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Her days at the Montgomery house had become a little less grueling, and also a little less lonely. Jason now didn't completely ignore her presence, and would on occasion speak to her without the hint of resentment in his voice. It may not have seemed like much of an improvement to anyone else, but to her it was a shocking event. Molly even began to address her about things other than "dinner is ready." But Arietta could still feel that odd feeling in the pit of her stomach when she caught Molly watching her with her all to wise gaze. There was something strange about the little girl, something more than a little peculiar. But Arietta never had much time to fret about it, for once Molly was aware that Arietta had seen her, she would disappear. More miraculous still, her relationship with Gabriel had even increased. And it was a difficult task to accomplish seeing as he was gone more often than not. But every two days or so when he would come over, they would continue their conversation about trivial things.
"I just don't think you understand, his snoring is just... horrendously loud."
"I'm sure my father snores louder than your friend."
"I just can't stress how loud Marcus is. His snores are... vociferous."
"Vociferous, big word coming from you."
And on it would go. Their conversations ranged from snoring to light bulbs. They would go at forever, and in the rare event that Jason would enter the room, a glare and eye roll would be thrown in their direction. But much to Jason's annoyance, they would fire up about even that. Molly found it amusing and would sporadically jump into the conversation, only furthering Arietta's belief that there was something bizarre about the girl. And although a lot of their conversations were frivolous, there were times at which Gabriel and Arietta would talk about something important or earnest.
"What is it that's up there?" Arietta asked, her gaze following Molly as she bounded up the stairs and towards the back room. Gabriel glanced in the same direction and frowned slightly. Jason's angry huff could be heard as the two walked into the sitting room. But he was gone before Arietta could see him.
"Our mother." Gabriel finally answered, looking back at her with the frown still plastered on his face.
"What? Why does she never come down then?" Arietta asked, her brow furrowing slightly as she plopped herself down on the old curving couch.
"She fell ill about a year ago. She can't leave her bed; she's too weak to do anything." he sat himself down in a chair opposite her. "How about we talk about something else?"
But soon most of their conversations turned to rather grave topics. Arietta wasn't quite sure why, but Gabriel's mood was beginning to take a drastic nose dive. She supposed it had something to do with the sirens. It seemed that all of their troubles, which was everyone, the entire city, all of their troubles could be traced back to those damn sirens. Every time she heard that cursed sound, a grisly grimace flickered across her face.
It appeared though, in the days following, that every day Gabriel would come over, the more foul his mood would become. She didn't want to ask about what was upsetting him, figuring that it would only distress him. But when he paid little to no interest in their conversations anymore, and left the house early with a curt nod, she began to lose her temper. And of course, Jason found the entire situation amusing, although it might have been that he was glad to finally have some peace and quiet in his life.
Arietta found it perfectly fitting that Jason was... was well... she really wasn't quite sure. All she knew about were those eyes that gleamed like a cat. She thought he perhaps shifted into a cat, but not a house cat no, a big jungle cat. Perhaps a leopard or tiger or something of that nature. But back to her point, she found it rather befitting that this is what Jason's ability, whatever it may be, was. For cats hold themselves regally, almost snobbishly, and they seem to believe everyone around them only exists to serve them in some way or another. Also, if cat's could talk, they wouldn't. All of this matched up with Jason's personality to a tee. And Arietta found it rather amusing.
And then there was the matter of miss Molly. Arietta could just tell, that she possessed some sort of supernatural ability. It was that oddity, that which made her wary of the girl, that seemed to point to this conclusion. But Arietta just could not seem to figure out what it was the girl could do. Whatever her ability, Molly did a fantastic job of disguising it. Well perhaps not disguising it... but rather concealing it. She left no trace, not one hint that could give Arietta any notion of what it was the girl could do. It drove her up the wall.
It had been a few weeks since Arietta had arrived at the Montgomery residence, and in those few weeks the snow had continuously fallen upon the world. The temperature had dropped considerably from the time when she had first fallen into the sepia city. But the snow never piled up; there always just a slight dusting on the ground. Most of the time it was much to cold for the snow. And the temperature had remained below zero the entire length of the time.
Arietta was sitting in the old office, book in hand, but folded under her chin, gazing out the window and onto the cold world. Somehow, even in the winter, the city was still bathed in sepia. She thought that after a while, she would have grown use to the color, but she hadn't. In fact, the odd coloring seemed to annoy her more than it had before. She wondered if any of the other residents even noticed the color of their reality, or if it meant nothing to them whatsoever.
