As I closed the doors, after both Arlo and Ichthys had left, it had now hit me that not only Arlo had asked another person that wasn’t either myself or Junie to go home with him, but also that Ichthys actually followed along. I didn’t really know much about Ichthys, but that was a bit out of character for Arlo. Realising that standing in the hallway won’t get anything done, I moved back to the living room and slumped over the sofa. As I sighed, it occurred to me that I didn’t question why Arlo went into the conservatory, I never really went in there myself, so why would he? I cursed myself for not asking. 

“Wait!” I exclaimed as I shot up. Didn’t the condescending bird fly in there too, after escaping from the grip of Ichthys?

With that in mind, I hopped off the sofa and headed back to the conservatory. The door was still open, and I peeked through, but I didn’t see the bird at all. Perhaps he flew somewhere else? Just as I was about to shut the door, the photo frame caught my eye again. As I let go of the door, I moved towards where the frame still lay, I picked it up. Again, I thought to myself that I must know this man. As I looked over the frame itself, I noticed that it was such a pretty frame, there were no scratches, no dents, nothing. It was immaculate. 

“Do you know him?”

A voice from behind me made me jump, and I nearly dropped the frame, but I caught it just before I dropped it. As I hugged the frame to my chest, I turned around to face the voice. There, leaning on the side of the sofa, was Corvus, and he was no longer in his bird form. 

“Don’t scare me like that!” 

“If I wanted to scare you, I would have done something different.”

I was about to ask ‘what’, But I refrained from doing it.

“But, seriously…” His face turned serious. “Do you know that man?”

“Are you on about the man in this photo?” I raised the frame up, and he nodded. “Nope. Nothing comes to me when I look at him.”

“I see…” His face, for a moment, showed confusion. “Hey…” He spoke to me again. “Is that actually you in the photo?”

Now that he mentioned it, I looked at the photo again. The girl in the photo had the same hair colour, the same eyes, and I did have a birthmark, but it's not actually visible to everyone. “I mean it does look like me…”

“Don’t you humans have a saying or something that everyone has like three people who look exactly like them?”

“I may have heard something like that, but if that’s right? Why do I have a photo of a random girl, who looks like me, in my house?”

Corvus furrowed his brow, looking like he realised that the reason that he gave me made no sense in this context.

“Why do you ask?” I asked him.

Corvus didn’t answer me straight away, since he seemed to be thinking deeply about something. However, whatever he was thinking about was showing directly on his face, it went from confusion, to annoyance and, right at the end, to sadness. But his face changed to a poker face as he answered me.

“It’s nothing important…” He looked rather sad again, as he moved his hand to touch a piece of fabric that was wrapped around his neck like a choker. The notion made me curious, so I ended up staring, which he noticed. “Is there a reason why you are staring at me?”

“Oh, me?” I nervously laughed, I realised at that point that, sometimes, he really was blunt. “I was just brought to the attention of what's around your neck, may I ask what it is?”

Mentioning the fabric around his neck made him aware of it, and he moved his hand again to touch the piece of fabric and, just like before, his face showed signs of sadness.

“It’s in memory of someone…”

“It’s a lovely shade of purple…” I complimented it. Which, in truth, it was, it wasn’t too dark nor too bright. 

“She liked to wear this colour…” His tone of voice had switched from a sharp tone to a much softer one. “She was a beautiful woman, inside and out… Everyone loved her, and she loved them back in return. But…” He looked to the side, the sadness on his face was even stronger than before. “... She went away, nothing lasts forever.”

This man's tone of voice and mannerism right now was completely different to his usual guarded one. He honestly looked heart broken. I felt my feet moving closer to him, and I moved my hand towards him, but it stopped midair. What was I going to do? Pat him? Hug him? I didn’t know how to comfort this man, but I decided to pick something, and I moved my hand to rub his shoulder. As I did so, I got what I could only describe as an instant mental photo of a beautiful dark haired woman wearing purple, reading to a small child. I didn’t know the woman, but the child? Looked a little too familiar and, as the ‘child’ looked at me, they merged with the pair of eyes which were now staring at me

“What are you doing?” 

