Part 8

When I lifted my blue eyes from the phone screen to Raven for a second, I saw her pitch-black eyes staring at me.  As a slight excitement enveloped my body, I averted my eyes and typed a quick reply to his message.

"Let's go get something to eat," said Stella, her voice cracked from crying.  He had a tired expression on his face.

I nodded once and nodded, thinking about how I'd never skipped school before.  Stop running away from school, I wasn't late for any class, I didn't miss any class.  I had no idea how to escape.

I turned my phone back on and went to the message section.  I glanced at the message I had sent to Raven, who was a little behind me and staring at me stubbornly.

To: King of the Crows: "How am I going to break the school?"

Even though I didn't see Raven, the phone in my hand vibrated again a few seconds later.

From: King of the Crows: "Don't worry about that, Camellia. Try to get past the girl next to you."

To: King of the Crows: "Okay..."

What okay, Matilda? What okay?

I thought I was stupid as my inner voice screamed.  How can I get over Stella?  He knows me too well and the worst part is that he has a genie-like intelligence.  Let go of it, with one word, he would understand everything.

When we entered the cafeteria, Stella got into the not-so-crowded student queue.  Since I don't like to be stuck between them, I wouldn't usually queue for the canteen.  I'd retreat to a corner where no one was and wait for Stella to come.  Just like now.

I knew from the cramps in my stomach that Raven was right next to me that she was too close to me.  When he touched his body to mine, the pain in my stomach intensified.  I wrapped my hands tightly around my stomach to suppress the pain in my stomach and leaned forward.

"Ah."  I groaned.  Raven had her hand on my back, and now I could empty whatever was inside me.

"Get your hand off."  I said quickly.  "Get out! Get out of my way!"  ' I added, trying to step aside.

But Raven got in front of me again.  When he looked up and saw me glaring at him with my eyebrows furrowed, it was obvious that he wasn't happy, but he moved closer.  I covered my mouth with my hand to stifle my gag as my nausea rapidly increased.

"Are you okay?" one girl asked, as she eyed me intently.  His eyes were on my arms wrapped tightly around my stomach.

"You don't look well at all."  She moved a little closer to me when she said she.

"My stomach hurts…" I knew with difficulty.

I glanced at Raven and saw her lips being played.  When I realized that he was trying to say something, I learned that I was terrible at lip-reading.  It was definitely not because of her kissable full lips.

"Are you on your period?" the girl asked.  Since I still hadn't taken my eyes off Raven, I saw him nod in agreement with what she had said.

"Yes…" I said, shaking my head once.

"You look so bad, I think you should take a day off and go home," said the girl I'm sure was a senior.  There was a worried expression in his brown eyes.

"Yeah, I guess I should," I said, seeing Raven nod again at what she said.

"Would you like me to help you?" he asked questioningly.  "You look too bad to walk," the girl said quite candidly.

"Thanks a lot, but my friend is waiting in line. He'll help me." I said and tried to sit up.  But that wasn't possible as Raven was standing right next to me.

"Where is your friend?" the girl asked.  I nodded to my little blonde friend, whose turn it was.  "Over there," I said, and the girl moved away from me and started walking over to Stella.  When she quickly explained the situation to Stella, Stella quickly came over to me, ignoring the queue she had been waiting for minutes.

"Matilda!" she shouted hastily.  "What happened to you? "

I said, "My stomach hurts so bad, Stella. Let me go home, I'm better off."

I realized what was on Raven's mind right after I said the sentence.  It would make me sick and get me out of school easily.  Admittedly, it was a pretty clever plan.  But this stomach ache was not to be taken away.  It was like menstrual cramps multiplied by 1000.

"Okay, let's go," said Stella and started dragging me towards the female student teacher.

❄

"I was going to pass out from the pain in my stomach!"  I squeaked as we started to walk the long suspension bridge of gray wood.

This time, when we walked through the gate, Rosa didn't accompany us, and the whispers didn't seem too interested in our arrival.

"It was the only way to get out of school smoothly, sorry."  said Raven, rolling her eyes.

"Luckily they believed it. But I hope they don't call and let my mother know," I said uneasily.

"We'll erase your mother's memory, it'll be done," he said with a shrug.  When I stare at him with my wide blue eyes, he shrugs again.

"Are you serious?" I said in amazement.

"Yes," he said, giving me a sideways grin.

