An eternity of lightning

Chapter 4

Miles takes his sister’s face in his hands, and looks into her now blue eyes. “You’re sure you don’t remember anything?” She shakes her head, her blond curls bouncing around her face, and he sighs as he lets her go. 

“Give me Herman!” She says, grabbing the giraffe out of the crook of his arm, sticking her tongue out, and heading toward her bedroom. He shakes his head, completely confused from the entire day, and heading to the bathroom for a shower. 

The warm water runs down his back, and he cringes. He feels as if there were a cut in his back, and the water stings it. He turns the water off, reaches behind him, and looks at his hand. It’s covered in blood, and he wonders, What the hell? As he reaches for a towel to wrap around his abdomen. 

The towel is soon dripping, and he gets out of the shower to try and view his back in the mirror. There is a deep slash all across his skin and around his sides, as if he were whipped, or even burned. He gets a clean towel and goes to his room, unsure of what else to do, and wait until the bleeding stops. 

Miles picks up the phone as he realizes that it’s Chocolate calling. “Mile. How did tonight go?” and suddenly, her accent doesn’t seem as cute as it was before. 

Miles sighs, looks at the bloody towel heaped on the floor, and says, “Everything went fine. How’d everything go with the . . .Meeting?”

“Things went good but I’m free now. Should I come see you?” 

“No!” Miles answers too fast, and then regains his composure, “I mean, not tonight. I’m tired. I think I’m going to go to bed.” 

“Mile. You’re not with other girl, are you?” Chocolate seemed to be joking, but there also seemed to be more seriousness in her voice then amusement. 

“Of course not, Choc. I wouldn’t do that to you.” And though normally that would be a lie, for once, he really didn’t just want a night with a girl. “I gotta go though, alright? I can talk to you later. Tomorrow. I swear. I’ll call you in the morning.” 

“Okay.” and he heard the ending click of the call as she hung up on him. 

The next morning, Crystal was sitting at the dining room, staring into her cereal and barely looking up as Miles walked into the room. “Hey kid.” he says, gesturing toward her bowl. “What are you eating?” 

“Captain Crunch.” She says, stirring the milk around and pretending to be interested for her brother’s sake. “I had a nightmare last night.” She said, not looking up, and not wanting to concern her brother further. 

Miles walks to the table, and sits across from her, taking her small hand in his and asks, “What was your nightmare about?” 

Astrild wakes late in the day, Harvey by the door, and her powers growing bleak. She rises from her makeshift bed, letting her hand graze the top of Harvey’s head as she makes herself tea. Humming, she opens the door, descends the creaky porch steps, and watches as Harvey bounds around chasing a butterfly. She watches him grow before her eyes, as he gets bigger and stealthier, as if he were still in the stage where he was a puppy instead of a dog. 

“Come here, Harvey.” She calls, and  he bounds to her, tongue hanging halfway out of his mouth, and she feeds him a small slab of meet from the palm of her hand. He laps it up quickly, his teeth against the skin of her bare hand. 

Astrild moves her fingers from her ear, tracing her jawline and pondering her next move with the child. She wills Crystal to herself, feeling the key held deep within the innocent heart drawing nearer. Astrild waits for her, and hoping that soon she can have the complete trust and dependence of the girl.