"As they say, ‘the injured bird receives the most attention.’"

                        -Thomas Railer

 

Chapter 1:  Remember this Ordinary Night or It Might Just be My Luck

By: A.D. Nicholas Bundt

            At the end of a long, narrow gravel path, there was a gravestone.  I came to that grave only out of curiosity.  I did not know how I would feel.  I thought that I would be able to control my emotions, but when I saw the grave, I broke down.  I fell to my knees before the power of that grave.

            Anger came from within.  All that I could do was just clench my fist, for I had no one to direct my anger to anymore.  When I could finally fight back after all those years.  That was not everything, either.  The last thing that you were able to do was steal away my victory.  So much has happened since you started it.  All I wanted to do was to get my revenge.  Anger at a grave, though, seems so unfitting.  At least, in small my opinion.  So, I say my feelings aloud, to her.

            "Wren… I… I feel angry.  I feel real angry… but… I don't want to anymore.  That's why I brought you here.  What you said to me… was true.  So true.  You’re always right.  I just wanted to show you that.  I know what has happened in the past, but that is behind me now.  And lying in this grave."

            Wren gave me nothing but an acknowledgment; a slight hmm.  I know, though, that she is staring hard at that grave.  The same one I'm staring at.  I can feel her eyes from behind me.  She is searching her experiences on why someone could cause me so much pain.  Heh.  To meet the enemy of your friend.  I guess it is more than enough to make your blood boil.  Now, I feel her blood is boiling…

            …

            But, my God, Wren is beautiful.  Beauty that is so profound that I can just close my eyes and get a clear picture of her.  Her hair was blowing in the wind, her magnificent blue eyes sparkled, and her sleek poise.  Though Wren's looks are not what makes her as beautiful as I see her.  Her story is what makes me attracted to her.  Our memories together.  Our times spent together.  Through thick and thin.  And, just like that, my stare at the grave was interrupted.  Those lips spoke and her grip tightened on a tear shaped pendant on her necklace.  Her fingers holding it very dearly.

            "He'll never cause you pain again."

That is what I wanted to hear.  I rose up, turned around, and slowly put on a smile.

            "I’m sorry I’ve been a burden.”

But she then scowled me for apologizing.

“I’ve been a burden.  But, I think this'll do.  Thank you..."  With that, the wind rose up, then died down.

“Let’s go home,” she suggested.

I took the suggestion.

            I would go to my home tonight, lie in my bed, and be able to sleep soundly.  Nothing worrying me.  Nothing to attack me and my friends.  Nothing to lurk in our own shadows, ready to strike.  I will dream about everyone.  Everyone that has changed my life, and how I hopefully changed theirs…

 

            Snip.

            "…"

Two years ago.

            Ellie's not so solid hand moved her clippers around another stalk.  Ellie let out a long expressive noise, deciding which would be the ideal cut for the flower.  So carefully did she keep all of her flowers.  One false move would destroy the entire plant (at least in Ellie’s mind).

            Snip.

            "…"

            There was that one false move.

            Ellie just stared at her shears.  Twitching to what she had just done.

            "Dm.  D… D… da… Dammit!  Crap crap crap… ah…"  Ellie sprang upward long after the head of one of her flowers hit the dirt.  She ran to the back door of the house.  She tripped over her own shoes, but she made it to the door fairly quickly.  Reaching quickly for the door knob, she thought frantically for what to do.  When she gripped that doorknob, she turned fiercely.  It did not turn.  Ellie had locked it on her way out.

            "…" was what Ellie thought, gripping the doorknob.

            Ellie moved on to an alternate route into the house.  Turning around, she ran towards the steps leading up onto the deck.  Ascending the stairs fairly quickly, she ran a few steps too many and landed flat onto her face.  After cursing, she looked up and bolted off again, barely avoiding her oversized picnic table on her undersized deck.  She made it to the sliding door, which, must to her dismay, was annoyingly placed on the opposite side of the deck.

