friend.
There was a fakeness to his cherubic cheeks, an emptiness to his gaze, and foxglove poised between his teeth.
And there he stood before me.
He tilted his head and his chains jangled. “Are you not happy to see me, Arlo?”
I couldn’t speak. Whether he compelled me or not, no words came to mind.
He shook his head, disgruntled. “I told you not to be afraid.”
Still no sound emerged.
I thought of calling Mars, felt my hand reach into my pocket for my phone, but I stopped. For whatever I might have done then, may have sent him away again.
I mustn’t send him away.
What?
“Have you lost your voice?” he asked, voice soft like velvet.Always velvet. The only way I can think of describing it.It paralysed me.
“Why do you look so concerned? Are you not pleased to see me again?” He sounded almostwounded.
“You’re here.” At last, my own voice sounded, my head tilting in disbelief.
He smirked. “I’m always here, silly.”
Like a friend.
Family.
My head was swimming, as if I’d been sedated and I was slowly losing consciousness.This was a bad idea. Call Mars.
“Whatareyou?”
