BLEEDING

Ch-5- PRAYERS, PLANS AND BARCELONA

                                  Entering a room upstairs with bloody arm Mary looked down in the hall where Sirius was being helped up the wooden staircase by four drones. They both caught a glance at each other and locked eyes for a while and he saw it...saw what distracted his aim while shooting her...saw her eyes...beautiful as always but blank and emotionless, no sign of love in them...filled only with resentment and disgust...nothing like those old kind and sweet ones but still they were beautiful...enough to make a man forget his mere existence... 

                                         He remembered it clearly as though it was just yesterday when hands held, laying beside him she asked "Sirius..." "Hmm?"  "aren't my eyes beautiful?" Sirius was dumbstruck at this question because she never questioned about herself. She continued "Stefan said that you told him my eyes aren't pretty." she said fidgeting his fingers with a sullen look. The slightly young Sirius grinned and mumbled "That bastard!" while getting up and made her do the same and held her hands while she looked confused. He looked into her eyes and said "No, your eyes aren't beautiful-"

                                          She looked angry now and tried to snatch her arms away from his firm grip but stopped when he said "-not just beautiful but they're gorgeous, they're like deep oceans filled with mysteries, your mesmerizing brown eyes...-"  he tucked her hair behind her ear and continued still not taking his eyes off hers  "-they feel like the first sip of warm coffee in the morning and the first spoon of hot caramel and chocolate that melts in the mouth within seconds, they're like autumn leaves falling from shrunken trees giving a sense of pure peace, when tears flow from them it feels like a beautiful stream bathing in evening sunlight. Sorry, but they make you look beautiful even when you cry-"  Mary snorted with watery eyes "-and when you laugh causing them to shrink a little it feels like thousands of fireflies shining and glowing in the darkest land, they're like amber and onyx hooking everyone in their beauty, sweetly intoxicating like whine and honey, they're like a never ending enchanted forest calling anyone who looks at them to admire and get lost in it. You don't know little pumpkin but those eyes of yours...they've the power to make a man love and desire you to any depths, they aren't just beautiful... but beautiful enough to make a man forget his mere existence...." Mary was grinning ear to ear and her face turned a deep magenta. 

                   There was a loud snap and he saw the door close and Mary was nowhere to be seen and so were Ashley and Drake. He heaved a sigh and thought "Damn! Her eyes distracted me!" There, in the room Mary was cleaning her wound which was bleeding ferociously when she heard Ashley's sobs and turned around abruptly "Why're you crying Ash see I'm alright." but Ashley didn't stop crying so Mary gave a reproachful look to Drake, who nodded in comprehension and took Ashley out of the room, she looked sick by this time due to crying.

                         "Let's grab some ice cream from kitchen. What do you say?" said Drake in a bit softer tone than his usual cold one. Ashley nodded still sobbing and they went to the kitchen and Drake took out two ice cream cones and his handkerchief and gave them to Ashley who wiped her nose noisily and calmed down. "You shouldn't worry about her like this. She's strong." said Drake more to himself than Ashley and she nodded. Just then Max came in looking concerned but Drake gave him a nod so he looked calmer and said "Donna wants you both in her study within 5 minutes." "I'll be there after finishing my ice cream." said Ashley and Max left for the study followed by Drake.

                                     Mary's study was upstairs just behind the store room (entrance to the HIVE). It was a large narrow room lined by a glass wall on one side consisting a big table and high backed throne chair and several paintings which had multiple shades of only two colours- red and black and looked more disturbing that beautiful as most of them depicted last moments of people's life and scary form of emotions. There was a large book shelf holding at least hundreds of books and had numerous newspaper cuttings, photos, and many more papers pinned to a huge pin board. A large projector screen hung at the end of room and a table the size of half of the dining table below with plenty of chairs stood in the very middle of the room.