            Sliding open the door quickly, she ran to the cupboard and swung it open.  Ellie grabbed what she was looking for and started to run her way back towards the flower.

            "Gotta hurry!" Ellie thought to herself.

            The deck.

            "Gotta-!"  Ellie leaped down the steps.

            Ellie hit the grass.  Hit the grass too hard and fast to nail her landing.  Using her momentum, she rolled on her back towards the location of the ravaged flower.

            "Hurry!"

            Ellie presented the green tape dispenser before herself and unrolled a healthy amount of tape.

            "Hurry!  I must hurry!”

            A voice came from next door.  "Ahem."

            "Gah…"  Ellie turned her attention to her right, to see an obviously dyed, blonde head poking its snout above the fence, where it did not belong.  "Why… hello, Mrs. Ridge!  -Oh, God, kill me now- How are you?"

            Ms. Ridge brought a clenched hand over her mouth and coughed lightly once.  Only once.  Then she opened one eye and said, "You seem to have a poor, innocent daisy miss-cut, did you know that?  Perhaps you should let someone look at it?  Someone with more… shall we say, experience?"

            "Ha ha ha… Interesting you should say that… I, um… didn’t notice it! Ha ha ha…. Oh, well, would you look at that… you're right.  You are so -damn- right!  I do seem to have a miss-cut flower.  I… um, should pay more attention.  Next… time. Ha."

            "Ellie… dear… may I ask, why you have tape in your-"

            "No, actually," Ellie snapped, cutting her off.  Ellie lifted one hand level to her own eyes, with her palm facing Ms. Ridge.  Ellie really wanted to push her down with that one hand, but did not act on that urge and said, “You see, I need to be going, so, uh, I'll talk to you later, uh, about… flowers.  Yeah…  See yah!"

            With that, Ellie got up, cleaned off her flowering apron she always wore when tending her garden, and walked back up the steps.  When Ms. Ridge's ever-listening ears were out of reach, Ellie had just then slid the door to her house closed.

            "Grr… Dammit!  'More experience,' my ass!  Everyday that lady mocks my garden!  I should have been quicker.  I almost made it, but my plan was foiled!  It is as though… my garden is under 24 hour surveillance by that woman!  Arg!  What am I thinking?  She is just a plain bitch and she makes me more angry everyday!  Thinking she's so high and mighty 'cause she has tulips that rise higher than any I've ever seen!  Or sunflowers that are bigger than a salad bowel… or those lovely pansies she has.  Oh, and I can't forget her ungodly red roses.  Oh, how I love those… such a hauntingly, beautiful maroon those flowers can get… oh, wow!  I can image them right now, plus her vines that makes her house so much more elegant looking!  My….. huh… oh, damn her.  Yeah."

            Ellie looked down at her clothes and sighed.  Now she controlled herself.  "Might as well change.  It's quite hot out, though it's rather cool… inside the house.  I think shorts should be fine."

            Ellie stepped outside to the front of her house, adorn in shorts and a tee-shirt.  She moved to the small wooden bench on her patio.  Magazine in hand, she plopped down hard onto the bench and opened to a page.  "Such a hectic morning, I think I need a goooooood read.  Hmph.  There is so little to do today.  It's actually really boring.  It’s probably because he won't be back in a month.  I have a lot of time to myself…  It's… boring, but also kinda really refreshing!"  Ellie focused back to her magazine, skimmed over the pictures, then looked up to the darkening sky.  "Rain tonight, huh?  I wonder what Wren is doing now?  She better haul her ass home.  And…"  Then, Ellie smiled sinisterly, "when is she going to find a boyfriend?"

 

            "That'll be sixteen fifty-eight, Miss."

            Wren placed her money onto the counter.

            "Out of… twenty.  Three forty-two is your change."

            "Thanks," Wren said, taking the presented change, her two paper bags, and her leave.  She moved to the sliding doors and walked through them.

