Raven (3 page)

She sighed and tucked a strand of her dark locks behind her ear, and in so doing smeared paint across her cheek. Giving one last appreciative look at the painting she moved over to the kitchen sink to wash the paint off her face. There was a tiny mirror mounted over the tap and she peered into it as she scrubbed at her cheek. As she gazed at her reflection she realised with a sudden shriek that there was someone standing behind her. Well, not actually behind her, but close enough.

She whirled around, her heart catching in her throat at the mysterious stranger that was standing on her balcony. It was him. He stood patiently, calmly. He wore a moody expression and looked perplexed, like something was bothering him.

For a split second she wondered whether she should run out of her apartment right now, but that thought was quickly replace by another - curiosity. It was something she had never been able to control and now more than ever she wanted answers. The day’s sky was barely visible behind him now; although not yet even five o’clock, the remnants of the day were fading fast and a light rain fall had started yet again. He stood completely in his human form, naked but for a pair of black jeans which seemed to have been hastily pulled on. His short dark hair was flat against his scalp and he had rain drops dripping down his face to his hard muscled chest. He looked like he could easily crush her, yet she wasn’t afraid.

She slowly walked over to the door and stopped. He observed her behaviour for a moment before taking another step towards the glass door to meet her, stopping just shy of bumping his nose. He was a lot taller than she, but not older and he looked down at her with sorrow burdened across his brow. Whilst she wondered what caused this, she couldn’t help translate features of his human self over to that of the raven she had seen him transform from earlier in the day.

His nose was long and pointed, similar to that of the raven and his features were dark in every way. His eyes hadn’t changed. Even from the distance she had seen him earlier she could still see the same attentive stare; liquid pools of coal burning into hers. Slowly she reached down and removed the wood from the door’s track, her eyes never leaving his as she did so.  He didn’t physically change his stance at all, but his eyes followed like a hawk, every move she made was met with a flicker of his eyes.

Aiyana reached for the door handle and let the door slowly open into its recess. She was met by a northerly blowing wind that seemed a little fiercer twenty three floors up and a smattering of rain that dampened her clothes instantly. She sucked in her breath, feeling a little like she was in a parallel universe. All this while, he said nothing. He just the same intent stare coming from those eyes.

She noticed then that he was holding something. He caught her looking at it and suddenly thrust it towards her. His sudden movement forced her to stifle a yelp as she grabbed onto the material sack he had given her. She frowned, not quite understanding.

“I…” it was the first word, the first letter that he had even spoken, but it immediately conveyed everything she had been wondering about this young man. It was a warm and deeply husky sound, as though the call he would sing as a raven had left his human voice raspy and spent. To her, it said you can trust me. She fumbled with the cloth, taking care to open it as she had no clue as to what was inside. What was there had her completely stumped.

“Fruit? You brought me food?” she asked, still not understanding what this was all about. Forget her reaction; he seemed just as surprised as he did.

He ran a hand through his wet hair, looking just as confused.

“Yeah, I guess I did,” he said, stoicism written all over his features.

“Why?” she asked, eyeing the assortment of berries suspiciously.

“I…” he trailed off, but she recognised something had clicked in his brain, like a sudden light had been switched and he had just been enlightened with the answer she was looking for.

“I have no idea,” he said, a slight smile twigging at the corner of his lips.

Before she could say anything else his arms rose out at his sides and he morphed instantly into the raven she had seen earlier. The flap of his wings lifted his body off her balcony and he rose into the air as the night sky descended. The updraft of wind from his wings made her long tresses fly all about her face and she caught the smell of the woods as it filled her nostrils.

She watched on in amazement as the raven flew about the sky, almost as if he were performing for her. With a final swoop along the balcony he was gone, leaving her to believe she had imagined it all. If it weren’t for the fruit that had been left with her she might very well have thought that she had.

Something told her she was going to be seeing a lot more of this dark and mysterious stranger.

The few days since Aiyana had seen him, she found she couldn’t concentrate on        anything at all. She had paced a well-worn path across the floor boards of her tiny apartment to the point she was sure she would fall through any minute. Her mind seemed filled with all sorts of questions that she knew was going to take time to answer, and not just time, but trust as well.

She had tried to continue her work with her paintings for the art exhibition that she was involved in this evening, but had come up short a piece for her collection. As her eyes swept across the room on yet another trek across the floor boards they came to rest on the painting she had done of the raven.
I wonder
… she pondered.

In that instant she decided that the painting of the Raven would be the fifth and final piece of her Eternal Collection. A friend of hers was doing an underground showing tonight in his gallery located in the heart of the city. He had gotten her on board early to put forth a collection of her works to auction off to raise money for the charity MNM, which stood for Mess No More – a charity that was trying to clean up the deplorable state their city had been reduced to.

Homelessness, violence and vandalism had left its very tainted mark on the city and those who still gave a damn were trying to do something about it. The fact that the city’s resources were stretched to the limit didn’t help things either, and the APP had zero tolerance for people who seemed to be delving into the dark side of the city.

The new race had certainly had a detrimental effect on people’s perception of their safety when out an about and this brought Aiyana back full circle to thinking about the mysterious dark stranger.

Who was he? Where was he now? Should she go and find him again?

All these questions, and yet her obligation to the showing tonight pressed her to tuck all her thoughts to the back of her mind whilst she showered and got ready for the taxi that was to collect her in less than an hour.

