Chapter 23: Mars Wind

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"What you drawing?" Ire asked.
Her and Tom found Rowan in the morning.
"It's us." Tom said seeing herself in a stick figure.
He had drawn five, dancing below a streak of lightning.
"Wolf said you drew us, are there more?"
He went through the book carefully.
"Is that the guy?" Ire stopped him on a drawing of a shadow in the rain and read the title: "The Deal Maker? At least give him a cool name."
"Wh- Deal Maker's cool, what would you call him?" He asked.
"I dunno, something actually cool like, Crimson Shadow."
"Ye that's cool." Tom agreed.
"...no." Rowan sighed. "He wasn't even red."
"Doesn't matter," Ire shrugged.
"Crimson's red?" Tom asked.
"Where to find him-" Ire began reading but Rowan quickly closed the book embarrassed.
"Anyway, we found something." She went on, "It's this thing tonight."
"It's real, it all came out an hour ago." Tom took over, "There's some guy who posted a video with these demons watching him and then loads of stuff happened with this airplane that disappeared, then there was this devil worshiping cult in America who said the sky's breaking and now it's out that the sky's gonna go red."
"Crimson sky."
"Shut up." Rowan smiled, "How's it gonna break?"
"It doesn't say." Tom said.
"This is it! Right? This has to be- well at least connected." Ire asked.
"Maybe then... yea." Rowan said, "I don't know how big it is."

They knew where Wolf would be so peaked through to the gym. She was there, throwing punch after punch; it was a punching bag. But she didn't stop until Tom said 'hi'.
"How's your hand?" She asked, holding Rowans covered hand.
"How's it look?" He gave her the middle finger.
They got Wolf to come see the sky break with them so they left early for SunGlass City.
"I mean, it's sudden right?" Rowan said, "Like as soon as we start, investigating the sky-"
"That's a strong word." Wolf got in.
"-this just comes up."
"But it's the sky." Tom said.
"Could be more then one thing with the sky." Ire said.
"No- I dunno. Maybe, but, I dunno."

It was said the sky would break at half four bst so the four waited under coloured glass.
"Is this the end of the world then?" Ire laughed.
"Maybe." Rowan chuckled, "When the sky falls and crushes us all."

They spoke between the last paragraph but I'll skip to when the sky broke because Ire and Tom went on for a bit about Harry Potter.
Tom couldn't hold back her excitement, it was time.
"It's gonna break!" She'd whisper.
And it did. Gradually. They saw orange come from the mountains to the south. Spreading up and around.
"There! There!" Ire shouted.
"That's the sun." Wolf said.
"That's south! The sun sets over there!" Ire insisted.
The sun was to the west, still in the sky.
The colour got darker and larger until above them was completely red.
"Alien." Tom whisperer.
Only a minute later it faded, leaving the sky as it was before, boring, blue and probably fake.
Tom and Ire shared a smirk before cheering and jumping.
"THE END OF THE WORLD!" They called out.
Tom dragged Wolf into the dance as well but Rowan didn't move.

So that night the four of them collectively got enough sleep for one of them.

The next day Rowan went to school, hearing people talk as they passed.
"Yea it's Mars' shadow." One kid said.
"It was a solar flare, it just took the light longer to get here." Another kid said.
He heard every explanation there was.
"It's mars wind. They're calling it mars wind."
"It came from past mars, it got the colour when it passed."

Rowan couldn't see every explanation sent him further away. He hadn't noticed he'd gone to tutor or that he'd left his bag there after.

"Did you see what they said it was on the news?" Ire asked.

He knew the eyes on him.

The school said nothing about it. They carried on. As if it never happened. As if the sky didn't bleed. Everyone did.

He looked but couldn't see the shadow.

"They're saying mars wind?" Ire laughed.
Maybe he was hiding.
"It's solar wind or something." Wolf said.
Sending a message from Mars.
"Deja vu." Tom smiled.
The Crimson Shadow.
"Rowan?"
The Bringer Of War.
"Is he gonna be sick?"

"Rowan!" Wolf shook him but he didn't feel it.
He couldn't find her gaze.
"It's okay." He said monotone.

He stumbled a bit, but it felt like patterns.

They were outside and Rowan was outside.
"Look I'm gonna go." He sighed.

"Rowan?" Ire began, but she had no words.
"Where are you going? You can't leave." Wolf said.
"Look, we shouldn't be together." He said calmly, "We should never have kissed."
This shut everyone up.

He left.

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