The Venantium Auallonia Trilogy: Midsummer Sky

Chapter 8: What the Water Gave Me

"It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style. They affect us just as vulgarity affects us. They give us an impression of sheer brute force, and we revolt against that. Sometimes, however, a tragedy that possesses artistic elements of beauty crosses our lives. If these elements of beauty are real, the whole thing simply appeals to our sense of dramatic effect. Suddenly we find that we are no longer the actors, but the spectators of the play. Or rather we are both. We watch ourselves, and the mere wonder of the spectacle enthralls us."

― Oscar Wilde, the Picture of Dorian Gray

I woke to a quiet morning, and just as he promised, Gabriel with his arm draped over my waist snoring loudly in my ear. His soft breath succumbed in sleep; almost as warm as his arm. I moved as slow as possible prying his arm off of me, and he thankfully rolled over as I did so.

Despite how drowsy and sleepy I felt, my first thought upon waking was that I had to get ahold of Aiden one way or another. I shuffled out to Gabriel's somewhat living room, not withholding much besides a set of a blue couch and chair, a broken book shelf, and coffee table with a dismembered guitar. I scanned through the papers and books in the couch; nothing but maps and timelines of the murders that Patrick and Gabriel had written out. I was in search of a phone book. Though from the looks of it, I doubt he owned one. Neither have I ever made a collect call to anywhere even outside the state so there was no guarantee I wouldn't end up calling china or a phone sex line by accident. So many waves of emotions were running through me. A deep depressing sadness was on top of the list that made my hands tremble, but I couldn't fall apart now. As much as I hurt right now, I had a job to do. I had to find out who my shadow is, who I am, and why this all comes together because of my existence. I knew in my gut, I wasn't really sure how, but Aiden knew something. Something about my past enlightened him, and I wouldn't doubt that he found more now. Plus I wanted to get to that ball.

Something bright caught my eye. I looked off to the little kitchen alcove and saw a colorful patch of sunlight slowly lighting up the rest of the kitchen coming from a set of balcony doors. It must have been ridiculously early in the morning, but the sun was up enough to heat away last night's storm and bring on a subtle humidity. Yet I still felt a light ocean breeze coming from the direction of the Sandwich Boardwalk; its planks visible out the window. I had been locked away so long that I cracked open the sliding glass door and let the warmth fall on my face and arms like a fresh blanket enveloping my senses. It was lovely taking in all the scents of the cool, salty ocean and the warm summer sun; I hadn't felt this comfortable for a while now. Maybe being in the throes of love did that. I had been so wrapped up in the feeling that I forgot about my phone book search and a set of arms wrapped themselves around me; scaring me out of daydreaming.

"Morning," Gabriel said, pressing a light kiss to my shoulder, "You sleep alright? You didn't have to get up this early. It's almost six."

"Yeah, I just couldn't get back to sleep. I can't stop picturing everything from last night. I wish Patrick didn't have to go through that."

He pulled me closer, "I know."

"Plus, I wanted to call Aiden to let him know we were coming. The only problem is that I lost the invitation and there was no number on there. I don't know... I guess I just wanted to hear a familiar voice. You may not know him, but I don't want you to get offended when I say I need to hear a voice of reason and clarity right now. I think he might know something about all this mayhem."