            The sun began to fade as clouds rolled in, which was fine with her.  Wren looked up to the clouds, and realized she did not care.  She did not have her sunglasses, and her yard needed the rain.  With all the flowers Ellie plants in it, Wren thought their yard needed all the water it could possibly recieve.

            Wren walked farther away from the grocery store and hit the sidewalk that would take her home.  She would have a pass straight through the downtown area.  Wren was always so annoyed by the location of her house.  It was far enough away from the city that it was basically on the out skirts of the city, and walking to the grocery store still proved long.  However, taking her car would just take longer, as the traffic was always heavy near the grocery store.  But… it is not like the city is big.  The city was… compact, Wren always said.  Saying that to her relatives was like explaining things to a brick rock.  Her family was always asking questions like 'why this city?' and 'isn't he cute?' and 'com'on, loan me some money…'  What are relatives for?  Wren always dictated what she did and would not let others decide for her.

            Wren stepped foot onto some grass.  Wren looked down at her shoe, confused by the absence of cement.  She realized she had slightly strayed off the path and onto a city park.  Bags still in hand, she parted them to one in each arm and looked around.  The park was unfamiliar to her.  The park was rather small, and did not have a lot to look at.  A simple path was in the middle of the park, winding around two big trees, and behind the trees were some kids.  "Was this just made?"  Wren asked herself.  She spun around slightly to take a look at a simple wooden sign.

            “Haven Park.”

            Wren spun back around toward the kids.  Five kids total and they were playing a game of Frisbee.  Then she looked behind her to trace back her steps.  Unfortunately, nothing looked familiar from the way she came.

            "Did I daydream that long?"  Wren then noticed the aching of her arms holding the bags.  "Where am I?"  Then she looked at the kids.  They had stopped playing Frisbee and where all instead huddled together under a tree.  Huddling around something.  Wren walked towards them.

            "Excuse me!"  Wren shouted to them.  "Do you happen to know where this place is?"

            "Lady!"  One of the kids yelled back.

            “Lady?”  Wren thought, irked.

            "Lady, come quick!"  The same kid said, getting up and running towards her.  "We need your help!"

            "What?  What's wrong?  Did one of you get hurt?  Well, I must say that it would be your own fault.  Playing Frisbee that roughly… you know… things'll happen.  So, can one of you tell me where this park is, and how can I get back to eleventh street?"

            "No!"  The same kid screamed.  A freckled, chubby kid he was, too.

            "What!  You're not going to tell me?  You little brat!"

            "No!"

            "No… no one got hurt?"

            "No!"

            "Oh, so, someone did get hurt?"

            "No!"

            "Then what!"

            "Come over here!"

            "Look, kid, what's your name?"

            "I'm Eric!  Now come on!"

            "Look, Eric, you're saying that no one got hurt, but someone did get hurt.  What are  you saying!  You're not making sense.  Make up your mind!"

            The kid now started to tug on Wren's arm, causing her to almost lose the load she was carrying.  "Stop it!  Listen,  kid!  Quit it!"  The kid just kept tugging.  "Stop it!"   Wren tugged back and the kid stopped.  Eric looked at her surprised and frightened, then he just placed on a mean face and pulled at Wren again.  Wren placed a stop to it.  "Eric!  …  Now, that you have stopped trying to give me trouble…  What happened?"

            Eric looked up at her, then pointed to the other kids.  "It's a bird."  The kids all had backed away from it.  Wren looked, but all she saw was a Frisbee lying next to one of the kids.

            Wren sighed, placed her groceries down onto the grass then advanced towards the middle of the kids.  Wren placed her hands on her sides and the kids opened the circle for her, backing away from her presence.  "So, you say a bird is over here?"  Then, she made a glare at one of the kids.  The kid made a startling look and pointed towards the ground to a fallen bird.

