The phone was on its fourth ring by the time she answered.
“Hello!” Her cheer-filled voice rang through the speaker of my headset. Every time, no matter my condition or how much time has passed, I still smile.
Has it really been that long?
He sat on the back of the bench, his feet placed on the seat. Between his fingers a slowly burning cigarette rests, tendrils of smoke rising into the spring air. He casually flicks the ashes, the sight reminiscent of gently falling snow.
I felt it long before I heard it. The thunder in the distance; a sure sign that the coming storm would not be kind. But still, I pressed on.
My goal? My destination? My path?
My hopes. My dreams. My fears.
I continued through the woods.
And so the children were playing with fire.
The manor was ablaze. A very private, very expensive manor, at that. Those humans did it, he just knew it. He was no one else but Edward Maximillian Bellafonte Esquire, the eldest and most powerful of his family.
The gentle crackling of the bonfires as the night began to change to twilight was the only sound that was heard in the hushed forest. All of the animals, from the lowly rats to the largest hawk, had all fled from their respective homes when they arrived.
"Aya!"
Ken's voice echoed over the footsteps in the nearly empty stairwell. Only three sets of footsteps were resounding from the concrete walls. The highest up the stairs were heavy falling and erratic, as if the person had forgotten how to run.
“Same move as always, eh?”
“It’s my favorite, after all.”
With his youthful hands, Renault moved his knight as his opening move. His opponent moved the king’s pawn.
“You should learn a new opening,” the other replied.
“Maybe.”
Renault moved the other knight.
"You awake yet?"
The female voice over the speakers was almost a whisper, but audible enough to wake him from his short rest.
"If you ever let me sleep in the first place," he grumbled, sitting up again.
If there is one thing I always hated about women, he thought to himself, it's that they are never on time.
He looked down at his watch, brushing the snow away with his gloved hand. Its glowing LED face showed 5:30 pm.