Elementary Virtue: The Prophecy (22 page)

Leyla woke up because somebody hit her in the face. On closer inspection, the object that had hit her was Mila’s arm. What the hell? Mila was lying face down on her bed. She had hit her with her arm while rolling over getting into another position. What was Mila doing in her bed? Her mind was a blur, she vaguely remembered the previous evening. Somehow, it had become a boozy party, and they had enjoyed themselves immensely gossiping about boys. Well, Brooklyn didn’t join in that much, because Aiden did almost anything for her, so she didn’t have a reason to complain about a boy. Where was Brooklyn? And, what time was it? She quickly sat up. Man, she felt dizzy. She touched her head, God. She had a headache that was almost unbearable. She touched her forehead. Besides, she was thirsty. She scrambled to her feet and almost stumbled over Brooklyn, who was lying on the floor still asleep. Drowsy she lifted a fist and croaked, "Down with Gregory" Leyla shook her head, that seemed to have been a bad party yesterday. There was a knock on her door. Leyla flinched when the door opened, and her Mom's head poked in. It's after 7 am, and I am on my way to the airport, what's going on here? Why is Brooklyn’s blanket on the floor? You could have taken the folding bed if you have more than one girl sleeping over. Oh, crap, Leyla thought. Luckily, her Mom flew to Vancouver today because of an event. Otherwise, they would have certainly been late for school. "Um, she probably fell out of bed. Actually, we would have plenty of room, and my bed is wide enough." Her Mom looked at her searchingly, and then she shrugged, "Ok, then wake them up, or you guys will have no time for breakfast. I'm leaving," she kissed Leyla on the cheek and ruffled her hair. Then she wrinkled her nose, "in here, it smells a bit strange. You should take some time to air out your room before you leave. Well then, behave Kiddo, I’ll be back tomorrow, and your Dad will come back from Boston late tonight."

Leyla nodded waving at her. As soon as she closed the door, she tried to wake up the two bleary-eyed drunks. She chose to do it the hard way pulling aside the curtains. Bright light flooded the room, and then she turned on the radio. The deep voice of Tucker, the host of the morning show on her favorite radio station Virgin Radio, was just talking about the latest amorous escapades of a singer and then Justin Bieber's latest hit was on the air. Leyla decided to turn up the volume. Both Mila and Brooklyn sat up startled, "Damn Leyla, turn off the music," Mila muttered holding her head. "Nope, not a chance Mila, we have to get up and get ready, or we'll be late." Mila stretched like a cat and stood up reluctantly. She stretched again, swayed slightly, and then she tripped over Brooklyn who had slept on with all the noise without noticing anything, not even the sound of the radio. Brooklyn sat up still sleepy-eyed, "What's going on?" she was the only one who still looked perfectly normal despite that late night's sleep, the drinking, and even her eye makeup had stood the test and still looked perfect. Incredible Leyla thought to look at her rumpled appearance in the mirror, "Get up Brooklyn we’ll have some cornflakes." Mila stretched again saying, "Oh Yummy, I am starving, do I get some Juice too? Otherwise, I might lose consciousness out of sheer hypoglycemia?" Leyla grinned. They were a strange bunch. Fortunately, they all were still fully dressed, which meant that they were ready quickly. Except for Brooklyn, who would hardly want to go to school wearing her elegant shift dress. Leyla gave her a T-shirt and some jeans.

"Well, today you’ll have to cope for once with my clothes." Brooklyn shrugged, "What is wrong with your clothes?" Leyla sighed, "Nothing, I guess. So, let's get to the kitchen girls." They were ready in no time and then everybody always said girls spent hours in the bathroom in the morning. At exactly 7:45, they left the house and rushed to the subway. On the subway, they met Melissa, who leered at Leyla asking her whether she had a sleepless night behind her. But, she didn’t dare to say anything to Mila, her hair looked ruffled as if she had put a finger in an electrical outlet. Leyla ignored Melissa and kept on yawning all the way to school. Fortunately, Melissa talked exclusively with Brooklyn, who looked admittedly more or less normal, as always except the unusual T-shirt and the shabby jeans, even if they looked completely okay on her, Leyla admitted non-grudgingly. Maybe Brooklyn’s hair was slightly fluffier than usual, but that's was about it. Leyla said in between yawning to Mila that she couldn’t wait to get back to bed. Then she fell silent again until it came to her mind that she promised Ana to go to Judo training tonight. It was Ana’s last evening in Toronto. In the morning, she would fly back to Europe. Crap, she couldn’t possibly turn her down. "What's going on, did you forget something at home?" Mila asked. "Worse, my bed will have to wait for me tonight, Ana is flying back to Europe tomorrow, and tonight is her final training. I can’t turn her down, it just wouldn’t be fair."

