Elementary Virtue: The Prophecy (23 page)

Leyla’s head was spinning and in the meantime they had reached Main Street Station. "Aiden, I've got to get off, but I want to know more. Please don’t let me hanging. I don’t think I can stand the sheer tension until tomorrow."
Her fatigue was gone in a swoop. "Ok," he said. "I’ve got time, finally we have the afternoon off." They got off the train and sat outside Starbucks at a table.
"Damn, this story cries out for a further dose of caffeine." Aiden looked amused, "or a shot?"
She pulled a face; "No thank you never again, I feel bad enough, Mila did a great job. Where does she always get that stuff from? " Aiden looked at her sympathetically; "don’t forget, that she rules the earth and knows everything about herbal stuff and natural drugs which apparently can become a bit difficult to handle at a certain age."
"Anyway, someone should try to make her understand that she could lose control one day, if she keeps doing it that way. Don’t get me wrong but the girl is really a savage thing,"
"I know, and I’ve talked to Shane about it."
"You talked to Shane about what? About the fact that she is really into him, but would rather give him an uppercut than admit it?"
"Yes, about that too and frankly, he was a bit surprised. He rather thought she couldn’t stand him."
"See, that’s exactly what I mean Aiden, she is a real rowdy, a tom-boy. She’d rather kill him than kiss him, even though the whole world has noticed by now that she is really into him. How does Shane feel about her? I mean, is he interested in her? "
Aiden narrowed his eyes moving his head back and forth. „I don’t know how to break that one gently to you, trying to say it in a decent way. But back to your question, I think he's quite interested in her but his choice of words on the topic was somehow saucy." Leyla could roughly imagine what Shane could have said, she knew him for a long time, but still she was curious.”
"What did he say?" Aiden hesitated a moment. "Well, if you really want to know, he said Mila was like a wild horse and had to be tamed one way or another and he would be the right guy for the job, as he had plenty of experience breaking horses."
He saw Leyla's indignant face and continued apologizing: "You shouldn’t overvalue his comment though, he certainly meant, someone had to show her the right way, as she sometimes does crazy stuff in her wild and spontaneous way.
"This sexist pig." Leyla was beside herself. "He is just the right one to give some good advices, where he himself is not really some Moral example, as I recall." Aiden cringed and ducked his head during her tirade, luckily the ringing of his phone relieved him from a reply to this sensitive subject.
"Hey babe, I'm with Leyla at Starbucks on Main Street. Yes, we are talking about Gregory."
"All men are liars," Leyla hissed getting up and walking towards the bar. She ordered another two double espresso macchiato. For herself and Aiden. She decided she needed a load of sugar to sweeten up here day. So she put two muffins on her tray. Shane was no better than Mila, when it came to being uncontrolled and doing silly things without thinking about the consequences. These two together would be an explosive couple. Pure dynamite. She wasn’t sure how that was supposed to work. Explosions of all kinds were probably more than just predictable, if they ever became a couple. On the other hand, Shane had been quite different before the death of his mother. Everybody liked him, he had been popular and acted quite reasonable. As reasonable, as one could act at a certain age. His mother’s death had really set him off tracks. But since he had taken up his studies in Boston again, he was actually more or less his old self again. And yet his annoying comment about breaking Mila was beneath contempt. She sighed and went back to the table with the coffees and the muffins. Aiden was still on the phone flirting with Brooklyn. These two were really incredible and Aiden would sure as hell never say anything that vulgar about Brooklyn. On the other hand, she had to admit no one would ever talk that way about Brooklyn. It simply wasn’t possible, as she was so controlled and always knew how to behave. She had never experienced Brooklyn being out of control. Ok maybe the only time had been, when she fell head over heels for Aiden and got pregnant. But even back then, she hadn’t lost it and stayed quite calm. Leyla took a healthy bite of her muffin, chewing thoughtfully. How did she herself handle life? Was she in control of things? Yesterday evening, it sure hadn’t looked like she was.
