All For Not

Page 70

My hand raised before I let my knuckles rasp against the wood, my free hand barely holding onto the small packet of papers between my fingers.

"Oh, hey..." The door opened, a chain rattling on the handles as I was looked down upon, "what are you doing all the way out here?"

It was easy to tell that he wasn't expecting anyone, let alone me. But he still must have thought I would never come alone with the way he peeked his head out from the shed and glanced around, "I ran into Bianca upon leaving my room, she wanted me to give you this..."

"You came out here to give me homework?" He seemed annoyed but also disappointed as I replied, "originally I only came to the woods for a simple walk, until she asked where I was rushing off to. Unfortunately when I said I was going to take a walk she tossed your assignment to me before rushing off herself."

"Oh," I looked to the side amidst the awkward air around us and for a few moments it stayed like that until I opened my mouth once more, "I'll be leaving now," he didn't frown but his brows furrowed as I moved to leave him at the opened door.

"Seriously?" Pausing to look back at him was a mistake, "is something wrong?" It became awkward and silent once more, until he spoke this time, "no, but do you um, wanna come inside maybe. Might as well since you're here I mean."

"I suppose I could for a moment..." He nodded repeatedly, stepping aside to hold the door open for me as I walked in, my head passing under his arm as my shoes met the wood under us, "cool, I actually was hoping I could talk to you as well, about last night."

"Did you now?" Frowning I peered around, coming to a stop in the middle of the room, "it seems that your art has taken an obsessive turn," he follows my line of sight with a grimace, "yeah, it's kind of-" The door opened once again behind us and both of us paused to turn around, stopping our conversation at the sight of my sister.

"I need your help," Wednesday spoke slowly after taking us in, "what, do you want some drawing lessons?" I watched her move towards us with her outstretched hand, a rough sketched piece of paper clasped between her fingers as she eyed me, "your line work's a little shaky."

She ignored the comment, flicking her eyes up to his, "I saw that in a vision. Do you recognize it?" Xavier moved to the side grabbing a sketch of his own after rifling around through a pile of them previously strewn across his workspace, "when did you draw this?" He showed her his sketch, a better replica if anything at all, "a couple days ago. I started having those dreams again, like before."

"Was the monster in them?" His head shook in reply, "no, but I could feel it in the shadows. You know, kind of lurking in my mind." She nodded looking around for a second and moving forward past me, "you know where this is?"

"Yeah. It's the old Gates mansion. I pass it when I go running." She stopped in front of a painted canvas, one turned away from the entry of the shack, "why?" To say he was surprised would have been a lie when she picked the painting up and turned it towards us, if anything he seemed embarrassed she had seen it suddenly.

"Okay. Listen..." He moved towards her and I backed up from his side, moving back to the door so I could leave, "after the dance, I just wanted to forget about you, but I couldn't. So I started painting and that's what came out. I can hear you up there playing."

"I can tell how you get lost in the music."