Monday, August 5, 2013

Sketching Rain / By Sidera Secret ( part 1)


            Hey guys , my name is Layla Darkwoods and I do not know anything about myself. There is nothing special about me beside my weird blue-black hair and an uncommon plant drawing crawling on my left arm . Ursula , the nurse that takes care about me , told me that I am lovely anyway and many teenagers this days color their hair or do all sort of tattoos , so she call the picture on body , it seems to be a normal thing after all . 

 You would say that I do know my name but actually  she  gave me this name  and few other  girls  from the hospital I woke up months ago . Why Layla ? It is because some girl Marry likes a song  Layla by Eric Clapton and Darkwoods  because it seems they found me , half dead , in some old park . They say the place is haunted and after all creepy stories  the old women told me , I have no taste to go there . I would but all time I try to go there I have nightmares about walking on an endless path , I try to reach some dark figure but when I start getting closer it gets away and other shadows drag me down in the endless tunnels under the old trees.   I decided may be that part of my life could stay forgotten at least for now , don’t you think I am a coward or I do not want to remember my past , but sometimes you feel like postponing some events because of laziness or inner doubts .
  The hospital was in some God forgotten old village , an old brick building that didn’t gave me any clue about myself . Since I been there already for so long and nobody came after me I decided to try myself to wonder around , watch TV , listen music in hope to regain at least a tread of my memory .
 Mrs. Ursula Goodman  got attached to me , I am not sure myself why , since I am not talking most of time with nobody , do not think I am not friendly just I do not have anything  to talk about , I would say something but I don’t have what .
One day I woke up and on my nightstand was a inc picture of tree , some blank papers and different pencils . I was almost sure she left them there since the wind from window brought a lavender smell from them . Ursula clothes and her hands always smelled of lavender oil and graphite .  Since I lost my interest in TV and was no big talker  I started to draw myself . I was walking in the fields around , soaking my feet in the  little creek not far and drawing plants , trees  . Day passed and I became used to this place to the smell of  fresh baked bread  and even started to like the old building a little .
             It was early  summer and poppies bloomed  , the fields  where painted in red  and I was watching children and lovers running  around it , some in the afternoons  other in the evenings  . Their figures translucent in the sun seemed to glow , theirs laughter  brought her warm feelings like she was grasping some happy moments of her own .  Layla tried to catch this moments on her paper but every time they seemed to lack  the feelings , she could not prison them on her paintings nor in her soul .
              A meadow  was now her afternoon sanctuary , she used to sleep there in the shadows . Huge trees  hugged the green hill and  fresh grass and flowers always grow there protected from sun touch . She enjoyed  watching  water stream carry leaves , rolled on grass and studied the tree branches till the sun beams made her eyes see  colorful  sparkles  floating in the air and she got carried away . Layla woke up when a cold win ravished her hair and a smell of rain filled the air .  She opened her eyes and sky was dark and purple streams  painted the  horizon , a  group of crows  floated in circles .  Her hair was full of leaves and little branches  but  she didn’t care , her drawings  where  nowhere  to be found , there  was no big wind to carry away the album  so somebody took it while she was sleeping .
              Rain started  and she ran through the fields , through the park , water droplets  fall on her face on her hair  and she feel like  she had wings and the rain could wash all her  doubts and  clean all her  worries . Cold spots bombarded her forehead and her skin was like the surface of the sun colliding with an iceberg , refreshing chills traveled  on her lips and neck.
Children and farmers  where running from fields  to their houses the little droplets  formed rivulets under her feet. Little Sally , gardener daughter  was  left behind by her friends ,  Layla  grabbed her in her arms and she tangled her little hands in her hair and smiled with all her  big freckled face .  They  found a gazebo  to stay   in the nearby garden , the hospital was not close and she thought the child might get a cold .  A sad   piano song was enveloping the garden , they sit on the railing and got  enchanted by the music  and rain sound . This atmosphere was familiar to her , rain , music , smell of  wet leaves  and flowers perfume . A white shadow was dancing in the rain, running around  trees , jumping and  caressing grass and  roses  , was it a girl or a boy  , a fairy or a sunbeam . The sound of rain started to muffle and sky cleaned a little , it was a silence before the big spectacle of a storm and they  ran to the  village with all they had  leaving behind the song and the window with young man playing piano .
The evening was boring without her drawings  , she  stretched her arms and started to count  rain droplets  , the music of the piano was still bothering her brain, it was like a sweet pain that was torturing her inner silence . It was like she tried to grasp a shadow that was always sneaking away when she  was ready to catch it , after a while it  started to bug her , head  was aching , there  was no hope to remember anything  and sleeping was the best thing to do .
