Nowhere is Final: Damien (2021)

Chapter 4

A fresh breeze caught at Damien's hair as he lowered himself onto the park bench. Overnight, the bane of his creative existence had returned – a blanket of grey clouds had stretched itself across the sky, and as he'd made his way to the park, any holes that let the sun poke through had closed up. The lighting was hardly suitable for the photo session he'd had in mind, too muted and dull, but there was still plenty of beauty to see while he waited for Holly to show. 

The grass around him looked dry and scratchy from a hot summer, and the flowers were starting to disappear from the lawn. Wildflowers he couldn't remember the name of had filled the greenery with pricks of white and yellow throughout August and September, but now the grass was plain and parched, the flowers crushed by children's feet. 

He'd hoped to take some pictures of them the month before, but he hadn't been able to get down onto the ground to do it. The whole bright beauty of the summer had passed him by, leaving him with autumn. Damien sighed and tore his gaze from them, looking up instead, through the branches of a tree with withering leaves. It was a shame, but it'd be back.

The squeals of youngsters larking in the playground and the rumble of traffic carried on the chilly wind, but other than that, he was pretty alone here. Well, apart from a bloke sitting on the next bench down the path. A glance told Damien he was buff, filling out his t-shirt pretty well, and with sunglasses and a baseball cap hiding his face. Sunglasses, on a day like today? His head was stuck in some sort of paperback. He raised an eyebrow before turning his head away in search of Holly. There were weird people all over the place these days.

He found himself flicking through his phone, crutch balanced against his shoulder and thumbs fumbling through his texts almost of their own accord. They'd agreed to meet in front of the Queen Victoria statue at 11 o'clock. He read it, reread it, and then glanced over his shoulder. The old bat was there, perched on a stone throne in all her marble glory, looking appropriately regal in a sash and crown. She was covered in a thick layer of city dirt and bird droppings, turning her a manky grey. It made sense that she'd look that unamused. He probably would too.

But he was in the right place. His phone was reading the right time. Nervousness started fluttering in his stomach – had Holly just got caught up, or had she not meant to come at all? His memories of her told him she'd always been a pleasant girl, putting up with Eliza's moods, but they'd never been close. She was his little sister's awkward friend; he was her friend's probably annoying brother. Maybe this was all a little too good to be –

"Uh – hey, Damien?"

He whipped around in his seat. A young woman was waving at him from across the stretch of grass, wrapped up against the autumn chill with a smart chequered coat. Her hair was lighter than his, a smudge of chestnut, and as she came closer he could see it had been teased and sprayed into curls that didn't look like they would last very long.

"Holly?" He hadn't seen her since before Eliza had taken off – he'd been too busy in hospital, just a minor blip – and the woman who was picking her way across the fading lawn didn't match what he thought he remembered of Eliza's best friend. She'd always been plain and practical, like his sister. But the woman in front of him was just that – a woman, not a girl hiding under layers of superhero t-shirts. As she came closer, he could see the nervous smile plastered on her face, her fingers picking at something on her lapel. "You look different?"

Her eyes rolled behind wide plastic frames. "Everyone says that. Geez, it's just a coat!" She chuckled uncertainly and perched beside him, brushing at the material and leaving a good metre between them. "Uh – I don't want to be rude, but – you look a lot better than I thought you would." Her gaze darted over him, from where he knew that ugly scar cleaved at his hairline to the foot of his crutch. "Eliza – uh – was very pessimistic."