The Girl in the Choir

The beginning

CHAPTER ONE

He stared longingly through the glass as he beheld the lights shinning brightly illuminating the entire room, this made him realize one thing, he was outside, and seeing the glowing flame inside only made him realize how cold he felt.He rubbed his cold hands over his skin continuously to build body heat, but the shabby clothing he had on, made his attempts feeble. He exhaled deeply and felt pain in his nose as dry crusts of blood had stuck to them. He weakly got on his feet and staggered to the brightly lit house, he knew the implication of what he was doing but he was too tired to think, one more second out in the cold and his heart would stop. He tapped softly on the wooden door, so softly that he feared he wasn't heard as he fell into a heap on the floor.It must have been the sound of him falling or his former knock, but he suddenly felt warm hands raising him up and into the room, and as weak as he felt, he dozed off, he was safe at last.

The clanking of kettles and pots sifted slowly through his ears as he tried to lift himself from the bed, but the pounding in his head made him dizzy. He heard footsteps close by and shut his eyes, he did not know who it was or how he was expected to behave, so he lay still on the bed, quite aware that his eyelids were quivering, he lay on his side, determined to hide his face from whoever it was. The footsteps sounded closer this time and he could tell that who it belonged to was just a few paces away from him. He observed all silently, till he could now hear muffled breaths just above him. He held his already shut eyes tighter and panted heavily. He had muffled cackles above him, whoever it was above him, was having so much fun seeing him pretend to be asleep. He knew his acts was up, he had been discovered, but the mischievous person that stood just above him was slowly getting under his skin, he stiffened his body as he felt muffled breaths above his head, the strange person was just getting started with him, and just as she stopped above him, the sweet familiar lavender scent he had known all his life greeted his nose. He jerked from the bed in recognition, and in the frenzy, he forgot just how close she was and bumped into her bent face. She shrieked in pain, holding her nose painfully as she paced up and down the room, which still amused him, he burst into an uncontrolled laughter forgetting immediately the pains he had been nursing, he sat up on the bed, and patted it's side, motioning her to sit.

His mind was unsettled and the memories he had of her was blurry, but there was one feeling deep down him; a feeling of a broken heart, whoever she used to be to him, he knew he had trusted her, but his trust was broken. His eyes kept searching her eyes, searching them to find if in it was embedded even the slightest faint of guilt, but the more he searched, the more he discovered that the eyes looking at him were familiar, but that familiarity scared him, the emotionless eyes that were staring at him scared him, it made his heart break even more, he must have been a soft person, with a nice heart, but what was he thinking to trust someone like this, there was no facade at all, all she was, one could easily see through by looking at her, so why then did he trust someone with all this coldness, he could not exactly pin point why, but knowing himself then and now, he knew he was not someone to trust someone, there had to be something he had seen. "What did I see,What did I see", he muttered unconsciously, she burst into heartfelt laughter, that seemed to send the coldness in her eyes off for a brief moment, but it was back just as quickly as it had gone.

"I know we clearly are not going to spend all day waiting for you to remember what you said, she raised her eyebrows questioningly, and for the first time since that day, what he saw made sense to him. She had caramel colour, a neatly carved haircut which she had dyed golden, she had multiple piercings all over her face, he could count five earrings on ears and two extra piercings, left to be fixed in, her nose was pierced in three places and she had worn nose rings on them all. Her colour was beautiful, and so she was, but the only thing off in her face was her lip, it had darkened and had a little patch of pink, suggesting it's initial colour, he knew fully well she smoked, he had known that even then, but one thing he had never seen was her placing the cigar on her ears like a carpenter's pencil. She looked like she had gotten a lot worse than before, and the intermittent coughs that rocked her suggested she was in bad shape health wise. She stared him in the eyes and managed a weak smile, he could sense she felt pity for him."But Why?"

She had always been a mind reader and so she helped him out, "I guess you are probably pitying me because I am in bad shape and all that, but if I were to judge, I clearly look better than you, so I would do well to ask you what I have been meaning to."How have you been ". This single question caught him off guard and as he stuttered, trying to find the answer, she began to talk "you still haven't gotten over this, have you? You are still used to asking and checking up on others when you are not any better yourself, her voice was interrupted by sobs as she burst into tears. He was motionless and his tongues were tired, he could not bring himself to console her, not because he did not want to, but because he did not know how. He distilled breathless with no thoughts crossing his mind with no idea of what next to do he stood helpless emotionless the young lady who are the earliest student front of him was by now making her way down the stairs he didn't know how long he had stood or how long he had being there but by the time he could recall himself she had left. He felt empty inside, his chest felt as though there was a vacuum that had just been opened all over again. He moaned and spat out. He laid down on his back, face up to the ceiling and let his eyes wander round the room. He shifted his gaze from the window by his right whose curtains were parted into two, to make way for the illumination which he now experienced and without which the room had the semblance of a haunted house. Something quickly caught his eye, it was a painting which was hung on the wall and looked antique. It didn't fit into the room in any way. The ink used for the work had long been washed off and there were just few faint marks on the painting, which traced a blurry picture of the object of the painting. The painting on its own looked more like a blank piece of paper from where he lay, but the artists sign underneath it, was what drew his attention.

It was a faint inscription of the words Rojiza . It would have otherwise been referred to as fainty when the picture must have had it's worth, but now after nany years, it stood the most distinct thing on the peace of paper. The artists watermark rang a bell in his mind. He had heard that word once, but he couldn't place his fingers on the memory it held. He dived deep into his memory and began pulling out, one after the other whatever he could find. He had barely began when he discovered how exhausting the whole process was. He stuck to looking at the painting from where he lay, until he was slowly tajen away by the gentle touch of the morning breeze into a deep slumber. He laysleeping, but startling noises in the background woke him. He could hear fainty noises coming from downstairs. He felt whoever it was that had the steps was in a hurry. As the scrambling feet's made for the stairs, his heart began pounding. His thoughts went wild, he imagined the many things that must have been happening. His thoughts flew from the good to the bad and a million other things. He had a knack for right guessing as when the young lady made her way to the landing, she spared no time to warn him of the impending danger should he laze about a second more. She left him no time to process her words, she simply swung around and hurried down the stairs.

His mind raced about the possible reasons why he had to be told off in such a hurry. He was grateful that she had housed him, but telling him to leave at the last minute wasn't so nice. He picked up the clothes he had on when he came, which had been dry cleaned, and sniffed it to catch on the nice scent. He loved the smell of the fresh air and wished he could go on savoring the fresh breath