It was early morning when a warm rain smelling creature cuddled  near her feet and she jumped from bed like a meteor landed  there . A huge orange cat was sleeping on her covers , she seen cats  around hospital but none of them was like this one , most of them where two or three times smaller , it opened  huge  green swirling eyes and they studied each other  after a while it dismissed her and went to sleep again . Layla thought the cat was cute with her floppy ears and orange fur even with it’s  dog size .  May be the cat had nowhere to go like her, so she decided it may stay with her if it pleases .
 On the window sill a  stack of papers  was waiting  and she was eager to make a sketch of her new friend , may be Ursula left them  .  The texture of the sheets was  different  , yellowish  old paper  was  covered in  pencil and  watercolor sketches  . Amazing  shades  of  green ,  golden and red , the blue of the sky and the cry of the rain was very vividly  painted  . A figure of a  blue haired girl was running through the red ocean of poppies  and petals where floating around her body , wind was blowing her light dress and hair , she seemed happy smiling to the  child in her arms. Next pictures  was same girl washing her feet in the  nearby creek , sleeping in the meadow under  the old oak , watching sunset with an old women on the bench in the hospital park .
It was very strange that somebody was watching her all this time , who could draw this , the person was definitely very talented but it made her unsecure .  All after noon she was watching around the gardens.
It was evening when Layla  finished to help the gardener  to clean the rose bushes , it made her feel useful and  Mr. Simon  was a friendly man , all day he told her  unbelievable legends and stories about legendary creatures and garden spirits  that  frolic around when we don’t pay attention . Sometimes she felt like seeing little ghosts dancing  in sun sunbeams or  bathing in the morning dew  but all this was her imagination nothing more .
-          Hey , Lyla. How are you , how is your drawing going , called her Ursula from the  backdoor porch .
They sit on a swing chair on the old veranda , the old wood  needed repair and ivy covered the old brick columns .
-          I am ok  , but I lost all my drawings yesterday .
-          Lost them ? How it happen , asked Ursula smiling .
-          I fall asleep in the meadow  near the creak and when  I woke up  my album disappeared .
Ursula face changed color and she started to crumple her apron . It was obvious something  made her upset  .
-          I think is no big deal you always can make more , she sad after a while with a warm smile .
-          Why are you so worried then , asked Layla watching a little Sally running in the garden after her father . Her light blue dress and round shaped pink face made her look like a cute old doll bouncing  on her little red  Alice shoes.
-          You never know what creature might stolen you drawings , may be a canotila or adhene .
-          Canotila or adhene ? And what this creatures might be ? I might lost my memory but I didn’t lost my mind this kind of creatures doesn’t exist , most probably some child took them .
Old women smiled and patted her shoulder .
-          Good to see you are still optimistic my child . Canotila is a forest creature , you can call it a fairy , or something  similar .
-          What about adhene ?
 -          People see them in different ways , some say they are fallen angels , some say they are like fairies  . You can never say a precise thing about all this magical creatures .
 -          Don’t tell me you believe all Mr. Simon stories , they all just legends and fictions , nobody believes this days in spirits and magic .
 -          Who would say … A girl that been found half dead in that dreadful  forest , reproached dizzy Lizzy , giggling .
Dizzy Lizzy was one of the old hospital  patients  and scared Layla the most , it was not about her reputation or strange dances or pictures she made , it was all about her eyes , her disturbing yellowish eyes that  gave her a touch of wildness  . In the dark you would think that where the eyes of some wild animal , caged in a human body  
 -          They say  that is a place where old witches go to die or wicked  unseelie fairies hide their secret affairs .
 -          Old witches ,  unseelie  fairies ? Mr. Simon has bad influence on you ladies.
A silent rain started to poor from the sky  , and Layla started to miss the soft music of the piano alunga again . It was like the music was calling her on moon light streams . She jumped over window sill and  walked bare food in the deep of the parks . More she would follow the silver path , more the music would  envelop her  mind and soul . The sound was warm and soft like a could blanket in a summer day , a  breeze was ravishing the trees and a storm of  cherry flowers floated in the air , smell of water  and old forest  drunken her senses . 
An abandoned house was sleeping in the thickets of the forest , she was not afraid of anything and a peace fall on her when she  splashed her feet in the green mirror of the lake nearby . The music  was coming with a new force  from that tired  blind window  , it was not sad or soft now , but  aching and sinister , she could not stop running toward it , it bound her  will and was pulling her toward it . A feeling of terror and  destruction  pushed  in the back of her mind and she fight the call with all her strength . Bleeding fingers scored the bark of a tree and she keep holding to it like a doll pulled by the stings , toward her master , wooden body would not obey , only dull pain  feed her  power of will .
A  waterfall of yellow  leaves started to burry her  covering everything , roots of the tree bound her  feet and hands  and she could not fight it anymore , the light was diming under the carpet of leaves and she lost her senses .



