The House of Angels

Blossom

THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS THEMES OR SITUATIONS THAT MAY BE UPSETTING TO READERS.

"A pill to make you dumb, a pill to make you numb, a pill to make you anybody else... but all the drugs in this world, won't save her from herself..."

Marylin Manson - Coma White

Two minutes later Moon was inside the house, into a small, cozy living room, whose furniture consisted of two comfortable, elegant lilac sofas facing each other with an oak coffee table in between, a little bar and cabinets full of old movies on two opposite walls, a huge tv hanging high on another wall.

"Sit down, hon. The good stuff is coming." He said, reaching for something inside one of the cabinets. He pulled out a small box, inside of which there was what he was looking for.

He sat beside her on the couch, pulled out a credit card and started to crush it in tinier pieces until there was only thin powder left, which he divided in multiple strips on the base of the coffee table.

Then, he pulled out a metallic straw from the box and, slipping it into his nose, he used it to inhale the powder.

Moon watched him intently just so she knew what to do without having him realize it was her first time.

He handed her the straw and, before she could change her mind, she inhaled her strip.

She felt the powder make its way through her nostril, down her throat. She felt a mind-blowing spark inside her brain and a sudden excitement took hold of her.

_____

"I swear I don't know what's wrong with you lately..." Josh said, glancing at Daniel before focusing back on the road.

"Don't know what you're talking about." Daniel said taking a long drag of cig, looking out the window with a slight frown on the face.

"You're clearly upset, Dan. Can't lie to me." Josh sighed, driving absently along the road.

Daniel pursed his lips and clenched his jaw. Josh had been honest with him last week and he needed to tell him the truth as well. They never lied to each other.

"I didn't tell you everything about Moon." Daniel said, after a few moments, sighing.

"What do you mean?" Josh gritted his teeth.

His mind was already filling with images of Daniel and Moon and he tried not to show his impatience while waiting for his friend to spill the truth.

Daniel's mind filled with images of the previous night when he'd woken up with a creepy feeling, like he knew someone had entered his room and was watching him very closely.

He didn't immediately open his eyes, the hairs on his neck raised as shivers of fear ran through the whole lenght of his body.

His senses sharpened and his breath grew quieter as his ears were trying to catch the slightest noise around him.

Then he heard someone breathing near his face, warm breath hitting his skin as a faint scent of peaches reached his nostrils... in that moment he opened his eyes, knowing exactly who it was... Moon was looking straight at him, with big, empty eyes, but it was as if she wasn't even seeing him, she wasn't in herself, her face too close to his... Daniel shivered... he sat up and grabbed her shoulders, giving her a light shake, tried to talk to her but to no avail, she didn't even aknowledge him and then he noticed she had a pair of scissors in her right hand and his blood froze inside his veins.

He instinctively checked himself for injuries but he found none. He breathed deeply before slowly taking the scissors from her hand and, since she let him without even flinching, he threw them away and checked her. She had cut her top several times, but she wasn't hurt... and yet he didn't know what the f**k he was supposed to do. Daniel was still a little shocked. It scared him the state in which she was and he knew she had some kind of crysis like him, but in a different way. While he could sadly remember every little detail of his fits of anger, she didn't seem to remember anything when he tried to check on her earlier, and it was like she really was an empty body in that particular moment and that made him worried and sick inside.

He felt like he was living in a horror movie, it was creepy as hell. As he told Josh everything, he had stopped the car on the roadside, and he had his full attention.

"I told you, she wasn't Moon. It was like she was possessed, Josh, I swear." Daniel said, sighing before continuing.

"I talked to her... 'Moon, what's wrong? What happened?' I thought that maybe she was simply sleepwalking , but I really don't know. Then she smiled weirdly, turned around and left my room. Now she's acting all strange and I'm sure she doesn't even remember what happened." He stated, concerned.

"You mean you didn't go after her, Dan?" There was a hint of disapproval in Josh's voice.

"I tried to, but she locked her door and couldn't go inside her room..."

"Well, I don't know what to think, really. We should talk about this with a clear mind." Josh lit a cig, nervously.

"I asked her how she's doing earlier but she cut it short and I didn't feel like asking her if she remembered anything." Daniel sighed, closing his eyes as he felt a slight headache on the back of his head.

"Well, not tonight, D. She's drunk, we're high, and it's not the right time. Especially if she doesn't remember anything. It's a delicate matter." Josh passed a hand through his hair nervously.

"Alright, let's go now, I'm gonna go mad if I don't put my hands on the good stuff. Moreover, she's alone with Ant right now."

"Say no more." Josh turned on the car.

_____

"You're really funny when you're on drugs, Moon!" Ant chuckled, as Moon was headbanging at the rhythm of her favourite song.

"You're funny too, Ant." Moon chuckled too, giving him a friendly pat on the arm.

"What happened here?" Ant asked, brushing his fingers slightly on Moon's left knee.

There was a scar that covered the inner side of it, and reached half her calv.

Moon shivered and instinctively retracted herself from his gentle touch, turning away from him. Every scar on her body reminded her of a bad episode of her past, from which she was trying so hard to run away.

It was painful to recall those moments and everytime it was as she was reliving them.

"Sorry... I didn't mean to be nosy. My bad." Ant said immediately, frowning a little.

"It's just... I don't like to talk about it." She said hesitantly.

"I understand. I'm here if you ever feel the need to. Everyone exorcise pain in their own ways." Ant smiled softly, stroking her head in a comforting way.

"I just keep running away from pain. Maybe I'm just a coward." She shrugged, her mood slightly darkened.

"Maybe you just haven't figured it out yet. But trust me, if I could do it, you can as well." He flashed her a bright smile, then took her right hand and put it on his tattooed chest.

She could feel some uneveness, like scar tissue.

He looked at her intently as his hand led hers through the path of his own scars, of his own bad memories.

She was mezmerized by the intimity of that gesture. He was being vulnerable, showing her his weakness, his sorrow.

"How did you do it?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Her eyes met his and she could swear she saw an hint of sadness for a brief moment.

"This body is mine" he said, letting go of her hand to spread his arms with a wide smile, his muscles flexing deliciously "And I have the right to do whatever I want with it..." there was an intense glow in his eyes and his smile widened even more "So I made a choice and turned my pain into art. Not to cover the scars and forget about them, no. But to adorn them. To always remember that life gives you s**t all the time, but only you decide whether to use that s**t as manure to bloom, or let it crush you." He fell silent for a few moments, lost in thought, his eyes wandering.

"And you, Moon... you're gonna become a wonderful flower. It will be hard, you'll have to fight your way through mud, thorns and storms but it will be worth it." He took her hand again and kissed her knuckles gently.

"Let's hope you're right..." Moon chuckled, a little embarassed, but the smile died on her lips as he looked at her in a serious way.