In Between Chapter 3

Chapter 3
          It’s been a week since I’ve been here. Is this heaven? Is this hell? I can’t be too sure. Sometimes things around here look very beautiful, but then something horrible appears the next. Right now I’m sitting on a chair that looks like claws are sticking out from the bottom of it. I was at the library, they had two paintings on a wall that I never seen before. One painting had eyes of every sort, like cat eyes, frog eyes, people eyes and more. Then I turned my head to another painting, it was an aquarium of fishes, some were big and some were only bones but what got me wondering was why they were all on the sand. I checked to see if anyone was nearby, then got up and looked at the painting harder. They looked very real. I poked it; out of the blue the fishes swam like crazy all over the canvas. I smiled in amazement, and then I saw Mister Cecil paint some flakes on the painting from behind me, “I was afraid they died. But I’m glad you checked on them.”

          “Wait they’re alive?” I felt my eyes were about to pop out.

          He laughed and rubbed his chin at the artwork, “Of course, every artwork is alive! Do you think you can feed them? All you have to do is paint flakes every day.”

          “Really?” I felt happy to have some sort of chore or when I was able to help around. It made things feel a bit normal.

He walked towards his desk and motioned me to sit down, “Did you have a hard time to find the library?”

          I looked around, “I kinda got lost but Marian-“

          “Ah, Lady Marian!” He interrupted, “I must thank her for taking care of the newly dead and especially for the…oh I’m dreadfully sorry. Perhaps I shouldn’t use that term.” He said thoughtfully.

          I felt cold whenever I hear that word, dead. It’s like I want to reject that idea. My mind just hasn’t gotten used to it. I wish it wasn’t true most of all. I want to go back to being yelled at by my mom or hear my dad complain about my loud music! Hell, I would give anything to be with my friends as well, and complain about the teachers and school lunches.

Mister Cecil cleared his throat bringing me back from my thoughts, “So I heard you’ve been helping Lady Marian with her errands. I’m very pleased to see you become eager. She told me on the first day you were distant. But I can see now that you’ll be fine.”

          I nodded. Since I didn’t want to be on my own Marian asked me if I would help her out by carrying her large bag around. She admitted that she would sometimes forget it in a room and take longer to heal others. And that was part of it that was difficult about helping Marian out sometimes,  the people. You never know what you’ll see. Sometimes, they have bad cuts on them, burnt marks, or bullet holes. I would hand her the tools that she asks and all of a sudden they looked like they didn’t have anything wrong with them. But the ones that really freaked me out so far, were the ones that were missing body parts. When that happens Marian sends me to look for Levi. Levi would be wandering around the halls like a lost ghost. Sometimes it looks like he daydreams, so lately I’ve been trying to see if I can scare him for revenge. I’d sneak up behind him and then yell out his name. He would turn around slow and give me a long stare, then stretch and go down to my level and pat me on the head. Translation: Nice try. I would get so mad and steal his bandana running in the direction to where Marian was. That’s when his eyes would grow wide and start to chase me down. I hate it when he treats me like that; I’m only a couple of inches shorter than him. He didn’t have to exaggerate. Speaking of Levi, I wonder if he’s helping Marian right now.

          “Now I called you in because I have important news for you.” Mister Cecil’s eyes grew bright, “You see you are a very special person and you have a ch-...” He stopped and got up very slowly, “Perhaps we should arrange another meeting for another time. Walls have ears.” My body felt extremely tense for some reason when he said that. I turned to the door as well.

          “Well well well…Mister Cecil, fancy that. Did I interrupt something?” A girl around my age came in. She looked more mature. Her hair was flowy and blonde, her eyes were bright green, and her voice sounded very smooth. She sat on the desk giving me a dirty look, “What are you looking at…”

          I shot my eyes down playing with my fingers, “Sorry!”

          Mister Cecil spoke with ice in his tone, “Alexandria…you better have an excellent reason to be in my province, because quite frankly I don’t have time for your naive ways…”

          She gave a sweet smile at him, “I only wanted to let you know that my siblings and I wish to live here. As you of all people know what that means, we’re done with our old ways.” She got up and snapped her fingers; two guys came inside along with a girl. They all look handsome, but I felt a bad vibe coming from them. Even if they all looked terribly nice.

          “You know I can’t take your word for it. Especially when you’re all Hallow...” Mister Cecil eyes narrowed at each and every one of them, “How long has it been since you had your last meals?” The family all smiled at each other and watched the door. Levi entered in his catlike ways, but his eyes looked different. They were burning with rage, especially on her, Alexandria. “I want you to check them Levi.” said Mister Cecil as his arms were behind his back.

          Levi gave a heavy sigh and went towards Alexandria. She gave him a childish smile, “Hello again Levi…” He only grabbed her and looked into her eyes. She grinned even more, “So you’re his new hound?” He snorted and moved on to the others. Alexandria never took her eyes off of him. Finally after he got to the last siblings, he folded his arms and nodded.

          “Well…I’m fairly impressed...Levi take Miss Ester with you. I need to speak with them alone.”  Mister Cecil pulled out a long scythe with a dark blade on it. Everything suddenly felt cold and suddenly Alexandria’s smile disappeared. She turned her head towards me. Levi went in front of me and took me out of the library.

          I tugged on his sleeve, “What is Mister Cecil going to do with them? What did he mean by Hallow? Levi? Why did you look so upset back there? Hey, what’s wrong?..”

          He turned around quickly and looked at me with fierce eyes.

I shrunk back feeling afraid of him again, “I’m sorry…I won’t bother you...”

He shut his eyes and his shoulder began to relax. As soon as he opened them, they suddenly turned soft. He only pressed his forehead against mines, I felt myself blushing. He pulled back and started to walk down the hall. I stayed put thinking hard on what just happened.