It was late night when detective Adam Callidus had a strange visit from one old lady , she was talking all sort of nonsense about  her granddaughter  disappearance .  It was known that lately  five girls went missing in Cheshire but in the end Stella Dean been found  with her boyfriend in Malpas and other ones case Adam didn’t knew. 
He was watching the  river of umbrellas under his window and thinking about his sorry life as an detective . He was tight with money lately , his car  broke on the road to Malpas , and in the end Stella  parents  didn’t pay as much as promised, after seeing their daughter in good health . He need some  money  to repair that old bentley  but he could not take the  old women money so easy . Mrs. Fairsight  was  a fortune teller in a downtown area . She lived alone with her granddaughter  Lorelei , above the little library they owned. The sight of her was disturbing , her little gloved hands shaking all the time , he got more tears then explanations from her .
 -          A shadow took her Mr. Callidus . It grabbed her right in front of our shop  and she was gone .
 -          Mrs. Fairsight , did anyone else  witnessed this beside you ?
 -          I am not sure , nobody seems to remember her . Everybody look at me like  I am mad . How could they forget about my poor  Lorelei.
 -          Did you report the case to police ?
 -          Yes . of course,  but they send me home to rest  like I am a disturbed old women . I have no other hope then you Mr. Callidus.
She left with same bagging eyes that made him let her  enter his office  in the middle of the night .
 Few years ago he would not even open to look behind the  door , but something changed in him since he moved in this little silent town , he started to look at people in a different way , to think more about their fragile existence and constant worries . They run , they run but time still get’s them .
A dull knock in his door  got his attention , he seemed to be popular today .
-          Hey that’s me , Felis. Open the door please . I know you not sleeping , you never sleeping .
It was his assistant Felis Black , she was a Cat Sith , a magical creature that could transform in a cat , some call her a witch some a spirit . She is very convenient when was needed to sneak in other peoples houses or to follow somebody , most people  don’t pay attention at cat , animals and other little creatures . Felis  was willowy good looking women so she was  good in her human version to pray information  to ,  her huge green eyes usually hypnotize anyone that looks in them .
The door opened with a little creak  and she looked in the dark room . No light was on but with her eyes she could see well inside . The owner was leaning on the huge window , his long figure seemed even bigger with the light of the moon behind him . A marble statue , nothing more  , only color was the cascade of red bloody hair braided with metal  rings , weird hairstyle for a detective was her first thought  when they meet first time . She been his assistant for more then  7 years and she  still could not find out what kind of creature he was . It was almost sure that he never sleeps , day or night  and his eyes glow in the dark ,like two planets of neon ice .
A strange allure of mystery and intelligence comes from all his moves .
The clothes he wears worth a fortune as the furniture in his office , but he still works as a cheap detective and never wastes a penny . He must be crazy in a way , but for such gorgeous looking people it is allowed to have a little imperfection . 
-          What do you want to tell me , Felis , he asked her with his cold dark voice .
-I hope you would once use this master- servant voice on one of your clients , she replied him in a lazy indifferent voice .
