I briskly walked all the way home after the drama that I experienced a few moments ago. I mean, after getting caught with those four men? I didn’t want to risk being out any longer. Even though the town that I live in is really safe, I just had an annoying nagging feeling all the way home that I was constantly being watched. As I got to my gate, I turned around, and saw this tiny round bird just staring at me on the fence post, opposite the gate. Anytime I moved, I noticed that he was watching me. I found it odd, not going to lie. From where I was? I couldn’t make out the breed of the bird, but it could’ve been a Sparrow or maybe even a Robin? I decided to ignore the small bird, and I opened the gate and made my way to the front door. Getting my key out of my bag, I opened the door. 

Since no one else had been home, it was dark. However, there was a light source coming from the living room. Did I just stumble into the middle of being burgled, or did I somehow leave a light on when I left this morning? The only thing that I was aware of, that was by my front door, which I could use as a weapon, was an umbrella. As I put my bag down and felt around for the umbrella, I grabbed it and made my way towards the living room. 

As I peeked round the corner to see into the living room, I saw that the lamp by the sofa was on. It also looked like someone was on the sofa itself. As I raised the umbrella higher, I took a few quiet steps towards the sofa and, as I was about to whack whoever was on my sofa, I stopped myself. Since the person on the sofa was very familiar to me.

“Junie?!” I shouted, causing myself to drop the umbrella.

Junie, who had literally been snoozing on the sofa, jumped out of her skin and fell from the sofa.

“What? Who? When? Why? What? HUHHHH?!” Junie’s red headed head popped up from the floor and stared right at me. “Luce?! What on Earth are you doing? Actually…” She shook her head. “Nevermind that, where have you been?”

“It’s a long story…”

“You didn’t show up to any of the classes, which I thought was odd. I wanted to call the police, but that idiot said in the calmest voice ever….” Junie coughed and put on a voice. “Junie. She is fine. I can feel it, so don't worry. She comes home safe and sound as always. Bwahhh. Nonsense.”

“That was Arlo?” I questioned my friend as I came to sit next to her, and she sat down on the sofa.

“Yes! Bloody moron. Turned really philosophical for no apparent reason. I felt like calling the police on him too, since someone stole his skin and paraded around like him, like a sock puppet!”

“Don’t think that's the case….”

“Eh…. It could be… BUT….” Junie turned to face me directly, as we were now both sat on the sofa. “Where DID you go?”

“Well… After you two left? I cleaned up and put your bag in your locker.”

“Oh yeah, I noticed that. Thank you!”

“It was then that Ichthys, the boy that you met, wanted to show me something.”

Junie raised an eyebrow at that, being very curious with what I was going to say next.

“Basically, he took me to this lovely little area and, in all honesty? It was beautiful and something that I wouldn’t really see that often.”

“Oh. Aye?” Junie seemed to have got her head in the gutter, but I waved her off.

“It’s nothing like that, jeez. But, in the end, we basically lost track of the time…”

I looked at Junie, and I noticed that she seemed to be processing it, before speaking up again.

“So, let me get this straight? Some strange boy from this morning took you for a magic carpet ride somewhere, and you just went with it? Did I not mention the ‘strange' part? Like a total stranger. I mean, he was hot, but that is still beside the point…” Junie prodded me as she said the last few lines. “I kinda want to know the deets but, at the same time, I do not. But you are fine and dandy, huh?”

I blinked at her, she said something that was the truth. Ichthys, or as he keeps referring to himself as Ikky, was, in fact, a total stranger, and I let him ‘lead’ me away. That man could’ve been worse than those four men. But I couldn’t exactly say that he wasn’t human either. As I was mulling over everything, Junie let out a loud yawn next to me and stretched.

“Well, since you are fine now, and home? I’m going to mosey outta here.” Junie shot up from the sofa. “I left some class notes on your desk upstairs, but I warn you now…” She wriggled a finger at me. “They are really bad, but I guess that's what you get for going on magic carpet rides with a hot stranger.”

“I am sorry for causing you grief.” I said with a warm smile, and Junie sighed.

“Eh…. I was feeling grief at first, but that stupid Arlo made me think otherwise…” She bent down to pick up her bag and moved towards the front door, to put her shoes on. I watched from the sofa as she went. “So, Jasmine, I will be seeing you tomorrow… Unless you have any more plans to be taken away by Aladdin? I mean, if you do? Leave me a note so I don’t worry.” She gave me a ridiculous smile, waved at me and walked out of the front door.