            Wren looked at the bird.  That bird was not moving, either.  Suddenly, a very sad feeling came to Wren.  There was something about that bird laying in the grass.  "Oh my…"

            The kids started to gather around the bird, but Wren told them to stay back.  "It's not very injured, but when it stops being stunned, it will need space.  So, stay back."

            "Lady!  What kinda bird is it?"

            Wren did not move an inch, keeping her arms at her sides, and looked into the bird's eyes, blank and staring.  "It's a wren…"  She said.

            "Really?"  The kids started to move around it again.

            "Kids!  Stop, leave it alone.  It's injured, remember?  When it's feeling better, it will get up and fly away.  That's how it works.  Now, do you think that it'll be happy when it wakes up?"

            "What?"

            "Happy.  Wake up.  Those two together.  Do you think it'll be happy when it wakes up?"

            The kids answered no.

            "Well then, you should go and play somewhere else.  Let's make sure no one steps on this thing, so let's move it.  Now, Eric, you're going to have to help me…"

            "Why should I!"  Eric blurted.

            Wren was taken back slightly.  "Excuse me?"

            "You're mean!  So I'm not helping you do anything."

            Wren was speechless, but not for long.

            "Well, fine then!  I'll do it myself!"  Wren said, spinning around and storming to her bags.  She reached into one of her paper bags and pulled out some plastic bags.  She then placed her hands in it and walked back to the cross-armed Eric.  She gently scooped up the bird and moved it over towards the tree.  Wren placed the bird right down onto the roots of the tree and up against the bark.

            "Now, no one would go close enough to a tree to step on it… so it should be safe."  Wren then turned to the kids.  "Now, watch where you are throwing things and go home now!"

            "Shut up, stupid!"

            "Eric, you little… you better watch your mouth or one day it'll get you into so much trouble you'll wish you hadn't learn such words!"

            "I don't need to listen to you!"

            Wren just glared at the pudgy kid.  Then she turned around and Wren did not talk nor look back.  She just went back to her bags, picked them up, and started back to the sidewalk.  "Man, my karma is black and white at the same time.  Help a bird and some little fat kid acts like a little snot.  I seriously don't get it.  I have no time for this!  God, do I just get a little break? Oh, and then there's my neighbor!  I just really can't tell what's going to happen next… I'll probably lose my job… oh yeah, bet that's next.  Sigh, this just hasn't been my month."

            Wren then imagined the new business cards she had picked up prior to the groceries.  She made her final design a few days ago, and she was very excited to go and pick them up.  Spanking new ones.  Very solid and rectangular. A large, clear wrapped stacks of them.  She had placed them in her pocket…

            Wren found no pressure from her pocket.  No solid, rectangular packets were in her pants.  None, nothing, and making a third check, she felt nothing on her thigh.  Wren usually does not swear much, but there is always a circumstance that will bring anyone to do anything.  Now, this was that last straw and she let her anger be known.  Then, a twitch developed.

            Wren then calmed herself.  Focused on her walking.  "Karma.  It's that karma."  Then, a black cat crossed the sidewalk a few meters up from her.  The cat looked at her and meowed.  Twitch.  "Just my luck."

            Wren and her bags traveled a good two blocks when she heard a loud bang echo between the buildings.  The sound ricocheting from far away.  Wren turned 180 and moved her head upward to where the sound seemed to come from.  She was looking at a balcony a few floors up at the kiddy corner side of the nearest block.  Then, a worried person slid open the glass door and moved to the railing of the balcony.  The person was looking intensely for something.  Another person across the street, moving the opposite direction from Wren also looked worried and started to walk faster towards the sound.  Wren noticed the man, but continued to slowly move in her original direction and started to walk cautiously.

            “It’s nothing,” she told herself.  “People being stupid…  People being violent…"  Wren paused momentarily.  She swelled up a little and shuttered.  “Nothing to get upset over, though.  Now, I need to find out where I put my business cards.  Yes, that’s what I need to find.  Escaped my mind there for a second… they did.”

