"Entwined" by Björn T. Prehna, Chapter I

„Entwined“ © Björn T. Prehna

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Entwined

by

Björn T. Prehna


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The Author

Björn Torben Prehna was born on 3rd November 1989, as the second child of Sigrun and Dieter Prehna. Ever since his childhood he has shown a wide interest in literature and arts and has also taken part in numerous competitions. This led to the publication of various stories and poems. He also hosted a private art exhibition on Hannover, Germany.

His first major work was the publication of his novel “The Seekers” in 2006, followed by “Entwined” in early 2010, which is still available on lulu.com


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“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about

life: It goes on.”

- Robert Frost -


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Contents

Call Inbound ………………… 5

A Simple Step ………………… 32

The Amber-Haired Girl ………………… 73

Epilogue ………………… 99


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Call Inbound

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time

has not discovered the value of living.”

- Charles Darwin -


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His phone was ringing. The dark haired man was sitting by himself at the far end of the wooden counter. All around him the bar was filled with the heavy atmosphere of stinking smoke and the chattering of mocking people. He had rested his head on his stiffly crossed arms, which lay heavily on the shining countertop as his half-loud breathing rang like thunderous snoring against his numb cheekbones. The man’s name was Wayne, nothing flashy, nothing special, only plain Wayne; just as ordinary as the bloke it belonged to. It was a night like any other night and the bar was filled with people and the swishing sound of alcohol running freely. As his phone started to shakily dance along the edge of the alcohol stained countertop Wayne started to stir, his head aching atop his limp, hurting arms. He sleepily raised his cheek from his cold skin as a sniffing grunt escaped his sore nose, stinging from the stench of spilled liquor. Under much protest his heavy eyelids finally opened up to the world, aching from the sudden shine of dim light that broke the uneasy darkness behind closed lids. Slowly Wayne managed to push himself up from


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the counter, his weight pressing hard on his cracking elbows, as his shoulders moved under the black fabric of his shirt, tickling like a swarm of ants. His leaden head pulled at his already sore neck, making the fibres under his pale skin ache. Drowsily his gaze wandered from under half-shut lids over the dim shine of the wooden countertop, the ringing sound, high pitched and monotone, mockingly echoing in his thick, hurting head. He exhaustedly spread his shoulders trying to stretch the lingering sleep away as he turned his head to the source of the annoying sound, his eyes fixing themselves upon the inciting dance of his cell phone that drifted over the polished wood whenever another ringing tremor shook trough it. Wayne had never been a man too keen on conversation but tonight his indifference had turned into plain disgust. Suddenly the phone died down. Uninterested the sloppy haired man reached for the small device and let his throbbing eyes rest on the pail, shining display. The ID just read “Unknown”. In his mind Wayne was caught halfway between a feeling of utter confusion and the pushing sensation of a prickling in his neck that made his forehead throb. Indifferent he got up from his stool


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and left the bar, the clinging of his money on the countertop echoing through the heavy smoke. The chilly night air cut his numb face as Wayne idly buried cold hands in the pockets of his polo shirt. Lazily he strode down the sidewalk, his heavy footsteps echoing from the high walls as a strange, sluggish sound grinded in his ears, making his leaden head turn under aching and protest. His gaze fell down a dark alley, shadows creeping up the bricks; a filthy bundle lay cowering in the dirt, pressed against the high wall; tremors shaking through the lump to his feet. Wayne’s eyes darted deeper into the shadows, throbbing from the sheer try of focusing on the waddling movement hidden in the creeping dark. Slowly the man stumbled out from the shadows, his hunched over form clearly swaying in a strangely inhuman gate as the sound of dripping mucous echoed from the high walls. Wayne saw the filthy drunkard tumbling towards himself until he stopped momentarily. A sickening sound of vomit drew from his lips as he stood hunched over the dirty, unmoving bundle of dark dusted fabric and shadowed strands, two faces


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firmly buried in the protective layers of stained cloths. “Oi!” The sound of Wayne’s deep, raspy voice rang like thunder through the dark corridor earning a light jump from under the dirty bundle of cloths as a pale, smooth face shot up at him, shining like a ghost illuminated in the cold street lights. “Leave ‘em alone!” His head clumsily glancing over at Wayne, the stranger hastily shuffled around and ran off into the dark on stumbling feet. Wayne’s hurting eyes turned down fixing themselves upon the dirt ridden bundle of kids to his feet and he beheld a pair of pleading eyes looking up at him. His alcohol-clouded head spent a moment on swaying before Wayne forced himself around and back down his way, angrily muttering under his whiskey-breath. “Useless little bunch.” His feet took Wayne aimlessly down the paved road. He left the walking to his legs; he had more important things to sulk about as his dangling head swayed in every step, eyes locked on the dance of his clapping shoes on the hard concrete. A while ago Wayne had been a happy man, with a nice apartment, his share of a little business, a


