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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