Beloved

The two ladies

2018
Ryan Matson

Ryan was still miffed at his sister for punching him but what he found much more annoying was that she had slinked away without apologizing. His stomach was still aching and he feared she gave him a bruise there but he tried not to show it. At least not until he left the crowd- which he will in matter of minutes.

And after that, Angela would find a pretty spectacular surprise in her bedroom.

The streets were deserted and very much silent once he left the throngs of festival goers behind him. The pale moon was hidden by dark clouds which drifted slowly away from the town and to the others parts of the country.
His boots made rhythmic sounds on the cold cobblestone streets as he made his way back to his house which had been made at the edge of the town, bordering the huge rocky mountains. The streets which led to his house were old, threaded with centuries of bloody history. He kept his eyes trained straight ahead, ignoring the stray sound of animals or creaking of horrifying trees grown in the yards of the tall townhouses built beside the old road.

His thoughts drifted to the man in his dream..if it was a dream. His riddled words replying in his mind like a broken record, achingly familiar but still foreign as ever. Ryan was absolutely sure that he wouldn't forget the man or his steely pale surroundings with lavender sky. The man, Janus as he told Ryan to call him had a face so beautiful yet horrifying that it was permanently scared in his mind, never to waver away.  The ground of your birth is soaked with it and that what they seek..

The riddle was a mystery to him, yes but what terrified him more than the tone Janus had when he had told the riddle to him, was the dead sender. He didn't know who send it especially from the dead at that. It obviously wasn't his dead cat at that, or his grandparents who he never had a chance to meet...

He was so lost in his thoughts revolving around the sender that he didn't notice the object in front of him and stumbled into it, harshly falling down. He cursed as he pulled himself up, silently hissing as he checked his aching knee. Now he got two wounds to take care off..

His eyes strayed away from his knee and landed on the box placed middle of the road almost strategically, a slow heart wrenching song playing from it. His eyebrows furrowed as he bent down to pick the heavy box. He hadn't heard the sound when he had been walking. The sound was eerie, travelling up and down the streets making him blink in confusion as fear started to bloom in his stomach. But he tired to ignore it by concentrating by studying the old fashioned song box. The box seemed to be painted once in bright lively colors but now were dull, the colors depicting a forestry surrounded by a stone mansion covered with dark vines which crawled up till it reached the sharp spires on the mansion. The others showed a forest which gave a spooky feeling, a Smokey mountain and a blurry family of three standing happily in a green field.

"Ryan".

His head snapped up, his eyes darting around the street and over the black hooded houses. His heart beat speed up at the silence loomed over the street yet again, leaving no impression that such a low gravely but feminine voice had filled it. It froze him, rushing him with terror which touched his core. He took a step back, then a several before he turned around and ran. Probably like a coward but who didn't run away when you heard such a ghostly voice whispering your name.