            Then, Wren heard the clapping of heavy running from behind her.  The sound caught her ear as it rapidly approached.  She turned around to find herself watching a man run directly at her, who was not watching his flight path.  Wren found herself startled and tried to warn him, but only too late.

            The man collided into her; bringing both of them hard to the ground.  He landed hard on top of her, and they both yelped.

            “Ow! Ow, ouch…” Wren groaned in pain, as she held her fingers to her temple.  The man quickly moved off of her, allowing her to sit up.  Dazed, she glared at her collision partner. “Ugh… Why were you not looking where you were going!  Huh?”

            The man looked up at her in shock, with horror-stricken, gleaming, apologetic dark green eyes and an equally gleaming blue tear pendant on a thin metal necklace.  “Sorry!  I’m really sorry.  I just… uh… oh, … Sorry!”  He said fast and winded.

            “What?  Why didn’t you watch where you were going?  Don’t try to deny it!  I saw that you were not looking!”

            “I… I’m sorry,” he defended, swallowed, but then dropped his current apology and changed pace, “look, sorry, but I’m in a huge hurry, so… ah…  You’re absolutely right.”  The man then started to frantically grab and place her dropped groceries into her bags again, placing them in so haphazardly that Wren decided to tell him of that too.  She only got a sorry in reply.

            “Geez, look, if you are not going to do it correctly, just don't help!”

            The man looked up at her.  He was still kneeling, trying to pick up her groceries.  “Look, I’m sorry!  I need to go.  Ah…”  He looked behind himself.

            Just then, another loud bang rolled through the city.  A few cars down the block slammed on their brakes.  The man placed on a startled face and looked to the noise.  “Oh… ah, I… ah…”  He kneeled higher up, placed two more things into her bag, then placed both of his hands on her shoulders and glanced at her eyes, but looked down.  ”Sorry.  Please, just don’t… ah… sorry!”

            Just as he arrived, he was gone.  The only impression he left was a bruise on Wren’s head and a pain of where his elbow had collided with her ribs.  Wren knelt down and picked the grocery bags up.  Then she looked at her watch and decided she was going to be late arriving home.  She had no idea where the hell she was, who in the hell that was, or what those sounds were.  She looked up as a shadow was cast over everything.  The first sound of thunder rolled over her.  After a while the rain pelted down on her, and she did not feel any better than she had felt all this day.

 

            “Wren’s really late,” Ellie said to the analogue clock on the wall.  “I guess she needed some help carrying the food home.  But… she’s also very shitty with directions and couldn't navigate her way down a straight road.  I’m guessing, at this very moment, she doesn’t know where the hell she is right now.”  She laughed.

            Lightning stuck somewhere in the distance, but lighting up Ellie's face from miles away.  Ellie sat in the second floor living room.  She had the room’s lights off so she could enjoy the lightning storm.  Also, she was worried about Wren.  Ellie decided against using her car.  It would inevitable be pointless, so all Ellie could do was wait and worry.

            Finally, she heard the key fit into the doorknob.  Doing that turned out a bad result for Wren.  The door was already unlocked and she locked herself out in the rain longer.

            Ellie descended the stairs to the right of the living room into the foyer, unlocked the front door and let in a drenched Wren.

            “You look like shit,” Ellie said bluntly.

            Wren stood there wet, but with dignity.  “Oh… I do, do I?  Maybe because I feel like it!  You are picking up groceries for the next week!”

            “Whoa, no need to get angry with me.  It’s your luck.  Not mine.  Though, I don’t mind grabbing the groceries next week.”  Then she chuckled at Wren.  She may be feeling like shit, but at the same time she was funny and cute looking.  Her hair was all drenched, falling thickly to her sides.

            Wren removed her jacket and gave it roughly to Ellie, making sure water transferred to Ellie.  To which Ellie smiled, then Wren smiled back.

            “Glad you made it home safe,” Ellie said honestly.  “I didn’t want you attacked by some random guy, you know.”

