Under the dark blue sky of one of December's freezing nights,..
Under a bunch of snowflakes that gently fell to embrace the ground,..
footprints were to be found on this white shining surface, next to it were printed traces of mini wheels.. Which belonged to a teenager with his medium sized grey suitcase.
Walking slowly -not out of caution, but with a heavy heart- into the dark on this abandoned road leaving the faint light of his village behind him, unsure of the decision he made out of the blue..
While breathing heavily because of drowning in his ocean of thoughts he finally arrives to the only building in this area, a bus station that's garnished with a huge amount of snow on its rooftop.
For a second anyone would consider this place a frozen desert but what infirms this possibility is the presence of trees all around the station, without forgetting to mention the forest appearing next to the mountains in the horizon.
He stood still for a while, looking ahead, trying to figure out what exactly had brought him to this place. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, a very cold and deep one. He already couldn't feel his face, and soon he wouldn't be able to feel his heart, so he thought..
He smiled jokingly with his head held high, and muttered while he's still searching for an obvious reason for what brought him in such a situation: " oh god, what kind of madness am i trying to do right now?".
He continued his way to the bus station, both his body and thoughts were in need of a break so he headed directly to the seats.
As soon as he got closer to it, longing to give his bones a rest, he froze up and looked surprised. He looked around, to check out his surroundings, then he returned his gaze to the station seat where a little girl was sitting there alone in such a place!.. and time!
She seemed to be in elementary school, she had pretty long silver hair styled into two lovely side-braids with blue eyes as clear as emerald, holding on her lap a small backpack, hanging on its zipper a dreamcatcher that was garnished with some coral.
He couldn't help but to feel suspicious to the point that he didn't even dare to think of taking a step forward, but it's worth saying that he didn't feel intimidated by it; especially that she hides half of her facial features with a scarf!
The little girl gently patted on the surface of the seat near her as soon as she noticed his presence, he sent a side glance at her as he felt her movement and saw her pointing at him to sit down, but he did not pay any attention to her and remained standing in his place leaning on his suitcase under the white light coming from the lamppost next to him.
After a while of standing in the bus station, he took his watch from his pocket and checked the time. It was midnight and yet there was no bus spotted in the area..
He began walking back and forth between the extremities of the station, watching the directions sometimes and other times throwing a peek at the girl.
He was hoping for an oncoming light, the arrival of the bus. To be able to leave this place and also move to a warmer one, blowing into his hands is of no use, because even his breaths had become cold too.
After a while, he checked the time again, 2:08 am, no lights coming, no bus arriving, no sounds of life in the place.. But he's not alone in such a deserted zone, the only thing that makes him feel comfortable... a little bit.
The pain in his feet got him and the freezing weather was the final touch, he walked for a long distance and then he found himself standing to wait for the bus, just because he found it fishy to find a little girl in this station at this time of the night.
Few moments later, he sent a glance to the girl again, she was holding her back-bag tight to her chest, falling deeply in sleep, So he decided to use this opportunity to get a place for himself and sit on the edge of the seat as far away from her as possible.
Once he sat down and adjusted his suitcase nearby, howling echoed in the place, he got frightened and automatically he raised his feet off the ground to bring them to him and shrinked on his body in a way to calm himself down.
Without realizing it, he fell into a deep sleep, because he finally got some warmth.
....................
He woke up after a two-hours nap and found himself covered with the scarf that was around the girl's neck before on his head. He turned to the side and found that the girl was awake fiddling with the coral accessories of her dream catcher.
He couldn't believe he was still here after all this time of waiting. How could not even half a bus pass by? He was sure one or two would pass because he read it in the newspapers, otherwise how can they lie about the timing?!
He straightened his seat, removed the scarf then stood walking a little ahead, checking if there was any lights coming towards them, but nothing but darkness that surrounded the station from all sides, then he went back inside, towards the girl to return her scarf and put it around her neck, wondering how could she let go of it in this freezing cold..
as he glanced at her beautiful blue eyes, time snatched him into a stillness abyss, where only silence stillness and motionlessness existed, thanks to the steam of his breath -the only thing that's moving in the air- otherwise he would have thought that time has really stopped..
He was drowning in the blue of her eyes, her calm and radiant angelic gaze, feeling himself sinking into her, to a place where there was no gravity to make him fall. He passed his thumbs under her eyes, and inexplicable tears settled on his eyelids. Her glares at him changed to empathize with him as soon as she saw his emotions, so he corrected himself and moved away from her, returning to his seat, he slapped his cheeks out of his embarrassment asking himself what was that a while ago?
He even stopped breathing for a moment during those few seconds.
He started thinking how he's gonna get over it, so he grabbed a small box of cookies out of his pocket, took a piece and directed it to his mouth, trying to enjoy some sugar to overcome his embarrassment, but he stopped when he felt the girl sitting in the other edge of the station chair watching him, he glanced at her then moved the cookies box to her side so she could take some too. She smiled till her eyelids met and formed a cute eye smile and gladly picked a piece then they ate them together..
It became really late, 5:00 am, yet no bus showed up, not even a single sign of life except for the two that were sitting next to each other in the bus station, one of them sitting calmly and it was the little girl while the teenager fell asleep again from fatigue and boredom.
The little girl, once she was sure that he was into his dreams, got up and walked towards him. She watched for a while his cute way of sleeping, his head was lowered towards his chest, which made his cheeks look puffy. She glimpsed his hands crossed over his legs, so she raised her hand towards them, passed her index finger over the edges of his nails, then made her pinkie slip around his pinkie, to tie them together.. She made a promise!
She lowered her scarf a little from her face, inhaling the cool air and happiness rose in her eyes, then she smiled tenderly as she looked at their pinkies together.
...........................
He woke up as the sun rose, looking around to check his surroundings, trying to perceive what's happening.. Where is he.. And what brought him to this place..
Few minutes passed and he finally remembered last night's scenario. He stood up, grabbed his suitcase willing to go back the way he came from, but that little girl crossed his mind, So he turned around to check on her and was surprised to see her walking in the opposite direction to him... toward the mountains.
He convinced himself not to care about something that didn't concern him, so he grabbed his bag and went back on his way..
With heavy steps, tired, and weak he was making his way towards the village.. again on the same path he had come from,..Within conflicting thoughts, which he ignored by concentrating on the floor where he will place each of his steps, while enjoying the sound of snow getting crushed under his feet. The bright white color made him lose the feeling of his surroundings, and he began to progress at the same pace quietly.
.
.
.
In the middle of one of those repeated, similar steps, he stopped abruptly as soon as he felt something grabbing him from his little finger.
He casted his gaze towards it to see what was wrong.. He found a red thread wrapped around it, he traced its path and..
Confusion ran into his veins instead of blood, it was so concentrated to the point that his lungs couldn't get rid of it so it just pursued its way to his heart which skipped a beat.. he felt something wrapping his heart also in the same way that the thread wrapped his pinkie finger..