Blinding Lights: Despite Everything GeminiFourth

*8* Do you believe in ghosts?

"And why not? He doesn't eat it anyway. Because you don't eat, right Gemnoy?"

"Uh, I'm not eating, I'm not hungry". Gemini shrugged. He had no appetite. Phuwin sighed softly. He had seen scenes like this before, with Gem starving himself, but back then he had done it because he was being teased and bullied at school for being slightly overweight. Now, however, he was an almost adult young man, tall and slim with little body fat. No wonder his behavior upset the middle brother.

"Eat something or you won't have the strength to work".

"Stop! Don't act like our mother, you are not her! If I say I'm not hungry, I'm not hungry, period!"

Gemini abruptly stood up from the table, grabbed his backpack and pushed Fourth lightly, forcing him to stand up as well. Nattawat almost choked on a bite of the sandwich he was eating at that moment. Joong looked at him murderously.

"What's wrong with you today, Master Norawit?" Archen said this in an extremely mean tone. He didn't know what came over him. He didn't usually treat his friend like that.

"Shut up".

Gemini clearly hasn't been himself since the morning. As they were leaving the house, Joong was walking at the end and noticed an unexpected phenomenon. There was an unusual, too deep, ear-ringing silence around them, something completely abnormal at this time of day and in this place. It was as if all other sounds suddenly ceased to exist. Suddenly Gemini screamed, grabbed the light brown sweatshirt he was wearing around his heart and cringed as if unbearable pain appeared out of nowhere. And then, although the only person who saw it was Archen Aydin, next to Gemini appeared the slightly faded shadow of a boy whose appearance was almost identical to Norawit. The shadow seemed to realize that he had been noticed: he turned around and then Archen clearly saw his dark eyes filled with evil, his monstrous expression twisted with cruelty and his hands clenched into fists. The figure moved towards him, but its feet did not touch the ground, it seemed to float in the air. Chen started running frantically, screaming loudly.

Phuwin, Pond, Gemini and Fourth turned and watched the strange scene in horror and surprise. To the three of them, it was as if Joong had suddenly become confused and started running from something that didn't exist. He acted as if he was being chased by a large, dangerous, mad dog. Only one of the boys noticed the black cloud chasing the unfortunate artist.

Fourth unfastened the silver chain around his neck with a small cross and ran to Joong to stop him. Chen was so stunned that he ran into Fourth at full speed, knocking him to the grass and landing on top of him. Joong squeezed his eyes tightly so as not to see anything. Fourth merely uttered the familiar phrase to himself, which apparently drove the mysterious intangible creature away, because when Fourth looked around, he saw no sign of it anywhere. Everything looked extremely ordinary. The unnatural silence disappeared, giving way to the noise typical for this time of day, mainly the noise of car engines passing on the nearby road, the chirping of birds, the buzzing of bees in the nearby flower bed and shrubs that Gem's mother had planted especially for pollinating insects, and the distant, though unbearably tiring, the high-pitched barking of some small dog. Fourth didn't show how much it cost him. He pushed Chen off of him, stood up, brushed off his clothes and said.

"You must all equip yourself with pure silver chains immediately. And it would be good if you took some holy water from the monks".

Fourth wasn't a very religious man, in fact he didn't know if he believed in anything, and yet the mysterious and somewhat terrifying phenomenon he had witnessed made him cautious.

"What for?" Phuwin was surprised, walking up and shaking hands with Chen. There was no trace of the small quarrel from a few minutes ago. Chen accepted the offered hand and stood up. Phuwin brushed a few dust off his clothes and started fixing his hair.