NOTUM: Study Of A Nightwalker ✔️

Hush

The fields had always been a sight to behold. Golden wheat sprawled across acres, waving and dancing in the breeze. Harvest was near and soon the barns would overflow with grains. The storm clouds were gathering together, and the sky merged its evening hues with deep grey.

Wandering through the field was a boy of fifteen years, with hair the color of the crops before him. His long-sleeved shirt irritated his skin, making him scratch the rashes on his forearm. As he squinted to look at the setting sun, lightning flashed in the heavens above.

The light of the sunset made the landscape look beautiful and soft, like a distant memory, fading into a blissful blur.

"Caleb?!" He called out for his twin, his adolescent voice cracking into a squeal.

The boy walked faster and looked up towards the sky. He cursed as his reflexes responded to thunder with a jump. It wasn't long before he felt cool drops wetting his face and hair.

"Caleb, come out this instant! Gabriel will skin us alive if he finds us outside during a storm."

Another golden head poked out at a distance, followed by a brown one. A boy's voice rang back,

"She said that she wanted to see the evening star."

"What is wrong with the both of you?! It's raining and the entire sky is dark. How do you expect to see stars now?"

The other boy quietly observed the sky through the telescope he had brought with him. The girl looked up, smiled sheepishly and said, "It's okay, Caleb. I'll come tomorrow. Barry's right. The weather seems to be quite bad, and I better get home."

"Wait, I found it! Look here Madeleine, it's–"

She kissed him on his cheek and walked off, brown hair whipping against the wind. Her skirt hindered her movement through the mud, and she held up a hand to shield herself from the rain.

Caleb scowled at Barry when he tried to help him with his telescope. The boy backed off and waited.

"Great job Bartholomew, now you've told her to stay away."

"I just told her to go home."

"You never really liked her anyway. Always, every single time she comes over to see me, you manage to mess it up!"

"There is no need to make a mountain out of a molehill, Caleb."

"You're a. . . fine then! When I grow up, I'll marry her and become a world-famous scientist, like Herr Einstein. What will you do about us then, huh? Throw a tantrum? Rat us out to Gabriel?"

"Nothing, actually. She'll probably marry the count's son, or some blueblood."

"I love her, you idiot! There is nothi–"

"How many times do I have to tell you? Dreaming and philosophy will not fill your stomach. And neither would love. If you had actually worked instead of lazing around, we would've been closer to not starving to death in winter."

Caleb huffed and lifted his telescope, careful not to damage it. He waded past Barry into the field and towards the farm house. Barry just stood there, glaring at the wheat.

He could almost hear his mother's voice over the music of the rain, chiding him for losing his temper. The iron ring on his finger felt tighter as he thought about her last days. He twisted and turned it around the red-marked skin; just the way his mother had struggled on her bed while she tried to push baby Maria out into the hands of her first born, Gabriel. The white sheets had turned a murky maroon with the blood seeping into the mattress like rainwater through soil.