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plan to marry. But it had started when he lost his job; the business had gone down and with it his rent. His soon-to-be wife had left him; he had been a fragile empty shell ever since. He always felt like crying, felt the misery boiling up deep inside of him, but he knew tears just weren’t allowed to fall. He was a man of 24, had had his piece of a good life and now it was someone else’s turn. That was the way Wayne saw his life. From deep within his pocket his cell phone started vibrating again, the sound of its high pitched ringing mockingly stinging Wayne’s aching ears with every beeping. An annoyed sigh dropped from his lips as he lazily fished the phone from his shirt and gazed down upon the blinking display. The screen’s bright shine sharply hurt his drowsy pupils as he tried to concentrate on the deluded caller ID. It just read “Unknown” again. Unnerved Wayne pressed a random button and lifted the phone to his ear. All he heard was silence, then suddenly a woman’s voice nervously uttering a single “Hello?”; the voice of a stranger. Wayne stopped in his tracks momentarily, his attention drawn to listening to the woman’s confused voice, franticly asking for any form of recognition on his part. He heard a low sigh breathing


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through the line, then a small clicking sound and the line went dead. For a moment Wayne just stood there in the middle of the sidewalk and stared down at his cell phone all sense left in his over clouded mind concentrated on the lingering voice playing in his head. It took him a while to start walking again, but in the end he just continued onwards ignoring the unknown caller and stuffing the phone back into his pocket. After that it didn’t take long for the shock of the call to wear off on him and after a while Wayne had all but forgotten the sound of the woman’s voice. But it took him back. Back to a time when he used to hear a woman’s voice everyday. Wayne’s mood had dropped to a worst compared the last few weeks as he walked by a dark, gaping window. His eyes sidetracked as Wayne faltered in his steps gazing into the shadowy interior of the little shop, the stench of tobacco clear in the air. He wasn’t a smoker or anything, but who would care now anyway? The call of footsteps brought his mind back onto the barren sidewalk as his eyes turned to behold the form of a young hunched-over girl, stumbling her way over towards him with the limp frame of a boy slung over her


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back. The peculiar little couple stepped up to him as the girl lifted up her whine-coloured eyes from under her auburn-red strands to cast a stern look at the shaggy man. “Hello Wayne.” His head spun around in a flash, shock clearly engraved in his stiffened features. With a little sigh the girl just threw her head back, her auburn strands shining like ruby fire in the night light, and gave Wayne a warm accustomed half-smile. “It’s good to see you. There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” She heavily shifted the little boy on her back, earning a little grunt from her numb companion as Wayne just kept on staring in pure disbelieve. The girl’s face was unfamiliar to him. “Wha…” Wayne’s voice was failing him as he hastily tried to formulate the only question that lingered in his aching head. “What?” He took a step towards the little girl, his mind still in a state of shock and confusion; shakily he tried to reach an arm out into the direction of the strange little pair when he suddenly saw the joy leave the girl’s face, being replaced by a plastered expression of seriousness and certainty. Then she spoke up again freezing Wayne abruptly in his tracks. “You need to answer.”


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She lightly lowered her head, looking up at Wayne from under her burning auburn hairs, her voice suddenly having a very serious edge to it and a low timbre that almost made Wayne’s eyeballs throb: “You need to answer … your phone.” She looked wise beyond her years. Wayne’s eyes shot wide open, his hand still extended towards the young girl as his mind and eyes momentarily left the barren sidewalk. Slowly the girl started to walk again, taking a secure step past the still unmoving Wayne and continuing her way down the paved walkway. With a sudden shiver Wayne shot out of his thoughts, turning around in an awkward flash glancing at the stumbling child. He hastily stepped forward intending to follow the girl, when he saw the small boy on her back whose arms dangled down next to her shoulders with every step she made. He faltered, eyes fixed upon the limp child and the weedy young girl carrying his weight around on her slim, pale legs. “Do you want help?” He asked the question before even thinking twice, but he didn’t care; to him it just seemed like the right thing to do. He walked towards her slowly bending down further with every step, extending his arms in