When we had finished walking the bridge in silence, squeaking, we were back in that dreary park.  As I sat on one of the swings, I watched Raven sitting on the swing next to me.  He was wearing a plain black T-shirt.  He was wearing a black denim jacket over his shirt.  His jeans, sneakers, even his wrist watch were all black.  It was rare that she wore any color other than black anyway.

She began to move calmly on the swing.  I kept my eyes on her as the swing moved back and forth.  A light breeze ruffled his straight black hair, causing it to cling to his jacket.  I stared at his clean, short nails as his long white hands circled the chain of the swing for a few turns.  He had a hand that could be called gentle for a man's hand.  When my eyes turned to my own hands, it looked like I had made my nails even though I had never done a manicure before.

"North, isn't he just like us?"  ' I asked, pacing back and forth on the pale green swing.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes when he asked, "Just what you said. Are you sure you can see me?"

"Sure. He also said he hit that guy and then dragged him away and saw me with you on Saturday night."  I said, dropping my white hair, which I still had trouble getting used to, to either side of my face.  I watched my hair closing my eyes for a while.  I think I was starting to like white.  I continued the conversation while Raven was lost in thought.

"Why did you torture that man?"  When I asked, she turned her eyes to me.  The angry and hateful expression in his black eyes actually said a lot.

"Do you know what he could do to you if he took you or your girlfriend with him? It's not fair for such men to live. People don't value each other. They try to ignore women and deprive them of life by hiding behind their patriarchal society. Even when I lived there, I was uncomfortable with it. Shadow' When I came to Istanbul, women were both wise and free. The absence of technology made them devoted to reading and improving themselves. In fact, human beings can do many things they want if they don't succumb to technology. Instead of being connected to the internet, where women spend hours, they can improve themselves in many subjects. But unfortunately, what do people do? They can't stay away from their phones or TVs, which is making them more and more stupid."

"But the telephone is used here."

"Yes, but no one stays connected. Anyone can see each other whenever they want. The number of people who use the phone for more than 1 hour here is almost non-existent. We prefer mutual conversation, not correspondence."  she said with a smile and looked at a strand of hair that had fallen in front of me.  I forgot to breathe from excitement as I looked at his fingers stretching into my hair that covered half of my face.  His fingers tucked a long white tuft behind my ear and stared into my eyes, his nighty-like eyes adorned by his long, curved eyelashes.  I swallowed as I stared at my reflection falling into his eyes.  I pulled back as his finger gently slid down my cheek.

"I'm looking for Goat," he said after a while.  He took out his phone and quickly dialed it.

"Steel Park," he had simply said to the person on the other end of the line.  He immediately turned off his phone.

When he realizes I'm frowning at him, he says, 'What is it?  ' she looked up.  I furrowed my eyebrows more.

"You are very rude."  When I said that, he shrugged and stood up, stretching his legs.  When she turned to me again, she had extended her hand.

"You can't say I'm mean to you either, Camellia?"  ' he asked just before placing my hand in his.  I couldn't help smiling and looking at him as my hands touching his warm hands caused a tingling in my skin.

When I heard the sound of footsteps rising from the entrance of the park, my eyes shifted to that direction.  Goat frowned as he stared at our still intertwined hands.  He looked puzzled as his eyes looked from Raven to me.  As I pulled my hand towards myself, the Goat started to come towards us.

"Matilda?"  he asked hesitantly.  His dark brown brows were furrowed, looking intently at my face.  "Is this you?"  she added, still staring at me intently.  He had an unsure expression on his face as he ran his eyes through my hair.

"Yes I am," I said, glancing at my hair and smiling.

"I know you dyed your hair white... How did you dye those eyelashes one by one?" she asked, looking intently into my eyes.

I couldn't help my grin when I said, "I didn't paint."  "Actually, this is my natural hair color."

"As for Shadow, the chemical dye came off naturally," Raven interrupted.  There was a marked disturbance in his tone.  It was as if he was bothered by Goat's scrutiny of me.

"Look at this job. White suits you very well. You've turned into angels."  she said, and she blinked her thick lashes around her big eyes.

"Yes," Raven said sternly.  "Like an angel." He was staring at Goat, his black eyes narrowed, one eyebrow raised with a somewhat frightening expression.  "Let's get to the reason we called you here, if you're done with compliments."

"Sure," said Goat, shrugging.

"A boy from Matilda's school claims to have seen me," Raven said.  Despite his soulless face, I could see the burning flames in his eyes.  Is this man jealous of me?  Seeing that I was examining her carefully, Raven turned her black eyes to me.  There was still a fresh glint of anger in his gaze.

