Tisleam - Chapter 2

Asher B.

Chapter Two: A Giggle

Headmaster Krea weakly stood on the ground, terror flashed through her dull blond eyes. She seemed hurt, but nothing showed. Internal bleeding, maybe?

She was only in her young forty’s, walking along with apples when she saw him. Her nephew. She gasped, dropping to her feet, red and green apples scattering, looking at the boy in the most peculiar way. Like she knew something about this boy she did not. Like she was the boy. And as she looked into his eyes she saw something she saw in the ringmaster, the bravest person in the circus ever had. Her brother. Tears stung her eyes, she brushed the palm of her thumb to his chin and looked down.

“I’m going to take care of you.” Her thin bangs covered her face and the kind-hearted woman said a few words, the boy waking up only to let out his first sound: A giggle. Krea smiled, and let out a laugh of her own.

“Hello, Little One,”

“Headmaster Krea!” Holden shook to his senses, walking away in terror. His headmaster, a woman with freckles and a kind spirit, looked kind-spirited no more. She was pale, her blond hair turned black, fangs on the curves of her mouth.

“Don’t be afraid dear,” Headmaster Krea’s voice is still rich and velvety, and if it wasn’t for Andrew’s tight grip on his wrist, he might have walked up to her.

“Dear, remember the song you made up?” Holden gulps and nods, bewildered that Headmaster Krea would ask for something like this now. Something so old, now. She looked pale, almost sickly.

“I-I do.” He whispered. Headmaster Krea looked him in the eye, and her pupils looked like stars. She was timid and calm as if she wasn’t collapsed on the ground. As if she wasn't on the brink of death.

“Sing it for me, dear. One last time.” Andrew’s eyes narrowed. He gaped for a few minutes at the poor old woman before speaking up.

“Are you crazy, we need to call an ambulance! You're sick!” Holden wrenched Andrew’s grip on his wrist, ran to Krea, and knelt. They held hands, sharing looks only they knew. Looks only they could tell apart.

“We go so far, as far as the sea, then we split and find a tree.” Holden sang, soft and slow, like a lullaby. Concern leaked into the song, making the first lines bumpy. “Down the bout in that sea is our family. I am you and you are me. We are each other.” As the song drew on, Headmaster Krea closed her eyes as Andrew joined them, singing the song along.

We go so far,

As far as the sea,

Then we split and find a tree,

Headmaster Krea mouthed with them. Suddenly, in the middle of the last verse, her grip tightened.

“Headmaster?” Andrew whispered. Holden pushed himself closer to Andrew, trembling.

There was a jerk. Two. Three.

BANG.

BANG.

BANG.

“It is my time to go, to join the ringmaster,” She whispers. She lifted her head and looked at Holden, eyes big and wet, filled with tears. “Remember dear, What we think, we become. All that we are arises from our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.”

Headmaster Krea went to dust in their hands, gray and white dust all over the floorboard. Holden had to choke back a sob, looking everywhere. And that’s when it happened.

Ting.

Holden looked back. Nothing.

Ting.

Both boys turned heads. Nothing.

Ting.

Everything turned black.