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a wide open embrace ready to pick up the child. “I could carry him for you. I…” “No” The abrupt answer cut him off completely; he stopped walking, shoulders and legs suddenly stiff; only looking after the small girl, as she stopped a few metres ahead of him. She raised her head, as if addressing the night sky as she spoke her solemn words. “You wouldn’t be able to lift him, yet.” With that she started to walk again leaving Wayne stand there on the empty sidewalk all by himself; a stranger in the dark. His head hurt. Wayne was now suddenly painfully aware of that. Thinking about the strange conversation he had just had didn’t make the pain any less excruciating. After a few minutes of teeth grinding and silent cursing he simply turned around and wandered back off into the direction he had been heading before. The night around suddenly felt a lot colder as Wayne buried his hands protectively in his pockets, the fog rising in front of his face with every breath he took. Warmth was one of the things he had been missing out on lately, the only little fire springing from the droplets of liquor he had accustomed himself with in the last few weeks.


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A sudden ringing cut through the air. Wayne felt the tremors shaking through his hand, buried deep inside his pockets, as his ears adjusted to the high pitched sound of the head-throbbing device. With a leisurely swing Wayne produced the trembling phone from his pocket, watching it dance around erratically in his outstretched palm, the unnatural light of its small screen blinding out the caller’s identity to his eyes. His eyebrows drew together in a deep, concentrated look of confusion and aversion, deep cracks forming on his otherwise pail and smooth forehead. An intense look of bewilderment sparked from his sharp, otherwise deluded eyes as he fixed his strained gaze solely on the dimly shining display. It read “Unknown”. In a sudden flash, Wayne’s lips curled into a disgusted snarl, his breath running in a sickening deep grunt from his throat, as he averted his glare leaking with annoyance. Hastily Wayne’s fingers started to fly over the little shaky frame, a motion of mere routine than clear thought. His thumb merely brushed the button underneath the blinking display, a raw sensation underneath his cold skin, when in a sudden shock of realisation Wayne’s every muscle stopped to move. He


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just stood there unmoving, his eyes glaring far off into the black distance, as the wave of understanding swept through his mind; he remembered that strange, auburn-haired little girl from before. His eyes sliding unsure over the trembling, little device, Wayne moved his thumb over, away from the button he was about to press, and hit another key, slowly und stunned raising the phone to his ear, his whole body frozen stiff. Hesitantly he pressed the receiver against his skin awaiting any sound from the other end of the line, but upon not hearing anything; maybe only a very faint breathing which he thought could just as well have been his imagination; he uttered a single, deep and unsure “Hello?”. Answer came in form of a very loud gasping sound, a rattling of cold air sweeping through just lightly parted lips, a sound Wayne knew to be too real to be his imagining. “I…um”; it was the same voice, he realized, the same alien chime, but still there was some difference to it. Had it been harsh and short-winded before it now held the shaking timbre of a sweet uneasiness and nervousness. “I’m sorry if I disturbed you or anything, I…” Wayne’s eyes looked warily off to the side, not gazing at anything,


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his focus clearly centred on the most peculiar woman’s voice stumbling from word to word in a way Wayne himself, in a fit of astonishment, could only describe as sort of cute. The little flash of a smile crept up on his face as the corners of his lips slowly began to twitch, his free hand resting sternly against his hip as echoing footstep after footstep took him by endless rows of empty windows; black maws lurking to draw him in. “No, not at all.” There was nothing but a seemingly surprised silence from the other end of the line. It was true though; Wayne knew that right away. What was there that she could have disturbed? Suddenly a bright flash of realization dawned in his sullen mind, a thing so simple and clear it almost made him laugh. “So…”, he noticed the sharp intake of breath distorted by the static of the little receiver and contained his inner amusement in a lock of a warm, cheeky smile. “May I ask who you are?” “Oh…” It staid silent for a little while, the faint smile on Wayne’s face widened into a wicked grin as he was sure he could almost feel the warmth of an answering smile radiating through the phone onto his cold marble cheeks. His jaw dropped


