Swan Song || The Lost Boys - & The One Who Found Them...

Chapter XVII ~ ᛏ (Tiwaz) Part II - Demonized & Demoralized

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❝ His lips kept on quivering yet refused to part, keeping all the words he desired to speak in my presence sealed away from the world. A shadow began to form under his brows, growing larger as the sky above continued to twist & turn, & before his name could leave my mouth he had regained his old self, or rather the one self both he & I remembered.
Back on all fours he was, paws & claws digging through the earthly soil, his head gracefully bowing in sorrow. A fragile whimper pierced the veil of silence that had fallen around us, pulling me out of the morass of my own thoughts.

And I too soon found my place in the dirt, all of a sudden further away from the sky than I had ever been, the images before me distorting more & more beyond recognition when tears flooded my tired eyes... ❞

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" Lily!!! " 

I could hear Sam's anxious yet excited voice long before I was able to see his face, echoing out from the direction of the huge & admittedly impressive wooden house that appeared in front of us the second we arrived at the hilltop, with a uniquely decorated front yard & a garden unlike any other I had ever seen. 

It was, without doubt, the kind of house I would have expected from a peculiar character such as grandfather Emerson: weird sculptures & figurines in various forms & sizes scattered all across the yard; some made of wood, others of clay, & among them - as advertised - a bunch of taxidermic animals, their dead eyes staring us down from afar. Many-coloured ornaments were hanging from the for the most part bare-branched trees, wind-chimes singing & ringing from all possible directions, & right in front of the a bit more inviting looking porch I saw what appeared to be an entire collection of cacti, neatly sorted from smallest to tallest. 

I would have required more time to process what I was seeing, but Sam had already approached us & tossed his arms around me for his usual enthusiastic embrace. 
" Man, it's so good to see you, Lily! I was already starting to worry because you took so long! " 

" Yeah... I'm sorry about that, " I replied calmly, a tinge of guilt in my voice upon noticing the unease in his own,
" but we came across your grandfather mid-way, near the mysterious sinkhole behind the forest. "

" Oh... We? " He appeared somewhat taken aback, however when he turned his head to take a closer look at Marko & quickly withdrew again I knew that he had recognised him. 

" But Lily, that's--- "

" Yes, he's one of the guys who nearly ran me over. I'm aware, Sam... But believe it or not, the two of us are friends now ~ " 
I waved at the half-vampire, signalizing him to come closer, which he did right away. 
" His name is Marko. He would love to help us find Michael, which is why he decided to accompany me. "

Sam looked at me like I had just spoken in a language he couldn't understand a single word of, rendered speechless by disbelief & with his eyes wide. While I for one had almost completely forgotten about mine & the boys' unfortunate first encounter at the Boardwalk, everything that had happened that fateful night was still the one & only memory Sam & his brother Michael had of them. Of course there would be a certain sense of hostility on their part. I certainly couldn't blame them for being this suspicious.  

I watched in silence as Marko took his position right next to me & offered Sam a hand, however the young boy refused to take it. 
" Thanks, I'm good... " 

" Whatever you say, bud," the half-vampire replied, retracting his hand with a cold shrug. 
" But just so you know, I like Lily here a lot. Too much to ever hurt her again ~ "