Beautiful Souls

Chapter Three: Fixed Destiny

Umbra stared up at the sky, the clouds were dark and the air was thick. He knew it was going to rain, and he enjoyed knowing that. Or, he enjoyed days like that in general. When the skies are covered in almost black clouds, when the air is thick from the moisture in the air; like honey, almost too much to take yet perfectly right. And recently days like this have been appearing more often. Yet, for some reason he felt like these days meant a little more than just being rainy. Some hidden meaning behind them, on days like this Umbra always has weird dreams. Dreams that seem to last for days rather than hours, dreams where people he has never met teach him things. Things like where major arteries are, where organs that a human cannot live without are, how to best pierce the skin; quickly, expertly, without a sound. Strange things like that, and these dreams have been coming to him ever since he was little. Though, he can't quite remember anything from before he was five, he remembers all the dreams he has had. Every single one of them, each so fresh in his mind that it was as if he had them just moments ago.

Umbra gripped the end of his shiny umbrella, the fabric was a dark red; a red that reminded him of his dreams. A dark color that made his mind swirl, made his heart beat with excitement, made him cautious. The color of something that has never escaped his own body, but frequently left the bodies of those in his dreams. Blood. That was the intoxicating thing that the umbrella reminded him so much of, flowing freely from deep wounds, escaping, never ending, like a waterfall, it won't stop flowing. Umbra gripped the hook of the umbrella tighter, trying to stay upright even though he felt like the ground was swirling underneath him. He closed his eyes tight, welcoming the calming darkness, then he felt light drops of something falling from the sky, soft at first, just the pitter patter of tiny feet against the dark side walk. Then all at once it came pouring down, running down Umbra's face, soaking his school uniform, the cloth of it stuck to his skin, rubbing uncomfortably. What had just been the sound of fast, light footsteps had grown into a thundering wave, crashing, never ending against Umbra's upturned face and the ground around him.

A hiss of annoyance escaped his lips as he immediately turned his head to the ground and fumbled to open the umbrella, water dripped off of the tip of his nose, dripped from his long unkempt black hair, and slid smoothly off of his pale hands. The umbrella wouldn't open, it refused, as if some unknown force was refusing to loosen its grip on the ribs of the dark red umbrella. "Lousy dollar store umbrella!" Umbra screamed in frustration, throwing the umbrella to the ground with a groan. He looked up, a frown distorting his normally handsome face. Two people were rushing away; a man in smudged glasses and a little girl with long hair, gripping the mans hand tightly. They slowed for a second when the girl almost tripped, and for some unknown reason she turned to face Umbra.

The little girl pointed at him, then the umbrella while telling the man something that Umbra was too far away to hear. The man turned his head towards Umbra as well, a nervous look on his face. Umbra frowned even more before picking up the broken umbrella and turning towards the direction of yet another of his foster homes. He heard footsteps following him quickly, then the soft hand of a little girl around his hand. She smiled up at him, she was missing both of her front teeth. "Why aren't you using your umbrella?" She asked him, still smiling despite the fact she was already soaked through.

"It's broken." He replied bitterly, his frown growing even more pronounced. The girl turned her attention the the umbrella, before turning back to what had to be her father. The man was trudging slowly towards them, he looked tired.

"Daddy! He needs another umbrella, his is broken!" She screamed at her dad, so loud in fact that Umbra could barely keep himself from covering his ears. The man cringed, already close enough that he probably could have heard if she had whispered.

"Meri, how many times have I told you not to talk with strangers? I'm sorry about my daughter, she doesn't seem to understand the phrase "stranger danger.'" The man joked, smiling at his daughter's stupidity. The man wiped some of his hair away from his strangely colored eyes.

"Yeah sure." Umbra scoffed, he shook his hand free of the little girl's before continuing towards his current home. Each step was harder than the last, the rain seemed to soak him straight to his bones, and at every unexpected gust of wind that was constantly picking up a shiver was sent down his spine.

*************

After what seemed like hours of trudging through the storm Umbra finally reached his home. A run down apartment building, only four tenants left of what had been thirty, his foster family one of the few that were left. They weren't horrible, in fact they were far from it. They had even mentioned adopting him themselves, but Umbra knew that could never happen. When they had started fostering him the couple thought they could never have children, then after almost three years of them fostering the wife got pregnant with twins. Considering they're already in trouble financially, one more mouth to feed would be too much. Soon they would get rid of him, just like all of those other people did.

"I'm home!" Umbra screamed into the dimly lit house on the third floor of the apartment building, the one that only had one room so the eldest boy had to sleep in the living room on the pullout couch. No one answered him. Had they gone out without Umbra? "Anyone here?" He called out again, a little more cautious this time. Umbra hadn't noticed at first but it was eerily quiet, not a sound in the house except his beating heart and ragged breathing. Still, no one answered. Umbra took a few quick steps into the house and shut the door quietly, maybe they were all just asleep.

Umbra walked through the kitchen into the one little room the home had, no one was inside. But, on a little brown dresser was a small, yellow, sticky note with big curvy letters written with such precision that it had to be Umbra's foster mother. It read; Umbra, I'm sad to inform you but both of the twins fell ill. We are taking them to the hospital, I do not know when we will return. There are left over hamburgers in the fridge, and if you want you can use my laptop if you get bored. The password is A_1687. Don't forget to log out when you're done with it. Pray for the twins! See you soon, we love you.

Umbra scoffed. He wasn't going to pray, he could care less about the twins. And hamburgers!? They knew he didn't like hamburgers! Umbra stomped back into the kitchen, opened a cabinet, and grabbed a bag of potato chips. That would have to do. Umbra sauntered into the living room, pulled out the pull-out bed, and plopped down in front of the small television the family owned, his feet hung off the side of the lumpy mattress. He placed his head in the crook of his arm, stuffing his face with the chips while watching an old cartoon. His eyes began to close, and the sound of the television began to grow distant. Crumbs fell out of the now empty bag as his arms began to grow limp, then it fell to the ground and he drifted into sleep.