"My love, we can close our eyes but we cannot stop the sunrise." ― Kamand Kojouri
An ungodly pounding on her room's door at the crack of dawn jolts Mirasal from her sleep. Stumbling up from beneath the covers, still in her clothes from the previous day and silently chastising herself for once again passing out wearing her prosthetic, she opens the door and is immediately met with a flat wooden box being shoved at her, nearly knocking her backwards.
Tapia stood, wild-eyed and ranting incoherently, looking like she'd seen a ghost.
"Take them. I don't want them in my home anymore." is all she says before taking off down the hallway, still rambling Arak prayers under her breath. Mirasal watches her leave before she shuts the door.
Placing the box on the bed, she opens it; the seven gold and silver medals were all there. Still carefully aligned in the velvet insert, polished, the red and purple silk ribbons neatly folded. Picking each one up, she turns them over and reads the little inscription Imarito had written on the back of each along with their daughters' names;
'Don't lose sight of the stars. They can sometimes be overshadowed by the moons.'
What had occurred to have Tapia have such a change of heart, it didn't matter. They were back in her possession, where they belong. Staring at them a moment before she closes the lid and casts her gaze out into the burgeoning morning. The storm clouds were allowing a slice of sunlight to fight its way through. Modest, but still enough to draw her outside, to the bank of the water.
Sitting upon a large rock, she takes in the hushed serenity of the area, when she spies, perched on a smaller rock near her to her right, a lizard. The stunning white of its scales contrasted with the black diamond pattern printed along its back and the ruby stripes outlining its mouth. Its thinly-slit golden almond pupils seemed to be watching her.
he and the tiny creature continue to regard each other, until she positions her body, facing its direction.
"I know it's you." she whispers as she reaches her metal palm out for the lizard to crawl on. Picking it up, she brings the tip of her flesh finger up to stroke the ridges of its elongated head. It closes its lids, its split tongue flicking.
"I'm not angry with you now. I just don't understand." she adds.
She carries him back up to her room, pausing before the slashed, shredded wallpaper dangling along the hall.
"You did that?" Mirasal gives the tiny beast a reproachful scowl. He proceeds to hang his head downwards in confirmation.
"Robert. You'll have to pay for that."
Once she shuts the room door, he leaps out of her hands and in a blur of black and white, slithers up into the form of Robert, his gold spheres still narrowly slit. He gives his head a quick shake, the slits now expanding into circles.
They stand in silence as he gazes down at the wooden box sitting atop the comforter.
"Tapia. She just came and practically threw them through the door." Mirasal says, still flummoxed.
"Must have changed her mind." Robert replies, pursing his lips to conceal a smirk.
It can't reveal, but It once again assumed the form of the dead man and appeared in the home of the dead man's sister. Not looking nearly as pleasant, but displaying a bloody gunshot wound to the temple, creamy white eyes and rotting flesh hanging off a skeletal frame. It menaced the woman in her bedroom with warnings to return the stolen property or else face the wrath of the spirit of her dead brother.
YOU ARE READING
Reverie
Mystery / Thriller"The Losers Club had driven It from the personal gaming reserve It had made. Now, it was time for It to make a new one. Just as It had to create a new physical form after Its other was destroyed by those hated ones. And It wants no more to feel. No...