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slightly, the silence dragged on, almost growing uncomfortable on the shaggy, dark man; making his neck twitch just once. Then it happened. A serene sound; laughter. The woman at the other end of the line was laughing, warmly and friendly. The sound washed gently over Wayne’s sore ears and warmth sprang to life on his otherwise cold and pale face. And with that he started to laugh as well, felt the comforting heat of happiness and laughter wash through his hollow chest in a caressing wave; he hadn’t felt so good in ages. They just laughed, laughed together, sharing that comfortable feeling with just each other drowning out the world around them. “I’m sorry”, she managed to choke out in between fits of light laughter and heavy breathing; both of them gasping with deep rhythmical beats as they tried to catch their breath while last chuckles rang sundering through them. Wayne’s voice was light and happy as he finally managed to hold in enough air to speak, feeling suddenly lighter: “Stop saying that.” The laughter from the other end of the line died down as Wayne eagerly concentrated his ears on any faint sound that might ring out to him from the other end


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of the line. “I’m sorry, I…”, her voice had again taken up that deep timbre of worry and nervousness: “I’ll let you go now.” His mind called out. “No, no…” Shock, that was what shone clearly from his eyes as Wayne realized what he had just sad and, his tongue and lips suddenly numb, he added: “It’s alright.” The tension rose in his neck as surprise snatched a hold of his hunched frame, robbing is mind of thought and logic. It took him a moment; a moment of welcome mutual silence, before he was sure to be once again master of his own words and thinking. Still, his words were quiet filled with uncertainty and wariness as he finally spoke up again. “Actually…” Hastily Wayne flipped the thought over in his head, not putting any more real trust into his probably alcohol stained lips in articulating his thoughts correctly. “It’s nice to get in touch with … someone.” He sighed. That had come out far better than he had anticipated. Wayne gratefully took the short moments of silence it took the young woman to answer to catch up on his breath, taking in the cold night air in small, refreshing bursts which tickled his throat lightly.


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“What happened?” Concern; it was clearly audible from underneath her very simple, easily framed question. It made Wayne smile, letting him laugh silently before almost putting the tears to the corners of his eyes. She cared. “Just some shit, no need for you to bother.” His leisurely tone and attitude startled him. Here he was, lonely at night and talking to a complete stranger like they had been buddies for years. Crazy it sure was; but it did feel great. “No…”, urging and pleading: “Tell me.” Wayne sighed. He didn’t really want to think about “those” things, not now. He felt good. Finally, after such a long time he felt good and talking about it could make things worse, he thought. “Well I had some…” It took him willpower to push away the words swirling in his head as memories of past misery swept by his inner eyes in a montage of what he had formerly called his life. “…personal troubles.” It felt good. Wayne’s walking feed stopped dead as utter astonishment swept through the straight standing man. His shoulders felt light. Whatever it was that had been pressing him down was suddenly all but gone.


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“Oh yeah, tell me about it.” The faintly snarling voice touched his ear, making him absentmindedly press the receiver closer to his ear. For a moment he had forgotten the comrade on his nightly journey of things long past. Then it sunk in. “You know that?” Embarrassed Wayne suddenly flinched, his voice had been loud; it had been kind of enthusiastic. Of course he was; someone seemed to understand him after all; but still he felt very stupid for falling into such a high state considering the topic they were sharing. “My b…” Hastily Wayne pressed his face closer to the phone. The immediate answer came to him just as much as a surprise as the almost inaudibly low, solemn tone of his companion, which rang slow and stuttering through his head. “A friend of mine can be a lot of trouble at times.” Wayne suddenly chuckled. He knew it wasn’t the right thing to do, a numb feeling deep down in his guts made sure to remind him of that, but he just felt so light that he had to get it somehow out of his system. “Well…”, he clearly heard his laugh lingering in his cheerful voice. “Be happy it’s just your friend.”


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“How about you?”, the woman shot back from the phone in a clearly interested and concerned tone. Wayne was relieved to not hear any sign of remorse in her voice as to his unfitting tone and attitude which strangely made him feel so much out of place. Surprised Wayne was taken aback, he had been thinking about nagging questions like these for awhile, thought they would take him back to painful memories of what he once had. But now there was no pain, no discomfort at all. “My ex-fiancé.” He felt light-hearted; it was relieving; it seemed as if all of his past troubles where flowing out of him with every word he spoke. The before shaggy and hunched man closed his eyes and rose up with a deep, full breath running through him, the burden of past things almost visibly gliding from his form and leaking away into the night. “Oh sorry”, her hasty, apologizing words resounded in his head, Wayne’s eyes slowly reopening with the shimmering glitter of the ghostly streetlights glittering playfully in the corners. He chuckled; the smile on his lips was now warm, open without any more need to hide it from the world. “You like saying that don’t you?” He laughed.