Jason walked through the door, looking rather troubled and distressed. She gave him a curious look, turning her eyes away from the window to look straight on at him. She had never seen Jason in this state before, much less in front of her, and she couldn't quite seem to put together just what was wrong with him.
"Can I ask you something Arietta?" he asked, not really seeming to see her. His eyes wandered about the room, but nothing ever truly caught their attention. His left hand rubbed the back of his neck while the right hung limp at his side.
"Sure Jason." Once the words left her mouth Jason's eyes seemed to find her in the room.
"What's it like?"
"What's what like?"
"Where you came from?" Arietta's head jerked back a bit at this comment, her brow raising slightly. That was definitely not what she expected to hear come from his mouth.
"Why do you want to-"
"It's the reason!" he exclaimed, throwing up his hands in the air as he walked in a quick circle. "The reason for everything! Can you just tell me?" Arietta gave him a concerned look and drew herself up out of her chair her left hand beginning to reach out for him while the other continued to grasp the book. "Oh just forget it!" Jason scowled, giving her a nasty look before turning on his heel and storming out of the room.
"Is everyone going crazy now?" she whispered to herself as she shook her head. She was beginning to think she was the only sane person underneath the Montgomery roof, or outside of it for that matter.
A day had passed since her encounter with Jason's crazy side, and the guy seemed desperate to avoid her. Every single time she walked into the same room as him, he was gone before she could blink. She rolled her eyes, it's not like she was in a place to judge him. The day seemed to pass uneventfully, Molly was at school, Jason was avoiding her, and she hadn't seen Gabriel in days. She was once again alone in the Montgomery house. And then came the sirens.
They had a familiar call, more loud and quick than usual. The same sound as the day she had left Lalita's home. She quickly put down her book and moved into the small hallway, where there were no windows. She could see Jason dashing from window to window, with speed not anything like a natural human being's. She was about to ask something when the back door came crashing open. She jumped at the sound, but relaxed slightly when she saw it was merely Gabriel standing in the frame. That was until he ran in and started looking around himself like a crazy man.
"Arietta?" he called, sounding very anxious. She walked into the sitting room with her hands poised in the air.
"What? What is it?"
"We have to leave. Now." The stress he put on that last word was enough to send her into panic flight mode. She threw her book onto the couch and looked around like crazy for her jacket. Gabriel was pacing about like mad when Jason walked into the room.
"What is going on?"
"They know Jason, they know she's here."
"What how?"
"A neighbor saw her through the fucking window!" he didn't yell, you would never say he had yelled. But it was loud, and spoken so angrily it made Arietta pause while putting her arm into the jacket. Jason seemed to be just as surprised as she was.
"What did I say. What did I tell you? I said leaving her here would bring us all nothing but trouble. And-"
"Is Molly at school?"
"Well she-"
"Is Molly at school?" there was that not-yell again. Arietta had snapped out of her surprised trance and was now walking towards the back door, waiting for Gabriel to follow.
"Yes she's at school!"
"Deny anything."
"But-"
"Deny anything Jason, I'm serious! If they find no proof nothing will happen, this is technically my house, so they want to hear you deny her ever being here. They don't want to find her here, got it?"
"Yeah." And with that they were gone. Gabriel was dragging her through the streets, quickly dusting away their footsteps as they went. It slowed them down considerably, but it was worth the risk. At least, that's what Gabriel told her. They did have to duck behind shadows multiple times as guards pounded their way towards the Montgomery house. Arietta tried her hardest to keep her teeth from chattering, but the air was so cold. Her lips had already gone dry and were beginning to crack. Gabriel was having the same issue. But none of his mattered. None of it at all. The only thing that mattered was escape.
As the rubbish and garbage that was piled up around them began to grow in number, and eerie feeling set over her. But it was when she saw the body of an old man frozen to the ground, when she saw his toothless mouth twisted into a half-smile half-grimace, did she know where they were going. She looked up at Gabriel with a questioning look, but he looked away as he pulled her along after him. They paused in the shadows. They stood a few feet away from the familiar house. And Arietta could sense right away that something was off.