"Screw it," Mila retorted not exactly ladylike, "tell me about it, but I can’t possibly cancel." Leyla's head was pounding like a sledgehammer. Mila seemed to feel the same. She held her head with both hands, as if it could fall off otherwise. When they arrived in front of the school building, Leyla disappeared into the washroom. After a sip of Coke some cold water on her face, she almost felt normal again and possibly able to take up school routine. Outside she met Aiden and a couple of Akando guys. He was kissing Brooklyn and didn’t seem to notice anything different about her today. Then his black eyes fell on Leyla, as he visibly frowned looking into her puffy brown eyes, "What happened to you, have you been crying? Is something wrong? You look pretty battered." His voice sounded genuinely concerned, but Leyla didn’t know how she should answer his question. She was relieved when she heard Mila's sharp voice, "He broke up with her the miserable bastard!" What was Mila talking about Aiden wondered. He frowned, "Who broke up with whom?" But, Mila grabbed her head probably it had started throbbing again. "Hey Mila, I asked you a question." Aiden sounded slightly annoyed by now. "Don’t shout at me. God, my head is going to explode, and I have to wait until the next contraction is over, then I'll answer your question gladly. So if you could wait a moment." She walked past him and muttered something rude, pulling Leyla with her. Brooklyn, who was involved in a conversation with Melissa about the latest fashion trends, but listened with one ear to what was going on with Aiden and Mila, turned around holding Aiden back by the arm, "Sorry Melissa, but I have to talk to Aiden briefly about something important. I am sure you understand," she smiled winningly at Melissa so that he had to go for it willy-nilly. "Damn what's going on?" Aiden asked. She pulled him aside so that Melissa wasn’t able to hear what she was going had to tell him. "Gregory broke up with Leyla over the phone yesterday. She was messed up, and that’s why Mila and I tried to comfort her and slept over at her house. Unfortunately, the consolation attempt had degenerated into quite a boozy party especially for Leyla and Mila. I'm not a big drinker, as you know, and besides, I have no reason to get drunk, because I have a great boyfriend who would never dare to do such a terrible thing, right? On top of all, breaking up over the phone with someone is an absolute no-go, don’t you think?" Aiden looked completely stunned, "What did he do?" He thought that he must have misheard. Brooklyn sighed, "Well, it is true, he has dumped her over the phone, after all, she did for him." Aiden was shaking his head, "that can't be, there is something wrong, but I have to go now, we’ll talk at lunch, and then I want to know what he said, word by word." "Then you’ll better be off talking to Leyla directly."
"Believe me, I will." They split each one going in to a different classroom. Aiden was having troubles concentrating on the lesson. His thoughts wandered off repeatedly to what Brooklyn had told him. Gregory would never dump Leyla on the phone, there had to be something behind it, and he intended to find out what it was. He had to pull himself together, as Chayton Moonworthy, the math teacher had apparently noticed that Aiden was mentally miles away, and he didn’t’ want to get too much attention of the little crow like black-clad math teacher with the pointy-nose. Aiden tried to act interested and to banish his thoughts about Gregory out of his head for now. Although he managed to do a reasonable job on pretending to listen to Moonworthy, he still observed Aiden with his little crow eyes. Aiden could hardly wait for the lesson to be over. He absolutely had to talk to Leyla. Possibly alone, to find out what happened exactly.