            As soon as Ellie said that, Wren felt awkward.  “Y… Yeah.  Wouldn’t want that. Hah ha.”

            “Holy shit, Wren, how’d you get that bruise!”

            Wren just glared at Ellie, who was staring in awe at the ugly bruise that made its home on Wren’s head.  Wren just placed on an odd face, and glared at Ellie.  “I obviously was hit there!”

            “Hit?”  Ellie asked, concerned.  “How?  By what?”

            “It’s a long story, but to shorten it, someone ran into me when I was carrying the groceries back.  Some random guy.  I’ve been having bad luck all this week, haven’t I?”

            “Yeah, you sure have.  Hopefully something'll turn it around.”

            “Oh, that reminds me, I picked up my business cards…  But… I lost them coming home.  I wonder, can I really say it's just been my luck?  Can I?  It all s ems a little too coincidental.”

            “You’re shitting me!  You lost them?  Oh, you poor girl.”

            “Yeah… poor me,” Wren agreed, believing in those words, looking into the storm through the screen door in their foyer.

            Ellie then shut the door and Wren grabbed a towel to dry herself.

            They both sat down in the living room.  A silence then pursued.

            “God damn Mrs. Ridge,”  Ellie just said sporadically.  The one of them shared in a healthy laugh, the other just snorted.

            “You know, sometimes we really don’t act like girls,” Wren stated.

            “We act like who we are, I guess,” preached Ellie.

            “Wow, Ellie, d’you get that from a Kleenex box?  Or just being whimsical.”

            Ellie thought for a moment.  “A little bit of both, I guess.  You know, one can collect a hell of a lot of stuff from a lot of different places and just mash it all together that it just seems like wisdom and something new to other people.”

            “…”

            “…”

            “Just like that sentence right there?”

            Ellie smiled.  “Yeah, probably.  It’s amazing how some people act after a good laugh.”

            "You had a good laugh, maybe.  I'm not in a laughing mood, however."

            Lightning stuck somewhere again, in the distance.  Once again, it lit up their faces.  They both slide down into their chairs, like they had no energy to hold themselves up.

            “Quit talking like that!  You may catch yourself acting depressed like that.  It's just a string of bad luck, nothing more than that.  I mean... God damn, it's not your fault."

            Wren just stared at her in amused disbelief.  She then smiled.  "Quit talking like that, it’s becoming amusingly annoying.”

            “How does something get amusingly annoying?”

            “It… just does!”

            “Trying to convince me using your loud voice?”

            “It works for politics,” countered Wren.

            Ellie replied, “No, they just sometimes think it does.”

            Ellie then put on a sly smile.  “Wanna run in the rain?”

            Wren, from deep within the confines of the chair's arm's protection, turned her attention from the ceiling to Ellie.  “I just got dry… but… why not?”

            Ellie laughed.  "Yeah, it'll cheer you up!  You and your damn luck."

            The two of them made there way through the kitchen and to the sliding door.  The rain was beating hard against the glass.  The two girls just stood there, pausing; waiting.  Then, they swallowed hard, as though embarking into a dangerous ordeal.  Both knew they were just stepping outside into the storm, and even though they were acting childish, being childish made if fun.

            “Ready?”

            “Ready.”

            Ellie grabbed onto the door handle and slide it open.  The wind rushed in and splattered rain onto the two of them.  Ellie boldly stepped outside.  Wren followed quickly behind, shutting the door.

            The girls moved to the stairs leading down from the deck.  The rain made the wood slippery, so they moved cautiously.  All the while, the two just giggled.  They laughed and laughed, having a blast.

            The rain and wind was making them soaked from head to heel.  Their shoes were drenched.  The two of them hit the soft grass and any dry part of their shoes disappeared.

            “Having fun yet!”

            “Ellie, you know I am!  Walking with groceries through this is different from doing something… like this!”  Wren said, running ahead.