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She stayed as silent as the night around him. Wayne grew fuzzy. Unbelieving he moved his hand over his warm stomach. He hadn’t known this feeling for a long time. “But thanks for caring.” His smile grew as his outburst of joy was greeted by a warm, happy “a pleasure” and the sound of a soothing chuckle. “So how about you?” Silence descended between the two strangely familiar people and then the questioning voice picked up once more: “What about me?” “What are you up to?”, rang his strong, sincere voice in raw contrast to the timid half-whisper of his fellow. “Well…”, she seemed deep in thought “I don’t know, really…”. Wayne was at a loss of words, so was the woman on the other end of the line, and silence seemed to grow on. A car drove by bathing the unmoving man for a short moment in a warm glow of yellow light, and Wayne followed its ghostly red eyes as it took off into the distance. “You know…” His voice was low, nothing more than a solemn whisper, but still held something wise, something Wayne never knew himself to ever hear in his own words. Absentmindedly


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his eyes turned up to the sky, stars blinking faintly, glowing sparks of spectral fire looking down at him with a tender stare. “There is always somewhere to go out there.” He paused, surprised. His words still rang heavily through his light and empty head; words he could hardly believe to be his. The air ran lightly threw the small gap between his numb, chalky pale lips. The low whisper gently touched his ear, so faint he could barely even hear the low noise. “What did you say?”, his voice boomed deep into the receiver, sharper and more demanding than he had wanted it to be. “I…um…nothing”. He laughed wholeheartedly. Wayne just couldn’t help it. Her saying those words, the sweet ringing of her voice, flowing from the receiver like a low lullaby, just sounded so innocent it instinctively drew the happiness to his lips. Surprised and questioning her chiming rang once more, almost sounding more innocent and cute to Wayne than it had before: “What’s the matter?” “It just feels strange…”, the words seemed to just spill out of him naturally, no more


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plain thinking involved: “…talking to a complete stranger like that.” “Yeah”, to him she sounded happy, but audibly faint and confused. “Sorry”, he managed to spill forth between yet another fit of chuckling and warmth. “That just sounded weird.” The woman laughed, the warm, welcome tone rushing through Wayne’s vanes like a sudden surge of adrenaline and force. He now felt strong and steady, a feeling he found to be miraculously comforting. Bringing forth all his new-found strength and bravery he took himself a heart and spoke up: “Listen…”, he almost started to chuckle again, the ever growing tension of excitement rising up in his chest in waves off radiating flame. He took the step. “Where do you live? Maybe we could meet up sometime. More convenient than the phone…right?” His face burned; the smile on his cheeks was shining uncontrollably against the spectral lights of the illuminated street. “Listen…” He grew anxious and wary. His eyes fixed themselves down on the street all of his being hanging on the words he awaited to drip from the small receiver in his hand. “I’m sorry but I have to go.”


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Wayne was smashed. His formerly risen shoulders slumped back into place as the harsh blow of the words sunk in deep. Warmth was gone. “Well maybe we could…” Desperation drew words from his tongue before Wayne could even conjure them up. He didn’t want that talk to end. Hurt he realized that his heavy heart was clinging desperately to that little mist of understanding hovering between them two. His chest grew heavy with every low word. “…talk again sometime?” Anxiety; that was all he was feeling as he waited those moments for a reply, the mere blink of an eye, but in his mind it drew out into a glimpse of eternity. “That would be lovely.” He smiled. Wayne’s lips had curled up in what had to be the truest smile he had carried in years, he felt for once truly satisfied. “I got to go.” It amazed him that suddenly, now that the unspoken promise connected him and the now strangely familiar woman, those words had lost their hurting touch. “Alright then.” His reply was warm, no remorse leaving his lips. Her sweet chiming ran a last time as she cast a sweet, unburdened “Bye” that he


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returned in kind. Wayne listened intently as noise started to rumble in the background and reach him through the small phone as he heard the woman’s melodic voice, whispering a second, for anyone but him inaudible “Bye”. With a low, dissatisfied grunt Wayne listened to the harsh clicking in his ear as the line blended out into a long, out-drawn humming. Breathlessly the shaggy man felt his chest rise under every low stream of air that descended down his throat, while he leisurely let the cell-phone slip from his ear and kept it dangling loosely by his side. The streetlight flickered once. Slowly, a small aching running down his back, Wayne directed his gaze up at the glooming light bathing his formerly hard features with an ethereal glow. It suddenly felt cold, the blackness around started to creep back into his no-more sleepy head. Hastily Wayne let his eyes wander the streets, taking in the every detail of his surroundings. He had been here before and just as that realization dawned in his mind his eyes landed on the towering, pale frame of an old cathedral, standing out ghostly and hard from the streets around, framed by a multitude of shaggy, old trees.


