THE RED VASE

Chapter 8

---

THE RED VASE

McCarthy didn't take the boy's comment so seriously. In his mind, "kids will always be kids.hm,hm." He giggled.

It crossed his mind just like that.

He just ignored it and concentrated. Soon, he reached the boy's humble abode.

"You live in here?"

McCarthy asked, seeing an area he wouldn't let his dog live. Though, it wasn't bad for someone who lived hand to mouth. On the side of the road, homeless people lay under their mosquito net, succumbing to the weather and whatever may happen to them.

But the boy had a place to call home, it was an actual house with its main gate broken.

There was only a few meters where darkness had taken hold. He didn't actually like the whole area where he stood! He covered his nose and locked his other hand in his pocket.

"Mmm, you don't like my home?"

His face dropped, and his chubby cheeks filled with biscuits as well. He held his bag containing the ice cream in his armpit.

"What the fu… " he held his mouth tight, so that the foul word wouldn't come out, "are you talking about? Me live here? In a place like this…?" He held his mouth again, "I am sorry, kid, but I have to go."

As he turned and attempted to enter his car, the kid caught his hand.

"I can't cross the darkness alone, please take me up there."

McCarthy laughed, his face brightened up. He had such a bad laugh, cute face, and his hair arranged gently.

The boy, Franklin, couldn't stop admiring him. He took the lead and McCarthy followed.

"How could you be so nice, tall, have a car, and…" he paused and halted. His eyes gleamed in awe, "you're an angel."

Frantically, the boy didn't know who he was dealing with. What was he thinking?

With this, he ignored the boy. He kept mute until they reached the house. In his heart, he wished the boy was his!

It was quite a dilapidated structure. Just how he imagined.

"So if you had not met me, who would have helped you up here?"

"My mother or my sister."

"But, my mother is sick. That's why she didn't come for me today."

McCarthy wondered, "how could such a little boy be so wise?"

"And where is your sister?"

"She works at a company behind the road where we met. I was going there to wait, but the security wouldn't let me get inside."

McCarthy knelt, and looked at the crest on his chest. The school seemed to be very far from their house. As they talked about school, a woman opened her window and shouted,

"Franklin! Who is that?"

The sound echoed, but the kind of accent was so relatable. It was not something new to him. He turned slowly to see a woman in her early 40s, then looked at the little boy.

"That's my mother, but I also love to call my sister my mother," he laughed, his tiny teeth displaying his excitement, "she's supposed to be my grandma but she's actually my mom."

Both turned and looked at her again, but with different determinations. The boy with a gregarious smile on his face and McCarthy with a very determined face.

He stood up on his feet, and on the boy's lead, he followed.

"Mum!" he switched his position to his mother's side, "this handsome man made my day," He explained from the start to end, without taking out even a piece of their conversations home. Kids!

Unfortunately, all that the kid said fell on deaf ears. McCarthy and the woman's face locked, both wondering if they had met the wrong person or not.

"You are McCarthy?"

"Yes, the kid just mentioned that. Have we met?"

Agatha had really changed! The accident affected her badly as time went on. In the past four years, she's had been struggling and battling challenges concerning her health and financial crises.

"Oh, no." She quickly hid her identity, verifying McCarthy had forgotten her looks or maybe had changed badly.

He checked his time and wanted to leave. As he crossed a table behind him, something caught his eyes. His nose began to bleed.

It was the red vase which had caught his attention. He held his nose with a handkerchief and moved on, trying not to embarrass himself.

"There could be plenty of these vases here in Europe too." He guessed and galloped out.

His nose stopped bleeding when he walked out. For a while, he wished he had met Olivia or her ghost so that she would take away the curse, but who would buy this mystery?

When he was about to reach the place covered in darkness, he pressed the handkerchief against his nose so tight.

A young lady also came that way too.

She had already seen him from the light ahead before he could reach the darkness.

Immediately they crossed paths, the lady stood still and McCarthy's nose began to bleed again!

He didn't even try to turn to give a look at the lady who was so concerned about what was wrong with him. He just covered his nose again and rushed to his car.

She ignored and continued her journey to reach the brighter part of the road, then stopped and turned again. Though the car was gone, she was confused.

HA AND LEE HOUSING (McCarthy's new apartment) 10:30 PM

Lights beamed all around, a very elegant house. It could take gold to purchase, but that was just a snap-of-the-fingers- thing for the man who sat in his chair, quietly reminiscing about what had happened earlier: the stress, his encounter with the kid and his mom, and how his nose bled.

"The vase," he mentioned and started to remember how Olivia held hers and cast spells on him, "could it hold some superpowers?"

All questions to himself remained unanswered.

In the next 20 minutes, he was in his warm pool. Submerged, he could stay there for two to three minutes counting about 20 stars, then come out to take a deep breath. Then go back there again. This time, something popped up in his mind. As he was inside, he felt the touch again, he rushed up, thinking it was the shadow lady, it was just his imagination playing him.

"Olivia!" He mentioned, waited for his nose to bleed, but it didn't.

His cognitive mind took him back again, to the steps of the lady whom he had crossed paths with in the darkness, and the woman who seemed to be pretending to be someone else.

In the next three minutes, he had got himself dressed up and ready to return to that house again.

Back at "Olden Area". Where Franklin and his family lived.

"This is him!"

Franklin yelled, pointing to McCarthy who had stood at the broken gate for some time watching the family.

His gaze kept on the lady who was also seated there. Enjoying a fun time with her mother and brother.

"For all these years, months, weeks, and days. Presumed dead and gone. Here you finally are."

He rushed up to her, this time the lady was on her feet. He held her against the wall and pinched her hands against it.

"Olivia, so it is really you!" His eyes brighting and brooding over the her. He grind his teeth, and the vains on face erected.

She could not resist that look. His eyes, lips, face were on point. Her heart pounded against her rips, "kum,kum,kum," it repeated as the rate kept rising higher.