A sudden shock-wave and what sounded like a background choir marked the coming of an angel. After landing like a comet, a divine being with eyes like glass stood in my front. She look at me with her tanned eyes. It calmed my every fibre and made me feel drowsy.
Her slender and muscular body glided in a careful manner and was covered in various markings. She carried a weapon of bright energy.
I looked at her gentle face once more; a pained expression was visible. A halo suddenly flared brightly above her head, and consumed her. The angel was… Maisie and it was all a nightmare.
**
I woke up gagging on a cough. The winter was maliciously cold although the heater was working just as it should – but yet, I was sweating profusely.
I sat up on my bed for a few minute nuzzling my blanket closer over my body to keep me warm as I recollected the nightmare.
An angel? Maisie? D… dea… death?
I wanted to clear my head a little so I left pulled off the blanket and sank my cold legs into a warm Dunlop.
I went to my dad’s room where he was snoring barely audible and very peacefully, the room was warmer than mine and then I went out – out of my room, took the stairs and off our storey. I passed a lot of rooms, most probably empty unto and got to the ground floor – out of Hotelgenix unto the streets, not too far.
The avenue was silent. Not that I expected to hear any noise on a moonlit night around one a.m. but my guts told me something was terribly wrong and yes, something was.
The snow started again and I had left my beanie behind so I was about heading back to my room when my eyes caught the shadows of something, or someone, or… people. Yes, people.
I tiptoed closer to them, trying not to stir as much as a leaf in case they heard. They were whisking boxes away – contraband items I guessed.
I stumbled forward a little causing one of the five man gang to come in my direction – armed with an handgun.
Without thinking, I started bolting for Hotelgenix with fright emanating out of every cell of my body. I stumbled a few times as the moonlight wasn’t enough and the snow was only making matters worse. He came after me but I had the element of surprise and I took good advantage of it.
As I turned into Hotelgenix, he shot at me and I felt the bullet pass my by a few meters. Dear God.
I panted but didn’t stop moving as I climbed up the staircase to my room – he didn’t come with me and I only stopped when I got to my dad’s room. I went into mine and collapsed on my bed breathing heavily and then I knew that I couldn’t tell Maisie about the night’s event or the dream either.
**
I met Maisie the next day at a standard coffee shop. We picked up from where we left it off the previous day whilst warming our organs with coffee. Hers was a demitasse ( a small cup of strong black coffee without milk or cream) while mine had equal parts of espresso and hot milk topped with cinnamon and nutmeg and whipped cream too. Mine was a cappuccino coffee and with our coffees we had delectable coffee cakes.
“You wanna see my parents?” Maisie asked parting her pink lips a little redder than usual for a smile that revealed her graceful teeth after about an hour of sitting in the shop. We never ran out of things to talk about.
“Okay?” I replied, pulling my fine white with a few black swishes sweater towards myself to generate heat as Maisie picked up her phone and arranged for an taxi to pick us up – there was no Uber.
It was a few weeks before Christmas and the spirit of Christmas was almost at it's peak- the beautiful snows, the felicitous yuletide, the merry Christmas played in local shops and Christmas trees, too. If only I got to spend Christmas there – with Maisie.
**
The cab driver smiled in an extremely welcoming way. While on the road, I stopped over and bought her an elaborate bouquet of glacier lily for Maisie
We got to Maisie's house – her house was a bungalow with quite a large chimney that was visible from where we stood. The cedar coloured roof held a lot of snow from last night and an addition of the natural cotton snows that was falling at that moment.
We stepped into her compound when cutest puppy golden retriever I had ever seen in my entire life began to bark lovingly and wag it's little tail in glee. It was a shame my mum was allergic to dogs.
"Let's go in" she said as she lifted her retriever in a cute cuddle filled with little whines.
Maisie’s house wasn't very big but it was super duper tidy. I sat on a light green sofa and Maisie sat opposite to me. Her parents came in after a few minutes- Mr. & Mrs. Ileana.
Mr. Ileana had a cigarette holder in his hands and he appeared to have just smoked to keep himself warm. Mrs. Ileana was wearing an apron and that explained to me why the house smelt of luscious, home made pizza.
I spoke to her parents for a while and they were great talkers with a very high sense of humour, it was no wonder Maisie was an awesome conversationalist.
They soon excused the both of us and went about their business.
"I have something to show you", Maisie said as she dragged my lazy self off the couch. We went through their passage where a beautiful Christmas tree stood with glittery ornaments accompanied with the soft Christmas tunes in the background that couldn't be called anything but "euphonic".
Her room was beautiful and pretty larger than I'd have thought. She had a wallpaper of butterflies of different colours and sizes. Her room was really warm and it's fragrance was like orange blossoms. Her bedspread was pink and she had a brown teddy on it. To my right was a piano that lay against the wallpaper and very close to it was a pink and white wardrobe. The tiles were the rough, rubber kind and they were light pink too. I could easily tell that pink was her fav. colour. She had a pretty small davenport- not one that could be converted to a bed and a writing desk with a few books and white papers spread abroad. She drew the white draperies apart and it was already snowing outside. Blissful!
"Nice room, heaven can't be much better!" I said with a radiant beam I didn't even know my face could depict.
"Thank you" she said with a priceless smile
"Have a seat over there" she said as she picked up her keyboard and came to sit on the bed beside me.
She placed her keyboard on her laps, turned it on, tuned it to the tone of a guitar and Tam!, she began to play it. She played it extremely dexterously that I was astonished at the fluidity then she began to sing a song she formed too that was an ally as the harmonious melody paved its way to my core.