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Wayne’s limbs felt surprisingly tired as he shakily stumbled across the street and let himself floppily sink down on a green, wooden bench, a low, exhausted breath filling the air before his face with steam. He was anxious. In a way, incomprehensible to even Wayne himself, he wanted that woman to call back, hoped for her to call back. Her voice, which had former only served to upset him, had now left him with something much worse than annoyance, something far more serious than grooming. It had left him lonely. His head fell back over the top of the bench as Wayne closed his eyes to rest his vary mind, the cold, refreshing night air flowing deep down his lungs as he for once felt fully relaxed and light. Drowsy he started to listen to the wind, a mellow melody that gently caressed his ears. Slowly, almost unknown to Wayne, there rose another sound in the comforting play of the night air. It wasn’t until Wayne suddenly found himself humming under his breath that he stiffly rose from his relaxed state and under hasty blinking started to focus his ears on the gentle sounds flowing all around him. There was a humming; he could clearly hear it, a sweet low voice humming a slow,


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mellow song, seeming to just ring out from the surrounding dark. Wayne started to look around, his eyes wandering over blackened windows, dark alleyways and unpopulated subway stairs, before he rose in a stiff, sleepy motion from his seat to cast his glance up at the majestic, stony façade of the century old cathedral. Instinctively a single step took the shaggy man closer to the towering building; he felt lighter; to Wayne his every step had lost the leaden burden it had carried before that night. His gaze wandered up to the big, brightly coloured windows, dimly lit by the pale shine of candles from inside the thick walls. Wayne took another determined step, drawing closer towards the church; he felt like paying a long overdue visit. The hinges of the old door cracked open as Wayne heavily pushed the thick wooden frame aside and stepped into the sparsely lit cavernous interior of the old stone mansion. From afar his eyes caught the flickering shine of a few small sparks of light far off at the other end of the altar room. Quietly he took one step after the other, carrying him deeper and deeper into the wide open hall, the granite walls around him shining in a snowy white light, almost seeming


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translucent to the naked eye. It was quiet, a haunting silence covering the solemn place like a thick blanket, even cancelling out the sundering of Wayne’s heavy footsteps as he silently wandered down the wide open aisle, eyes fixed on the dimly flickering lights up ahead. In his head he started to replay the little humming tune that he had heard as a kid, finding it surprisingly intertwining with the unworldly flare of his surroundings. He started humming happily, low and inaudible, but still clearly echoing through his head in a deep, filling timbre soothing his aching mind as Wayne closed his eyes momentarily from the ghostly lights illuminating the barren hall and let himself submerge in the low melody of his own voice and the cosy smell of dust and incense, which heavily coated the setting. The humming grew louder; his steps still kept him on his walk straight for the old church’s altar, barely lit by the burning candles. Another sound sharply pierced the air. It took him a while to recognize it; Wayne had secretly waited, had longed for the tune to once again ring in his head so he thought it might just as well be his imagination. But the sound grew stronger, rose higher and higher in volume and Wayne let his hand


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instinctively slide up, pressing against his jacket’s pocket; fingers numbly feeling the tremors shaking from underneath the fabric. He fiddled in his pockets drawing out his small cell phone; his eyes opened and gazed down towards it bound on seeing the unfamiliar ID when Wayne suddenly realized another noise filling the air, making his head rise up in surprise and alarm, his eyes still not fully accustomed to the dimly lit place. It was a low rumbling, the sound of something shifting and moving, and another deep monotone beeping, booming through the rows of dust covered benches lining the aisle. With aching eyes Wayne followed the sound, tried to draw his sight along the path the low rumbling led him, and then suddenly froze in place as he saw the silhouette of a lonely figure rising from the foremost row of benches, sharply cut against the spectral shine of the flickering candles. Their light seemed to grow stronger as the figure rose from its seat and turned around in a haze; all its features being swallowed by the blinding white shine. All apart from the inciting dance of long, swirling black hair.


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… to be continued

Documents

"Entwined" by Björn T. Prehna, Chapter I