            “Wait!  Wren!”  Ellie said, running after Wren, only to watch her take a running dive down their backyard, sliding on her stomach.  Ellie was soon to follow, though not as elegant.  Ellie’s foot had caught a tree root.  With a “oof” she took a hard drive and slowly slid down the hill, as though the impact left her immobile.

            Wren laughed at her hysterically, like she had not seen anything funnier.  Ellie looked up at her through the mud in her face (and on her shirt and pants, too).  Wren herself was dirty, moving over to one of the trees, she leaned up against it.

            “That was pretty funny!”  Wren said as a matter of fact.

            “Real funny…” Ellie said,  slightly miffed.  But inside, Ellie looked at Wren.  For the few months they have known each other, Wren had not been this open.  She has always been so quietly aggressive.  Never letting things fall out of her control.  Wren was so unlike herself, who was always using coarse language and never being afraid of letting her true self be known.

            “It’s nice, Wren.”

            “What?  Sorry, it’s really loud out here.  The rain drops are so huge!”  Lightning then flashed, followed by thunder.

            “So loud!”  Wren shouted, throwing her arms up.  “So… I didn’t hear you!”

            “It's nothing!”

            Wren laughed. “This is fun!  Thanks for suggesting it, Ellie!  I never thought running in the rain could be this much fun.  I feel my luck turning around.”

            “How do you figure?  It’s not like you did something lucky or found something you’ve lost!”

            “Oh, don’t ruin my fun!  I just feel like my luck is turning around, like the feeling of a cold's departure.”

            “Is that more of that whimsical stuff!”

            Wren stood up and placed her hand onto the tree.  The rain only started to get more intense.

            “Sure.”

            “Now this time I didn’t hear you!”

            Wren just laughed to herself and took off towards the house.  She would have made it, if only the gathering water and grass did not create such a frictionless surface.  Wren's legs slipped from under her and she went down hard, face first, splashing a large amount of water around the lawn.  Lightning then bathed them both in light.

            “Wren, are you alright?”

            Wren lifted her face from the water and turned to Ellie with a disheartened smile.  “Ow-w-w…”  She groaned, presenting her arm to Ellie.  “I think I hit a rock when I fell.”

            “Wren, I can’t see it, hold on.”  Ellie moved in closer, to see if anything was injured.  She placed on a grin, though her face was plastered with wet hair.  “Poor baby… did you hurt yourself?  It’s just a boo-boo…”

            “Shut up!” Wren retorted and laughed, extending her arm out more to Ellie in the darkness.

            “Did you hurt your arm?”  Ellie inspected the wound, and stopped still in her tracks.  Though the cover of darkness blanketed everything and the heavy rain made a huge haze, Wren could see Ellie’s face drain of blood.

            “What?”  Wren asked, with Ellie throwing her arm back at her.

            “I hate blood!”  Ellie said, backing away.

            “Oh…”  Wren said half-amazed, half-bewildered.  She felt underneath her bicep and then looked at her palm.  She indeed was bleeding, though it did not hurt much.  Her senses were being drowned out by the downpour.

            Wren stretched out her palm to the cowering Ellie.  Wren's own actions surprised herself. She does not act like this.  She knew it was fun teasing Ellie for putting on such a informal rough front, but she rose above such taunts.  After all, Ellie is the immature one.  The likable one…

            “No!  I hate blood!  Wren, don’t!  Stay away!  Don’t touch me.  Don’t smeer it on me!”

            Wren then backed off.  She realized that she had been advancing on Ellie.  She then plopped her butt down into the wet grass.  “Don't worry, the rain's washing it all away, anyway.”

            “Let’s just go back inside then.  You should take care of that.”

            “Yeah, I guess so.  Let’s go back in then.”

            The girls started to head in and the rain let up lightly.  The lightning had stopped and the thunder no longer disturbing the neighborhood.  Wren held onto her underarm, containing the blood inside her.  The mud, however, caused her shirt to get a nice stain.

