From Shadows to Starlight

The Fallen Angel's Lullaby

Chapter Thirteen

Sleep...angels will watch over you...and soon, beautiful dreams will come true...can you feel spirits embracing your soul? So dream, as secrets of darkness unfold....- -Hayley Westenra

The Fallen Angel's Lullaby

Erik woke to an aching back and a sore neck, leaning against a wall, hard and uncomfortable. Blinking in the light, he looked around in confusion…he was in Raven’s stall. He didn’t even remember falling asleep there. Outside the stall he heard so much noise, people moving and talking all at once. One voice shouted out, “Maurice! There’s a man asleep in the black horse’s stall, wearing some odd mask and fancy clothes, probably drunk or crazy…get rid of him!”

Odd mask. Someone was coming after him. Erik hurried to his feet, waking Raven, who gave him a friendly nudge in the chest. Not now, he thought as he rushed out of the stall, closing the door behind him. He turned around and came face to face with an irritable-looking groom. “That’s right! Get out of here, you crazy drunk!” the man yelled, with a blast of foul-smelling breath.

Erik seethed. Other people were so infuriating. “I am a guest here at the hotel, and that is my horse. Now get out of my way,” he snarled. The man backed away, nodding to him and looking at the ground, trembling where he stood. Erik stormed past him, movingtoward the open stable doors ahead, but not before colliding with another man as he came walking briskly around the corner. The man was sent stumbling back after Erik nearly mowed him down. The man’s top hat, which he had been wearing tilted slightly sideways, fell off his head onto the cobblestones.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, friend,” the younger man said, stooping to pick up his hat. He put it back on, making sure to have it tilt a little to the left once again.

Erik just shook his head in irritation and moved around him, but not before the other man took a long, hard look at him, and not before Erik saw his eyes flash with surprise.

It must be the mask, he thought angrily. This was why he didn’t like direct encounters with other people.

He stepped out of the stable and into blinding sunlight. Instantly his hands came up to cover his eyes as the hot light seemed to burn straight through him. Oh, hell. He was out in the sun.

Then he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he whirled around to face the stranger. “Light burns your eyes doesn’t it? Try a cold bath, or a steaming cup of tea,” said an unfamiliar man, who looked like another one of the grooms. “Always makes me feel better after a wild night.” He elbowed Erik in the ribs, who backed away from him, squinting in the bright light. “That must have been quite a party you went to…how did you ever end up in that crazy costume and passed out in a horse stall? Now that’s a story I’d like to hear.” The groom laughed.

Erik had had enough. Without answering, he walked off quickly down the lane back to the hotel, untilhe found the place where his first-floor room was. The window still hung open from last night. He climbed up through it, stepping onto a damp towel, undoubtedly placed there by Alana to clean up the water that must have blown in during last night’s rainstorm. He turned around and discovered Alana herself, asleep on the small couch at the foot of the bed. Why was she there? He closed the window and the curtains, and the noise woke her.

"You’re back,” she exclaimed, yawning and sitting up. She blinked, then grinned mischievously. “That means…” she paused for dramatic effect, “…you had to go out in the sun to get here.”

Erik almost rolled his eyes with annoyance. “Yes. I did,” he answered coldly.

“And you’re still here,” she said, smiling. “You didn’t go blind, or melt, or anything terrible like that. It wasn’t as bad as you thought it would be, was it?”