What would Gregory say, if someone asked him about her? Would he ever say such things about her? No he sure wouldn’t. She sat on her chair gazing in abstraction. She knew him too well. But he didn’t want her to be with him. He wanted her out of his life. Again she felt sad and depressed. Aiden had finished talking in the meantime. He picked up his muffin. "Thanks, I'm starving."
He looked at her; "Hey what's going on, you look sad again."
He grabbed her shoulders with both hands, so that she was forced to look at him. "Don’t be sad Leyla, we will go to Sicily and you'll see Gregory again. I promise. Your story is far from over, I'm sure. I know that he’d never have broken up with you, if he didn’t have a damn good reason, probably a life threatening reason. His feelings towards you were too obvious, he didn’t dump you just like that, even if you think so." Leyla wanted to believe him, "you promise?"
"Yes I promise and now eat your Muffin, drink your coffee, plaster your nose and smile. Brooklyn is about to join us, and I don’t want you to cry when she gets here." Obedient Leyla took a bite and drank her Coffee. "Aiden, how are you going to tell Brooklyn that you go to Sicily? I don’t suppose you want her to join us, being exposed to unnecessary risks."
"Absolutely not, but the problem has already been solved. She is going to Paris with her parents. There is a fashion event. God, Leyla, that's it. You’ll tell your parents that you ’ll go to Paris with Brooklyn. This is an absolutely brilliant idea."
"And if they ask Brooklyn's parents about it, what then?"
"We'll find a solution; her parents are hardly ever home."
"But my mom might ask Brooklyn. I mean she often comes to my place, you know that. Besides, there is another problem, who is going to pay for my stay in Paris?
My parents would never pay that kind of money. They won’t buy the story at all."
"Damn Leyla don’t be such a pessimist. Technically they could invite you, they’ve got the money, don’t they?"
Leyla nodded, "But if they ask Brooklyn, I am screwed."
"Then keep her away from your house. For God's sake Leyla, there are only two weeks left until the fall break, you’ll sure work things out."
Leyla was far from being convinced. She knew her mom, and no one could lead her on easily. However, she could not raise any further concerns, as Brooklyn was heading for their table. She looked radiant as ever after last night. Really enviable, her skin was flawless, her long curls covered her face. She wore a trendy beige trench coat and boots in a matching color.
"Hey you two," she kissed Aiden extensively and sat down with them at the table. She glanced sympathetically at Leyla, touching her hand gently; "Aiden cheered me up, and he really is damn good getting someone back to the ground. I think he would make an excellent shrink. His conversational therapy would certainly be unbeatable. "
She looked at Aiden winking conspiratorially.
"Nevertheless, he should perhaps work on a confidence-inspiring look, otherwise his patients could run off out of fear because of his appearance. I mean. who wants a fearsome therapist? "
Aiden grinned and Brooklyn ruffled his already tangled black hair.
"I don’t know what you mean, I love his look. I couldn’t imagine him in suit and tie. Although, if I think back to the summer festival, he did look extremely hot."
She paused startled, because the summer festival was a sensitive issue, after that day nothing had ever been the same again, especially for Leyla.
"I'm really sorry, I didn’t mean to revive any unpleasant memories."
Leyla shook her head; "Don’t worry Brooklyn what happened, can’t be undone. We know only the now and here, and the future is a mystery, so we have no choice but to make the best of the present. "
Brooklyn smiled gratefully, "I'm glad you think that way. Does anyone want to have another a drink? I'll get myself some tea. "
They both shook their heads. Once Brooklyn was out of reach, Aiden grabbed Leyla’s hand; "I’m relying on you Leyla, Brooklyn doesn’t have to know under any circumstances about our travel plans. I guess she is suspecting that something is going on, but I was able to reassure her we’d wait until we know more, and that before winter dawns there are no plans to follow Gregory and stand at his side. You know that I couldn’t stop her to come along. "
"I’ll be silent as a graveyard, you take care of the others, especially Mila, she is the one babbling without thinking, so see to it that she holds tight."
