The Festival

Chapter 3

Mirina had ended up giving the scarf to Hena, who thought it was the loveliest thing she had ever received and promised to wear it every day.

Since Hena was busy cooking dinner, Mirina found it a good time to pack for her "dance".

Shoving her makeup bag and an extra change of clothes, Mirina gently placed the bag under her bed so Hena wouldn't find it. It would look pretty suspicious if Mirina was bringing a duffle bag to a party.

During dinner, Hena didn't bring up the party so Mirina didn't either.

After, when Hena was washing the dishes, Mirina took an extra long shower, making sure she used too much conditioner to make her hair super soft and extra body wash to smell like roses.

After Mirina had finished blow drying her hair and getting changed into her blue dress with a large coat, Hena had already gone to bed.

This was Mirina's chance.

She couldn't chicken out now. She had already come so far and Ari was waiting for her. If she stopped now, Ari would be furious and she would likely never have this chance again.

Since the Curfew had already come, Mirina knew she needed to be extra careful walking out into the night alone.

It would be difficult to make it to the subway, but if Ari was right and if putting a fan over your face was a way to bypass getting murdered by gangs, Mirina would just hold her fan up the whole night.

In the dark of the night, Mirina slowly made her way out of the house and onto the street.

The distant sound of someone yelling made Mirina pull her fan closer to her face.

An owl cried and landed on a street light above her.

"Hello, friend," Mirina says, her voice muted by the fan over her mouth.

The owl just turns it's head and stares down at her as if confused to see someone out at the same time as it.

Just as Mirina was about to begin walking again, a loud bang scared her half to death.

She let out a yelp of fear and the owl fell to the ground.

Mirina ran over to it to find its feet had been burned by the light post.

She looks up at the light and sees that the bulb had burned completely. Actually - it had exploded.

That was probably the loud bang, Mirina thinks as she pulls a bottle of water from her bag.

She pours some water in her hand and then lets it fall to the ground. The owl looked again confused by her but appreciated her kindness. It stepped into the water and made a sound of content when the cool water soothed it's burned feet.

"I have to leave you here, friend," Mirina explained to the animal. "Maybe we'll meet again."

The owl cooed as she walked away, as if sad to see her go.

Mirina gave it a small wave and smile before turning back around and continuing her journey to the subway.

Once I reach the subway, she thought, that will act like a checkpoint. If I can reach that, then I can make it to Roven.

As she begins making her way deeper into the night and closer to the train station, somehow, Mirina begins to ease up. Something in the air has placed a calming effect on her.

Just as she lets out a light sigh, thunder claps above.

Quickly, Mirina rushes to the entrance of the subway.