The Obsidian Princess

Chapter 10

“And what are your thoughts on that Eloa?” came the voice of a man from the doorway.

Eloa and Nia both turned towards him to find that Azrael was standing in the doorway with the knob of the door in his hand and Siren in another. Siren looked at Eloa and leaped from his arms and ram towards her where she jumped in her arms. There was milk on its whiskers and Eloa smiled at the kitten.

“My sweet little kitty…did you have some milk? My good girll….come here…sit with Mommy,” said Eloa trying to move the attention from the handsome distraction named Azrael in her door.

“Come on inside Azzy,” said Nia, using the nick name that they had given to him when they were kids. They had become friends in the same way like Nia and Eloa but this time it was the other way round. The man who was standing tall proud, miffed and handsome was not like that when he was a kid.

He was a gangly little boy with a pair of cute glasses and he used to wear dorky t-shirts which looked to be fun enough for thee nerdy kids and he was one of them until one evening when Nia and Eloa were coming back from the ice hockey match they found that a group of boys had ganged up on him were almost on the way to pushing him down the garbage dump. Nia and Eloa had taken out their hockey sticks and then had beaten them up so as Azrael would not be harmed. They were ten year old at that time. And that was the beginning of the friendship of the three of them.

“Yeah Nia!!! Thanks for the invitation. Although if I had known that I would be getting slapped by my best friend then I would have thought again before coming inside,” said Azrael as he came inside and then closed the door.

“If I had known that it was you then I would have slapped you a lot earlier Azrael…don’t flatter yourself. You were my best friend but now I have only one, that is Nia. You failed to remain by best friend when you went out of touch from the last seven years,” said Eloa as she turned towards him with Siren in her arms.

“Have you ever bothered to ask that what my reason of doing so was?” asked Azrael in a calm voice. He had expected things to be heated up but he had not expected them to be of this level at all. Neither had he thought that she would slap him.

“Hah!!! You think that I have not thought of that? You think so Azzy? You don’t think that I have spent days and nights hoping that you are fine that you are alright and everything was well with you? You did not even bother to send a Christmas or birthday card as well in all these years? What do you think that was the reason of not being to be able to do that? Huh??? Even the ones who are mortal enemies they also send a card once a year but not you…what do you consider that I think with that? Either you are dead or you did not consider me to be important enough to be remembered…it was simple Azrael. If you did not bother remembering me, then it is imperative that I am not going to remember you any longer,” said Eloa with a ring of finality in her voice and Azrael opened his mouth in order to speak something when the door to her room opened and Sonia snuck in her head.

“Hey rug rats…I am sure that you all are going to be having a lot to discuss but the guests are out there and everyone is waiting for the birthday girl…come on…get ready and come out fast,” she said as she smiled at all of them. She could hear the raised voice of her daughter and the tension in her room and she did not want to agitate her on this day. After all she was the birthday girl.

“Come on Azzy…we will mingle up with the guests…Eloa…I have already selected the dress for you wear that…and please don’t make any fuss. You have a beautiful skin complexion and you are unique and it is time that you start owning up to it. I know that you do already but now you need to accept that you are beautiful,” said Nia as she caught hold of Azrael’s hand and then dragged him out of the room.

Eloa sighed at the words of her best friend. It was easy for her to say that when she had a flawless complexion and light brown hair like everyone else along with the blue eyes. It made her look like a quintessential American girl next door. But on the other hand she was nothing of the kind, however when she wore the black dress that Nia had chosen for her which matched her dark hair was made of silk and it fit her body like a second skin. The dress made her feel like she was wearing liquid darkness and for the first time in her life she felt beautiful and not sickly. She pulled on the thigh high black fur boots and brushed her hair down which fell down to her hips. Then she applied some pink lip gloss which her Mama had brought for her but she had not felt the need of using it. When she was done getting ready she came out of her room and went to stand before her Mama and Papa. They gasped as they took in the sight of their baby girl…she looked so beautiful that they could not believe that they had never noticed that before.

“My baby girl….my darling baby…look Hans…she is all grown up…I brought her back home a wee little thing…such a beautiful lil thing,” said Sonia as she sniffled and Hans looked at her as well but he could not sniffle and he caught hold of Sonia and kissed Eloa on her head. Then he cleared his throat and said,” Look here everyone the birthday girl is here…”

All eyes turned in her direction and she could hear collective gasps from all sides as Nia came in and hugged her tightly.

“You just look like the Princess you are Eloa…my best friend…happy birthday to you,” said Nia as Eloa hugged her back and smiled. This birthday was really different for her. After all she felt different and that was all that mattered.

All the people looked at her differently as Sonia went inside the kitchen to bring out the cake which she had baked for her baby girl.

As soon as she brought out the cake everyone in the room started singing Happy birthday for her. And Eloa felt as happy as she had never felt earlier but just at that moment something strange started happening. She started seeing colours around almost everyone. Her father had a strange orange and yellow flecked swirls around him and there were a variety of colours moving around everyone as if they were carrying their own personal colourful cloud.

What on earth was happening to her?

But the cake was already before her and she was feeling sick but she could not let that show to people. Finally she blew out the candles and then she cut the cake and fed the first piece to Mom and Dad and then she fed the next one to Nia. And suddenly the hair at the back of her neck stood up with a prickling sensation making her aware that someone was seeing her. She could understand who hat was until her eye fell on the mantel where the photographs were kept. A black bird with red eyes was looking at her as if he knew that she was the one that he was waiting for.

“Now who exactly might you be?” asked Eloa as Siren who was sitting on one of the handles of the couch hissed at the bird making thee raven look at the cat with disdain.

“MMmmmm Siren…be good now…that is Mephistopheles, aren’t you now dear? Look at you …such beautiful bird,” said Eloa as she offered her hand to the raven and he perched on her hand. She could see that one of his wings had been wrapped in a bandage. Papa had told her that he had broken his wing while trying to come through the turret.

“So you are trying to turn your house into a shelter for rescued and abandoned animals. Are you now? Stupid freak,” said a man and Eloa turned to face him only to find herself face to face with a man who was her father’s cousin. And he was an absolute prick and an utter bastard but as they could not choose their family she had to put up with this man but strangely she saw something on his forehead.

She could see the number 9 clearly imprinted on his forehead and he had this cloud over him which was all grey and had dark black spots in it.