The door, was swung open, half concealed inside the shadows of the dark, unlit house. No one, not a single soul, walked anywhere close to the old wooden building. But Gabriel pulled her forward, a deeply troubled look etched into his features. And it was when she entered the house beside Gabriel, that she knew why all this was so. Her eyes were locked on Lalita, and for a moment, she couldn't speak. But when the single tear slipped from her eye and onto her cheek did it hit her.
Her knees gave out, and Gabriel tried to catch her as she fell. His hands wrapped around her arms as her body slipped down onto the floor. He tried to keep her standing, but ended up just kneeling next to her on the floor, hands still locked onto her wrists. And it was then that she broke down. Part of it was the compassion she felt for the woman, but mostly it was from the horror of the scene which laid before her on the wooden floor. Sobs racked her body as she buried her face in Gabriel's chest; only half of her face was turned towards Lalita's corpse, unable to look away.
She was mangled. The was the only way Arietta could even begin to describe the sight which she beheld. Her limbs were broken, and thrown in all different directions. Her right arm seemed just about ready to fall off. Only a few sinewy pieces of flesh held the broken appendage fast to Lalita's body. Her breasts lay almost completely exposed, showing the lashings and cuts which were dealt to her chest. Torn pieces of fabric clung to the open flesh and now seemed to have become buried within it. The cuts were oozing puss, and dried blood caked her deflated, greying skin. Her stomach had been slashed open, and her intestines pulled out, though not entirely, not enough to kill her, but to make her suffer profusely.
Frozen blood pooled on the floor below her, on her, and slithered across the floor. Her face was contorted into an expression of such pain and horror Arietta couldn't look away. Her bulging eyes had long turned grey and filmy, glazed over. The back of her head had been smashed in, a bit of it's contents had slipped onto the floor next to her. And perhaps the worst part of it all, was that she was frozen there. Her rotting corpse was frozen stuck to the ground as it was eaten into by vermin and insects. Arietta could make out the form of a rat nibbling away at the remaining guts of her stomach.
Arietta tried to crawl towards the woman who had offered her shelter, she merely wanted to close shut those eyes frozen open in terror, but Gabriel held her back. She collapsed against the floor, letting the tears splatter on the floor. Gabriel had wrapped a restricting arm around her waist, trying to keep her from Lalita.
"If you do anything at all to the body, they'll know." he whispered, his own voice shaking with unseen tears. He began to pull Arietta to her feet, dragging her limp body towards the stairs. "We have to stay here tonight, it's the only option." Arietta shook her head, the smell of Lalita's rotting corpse stayed with them long after her body had left their sight.
"I just don't think you understand, his snoring is just... horrendously loud."
"I'm sure my father snores louder than your friend."
"I just can't stress how loud Marcus is. His snores are... vociferous."
"Vociferous, big word coming from you."
And on it would go. Their conversations ranged from snoring to light bulbs. They would go at forever, and in the rare event that Jason would enter the room, a glare and eye roll would be thrown in their direction. But much to Jason's annoyance, they would fire up about even that. Molly found it amusing and would sporadically jump into the conversation, only furthering Arietta's belief that there was something bizarre about the girl. And although a lot of their conversations were frivolous, there were times at which Gabriel and Arietta would talk about something important or earnest.
"What is it that's up there?" Arietta asked, her gaze following Molly as she bounded up the stairs and towards the back room. Gabriel glanced in the same direction and frowned slightly. Jason's angry huff could be heard as the two walked into the sitting room. But he was gone before Arietta could see him.
"Our mother." Gabriel finally answered, looking back at her with the frown still plastered on his face.
"What? Why does she never come down then?" Arietta asked, her brow furrowing slightly as she plopped herself down on the old curving couch.
"She fell ill about a year ago. She can't leave her bed; she's too weak to do anything." he sat himself down in a chair opposite her. "How about we talk about something else?"
But soon most of their conversations turned to rather grave topics. Arietta wasn't quite sure why, but Gabriel's mood was beginning to take a drastic nose dive. She supposed it had something to do with the sirens. It seemed that all of their troubles, which was everyone, the entire city, all of their troubles could be traced back to those damn sirens. Every time she heard that cursed sound, a grisly grimace flickered across her face.
