Ellasyna [Ceaelie #1] | completed

iv | The Boys in the Woods

© Stephanie Anne and Dee Atkins

                  Chapter Four

       That night, sleep eluded me. After the dream of the boy with a shadowed face, I couldn’t fall back into a dreamless rest. Instead, images of the dream would come back to me in fragments, but the boy’s face would always be shadowed, his dark blue shirt always there,  that smile implanted in my mind.

       And it wouldn’t go away.

       When light began to stream through my window, I knew I needed to do something that would advantage the mission, and I knew it had to be research on the behaviours of humans. So I got up and decided to look around my room, which I didn’t get to do last night before I’d collapsed into my dreams. As I looked around I noticed the room was rather small.

       A small worn wooden cupboard rested against the far wall, looking as if it’d fall to pieces if I even touched it and I cringed. Paintings of landscapes and animals were hanging crookedly on the white walls with the cracked paint, and the carpet was a dark blue colour. The bed was large and beside it were two bedside tables.

       A bookshelf with piles and piles of old books and other, book like things with shiny covers rested on the far wall as well. I frowned, walking towards it. I ran my smooth fingers over the splintery surface before pulling one of the shiny covered books out, cringing as a girl with bright blue eyes, blonde hair and shining white teeth appeared; I immediately put it down and chose another.

       I picked up an old book, the cover reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and flipped it open, squinting at the faded drawings and the waterlogged pages. The book itself was old, that much I could tell, and it hadn’t been cared for all too well.

       I wonder if Kali ever picked up this exact book. I shook my head and put the book down, yet again picking up one of the newer looking ones. I flicked through the glossy pages, skimming through passages about a boy named ‘Justin Bieber’ and how his relationship with a girl is ‘going down the drain’.

       Sadly, I shook my head and flipped to another page, coming up with something about ‘Facebook’.

       “What is all of this?” I groaned, throwing the book down onto the bed, sitting next to it with my head in my hands. I should have thought this through… I sat up straight and thought about Kali, about how she would have been in this exact same position, wondering what she should do and what would come out of it. Kali would have done as much research as possible, would have interacted with the humans to aid her need. She would have known exactly what to do, and not sound suspicious nor get caught.

       Then how did she die?

       I shook my head and opened the window, letting the sun brighten the room and warm me up. The sweet scent of the earth immediately hit my nose and I inhaled deeply, closing my eyes to relish the calming atmosphere before turning and looking around the room with a new purpose. This was supposed to be Kali’s mission. She was supposed to complete this and come back home to us. But she didn’t; she failed. And now it was up to me to right her wrongs and do my people proud. I had to do what Kali couldn’t. And there was no way I was failing like she did.

       With my new purpose in mind I exited my room, making sure to lock the door behind myself. Surely there were other things in and around the motel that’d give me some sort of hint as to what normal humans did. Perhaps there were more books lying around that I could look through to get more ideas. Or maybe I just needed a change of scenery.