Arcane Love

Chapter Four: Ab ovo

"Shine brighter! You're a lucky bastard, everything around you is so dark or so far away. You shine brightly not because of yourself, but because of their failure," Andrew said out loud. He was speaking to the moon and he expected no reply but to his surprise, he heard a voice. A voice he was familiar with, "Don't remove your anger on the moon. He shines brightly so that the lost can find their way in this darkness. The lost, like you, Mr LaRoche." 

"Do you like Batman?"

"No."

"Then why do you creep up behind me? And how do you find me? And why do you wander this late at night?"

Andrew stumbled a little while he was walking towards the girl. The whole bottle of Aberlour was way over the line of drinking, but Andrew couldn't care less about it. "Tell me, why are you here?"

"Ask that to yourself. Do you have a lighter?"

"I do," Andrew pulled out the lighter from his back pocket and reached closer to burn her cigarette. "Whoa! She smells so sweet," Andrew said to himself, this time his voice did not reach the girl's eardrums, but she heard a slight mummer. "Why do you speak with yourself?" She asked.

"You never answer my questions, but you're still bold enough to ask me questions. How so?"

"Ask me a question."

"I already did. What is your name? And why do you keep crossing paths with me?" 

"I don't know the answers to these questions. Perhaps, the man who writes about us can answer these questions." 

Andrew did not say anything. He had nothing to say, he was too busy with his own set of thoughts. "You know, my dad was a drunk," The girl said, "He didn't like me. Every single night, he used to come home. Completely drunk and used to speak rudely and often hit my mother."

Andrew did not understand as to why she started speaking about her father, but he kept listening. The girl went on saying, "I used to try to fight him back, or at least try to stop him. But I never could."

"You were a little girl back then. How could you?"

The girl looked Andrew straight in his eyes and said, "Aren't we all little? Just a lot of little people in this big world? Doing little things in our little days. Life is little, but we still live it."

"Shall we walk?" Andrew asked. 

She nodded in acceptance and the both of them walked down the stairs. "It's cold," Andrew said, "It hasn't been so cold since many nights."

"Do you come here every night?"

"No, I don't. I come here most nights, sometimes I'm at my house."

"House? Do you live alone?"

"Yes," Andrew replied, "I did live with my family first, but I left that house and moved into the new one."

The girl hummed and said nothing. They walked with no destination in mind, the night was growing on them, and the girl started shivering because of the biting cold. "It's getting very cold. Do you know of any place we can go?" The girl asked.

"I guess. Do you mind coming to my house?" 

"I don't. Can I ask you a question?"

"What?" Andrew was perplexed by her statement, "You've asked me so many things already. Why do you ask for permission now? Go on."

She laughed and said, "I'm sorry. I asked many questions. I have this last one, at least for now. Why do you call it a house? And why not your home?"