It appeared though, in the days following, that every day Gabriel would come over, the more foul his mood would become. She didn't want to ask about what was upsetting him, figuring that it would only distress him. But when he paid little to no interest in their conversations anymore, and left the house early with a curt nod, she began to lose her temper. And of course, Jason found the entire situation amusing, although it might have been that he was glad to finally have some peace and quiet in his life.
Arietta found it perfectly fitting that Jason was... was well... she really wasn't quite sure. All she knew about were those eyes that gleamed like a cat. She thought he perhaps shifted into a cat, but not a house cat no, a big jungle cat. Perhaps a leopard or tiger or something of that nature. But back to her point, she found it rather befitting that this is what Jason's ability, whatever it may be, was. For cats hold themselves regally, almost snobbishly, and they seem to believe everyone around them only exists to serve them in some way or another. Also, if cat's could talk, they wouldn't. All of this matched up with Jason's personality to a tee. And Arietta found it rather amusing.
And then there was the matter of miss Molly. Arietta could just tell, that she possessed some sort of supernatural ability. It was that oddity, that which made her wary of the girl, that seemed to point to this conclusion. But Arietta just could not seem to figure out what it was the girl could do. Whatever her ability, Molly did a fantastic job of disguising it. Well perhaps not disguising it... but rather concealing it. She left no trace, not one hint that could give Arietta any notion of what it was the girl could do. It drove her up the wall.
It had been a few weeks since Arietta had arrived at the Montgomery residence, and in those few weeks the snow had continuously fallen upon the world. The temperature had dropped considerably from the time when she had first fallen into the sepia city. But the snow never piled up; there always just a slight dusting on the ground. Most of the time it was much to cold for the snow. And the temperature had remained below zero the entire length of the time.
Arietta was sitting in the old office, book in hand, but folded under her chin, gazing out the window and onto the cold world. Somehow, even in the winter, the city was still bathed in sepia. She thought that after a while, she would have grown use to the color, but she hadn't. In fact, the odd coloring seemed to annoy her more than it had before. She wondered if any of the other residents even noticed the color of their reality, or if it meant nothing to them whatsoever.
Jason walked through the door, looking rather troubled and distressed. She gave him a curious look, turning her eyes away from the window to look straight on at him. She had never seen Jason in this state before, much less in front of her, and she couldn't quite seem to put together just what was wrong with him.
"Can I ask you something Arietta?" he asked, not really seeming to see her. His eyes wandered about the room, but nothing ever truly caught their attention. His left hand rubbed the back of his neck while the right hung limp at his side.
"Sure Jason." Once the words left her mouth Jason's eyes seemed to find her in the room.
"What's it like?"
"What's what like?"
"Where you came from?" Arietta's head jerked back a bit at this comment, her brow raising slightly. That was definitely not what she expected to hear come from his mouth.
"Why do you want to-"
"It's the reason!" he exclaimed, throwing up his hands in the air as he walked in a quick circle. "The reason for everything! Can you just tell me?" Arietta gave him a concerned look and drew herself up out of her chair her left hand beginning to reach out for him while the other continued to grasp the book. "Oh just forget it!" Jason scowled, giving her a nasty look before turning on his heel and storming out of the room.
"Is everyone going crazy now?" she whispered to herself as she shook her head. She was beginning to think she was the only sane person underneath the Montgomery roof, or outside of it for that matter.
A day had passed since her encounter with Jason's crazy side, and the guy seemed desperate to avoid her. Every single time she walked into the same room as him, he was gone before she could blink. She rolled her eyes, it's not like she was in a place to judge him. The day seemed to pass uneventfully, Molly was at school, Jason was avoiding her, and she hadn't seen Gabriel in days. She was once again alone in the Montgomery house. And then came the sirens.
They had a familiar call, more loud and quick than usual. The same sound as the day she had left Lalita's home. She quickly put down her book and moved into the small hallway, where there were no windows. She could see Jason dashing from window to window, with speed not anything like a natural human being's. She was about to ask something when the back door came crashing open. She jumped at the sound, but relaxed slightly when she saw it was merely Gabriel standing in the frame. That was until he ran in and started looking around himself like a crazy man.
"Arietta?" he called, sounding very anxious. She walked into the sitting room with her hands poised in the air.
"What? What is it?"
"We have to leave. Now." The stress he put on that last word was enough to send her into panic flight mode. She threw her book onto the couch and looked around like crazy for her jacket. Gabriel was pacing about like mad when Jason walked into the room.
