AURORA (Original Novel)

Chapter 7.Cold streets of Gruve. Part one

Phineas Bielke broke his own record this time; he hasn't been home for almost a week. Victoria completely looked like a homeless tramp. She did not wash, drank constantly, not noticing anything around her. It got to the point that Aurora's mother could not get to her own bed and fell asleep right at its foot. One day she peed a little under herself, and the girl had to wash the floors. All household chores fell on the child's fragile shoulders, there was no food, and in the evening Bielke went to the center of the village to the trash cans standing near Mr. Granbo's cafe. There you could get supplies, leftover food, and the like. Aurora waited for the employees of the establishment to go home and, feeling ashamed of her situation, put on gloves and rummaged through the slop. "If only Camilla could see me now. Oh, she would be so happy." She was angry with Ege, especially after the vile student the other day sprayed poison right in Bielke's face. The girl could not see normally for several hours and somehow made it home. Along the way, a stray cat became attached; she did not really distinguish his appearance, only realized that he was big. The animal rubbed against her legs and helped her not to bump into anything or stumble, like a guide dog.

It was strange, but Aurora didn't think twice about it at that moment, thanking the animal, addressing him as a person all the way. She didn't wait for the bus looking like this and covered the entire route on foot, almost by touch. There was a crazy thought that the tailed one was somehow connected with the amber-eyed creature, but Bielke could not get a better look at the assistant, and near her house he disappeared without a trace. The whites of her eyes became bloodshot, and her eyelids were swollen that day, and she thought that she would go blind forever, but fortunately everything went away. The girl had not gone to school for three days and did not know that Camilla was also not attending classes due to injury. Brobbock called home. Aurora picked up the phone, hearing the teacher's voice, she hurriedly hung up without answering.

The mother didn't care that her daughter abandoned her studies and Bielke was only happy about it. She decided for herself that she had enough of the bullying, Aurora didn't see the point in finishing school, believing that she would most likely not live to reach adulthood, so why torture herself once again. University, with her academic performance and poverty, was impossible for the girl, and she no longer had the strength to endure Camilla's antics. Today the catch was better than yesterday. Someone had thrown almost an entire pizza right into the box, and she also found a half-empty bottle of Coca-Cola and two slightly rotten apples. After putting the finds in a bag, Bielke went home. In the morning, Aurora called her dad, but as usual he didn't pick up. She understood that her father hated his wife, but she could not accept the fact that he had forgotten her. She was abandoned in a house with an alcoholic, whose brain was completely saturated with alcohol fumes, and all that remained of the person in her was soulless flesh. Left his daughter without money or food.

All day long, the girl cleaned the house for her parent, who could only do shit, nothing more, having forgotten how to maintain basic order for herself. Aurora was cleaning up Victoria's vomit, her urine, fortunately, things hadn't gotten to the point of shit yet. At moments when the woman could no longer stand on her feet, the girl laid her on the bed. Mother smelled of dead fish that had washed ashore a week ago and was completely rotten; the hair on her head turned into sticky icicles, but Bielke could do nothing about it. Most of the houses along the way were dressed up for All Saints' Day. There were lights burning everywhere and there were decorations with mythical creatures, but for Aurora there was no holiday, she didn't even touch her books, which she loved so much.

There was no mood, only a depressing feeling of hopelessness filling from within. The girl did not follow the news; she would have known that there were rumors of strange animals with amber eyes suddenly appearing in the area. They stated that the animals behaved atypically for their species and seemed to be spying on the inhabitants of Gruve. An obsessive thought stuck in her head to visit the place of death of Yon and Lass. After that radio broadcast, this desire only became stronger and Bielke did not care about the possible danger. She had to understand what all this meant, what kind of wolf saved her and killed the teenagers, what kind of raven was at her window with unnatural eyes, and finally the mysterious cat that helped her get home in time, and of course the radio broadcast with the mysterious Yogi, which the girl believed was not a person at all.