When the bell finally rang, Aiden was the first to storm out of the classroom, leaving a perplexed-looking Moonworthy behind looking after him shaking his head. What was going on with that boy today? Something had happened, he could sense it. If it had something to do with the Akandos or with the disappearance of Gregory Rossi, he would put every effort into getting the information. He had been doing research concerning the legend of the Savior for years and maybe he would be able to help this mysterious Savior to fulfill his task this time around. Therefor he had to talk to Aiden soon. Make sure the Savior would do his job this time. He had to get hold of Aiden and talk to him, as they were clearly on the same side following the same interest, the boy just didn’t know it yet. Gabe had come up standing next to Moonworthy watching Aiden, who hurried down the corridor goose-stepping.

"He is intense, and behaving strange, isn’t he Mr. Moonworthy? Chayton Moonworthy recognized a crawler if he had one right in front of him, he gave Gabe a cold stare, "You young people are always in a hurry, aren’t you?" he left Gabe behind, getting into the teacher's lounge, who did that snotty Gabe think he was? Did he think that he didn’t know he was one of the Vultures trying to get rid of Gregory Rossi? He smiled sardonically. Right, they had tried, but they hadn’t been able to get rid of him for good. Gregory got away which meant there was still hope and hope died last. He would do everything in his power to assist the Akandos in their fight against the Vultures, because ultimately he was one of them and his daughter was not the result of a mixed marriage both parents were Akandos. Her power would be stronger than the one of many other Akandos. It just didn’t show yet, but when the time came, she would understand it. The teachers had announced that today's afternoon was off because they had a meeting or something. Leyla didn’t care whatever it was, she was happy, it would give her time to lay down and take a nap this afternoon. She really needed some sleep after last night. Then she might felt close to normal again, later on when she met Ana in the evening. She sighed and made her way towards Scarborough Center she needed some coffee urgently. She got on the escalator that led to Starbucks. The caffeine would allow her to make it home without falling asleep on the way. Last night had been madness, and she had tried to drown her sorrows and her heartache. Unfortunately, she found out the hard way that her sorrows were excellent swimmers and were still in place today, reinforced with a nasty headache. She felt just as bad as yesterday after talking to Gregory, only that now she even had a headache on top of it. She hadn’t yet swallowed his words. Leyla ordered a double Espresso Macchiato and strolled back to the escalator with her cup. She had almost reached the exit when Aiden showed up, blocking her way out. His dark eyes looked searchingly at her. Aiden was a fearsome appearance with his dark complexion and his piercing eyes he sometimes looked more like a terrorist than a high school student. Today, however, there was nothing threatening about him. His eyes were gentle and worried, "Hey Leyla, do you have a moment?" She shrugged, "I got myself a caffeine kick before I go home. We can talk on the way to the subway, but I’ll warn you, I have to go home to take a nap. I am very exhausted." Aiden looked at her sympathetically, "Does it have something to do with the fact that Gregory called you?" Leyla's smile turned into a grimace, "Possibly, because I don’t cope well with the fact that he dumped me just like that, out of the blue."
"Why did he break up with you? Did he at least give you a reason?"

