Night Birds: 6. Urgent Matter
For some reason all of this seemed to be familiar ... had she been here before?
The tall fence appeared to be repelling, threatening even but she would overcome it, she had to overcome it. There was something on the other side which lured her, attracted her. So she started climbing, however it seemed to be impossible overbearing it. The harder she tried the more the top of the fence appeared to be unreachable - almost as if it would grow like weeds. At some point her limbs felt heavy, her arms couldn’t hold her up anymore. A strong hand grabbed her ankle and made her fall down ... and down ... and down ...
When her feet finally reached the ground again she was surrounded by gruesome monsters. Gigantic wanderers! But this kind she had never seen before - yet they appeared eerily familiar how they lunged at her. She screamed, high-pitched and scared and although the monsters vanished -
Suddenly Tommy was awake, her own screeching scream still resounded in her ears. The shock about this very vivid nightmare had her kick and toss around in bed until the child gasped when she fell out of bed. Thankfully her wrist was still secured but all the girl could think about right now was the blurring memory of the wanderers which had threatened to attack her.
A few minutes passed in which she sat on the ground, trembling and breathing shallowly. Hugging her knees Tommy took a moment to realise where she actually was; then she recognised the shape of her soft plushie that probably fell off the bed as well. Of course she hadn't noticed how she threw it away while dreaming. With a sniff the child crawled over and pulled the huge, soft pillow-like plushie to her chest: "... I'm sorry, Sir Fluff." While she buried her face into the velvet-like fabric the dread faded slowly. Still Tommy was immensely restless, a shadowy shape she caught from the corner of her eye even made the girl flinch. Rubbing her face Tommy eventually climbed back into bed and nestled underneath her blanket.
But it was no use; the horrific appearance of the wanderers stuck on her mind and in front of her inner eye and usually Tommy used to curse at all the other kids she needed to share a bed with - but right now she would have welcomed them with all her heart. She didn't want to sleep by herself and maybe even have those monsters haunting her in her dreams again ...
But what to do? Clinging on to the cat plush Tommy squeezed her eyes shut. Breathing in ... and out. In ... and out.
In ... at the sudden noise of a loud crash outside the child shrieked and hid completely beneath her blanket. After roughly a minute of quietly sobbing and sniffing, the girl eventually climbed out of bed again. Her arms tightly wrapped around Sir Fluff Tommy stepped over to her room door, pushed down the door handle and slipped outside.
The corridor was dimly lit but it was enough for her to see; in fact it was a warm, comfy light to her eyes when Tommy made her way down the floor. The carpet beneath her bare feet was thick and felt warm while the girl turned around a corner, looking for somebody or any life sign. The people in these valuable looking oil paintings seemed to observe Tommy on her lonely walk through the quartier; a few times when Tommy glanced at them she imagined the depicted ones winking at her.
Behind another corner the child finally caught the figure of someone. The dude was quite tall and rather intimidating but maybe he could tell her where to look for Sylus. For some reason Tommy was sure that keeping him company, and if it was just for a little while, would make her feel better and the nightmare-wanderers less gruesome.
Little did she know about what it meant to be the leader of Onychinus. How and what Sylus used to busy himself with and taking care of little menaces, how Tommy had been called by a few of his men, wasn't exactly a priority, usually at least. This was probably running through the mind of the guy standing in front of a closed door, shielding Tommy's ears from the most of a lively debate; he tilted his head, distorting his face: "What are you doing here?! Go back to your room again." Crossing his arms he eyed the child in her black and pastel red pajamas hugging that ridiculous plush with annoyance: "Crumbs like you belong to bed at this time."
"I can't sleep." Pouting Tommy rubbed her teary eyes and frowned, pointing at the door: "Is Sylus in there? Can I see him?" Her innocent question was more of rhetorical nature as she kept stepping closer. The guy snorted: "Didn't you hear what I said? Piss off, the Boss mustn't be diaturbed." Tommy watched how he inhaled deeply, yet she sniffed and pushed her lower lip forward: "But it's important -"
"He's busy, you little brat!" Now he raised a hand as if aiming at her. Quickly the child ducked away below his apparingly attack and wanted to grab the door handle when the strong arm wrapped around her waist, pulling away the squirming girl: "FUCKER, LEAVE ME BE, I WANNA SEE SYLUS!" His enervated, fury curses barely reached her ears, kicking and boxing the dude earned Tommy a clout and a few angry swats but it didn’t help to calm her down, on the contrary -
"... let her in."
Almost simultaneously both of them paused before the guard pushed her away. That was when Tommy realised that she had lost her plush in the short fight. Picking up Sir Fluff she distorted her face at the dude who eyed her threateningly before opening the door.
