Beloved: Memoir of a Phantom

Chapter 9- the accord

                                          CHAPTER 9

                                                The Accord

Saturday finally rolled around and I wandered down to the park, taking along the seer’s book I found in the attic and donned the silver pendant that I’d gotten repaired. It very late in the afternoon and I knew I had an hour or so before sunset when I knew Gabriel would come and find me. I made myself cozy under the same tree as last time near the flower garden and had just settled in to read when I thought I heard someone call my name.

I looked around and saw nobody close by so I shrugged it off and went back to reading peacefully by myself. Not five minutes passed before I heard it again; someone was definitely calling me, but from where? I got up and looked around the garden, just in case someone was hiding in the bushes trying to play a prank on me.

“You know you really shouldn’t be carrying that book around in public; it could get you into a great deal of trouble.” His familiar voice lectured inside my head.

“I thought I heard someone calling me; so it was you then! Where are you hiding?” I asked him, reaching the unknown location of his own mind.

“A little further into the garden.” He directed.

I wandered into a part of the garden where a massive bramble of rose bushes nearly towered over me and ran the length of the old broken foundation of a house that once stood here.  I wandered around the area a few minutes listening for any more clues from Gabriel when something leathery firmly caught my wrist from within the thorny rose bush, causing me to yelp. I jumped around and was about to start beating the leather clad hand with the book I still held in the other one until it let go, but then I was quickly pulled into a firm, familiar embrace that drew me close to his chest. I knew I was safe, now that I was in his arms.

I cleared my throat and the figure cloaked in dark green released me. “I thought you promised not to scare me anymore.” I reminded him.

He smiled sheepishly. “I couldn’t help myself; you are just too fun to pester.”

I rolled my eyes. “Every time you do that I think that you’re someone who’s going to attack me or kill me. So could you please knock it off? One of these times it will be someone trying to hurt me and I’ll be caught off guard.” 

He nodded and attempted to don a serious expression. “You’re right. I promise I won’t do that anymore.”

“Good.” I said smiling, throwing my arms around his shoulders to return his embrace. “I’m sorry I dragged you out here in the daylight again, you know you could have left me out here until after sunset.”  I released him and adjusted his hood slightly so the sun wouldn’t touch his ghostly face. I noticed he was less careful this time when he came outside and one little slip could be dangerous for him.

“I wanted to see you, besides I couldn’t just leave you sitting on my doorstep reading a book that could potentially get you killed, now could I?” He said pointedly, brushing my cheek with the back of his gloved fingers.

Everything after that happened so quickly it made my head spin. I saw his sleeve fall back from his wrist and an acidic smelling grey smoke plumed from the exposed pale flesh.  I saw him grimace in pain and pull away from me into the shade from the shade of the bushes all within a blink of an eye.

He pushed back a part of the large rose bush to reveal a narrow stone stairway leading down into the earth.

“Get inside, quickly!” he hissed through clenched teeth, obviously in a tremendous amount of pain.