"Oh, just the usual crap, love is weakness, and he is no got for me bla bla, the regular shit, exactly what he told me last year before he got himself poisoned."
"No he didn’t, not again!"
"Well, he did, and that's exactly how my reaction was, but this time it was worst, he seemed so different, so absentminded, and almost callous."
Aiden snorted visible pissed; "I am sure that he was threatened or something, because I know how much he likes you. He was totally goopy about you, if I remember well, and that’s why I don’t buy a word he said, and you shouldn’t either. There is something else behind his behavior, something he doesn’t want you to know, and I think it has to do with the upcoming expiration date of the prophecy."
Leyla looked at him thoughtfully; "That's possible but he doesn’t want me to be at his side, he made that one quite clear, believe me. He even hung up on me, when I started to babble around." Aiden grinned, but got serious again at once; "Precisely for this reason we should go to Sicily during the fall break to set things right. Then he can tell you in person, that you don’t mean anything to him anymore, and that he wants nothing to do with you. If that really is the case, it should barely bother him that you are fighting on the side of the Akandos. If he really doesn’t care about you.”
She looked alarmed. "So, this means we're going to Sicily?"
"Yes, that’s exactly what we will do," he laughed putting his arm around her shoulder. "We even have enough money for a rainy day, because we’ve torn up our asses, I mean all of us, waiting tables at - The Crowd - we all did some additional shifts." Leyla hugged him fiercely; "Thank you Aiden, I'll never forget what you are doing for me, you really are a true friend."
"I’m not doing this just for you, kiddo. I know that something is going on in Sicily and that we need to be there. Gabe and the Vultures are behaving funny lately, they are far too friendly all of a sudden. I've overheard how Greyson told Natalie about an upcoming Holiday in Italy. Believe me, the Vultures are going to Sicily too. "
"But Aiden, how do we find out where Gregory is staying?"
"You've told me something about a Circus where he got hired some time ago, if I remember well."
Leyla’s face lit up; "God, Aiden you're awesome, of course, that's it. He told me that he is no longer with the Circus, but it is certainly a place to start looking for him. “
“Who will join us? "
"I think Mila, James, Matt you and maybe Gaya and a few others. We will see, I haven’t thought it though yet. I'll let it go through my head once more."
Leyla nodded looking thoughtful into distance. Aiden took her hand and forced her to look at him, "I hope you don’t hate him too much. Everything will be fine, I know it."
"I don’t hate him and I know he didn’t mean it, but his point of view has changed, and from this point of view, love might actually be weakness.
If a person is important to you, it makes you vulnerable and to be vulnerable means that you are also weak.
Besides, I could never hate him, no matter what, he is my soul mate. "
Aiden grinned giving her a gentle push; "That's right, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. Let's go, the train is coming. "
Leyla already felt a little better, Aiden had a talent to lighten up the mood of someone who was devastated. Seeing things from a different angle bringing everything into balance that it made somehow sense again. Spontaneously she hugged him and murmured into his denim jacket; "Thank you for being my friend you're incredible. Not only you gave me hope, you also gave me new courage."
She laughed with a wry smile on her face; "I really don’t know how you do it, at first I thought you were a nasty bad boy." Grinning back at her, he pulled her behind him into a wagon. "You shouldn’t let yourself get carried away by appearances. But as a matter of fact, you are absolutely right, I am a mean and ruthless guy and Gabe and the Vultures or whoever still lurks around in Sicily, will get to feel my lash. We’ll have to plan our trip carefully. Gregory ’ll get our support, if he wants it or not. I mean what are Holidays for, anyway?"
"To recover?" Leyla asked innocently. Aiden shook his head.
"To do something useful?"
"That's right, you've got it girl, and we sure as hell will do something useful.
What are you going to tell your parents? I don’t think, that they’ll let you go to Sicily under given circumstances."
Leyla sighed ", they wouldn’t let me go under any circumstances to Sicily. My father is not exactly a friend of southern Italy, let alone Sicily, he always says that all southerners are Terroni or Mafiosi, which is pretty offending. My uncle is no different and about my hysterical aunt, who still has the feeling that I know where Gregory is, we don’t even talk. The only one who seems to understand just a tiny bit how I am feeling right now, is my mom, which is really strange. She is giving me those compassionate looks, and is always trying to cheer me up."
Aiden looked thoughtful; "Well, then maybe you could bring her on our side, which would be a smart move."
"What do you mean?"
"You have to tell her everything."
"Are you crazy?" She wouldn’t let me out of sight, if I did. "
He nodded; "You're probably right, and yet she could be the key to your travel plans, because I don’t think that you are up for getting Interpol on your heels."
She looked tense, because she hadn’t thought of that, "So what do you suggest?"
"I have an idea! Chayton Moonworthy our math teacher," he lowered his voice looking around, "is Natalie’s father. I know it from Mila and I am not supposed to tell anyone, but what the hell, there is no other way, I have to tell you about it.
Leyla was thunderstruck, "then that’s why he took her in to live with him and supported her that much. Damn but that guy is creepy. "
"Yep you are right, but he doesn’t seem to be such a bad guy after all. Well, I do admit that he is kind of an odd bird, but it turned out that he was adopted like Gregory and actually is an Akando. He came here to search for his true family, the Di Santos. "