"The boy is the son of fire then. We'll talk and it'll be over," said Goat, putting on the same slack again.  "And how does this boy see you?"  she added.

"He saw it in the incident I told you about last time."

"We need to report this to Arthur."  said Goat thoughtfully.  His eyes were on me when he said, "First, tell me with all the details of what happened."

When I recounted all my conversations with North, Goat left to report this to Arthur.  When we were alone with Raven again, I turned to her with curiosity.

"Why can't you talk to me in England?" I asked, biting her lower lip.  Then he took a glance at the park where there was no one, and a spot caught his eye.

"Come with me."

Hesitantly, I extended my hand to his outstretched hand towards me.  We walked out of the park as our joined hands gave me a strange feeling.  We were very close to the green lake below the bridge and it seems we were heading that way.  The colorful swans above the lake made me smile as we made our way directly to the lake.  They looked so beautiful...

"They're rainbow swans."  said Raven, holding my hand tightly.

"Why aren't they visible when they're on the bridge?"

"They don't show themselves to everyone."

"There are no white swans."

"Every color exists, but as I said, they do not show themselves. Look, there is no orange and blue."

"No, the blue is there."  I said, pointing to the blue swan between the pink and yellow swan.

"I can not see."

"Well then."

As our steps went straight to the swans, I was really starting to wonder where we were going.  As we approached the green lake, the swans raised their heads and looked at us, after a while their interest dispersed and their gaze began to wander around again.  When we got to the edge of the lake, the Raven began to pound hard on the gray grass below us with his foot.

"What are you doing?"  My eyebrows furrowed involuntarily when I asked.

"Wait."  He was still beating the grass with his black sneakers when he said that.  After a few seconds, colorful swans began to emerge from the lake, which began to ripple and bubbles.  Lilac, turquoise, fuchsia, lemon yellow and many colorful swans came to the surface of the lake.  When the neon-colored swans began to emerge, my mouth turned into a small o in surprise.

"Oh my God, what a beauty..."

As the swans continued to emerge in turn, they began to swim towards us.  They each moved a few inches away from us and threw things on the ground and backed away.

"What did they do?"

"They're preparing the ground for us to sit down."

"How?"

"Think of it as a kind of cafe. A cafe open only to private customers."

"Are you their special customer?"

"No you are."

"Me? How?"

"Thanks to your blood, they know who you are."

As the gray-colored grass quickly colored and lengthened, a colorful image was formed.  Raven was already starting to lead me in that direction, even though I was staring in surprise at the grass that covered the seat.  Seconds later, sitting on the soft grass, I didn't think there would be this comfort.

"The beauty of the landscape…" I whispered as I stared at the swans of all colors on the lake.  The white and black swans were not in sight, but there were swans of all colors.

"The beauty of the scenery…" Raven said absently.  Even though I wasn't looking at him, I could feel him looking at me.  Our hands were still together and I didn't want to break it.  But I did.  I slowly pulled my hand away and turned to him.  His eyes were watching me, just as I felt.  There was no distraction in his gaze, but there was another expression that I couldn't name.

"Start telling, why can't you talk to me now?"

"The job of observing and guarding was always given to senior Shadow students. At that time there was no prohibition of talking or touching. Half-blood children were observed months before their 16th birthday, and competent teachers would come and explain the situation to them. That's how the order worked. Every senior year. Unfortunately, there were some troubled ones among them, since this task was given as a necessity. We were at a time when the number of fire-sons who did not accept hybrids was still high, and a pureblood took the forced task. The selfish, greedy people characteristics of the hybrid girl who fell for him infuriated him. "He saw her enter the room and wondered about the drink he was drinking. He had no knowledge of what he was doing and the side effects, so he drank too much of the drink and raped his hybrid that night, which he took under protection. After this incident, both speaking and touching were prohibited."

"What happened to that fireboy?"  ' I asked when I could get rid of the rape scenes in my mind.  I saw the sparse yellow hairs on my arms stand on end.

"He served his sentence and now lives in Shadow. That is, if you call it living."

"And girl?"  When I said that, a sad expression appeared in his eyes.

"His memory was erased and this event was told to him as if someone else had experienced it. He was trained in the Shadow, but he couldn't stand it and returned to where he lived."

When I said, "The scariest thing to experience...", I shuddered when I realized that if he hadn't killed that man, maybe I would have fallen victim to the same fate.

"I would never let any harm come to you, Camellia."  After saying that, he placed his hand on mine.  I never doubted what he was saying as the confidence in his touch pierced my skin.  I would never be harmed by him.

❄