“Oh, and just before I forget…” Junie had lifted the letterbox and spoke through it. “You might want to give Arlo a call too, his migraines were acting up. Toodles!”

The letterbox banged shut as she let go of it.

Shaking my head at how ridiculous my friend can be sometimes, I picked up my bag from the doorway and headed upstairs. As I opened the door to my room, I instantly saw the notes that Junie had left for me on my desk. As I walked over to it and slung my bag to the floor, I noticed that the notes had post-it notes attached to them.

This is maths..I think… 

Also this is English lit. Romeo and Juliet can go suck eggs.

My head hurts.

What is love?

Baby don’t hurt me no MORE!

WHY ME?

I smell food...

This is apparently more maths. Don’t ask me...

SHOT THROUGH THE HEART!!!

Arlo moaned at me for singing in class...

MR GREASE FARTED I SWEAR!!!

Class is boring.

I could not help but smile at these, and I realised that Junie most definitely got distracted whilst doing them. As I flicked through them, I noticed that one fell out from all the others and landed on the floor. As I bent down to pick it up, I noticed that the sheet revealed a different handwriting to Junie’s weird mess, instead it was a much neater handwriting. Written in the corner was:

These are the real notes, ignore Junie’s. They're useless, a bit like her. Unless a town needs to be destroyed

I let out a small giggle at that, this was definitely Arlo’s handy work. As I compared the notes that he made and hers, I quickly realised that a lot of Junie’s so-called notes had song lyrics and even had some art doodles on. Some even had a fair few games of noughts and crosses on them. Considering the handwriting? She was playing it by herself. There were some actual helpful notes here and there, but it was something like ninety percent weirdness. No wonder she said they were bad notes. I put all of Arlo’s notes in the to-read pile and put most of Junie’s to the side. Remembering my friend’s parting words, I rummaged through my bag to get my phone. As I looked at the screen, I could see several missed calls from Junie. As I checked the time of them, I noticed that they were around about the time when I ‘disappeared’. When I removed the notifications of the calls, I scrolled to ring up Arlo. It only rang twice when the other end was picked up.

“Hello?” 

I instantly noticed his voice sounded a little strained. I thought that his migraines, which he suffers with quite a bit, must’ve been playing up again. So Junie wasn't lying about that.

“Hey…”

“Luce? Hi.” His voice perked up slightly at the sound of my voice.

“I’d like to apologise about today, and the whole issue of me disappearing….”

“Oh, it’s fine… For some really weird reason, I knew you were ok. I can’t really explain it, since I don’t understand it myself.”

“It’s just the world telling you that everything will be ok.”

“I guess….” He went silent for a moment. “Did you get the notes?”

“The notes?” I looked down at the table. “Yeah I did, yours and Junie’s.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call her notes… Notes.”

“But she did try her best.”

“She really didn't.”

“She did too!” I felt like I wanted to stick my tongue out, but there was no need, as he can’t even see me do it.

“If you say so...”

I didn’t want to stand anymore, so I chose to sit on my bed instead.

“Hey, I heard from Junie that your migraines got worse again. Is that true?”

There was once again silence on the other end of the phone.

“... Yeah…”

“I’m sorry…”

I never know what to say when he gets them, he has been to the doctors before but nothing seems to show up. It just happens, Junie called him a freak of nature as a joke, but Arlo was so down about it, he actually agreed with that statement. But I did tell her off for that. However, she somehow still sneaks it in. I guess it’s her way of being worried for him?

“Eh… Nothing you can really do about it. Honestly, these days? I’m just used to them…”

I really couldn’t help but notice that he sounded absolutely defeated over the phone, like he had done ten thousand rounds with Mike Tyson.

“I’d still like to be able to help in any way, if there is anything I can do? I’ll do it.”

For the third time, there was silence on the phone, before I heard a long drawn out sigh.

“Just being there helps…”

“Now, that I can do!” I fist pumped the air.

“Heh…. You know, last night I was going to ask you something…”

“What was it?”

For another time, there was silence.

“No, nevermind, it’s not important anymore… I’m going to have an early night, considering the head and all. Gran insists that I do as well.”

“That makes sense. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

As I ended the call, I stared at the blank screen. I kind of hated not knowing the truth behind his migraines. They were definitely an enigma, but he did once say that they ease quite a bit whenever I was around. Which made no sense. I had no special powers to do anything like that. As I let out a sigh, I placed my phone on the bedside table and moved about my room to change into some night clothes.