Aiyana wasn’t a girly, girl. She had never bought a dress and wasn’t about to start now, instead selecting a pair of tight fitting pants that accentuated her rear end. She knew she was attractive, but her disdainful look towards willing suitors generally sent them packing. She had always rather disliked the thought of having a mate, but that was until three days ago and she shook her head to clear the image of his tight torso from her mind.

What was she thinking??
More to the point – was it even possible?

She scolded herself for letting her mind slip to such lewd thoughts and buttoned up her shirt. She added a handful of bangles to her wrists and slapped a thin layer of lipstick on her lips. She sighed outwardly at the bird’s nest that was her hair and gave up trying to style it, instead braiding it loosely and securing it with a tie.

She took a glance out of the glass doors on her balcony, half hoping to see the raven nestled on her deck, but was only met with the familiar drizzle of rain as it drenched the outside world. Just as well she had tied up her hair with this weather going on – it would have amassed to a mountainous frizz in no time had she stepped out with it hanging down around her face.

She grabbed the canvass paintings and secured them in a waterproof cache that would make sure they didn’t get ruined before they even made it to the gallery. Aiyana checked her watch and made her way to the elevator - show time.  

The taxi had made it to the heart of the city without a single bottle being smashed on his car or person trying to highjack them at the traffic lights. Aiyana would have preferred to ride her bike, but having her paintings with her forced her to rely on the Taxi driver’s ability to get her there in once piece. The thought was unsettling to her. She would rather place her confidences in herself rather than in another.

She felt relieved when the driver made the last turn on to Trickett Street and pulled to a stop at the curb outside the gallery. Not that you could tell it was a gallery. There were two burly security guards standing on either side of a single doorway with a red material awning over the top of it so it looked more like a nightclub. Not that appearances mattered, this little shin dig was invite only and only those left in society with flash cash would be rocking up to purchase paintings from tonight’s showing. Aiyana thanked the driver and got out into the spatter of raindrops as one of the bodyguards approached her with an umbrella.

She knew him; he had been to one of these functions before and had kindly done the same thing for her then. His niceties were a rare trait these days and she had certainly appreciated his chivalry.

“Thank you Tom,” she said.

“Welcome, Miss Stevens,” he said gruffly. “Be careful going home this evening, strange doings about foot,” he said, clearly a warning in his tone. She had to admit, what he said spooked her a little. She took a quick glance around her, expecting to catch someone up to no good, but all she saw was the steam rising up from the vents in the sidewalk and the low lying clouds that hung to the tops of the buildings. The graffiti was still scribbled all along the buildings walls and people hurried along the streets to get out of the wet and get home before nightfall.

Nothing seemed imminently out of place though and she chided herself for letting Tom spook her so.

“Thank you Tom, I’ll be sure to take care,” and with a curt nod, and hurried herself and her paintings inside. The interior of the place was completely different from the outside world and couldn’t have been farther from its complete polar opposite.

The immediate flight of stairs downwards led her to a well-lit chic space with chandeliers and leather cubed seating around abstract sculptures. Every wall and surface was white, and was done such so that each artistic piece was given the maximum exposure to display its raw brilliance.

There were no buyers here yet, just fellow artists setting up for the big event due to start in another hour or so. There were waiters setting up champagne glasses and waitresses shuffling back and forth from the rear kitchen with canapés and Hors d’oeuvres for when the guests arrived.

Aiyana snatched a glass of Cristal uninvited and headed towards the rear of the gallery to find Elijah. She saw he caught sight of her and could almost see him groan inwardly. Whilst probably her only friend, if you could call him that, he was one of these metro-sexual males who were into face cream, designer clothes and women who were only good as arm candy.

She knew he would be disapproving of her attire, but frankly she couldn’t give a toss what he thought – which was why he liked her so much as she was so completely different from the socialite spoilt blondes he favoured.

Aiyana on the other hand was rocking the earth chick cross Goth girl look – although it was only because of her long dark hair that one might assimilate her with the latter. She saw Elijah hurriedly finishing giving his instruction to another artist before making a beeline for her.

“Good evening, Elijah, you look dashing as usual,” she mocked sarcastically.

He ignored her jibe completely and said rather reproachfully, “My god, what are you wearing?”

She looked down at her clothes. Whilst she would have looked hot in a bar, even she had to admit she looked a little out of place. He must have caught her discomfort and said, “You should have told me you don’t own a dress, I could have had one bought for you”.

“That’s very kind of you, but you know I wouldn’t have worn it even if you did,” she said with a smile.

“I suppose not, you are rather stubborn you know,” he said matter of factly.

“Am I?” she said with a mock tone.

“Yes, and you damn well know it too,” he said, smoothing down his own clothes, as if this gesture would translate to her too and somehow fix her faux pas.

“Anyway, let’s see what you have brought for me, angel,” he said using his pet name for her.

She moved over to the large display table and put her cache on top so she could open it with ease. The first four paintings she had been working on for several months. Each one represented as aspect of something eternal, hence the collection being named such. The first was a painting of the moon, so large and luminous on the canvas, she had captured the way it hung woefully over the city so perfectly that Elijah let out a satisfied ‘Ahhhh’.  The back ground was dark and mysterious and certainly a representation of the way the city felt to the people of today, but the moon, despite what happened here on earth would be a constant for all of eternity. She knew Elijah got the meaning behind her work without explanation and he moved on to the next piece.