When Blackbirds Fly

Chapter Nine

WARNING: Cringy writing ahead! I'm sorry oKaY? I had to. 

I'm walking towards my destination. We all decided to regroup at a fountain in the middle of a local park. It's one of those giant fountains that squirts water out of the top. I can see it in the distance, the water cascading down the sides in a picturesque way. There are LED lights on the bottom of the fountain, lighting up the water. As I'm getting closer, I notice there's only one person there so far. It's Ian.

He's sitting on the edge of the fountain waving at me. I wave back and jog over to him.

"No one else is here yet?" I wonder aloud.

He shakes his head. "Haven't seen them. I've only been waiting a little while, though."

I sit down beside him. There's silence, but it's the comfortable kind. I glance at Ian for a moment and notice the way the light is reflecting off the water, casting his face in an eerie glow. He turns to make eye contact with me.

"Are you scared?" he asks me. I break eye contact and look down at my lap. The question was so out of the blue, so unexpected, that I couldn't help but be caught off guard. Should I cover up what I feel? Or should I tell him? Something in my heart is saying that I should.

"Yeah," I say. "Yeah, I am." And suddenly everything I'd been holding back seems to spill out of me. I tell Ian how overwhelmed I am by all this new information. I tell him about how I've never been far away from home without my parents and that I'm afraid something might happen to them. I tell him how I feel like I can't do anything to help fix this situation we're in.

Through it all, he just sits there and listens to me. Sometimes that's all anyone ever needs. When I've finished I finally look up.

I don't know what I expected to see but it was definitely not this. He's smiling at me. "You're...uh..." I trail off, pointing at his face.

He looks at me for a moment, confused."Oh! Sorry, sorry!" he exclaims. "That probably looked really mean. It's just...I'm happy you shared that with me. It means that you do trust me, even if it's just enough to open up to me a little." He bit his lip. "I'm sorry you had to carry all that alone. I wish there was something I could do to make you feel better about those things."

This touched my heart."You've already helped more than you think. Thank you for listening to me." That's more than enough. I finish silently.

"I know we just met and whatever but you seem like you need a hug," Ian says suddenly.

"Is it that obvious?" I ask sarcastically. He gives a short laugh at that. I'd almost forgotten how great it feels to be hugged by a friend.

He cares. This thought alone is enough to make me smile. A few moments later we hear lots of shuffling and Audrey appears.

"Merle! Oh my gosh!" she shrieks. "Are you okay?" She rushes over to me and Ian.

I pull away from Ian. "Yeah. Just got a little homesick before the journey even began."

"I'm sure we all feel that way. It isn't easy to leave your whole life behind. We're here for you though and I don't want you to forget that." she says sympathetically.

"What on earth is happening here?" Zero demands, emerging from the trees behind us. "Did-" he makes eye contact with me. "Merle?" his face softens. "Is everything alright?"

After lots of explaining and knowing smiles, Zero sets down the bag he was carrying. "Everyone up for a group hug?" he asks us. We huddle together.

As we're all standing there, I wonder how things ended up this way. A lot has happened in just one day. Or maybe it started a long time ago, like when I first met the ogre.

Audrey gives my hand a squeeze. "We should get going. We have a long way to go before we can rest."

"Yeah, you're right." I start picking up my things; the others do the same.

We start walking. I don't know where, and I'm not completely sure why, but my feet are taking me in the direction of a place that I don't know if I can save. 

Word Count: 733

I knowwww, I knowwww. It's sappy.

I wrote this at 2 a.m. so please don't judge me.    TwT

-RS <3