About halfway through getting changed, I heard an odd rasping at the door that led out onto the balcony. As I pulled the top over myself, I went to have a look out of the French doors. I never closed the curtains when getting changed in my own room, considering where my window was? No neighbour could really see. Plus I was the last house at the bottom of the road anyway. I just leave the curtains open, since I could always see the night sky so clearly. As I looked through the window to see the source of the noise, I spotted a small bird perched on the railings. 

“Oh…. It’s just a bird….”

However, it seemed familiar somehow.

As I moved back from the window, I noticed that the bird had hopped off the railing and went straight up to the door. 

“Hah! You’re kinda cute….”

Perhaps this was the bird that I met earlier? 

As I continued to watch the little bird, I noticed that it started to peck at the window with its beak. I doubt this small thing could cause much damage, but I couldn't exactly relax if it didn't stop. SO, I moved back to the door, and I slid it open. I really expected the bird to fly away from that action, but instead it just looked up to me. Tilting its head to the side, I noticed that it looked awfully intelligent. Was this perhaps someone's pet that had escaped? If it was, I bet the owner was looking for it, so maybe it was best to try and catch it. As I crouched down to be on its level, I held out my hand. The bird stared intently at my hand.

“You’re a cute little guy, aren’t you?”

I smiled sweetly at the bird, and it looked back at me in return. I then watched the little guy fluff up his feathers, making him look like a round fluff ball. Instead of doing a bird hop, the bird walked onto my hand. I couldn’t help but be quite curious about that, since I swear small birds hop about when they walk. But, either way, this was a victory and, as I carefully stood up, I also gently closed the door. When I carried the bird to my bed, I set him down, and I noticed that the bird's feathers were still fluffed up. Was this perhaps some off defensive mechanism, or maybe he was cold? It was still early March.

“Oh. Wait one moment.” I called the bird and darted out of my room.

I remembered that downstairs, in my kitchen cupboards, was some bird food. I always try to keep a pack in there, to feed the birds. Even though most of the time, it’s stolen by massive seagulls, I do see the odd little guy getting some dinner. As I grabbed the bag, I quickly made my way back to my room. When I entered my bedroom, I noticed that the bird was still in the exact spot that I had left him. Kneeling in front of my bed, I poured some grain on my hand and held it out to him. However, the bird looked at the grains in disgust.

“Not hungry, huh?”

Thinking that he might not take food directly from my hand, I placed a few grains that were on my hand, just in front of him. However, the bird still made a disgusted face, and I watched as he used one of his little legs to push the food away. That was a very strange thing for a bird to do. But now that I could see this bird clearly under some light, I noticed that he looked like a small crow. A very small crow. In fact, he could fit in my hand. Was he perhaps a baby? As I looked at him again, I noticed his eyes. Do birds usually have coloured eyes? Seriously, this little guy was very fascinating. I grabbed my phone, and I rang the only other person that might be of help.

“Haven’t I just talked to you?” The voice on the other side said as they picked up.

“Hello to you too, Junie. But there is something I wanted to ask you.”

“Go for it.”

“Do you know of…” I looked at the bird, who was staring once again at me. “Any missing birds in town?”

“Missing who now?”

“Pet birds, missing pet birds.”

“Oh! Err… I don’t know, but hang on…. DAD! HAVE YOU HEARD OF ANY MISSING BIRDS!?”

“MISSING NERDS?”

“BIRDS!”

“WHY ARE NERDS MISSING?”

“NO! BIRDS! B.I.R.D.S. BIRDS!”

“OH, BIRDS! NO! THERE WAS A PARROT A WEEK AGO, BUT THEY FOUND HIM!”

“OK, THANKS! No. No birds.”

“Ah. Ok, thank you…”

“Sorry for not being much help, but why do you ask anyway?”

“Oh no particular reason, except for the fact that I think I found this baby crow, and he might be someone's pet.”

“What now?”

“Crow.”

“People keep those as pets? They must like Mr Poe’s poetry a lot then.”

I smiled at that, I guess Junie does pay some attention in English Literature.

“That was a raven.”

“Eh?”

“I said crow, not raven.”

“Same thing.”

“Hah, but thank you for trying. Goodnight.”

“Aye yeah… Oh, and he might have rabies, so yeet him.”

“I’m not going to yeet a baby bird!”

“Well, the last bird I met bit me, soooo…. I have a vendetta against them now. But yup, goodnight.”

Junie ended the call, and I placed my phone back on the bedside. Letting out a sigh, I looked towards the little bird again, who was, of course, staring at me.

“You’re such a mystery, little man…”