Aiden nodded pondering, and they fell silent until Brooklyn got back with her tea. Then no proper conversation could get off anymore, everyone seemed to indulge their own thoughts and Leyla decided that now probably was the right time to go home. Maybe she could sleep for an hour before she met Ana tonight. Arriving home, she lay down at once and fell into a fitful sleep full of confused dreams. She was standing on top of a volcano, or rather, she was hanging on the edge of the crater of a volcano. Below her she saw the depths of the hot red-orange glowing mass of lava. She clung to the rocky cliff, feeling her strength fading away. She wasn’t able to hold on to the cliff much longer. Her arms hurt and her fingers began to become numb. Sparks from the glowing lava below her shot into her blackened face, leaving burning marks behind. She knew that the inevitably imminent crash into the depths would happen soon enough. When suddenly someone called her name. On a rope a dark figure climbed down to her. As the figure was on eye level, she could see the face under the black hood. "Gregory," she cried out. His blue eyes looked worried. "Hold on, I'll get you out of here."
She tried to hold on to him letting go the cliff edge with one hand. Then, however, her forces left her. Her fingers loosened one after another from the ledge. before he was able getting hold of her properly. He couldn’t help it. Once again she tried with her last strength to reach him with her other hand, but could only reach the amulet he wore around his neck.
Then she fell into the depths of the volcano. Gregory’s shocked widened blue eyes above her. She held his amulet in her hand, it was made of wood and had a gemstone at each four sides, and some kind of tree in the middle. Reaching out for Gregory, she fell screaming, then she woke up soaked in sweat, on the floor of her room. She had actually fallen out of bed. She stumbled to her feet sitting back on her bed. For the first time, it crossed her mind that Gregory might be right, being with him could be dangerous for her. She lay back on the bed, trying to remember the details of the dream, but the only thing she saw clearly in front of her was the amulet. She quickly jumped up, and sat down at her desk. She drew the amulet from her memory on a piece of paper. She would ask Moonworthy about it, because she remembered the name of the author writing about the Onendas, the prophecy and the drawing of the savior in that page, she found in the internet last summer. It had been a certain Chayton R. Di Santos. It just had to be Moonworthy after what Aiden told her today. How many Chayton’s could there be? There was no doubt. If anyone knew something about that amulet, it was him. She looked at her watch, she had to get ready for meeting Ana.
When she finally got there, the Judo Training was particularly intense and Leyla couldn’t shake of the feeling, that she was fighting no longer for fun, or her personal health. She felt like she was preparing for a battle, a matter of life and death. Hazard had it, that today, it was no regular training, the club was preparing for a tournament against another club coming Saturday. By then, Ana was already back in Europe moping. Anyway Leyla gave everything she had, and defeated all her training partners, the largest and strongest, and finally she even double-crossed her Brazilian coach Elliott. After training, before she left the dojo, he took her aside, his eyes examined her closely. He was something like a star, an icon in the combat business, besides he was extremely handsome. His body was muscled and his muscles didn’t come only from his hard training in de dojo. He was also an avid weightlifter and a free climber. A real crazy fight and fitness freak. In addition, he also happened to have an almost ridiculously beautiful face. He looked as if he had been painted by Michelangelo. The iris of his green eyes had an almost black rim, and he was incredibly charismatic. In short, women and to his disapproval, also men were lining up trying to flirt with him. Quite a few of them came only to the BJJ to get near him and others stalked him regularly. Sometimes she really felt sorry for him, as it must have been awkward for him and his wife, who was equally a sports-mad beautiful young woman. Leyla met her several times at her mom’s studio, where she taught -Power Pump- lessons. Leyla participated only once in a lesson and after that she hadn’t been able to walk properly for days. Anyway, Elliott stood in front of her, observing her. "Girl, is there something you want to tell me? I'm kind of worried about you, you fought with a frightening intensity in there, as if it was a matter of life or death!" Leyla swallowed hard not saying anything, because he was damn close and she didn’t know what to say. She could hardly tell him that she actually was preparing for a fight, and was angry enough to knock whatever got in her way to pieces. She felt this incredible rage, because her life had been a disaster lately, and reached its peak when Gregory broke up with her. Altogether, it seemed as if someone had smashed her live domino stones and since then, one after another fell down. The big Pop quiz was how many of these domino stones would still be standing before her life was a pile of shards.