She ended the song superbly and by then, the mood of the room had drifted from what it was before. The desires I had been suppressing for sometime now had reached it's peak. I loved her. I don't recall how it all happened but in less than a minute, our lips, tongues and heartbeats were interwined. I explored as much as my tongue could and she did the same with the same intensity. Her breath was hot, rapid and they intensified more as each second passed and I had goosebumps all over as her hands ruffled my hair in a rapturous delight beyond measure.
My last three days in the South Eastern European State, Bulgaria were absorbing. My dad had struck an handsome deal and spent almost all his time either in the hot, aerated water of Hotelgenix’s spa or at the massage parlour giving his ol' skin a treat and rarely at a casino not too far from our hotel just to test if the “lucky necklace” my mum had given him once before his biggest contract signing was still potent.My last days were top notch fun. I visited parks and gardens. A museum also – with Maisie but finally, the day of my departure arrived and it was an emotional one.**The cold wintery breeze reduced the temperature of every thing – living or dead in Sofia and not even the heater in me and my dad’s rooms could save us. Snow had been falling for hours non-st
The birds cooed gaily not minding the whiter, foamier and more inviting snow that fell peacefully from the bluish sky.Perfection and high-spiritedness filled Fairford Overlook. Christmas flutes, fireworks and “Fairforders” teemed the streets – a few adults dressed in Santa's costumes while the kids that really did look like they had just arrived from the North Pole were dressed in green; Santa's elves, sharing gifts to all houses.Now! That was the kind of aura I loved waking up to meet after spending half my night wrapping gifts; a chevron necklace and a trinket dish for Madison, a Virtual Reality headset for Mason, a moonlight pyjamas for my mum and a wine subscription for my dad and even something for Sal, my best friend; a Phone Wooden Docking Station and AirPods leather case. It was a perfect Christmas but little did I know that it was to be a very horrible new year with tons of...**
Our home's entrance boomed through the air as I slammed it shut and hastened toward my room.“Where are your manners, Russell?” my mum’s thin voice said finding it’s way to the staircase where I was – a few steps left before getting to my room.“Sorry mum, evening!” I shouted back as I hastened to my room, locked myself in and slumped on my bed and ended up regretting it as a loose sock with blotches of different colours bounced off my bed and tried suffocating me with it's densely chummy stench as it landed directly on my nostrils.My throat went dry and itchy instantly, my head was heating up really fast as the hazy memories hidden behind time's facade of last winter began to unveil itself. I took an half empty bottle of water that I had left on my table last
So, as I pulled up in the garage, I could smell the pungent odour of problems brewing. Everywhere was unusually silent and as I got out of the car and slammed it's door, birds on the roof flew away in a rowdy flurry. Scared-y cats! Or do we still say bats?As I walked to the front door, I caught a face at the window peeking at me. It was Mason looking at me from above with eyes that screamed “doom!”. I rolled my eyes at him, got to the door and let myself in.**My dad wasn't back yet and that'd have been a good thing if mum wasn't going to snitch on me. She was still telling me about the things I should've done so that I could've gotten to school on time to prevent having detention but the sole thing I could conceive as she "ranted on" was... MAISIE!.
"I still don't get how you could've ever been with her bro" Sal said as he stuck his thumbs in the straps of his bag leaving room between his elbow and his abdomen. He kicked an empty can off the walk way as Mer interlocked her arms into his and caused a few bumps as she skipped a few times along with us.I sincerely didn't know either how I'd gotten together with Amaya. I never loved her because she'd always been way too fussy and awfully picky. She did almost whatever made her comfortable not minding others and that didn't still stop her from being a wimp. She was pained, pained that I wasn’t “hers” anymore and every single day made reality hit her more – she’d never get a chance with me, again. I was certain that I was accurate with my hypothesis because we'd grown almost together. We attended the same elementary school, high school and now, college.
A really long passage with small apartments, the size of two cubicles merged. From the petite or let's say trivial terrace, the third room on your left.Firmly held by old, red bricks bountifully garnished with cracks on its surface, a pallid ash gray door stood and on its other side, all her worth outside her homeland were kept. ALL.And there, behind the door with drapes drawn to prevent the incurs of the sun during the day- Just like a vamp will do, a small, portable plasma TV hung to the thinned walls, a stein with red, small cheap wine filled the air and a few inches from the cold dark walls, the soft thud of her heart reminded her that she was living as she lay on her single bed, curled up from the world outside and only peeking to know what was going out there through her TV.Life hadn't been always bad, in fact, it looked like it'd stored up the bad mo
The aura at home was so crisp and tense we could have an entrancing banquet of it and there will still be an ample amount of the "meal" left for Maisie. Our emotions flared when my mother began telling my dad how irresponsible I’d been by not picking up Mason and Madison and how I’d gotten detention. My mother had broken our deal, she’d snitched on me although she told me she wasn’t going to mention it, she broke my trust!I didn't plan on telling my parents that Maisie was coming over to hide till God-knows-when because she was wanted for the demise of a bully who'd come after her and even if I there was a slim chance of that happening before, it had been washed away.For the first time in a long time I was scared... No, panicking. The person I loved with all my life was wanted for murder, the person I had dated was probably assisting the pol
Simple smiles, a trivial pressure of bliss that wedged our lips apart and exposed our dentition. Loud, gaudy, unrefined mirths that sent echoes down the lonely but well-lit street.We couldn't help ourselves, we chuckled, grinned, burst out and even howled without the slightest caution that we were in Fairford Overlook, a residential estate and were expected to be calm and perhaps, be sipping a warm cup of coffee that wet night or reading a bedtime story.It was still raining heavily – hitting the road, our hair and rooftops too like it was in a feud but we didn't give a care in the world, we were soaked, we were drenched, we were wanted by the police and we didn’t have a plan then but we were happy, exceedingly happy!That moment was enchanting, flawless and magical - from the incessant rain that seemed to mat down my dark hair, through the gentle