The chandelier's golden light brightened the room in a cozy, comfortable way and illuminated the figures of the silver-haired leader of Onychinus and a few strangers. The moment the girl appeared in the doorframe their heated discussion paused abruptly with all eyes directed at Tommy. She sniffled and immediately looked for Sylus' crimson gaze, hesitating.
Sylus had his head tilted at the girl, frowning. However, quite different from his guests, not due to irritation but curiousity: "Come over here, shorty." Beckoning her closer Onychinus' leader observed how the child in her pj's, the plush tightly hugged and her right wrist bandaged slowly crossed the room on to the armchair he was sitting in: "What is it?"
Viewing the girl clinging up to her plushie with little tears in her eyes certainly brought up questions in the minds of those he had invitated to talk about further protocore trading. But of course non of them dared to actually ask where the girl came from, if she was a relative, his daughter even. They weren't so foolish to give him even the tiniest hint of whether a child could appear to be his weakness - after all they desired to live and benefit from their connections to this man. Extending a hand to examine the girl's wrist Sylus eyed at her expectantly. Again she rubbed her face with the other hand, the huge plush clamped in her arm. Her reply was mumbled and so quiet that it was barely audible to the others when she lowered her head.
The silver-haired however nodded and let got of her wrist before turning to face his guests again: "An urgent matter came up that has to be taken care of. Excuse me, gentlemen." Before Tommy could even think about stepping back, Sylus got up from his chair, swiftly placed an arm around the back of her thighs and lifted her up as if she didn't weight anything. The gasp got stuck in her throat, intuitionally the girl held on to his collar, her free hand reaching around his neck. She avoided looking at anyone, head lowered and eyes fixed on his silvery hair. When Sylus spoke again, his voice sounded definite: "We'll reschedule our meeting." No huffs or other infuriated or annoyed sounds left anyone's lips, the respect for Onychinus' leader they held was just as legendary as his infamous reputation. Instead, they politely nodded and gathered their documents while Sylus left the room with the child in his arms.
Who found back her voice out on the floor: "... you can put me down now!" Passing by the dude who had guarded the door Tommy stuck out her tongue at him. Sylus, watching her reflection in a nearby shiny glass vitrine, had the corners of his mouth twitching: "So? You seem to enjoy behaving like a little kid, don't mind me treating you like one." A chuckle was heard when Tommy started struggling, surely offended: "HEY! That Pajama was NOT my idea!" Not debating about her utterly missing the point the silver-head secured her with his other hand wrapped around her waist for further support: "But it looks good on you and you said, you like the fabric - he'd agree with me", Sylus added jokingly and shortly nudged the cat plushie in her arm. Then the expression in his eyes got serious: "Tell me about your dream."
Eventually Tommy calmed down on his arm and let her chin rest on the crown of his head. He was so tall, how curious that right now she felt even more meaningful than usually when she needed to look aloft to him: "... I tried climbing a fence but fell ... and then, there were wanderers everywhere." Talking about it brought the vivid images back to her mind and made Tommy shiver: "They were so many and I was by myself -" She stifled the sob right in time, yet felt the grip of his hands around her body tighten. In a gentle way.
"You won't be alone tonight." Again his voice held the definite tune from earlier but it was a lot warmer, looking at her the leader of Onychinus softly narrowed his eyes: "And there's nothing for you to be afraid of." Opening and closing what seemed to be a random door Sylus took the child into another room which was similary dim lit like the corridors; but the large bed taking up most of the space couldn't be overlooked anyway. Another closed door seemed to lead to who-knew-where and the sight out of the large window showed the blood red moon casting its glow over n109 zone's skyline.
The other walls were adorned with more enticing silhouettes and large paintings, an odd construction rested in a corner across from the bed. Pointing at it, Tommy frowned: "What's that?" The shimmering funnel almost looked like a huge loud hailer, like those used by police men sometimes.
Sylus felt the corners of his mouth twitching when he turned around, the child still on his arms: "It belongs to a record player - I'll show you tomorrow." Intuitionally Tommy frowned: "Why not now? I'm awake." Again she started struggling but his grip was safe. Not to say firm, when Sylus shook his head, raising a brow: "Now is not the time for you to be up and active, you should go back to sleep and rest. That's why you came to look for me, right?" Letting her down onto the bed the silver-haired eyed her carefully: "Everything else can wait until later."
Tommy shook her head, already dreading the idea of being haunted by more nightmares; she was actually up for protesting but the general serene athmosphere in this room had its own calming effect on the girl. Or it was thanks to the presence of the silver-haired. Snuggling up to her plush she crawled underneath the blanket and watched Sylus sitting down on the edge of the bed. Her eyes widened a bit: "You have to stay with me until I fell asleep." The bold but innocent demand made him chuckle when Sylus observed the child getting comfortable: "... alright, shorty. I'll stay with you and make sure there will be no more nightmares."