            Wren looked behind her at Ellie.  She certainly did not look like a person who hated blood.  Then, suddenly, her friend now moved away from their destination.  Ellie had changed directions and now moved to the flower bed.  Ellie had muttered something to Wren, but Wren did not hear her.

            “Ellie?” Wren said, walking up to Ellie.  Ellie looked down at her flowers.

            She then turned her head to Wren.  “I just wanted to check on my flowers.  I butchered one today and I want to know how my trickery was holding up.”

            “Oh?”  Wren said.  They both were looking down onto her flowers.  Each one dancing as rain drops hit them.  Ellie kneeled down and prodded at one of the flowers.  Apparently nothing happened, as Ellie seemed like she was just waiting.  She prodded it again and the head came tumbling off.

            “Damn it,” Ellie muttered under her breath.

            “Looks like you broke it.”

            “Oh, shut up.  Go fix your precious arm.  That stain will be a bitch to get out if you leave it to long… what was that?”  Ellie said, jerking her head around to the gate.

            “What was what?” Wren said befuddled.

            A groan came from the side of the house, and the distinct sound of heavy strained stepping in watery ground.  It rounded the bend and a person fiddled haphazardly with the latch to the fence.

            Wren, without her own approval or awareness, started to cling to Ellie’s back, who at the moment was slowly moving backwards.

            A stranger was trying to break into their backyard.  Rather than doing the smart thing and run, they watched.

            “W-w-hh-who are you!” Ellie asked, stepping back, her arms stiff to her side.

            “H-elp… me.  Please…”

            The fence door swung open.  The dark shadow of a human clung to the top of the fence door, as though supporting its weight onto it.  The fence swung too much and slipped out of the shadow’s grasp.  This caused the stranger to fall onto the wet ground, like a tired person to a comfortable bed.  That made a loud, sickening thump.  A thump caused from dead weight hitting hard against solid, wet ground.

            “Oh, my…” both said in unison.

            The stranger did not move, he laid face down in a shallow pool of collecting rain.  If the stranger did not come up for air from the soggy ground, the two girls would surely believe him to be dead.  Both girls just stood there, Wren clinging and Ellie confused.

            Ellie loosen her tense stature and moved to the stranger’s side.  Ellie realized the stranger was a male, looking to be the same age as the girls.  She grabbed onto the stranger’s shoulder and tried to rouse him.  “Hey… are you okay?”  Ellie asked with some honesty and curiosity.  Ellie daringly moved him somewhat onto his side.  Wren then saw her move her hand and stared deeply at her palm.  For a minute, she just analyzed something on her hand, she then recoiled, like if a bug was on her palm.  She washed her hand off furiously in the grass.

            “What’s wrong?”  Wren asked as Ellie ran up to her.

            “He… he… We need to get him… I mean… See… Oh my god… I… He…”  Ellie said, flustered and breathy.

            “He…?”  Wren said, trying to get Ellie to start what she could not finish.

            “He…”

            “Ellie, what was on your hand?”

            “Wren, you’ll need to take him inside.  He’s covered in blood.”

            Wren stared at Ellie, mentally processing what she just said.

            “And because he’s covered in blood, Wren, and I can’t touch blood… or look at it… you need to carry him in.”

            Wren breathed in deeply and preoccupied.  She just stared at their guest, who now had a slight stream of blood from his nose to the side of his face.  Then she noticed the blue tear pendant.  “I better hurry then, but you know, I thought I would ignore the slipping onto a rock, but this… this is just my luck.”

 

 

End Chapter 1

 

            Just Wren’s luck may be right, but what are the intentions of this injured man?  Why has he come to their house?  What’s his name?  More to the point, will he be alright?  Questions are asked and a healing miracle better be preformed, if he is to live out the night.  Ellie finds herself a little more involved than she would like by a surprise in his coat.  Ellie might just hush up his secret for the sake of his safety from Wren.  Chapter 2:  “Ever Think To Call a Medic?”