~ 30: Behind The Menancing Veil - Part 1 ~

I had lost out too much weight and energy from coughing out the substances every now and then. So Aidan had to support my back and prevent me from eating more of the one pack of ice cream.

"What's the black liquid in your blood?" he asked. "Were you poisoned?"

I couldn't answer him for I was too weak and I wasn't totally sure if that tube contained poison. I only knew that it was a love potion, which probably had unknown side effects. Telling that to Aidan was not a good idea, after seeing him storm about my disappearance into a dangerous place.

The mention of that day triggered more phlegm and blood. With it came out more dots of a white substance. Perhaps my system was trying to get rid of the possibly poisonous substance that had entered through the tube.

"How much of the truth are you hiding?" he asked quietly, cupping my face and lifting it to meet his. His eyes were tender with anger hidden behind them.

"You don't need to know..." I gasped out as I choked on the fluid again.

"Fine, there's a better way to figure it out," he said and picked me off the ground in his arms.

"It will hurt —"

He had shut me up with a peck to the lips. I pursed them in bitterness and tried to hold the tight cough that kept coming when I spoke.

"Lean in. I don't want you getting into more health problems by hitting your head."

I reluctantly placed my head on his shoulder while my hand clutched the front of his shirt. He laughed at it, but I didn't like falling from high places. With him being pretty tall, a mere few inches away from six feet, I would fall from a metre above the ground. My skinny frame would be broken to bits.

It would be illogical to argue with Aidan on seeing Mel first before visiting the doctor. I didn't want to hear any more yells and shouts from him. I had received enough earful for a lifetime.

It seems that the fluid, that was very happy to come out when I needed to speak, had forgotten to come out in front of the doctor. I had to be thumped hard on my back to be able to produce even a sample of it to fill the little bottle.

We sat in the lobby, with him not leaving my side even once. He wouldn't even let me go to the washroom or fetch a glass of water by myself.

"You're being fussy," I would complain.

"You're being careless," he would remark in return. "A few more broken parts and you will become a permanent resident of the hospital."

I was only given the mercy to curse under my breath. With the half an hour that they took to see if I was healthy, we couldn't visit Mel. I asked Aidan to check up on her but he refused with the usual.

When we got to see her, we were glad to have her awake from her coma. And the two of us spent the rest of the night chatting away with the day's events. Before we dispersed, we promised to bring her home with many gifts for her discharge.

On reaching home, I remembered the crumbled paper and removed it from the pants in my closet. The black scribbled paper had some illegible red lines. I quickly took out a translucent, black zipper file that I kept with me and put the little note under it. Then I switched on the table lamp to get a better view.

The red letters became clearly visible under the bright light. The slightly jagged handwriting reminded me of the one I had received days ago at my house. Perhaps, Lucas had been behind the whole thing of me finding the pendant. But how did he know that I needed it or that I would be the only one to find it? Did that mean that he could actually hear me since then?

I read the blood-red lines on the paper in a hushed voice, "717, Arena 1874, Madison Square. Midnight on the Night of Blessings."

'Would it be The Night of the Sturgeon Moon?' I asked myself. 'Is that not tonight?'

I looked out of the window. I couldn't see the moon, but from the brightness in the sky, I could tell that the moon brighter than on other nights. I searched through my phone to make sure that I had predicted correctly.

Finding it to be correct, I put on my boots and the little black cloak. A lingering feeling told me that it wouldn't be right to go there.

'But it is the correct night,' my small voice convinced me. 'There is an hour left before the supermoon comes up in full. You must get there on time.'

So I shook off the eerieness in my heart and set foot outside once more. With the people roaming around, I was only partly afraid of landing into another trap. Pulling the hood of the cloak closer and bringing it to prevent any eyes, I pushed my feet to walk deep into the city's labyrinth.

His apartment was located in a nice complex, in a secured area with a beautiful landscape surrounding it. It looked pretty at night, although the creepy crawlies created a weird strangeness. I tread on the soft grass, counting building after building and then stopping at the seventh block.

After climbing up to the first floor and standing in front of the seventh flat, I knocked on the door. It came with manners of not clicking on the bell after ten in the night, no matter what. I only heard a faint sound.

Taking it to be a 'Come in!', I slowly twisted the handle of the door. A heavy clunk sounded behind the door. I jumped back in fright, thinking I had caused a spring to come loose.

"Who is it?" a deep, half-sleepy voice came from behind the door.

"Lucas, is it you? You told me to meet you at your lair tonight," I responded.

"How am I supposed to know who you are? I never called for anyone tonight. What's your name?"

"Celestine. Celestine Dixon."

"And on what errand were you called upon for? Room service?"

"I was told to come at midnight on the Night of Blessings —"

Suddenly, the lock sprang back. The door flew open and I was pulled to the wall, facing a fearsome person. Then, it was shut with a bang.