"What is going on?"
"They know Jason, they know she's here."
"What how?"
"A neighbor saw her through the fucking window!" he didn't yell, you would never say he had yelled. But it was loud, and spoken so angrily it made Arietta pause while putting her arm into the jacket. Jason seemed to be just as surprised as she was.
"What did I say. What did I tell you? I said leaving her here would bring us all nothing but trouble. And-"
"Is Molly at school?"
"Well she-"
"Is Molly at school?" there was that not-yell again. Arietta had snapped out of her surprised trance and was now walking towards the back door, waiting for Gabriel to follow.
"Yes she's at school!"
"Deny anything."
"But-"
"Deny anything Jason, I'm serious! If they find no proof nothing will happen, this is technically my house, so they want to hear you deny her ever being here. They don't want to find her here, got it?"
"Yeah." And with that they were gone. Gabriel was dragging her through the streets, quickly dusting away their footsteps as they went. It slowed them down considerably, but it was worth the risk. At least, that's what Gabriel told her. They did have to duck behind shadows multiple times as guards pounded their way towards the Montgomery house. Arietta tried her hardest to keep her teeth from chattering, but the air was so cold. Her lips had already gone dry and were beginning to crack. Gabriel was having the same issue. But none of his mattered. None of it at all. The only thing that mattered was escape.
As the rubbish and garbage that was piled up around them began to grow in number, and eerie feeling set over her. But it was when she saw the body of an old man frozen to the ground, when she saw his toothless mouth twisted into a half-smile half-grimace, did she know where they were going. She looked up at Gabriel with a questioning look, but he looked away as he pulled her along after him. They paused in the shadows. They stood a few feet away from the familiar house. And Arietta could sense right away that something was off.
The door, was swung open, half concealed inside the shadows of the dark, unlit house. No one, not a single soul, walked anywhere close to the old wooden building. But Gabriel pulled her forward, a deeply troubled look etched into his features. And it was when she entered the house beside Gabriel, that she knew why all this was so. Her eyes were locked on Lalita, and for a moment, she couldn't speak. But when the single tear slipped from her eye and onto her cheek did it hit her.
Her knees gave out, and Gabriel tried to catch her as she fell. His hands wrapped around her arms as her body slipped down onto the floor. He tried to keep her standing, but ended up just kneeling next to her on the floor, hands still locked onto her wrists. And it was then that she broke down. Part of it was the compassion she felt for the woman, but mostly it was from the horror of the scene which laid before her on the wooden floor. Sobs racked her body as she buried her face in Gabriel's chest; only half of her face was turned towards Lalita's corpse, unable to look away.
She was mangled. The was the only way Arietta could even begin to describe the sight which she beheld. Her limbs were broken, and thrown in all different directions. Her right arm seemed just about ready to fall off. Only a few sinewy pieces of flesh held the broken appendage fast to Lalita's body. Her breasts lay almost completely exposed, showing the lashings and cuts which were dealt to her chest. Torn pieces of fabric clung to the open flesh and now seemed to have become buried within it. The cuts were oozing puss, and dried blood caked her deflated, greying skin. Her stomach had been slashed open, and her intestines pulled out, though not entirely, not enough to kill her, but to make her suffer profusely.
Frozen blood pooled on the floor below her, on her, and slithered across the floor. Her face was contorted into an expression of such pain and horror Arietta couldn't look away. Her bulging eyes had long turned grey and filmy, glazed over. The back of her head had been smashed in, a bit of it's contents had slipped onto the floor next to her. And perhaps the worst part of it all, was that she was frozen there. Her rotting corpse was frozen stuck to the ground as it was eaten into by vermin and insects. Arietta could make out the form of a rat nibbling away at the remaining guts of her stomach.
Arietta tried to crawl towards the woman who had offered her shelter, she merely wanted to close shut those eyes frozen open in terror, but Gabriel held her back. She collapsed against the floor, letting the tears splatter on the floor. Gabriel had wrapped a restricting arm around her waist, trying to keep her from Lalita.
"If you do anything at all to the body, they'll know." he whispered, his own voice shaking with unseen tears. He began to pull Arietta to her feet, dragging her limp body towards the stairs. "We have to stay here tonight, it's the only option." Arietta shook her head, the smell of Lalita's rotting corpse stayed with them long after her body had left their sight.
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