Blinking away that weird mental image, I removed my hand from his shoulder. “I didn’t know how to comfort you, so.. Erm… Yeah…” I rubbed my cheek. “Thank you for telling me at least.”

“She was my grandmother…” 

I wasn’t expecting that. For some reason, I was expecting it to be the same one that Ichthys was talking about before. 

“She sounds like a lovely woman. By the way, not to be rude or anything, but did she have dark hair, kinda like yours actually...” I pointed at his hair.

Corvus looked at me quizzically. “Yes, she did. Why do you know that?”

I honestly had no idea how to explain it, could I really tell him that, when I touched him, I saw this woman that he was describing like it was a photo right in front of me? 

“Ah, it’s just a hunch…” I shrugged.

“If you’re being weird to cheer me up? Please stop it.”

“Yes… Sir.” I gave him a salute. Honestly, I was doing that to cheer him up even more, even though he told me to stop it. But, instead of telling me off again, he just gave me the weirdest look but, at the same time, he looked like he was remembering something fondly. 

Corvus moved and grabbed the arm that I was just saluting with, he didn’t grab me too forcefully, I noticed that it was surprisingly gentle. It made me confused, since the last time he grabbed me, I slapped him. But, as I looked at his face, he honestly looked…

Scared.

“What are you?” He whispered ever so gently.

“What am I?” I asked him.

He didn’t answer me, he genuinely looked so confused that it was honestly heartbreaking. Before I knew it, he pulled me a little closer to him, and lowered his head onto my shoulder. I could hear a slight mumble from him, and I could make out some of the words. 

Why do you resemble her? 

Why do you smell? 

Why do I feel? 

 I realised that there were a LOT of ‘why’s being asked, and eventually he started to repeat himself. Eventually, I felt his arms start to wrap around me as he hugged me. To me? This hug felt like he was holding something that was going to break at any second. But I let him hug me. For the short time I knew him, this was the first time that I noticed that he was acting so out of character that it just seemed wrong. There was definitely something wrong.

“Are you ok?” I gently asked him.

“No…” It was a short, but straight answer. But, after replying to me, he released me from the hug and moved back. I could see his face again and I saw that he looked just like a kicked puppy right now. “I don’t understand…” He mumbled again.

“I’m sorry?”

He turned to look directly at me, and I saw that there was sadness all over his face. It also felt like if I went away, then he would break into a thousand pieces. I felt something touch my face and, before I realised what it was, I realised that it was Corvus cupping my face.

“You’re like a beacon. A beacon of light, whenever you’re around… You illuminate even the darkest places. Even my own.”

That was such an odd thing to say, but somewhere deep down I felt like I recognised it? Did someone say that to me once? As I was thinking about that, another weird image appeared and, instead of an older Corvus, there was a much younger one looking at me. Before I even knew it, I found myself speaking words.

“Honestly? You’re such an idiot, but you're my idiot.”

I heard the words that I said, I even felt my own mouth move. But I was VERY confused as to why I said them, especially to him of all people. It looked like I wasn’t the only one confused, since Corvus had removed his hands and was looking at me, dumbfounded. But I guess he was no longer looking sad, so that's good, right?

“What did you just say?” 

“Erm…” I touched my own lips. “I don’t know, I don’t even know where that came from…”

But as I was trying to search for reasons as to WHY I could have said that, a splitting pain in my head hit me. The pain was so extreme, it made me double over and Corvus caught me.

“Hey! Are you ok?”

I could hear his voice, but I couldn’t reply. I looked up and I noticed that his face was getting hazy. The sudden pain was just too much, and my vision started to totally fade. But, just before I black out, I swear I heard the word ‘Luce’.