 Inside she was not indifferent at all but all she did was pretending and hiding emotions . Closing herself in a shell of glass and indifference  was all her protection against disappointments of life , it was not easy or cool to be different , to be on other side of normality . Childhood year she spend running on roofs alone , a stray cat that people banished  afraid of bad luck , even other  creatures of the shadows would  avoid her .
 -          It must be something really important if you are so silent tonight , pointed Adam raising his eyebrows .
 -          There is a dead body in the canal near city walls .
 -          Why I would be interested in a body near city walls , is there something you are not saying .
 -          It is a young girl , I considered  you might want to see it before police finds her , sad Felis fingering the metal statue of a nymph.
They walked fast  between the old houses on  narrow streets  , no lights around , just smell  of old rock after rain and moon light mirroring in water puddles . After a corner she lost his trail and then a silhouette  appeared on  far away bridge  above the  canal  , it was like he disolved into darkness  and  grew from it on the bridge .
The  floating body was translucent in the  brown muddy water , her  long hair was  living it’s own life on surface ripples. Who was this poor girl and why she ended in a place like this.
 -I think this is Brenda  Littlefinger , she went missing few weeks ago , sad Adam .
    In such moments she felt  naked and unsecure , it was like he could read her  mind and she would not like to let nobody in , not even him . The wind start blowing cold and a whide shadow covered the moon light stream  falling on Felis hair , she turned sow a huge mechanical bird .
 -          It is a chaos hunter , replied Adam in a moment .
This man is definitely unnerving  but the rider of that creature is more creepy then anything she ever seen , and she meet vampires ,  afancs and other night  walkers , even a demon once but this guy toped the list of all . It was not because of his white hair or completely colorless eyes , it was because of the feeling of total damnation , her knees went week and she fall on crouching from the  sharp wind that was pining her movement , even Adam stepped back a little when the rider jumped on the bridge .
When he start moving toward them she  seen faded tattoos  moving on his hands , he was playing with them between his fingers , like energy runes where flowing into his palms .
No sound came of his metal boots or his footsteps , like he was just a gliding lightning , the energy boiled  around him , a cape of darkness was crawling after him , the thing was  tasting the night and it was coming  at her now .
 - Good evening Adam , sad the chaos hunter.
 - Good evening  Coercitor , replied Adam and stepped closer to Felis.
The black smoke stopped at his boots and Felis felt better , could even move a hand now .
 -          This being is not involved in the women death in any way .
 -          Are you protecting your minion Adam ? This place stinks  of cat , her energy is all over the crime place , there is no other creature energy here beside  that  . You know the low , replied
 the chaos hunter .
 -          You can take her then , do whatever you like . It is a pity to waste such a good  puppet  , told him Adam and turned on his way.
 -          You have time till next full moon to prove it other way Custos Sapientia.
 With this words the chaos hunter  dissolved in the shadow of the clouds  and Felis fall on the bridge pavement like a ragged doll. 

To be  continued...

 Sketching Rain story  Copyright©2013AnimaChan Blog

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