The Blue Rain

Chapter 1

"This is... not my room." Alfred reasoned. Without looking at his surroundings, he knew Mattie wasn't there- but he could just hear him saying 'No shit, Sherlock.' Softly, but loud enough to be heard in the silence that surrounded him at that moment.

Silence, along with darkness, what seemed to be fog, and dark shapes that scared him a bit were what his surroundings consisted of. But the shapes were trees. They must be trees, right? He looked at the sky, expecting to see black, but it was a dark orange colour. Twilight?

Last time he'd checked, it was night. He'd just watched a scary film, and was afraid the monsters would get him. Matthew, his brother, teasing him wasn't really helping either. A dream? Was this a dream perhaps? Alfred pinched himself, and pain quickly spread through his left arm. So this was reality. Where was he then, and how did he get here?

Alfred's attention was suddenly caught by a soft sound. A voice? It seemed to sing a melody which sounded vaguely familiar to Alfred. His feet started to move towards the sounds, curiosity being stronger than fear.

The shadows were indeed trees. Dark brown, stiff things, new ones appearing as he passed the first row of trees. A forest?

As he came closer the sound did not become much louder, but it did become clearer. It was indeed a voice, a young male one. It sang in a language unfamiliar to Alfred, but as soon as he saw the orange glow of what seemed to be fire, the boy changed to singing in English.

"...a flying visit, to my first and only love."

By now, Alfred had reached the last row of trees. He looked around one of the trees and found himself peeking at what indeed seemed to be a young boy. He was sitting, alone, in front of a fire. The fire gave his short, messy hair an orange glow. Alfred suspected it to be blonde. The song he sang was still soft. Soft and sad and slow and somehow made Alfred feel at ease. It was only then he noticed his heart was beating so loud, it surprised him the boy had not run off already.

"...around me, saying 'Johnny, I love you still'.
Ah, she's now a farmer's daughter, and the pride of Spancil Hill."

He was silent for a few seconds, and while Alfred expected him to start singing again, which he didn't really mind, he said, "You can come over and warm yourself, you know? I know you're there anyway."

Alfred's heart skipped a beat. Not out of excitement, but out of surprise and fear. He stood there for a few seconds, wondering how the boy knew he was there. IF the boy knew he was there. The boy turned around, stared at his face with an emotionless expression, but with outstanding eyebrows, and said "I have no intention whatsoever of killing you, human."

Being called 'human' didn't quite encourage Alfred, as in all of his nightmares and scary films it meant the person who said it was not human. This boy did look human. The soft, reassuring melody of the song he had been singing a moment ago still lingered in the back of his head, so even though he didn't feel extremely comfortable with it, he slowly moved towards the boy and sat down beside him.

They sat there for a while. Minutes? Maybe hours... Alfred had no idea. He did know that when he let his gaze go from the fire to the boy, if it was a boy, he turned to face Alfred and simply said, "Yes?"

"I'm Alfred. Alfred Jones. And you are... Johnny?"

The boy looked at him, eyes big in surprise and wonder as he repeated the last word Alfred has said.

"Ya sang it just now, that your first and only love said 'Johnny, I love you so', so I figured..."

A small smile graced the boy's face.

"'Tis merely a song, Alfred. I would rather not tell you my name, for I am not sure of your reason to know it." When he spotted Alfred's expression, he said, "A name is something powerful and personal, yet widespread at the same time. Both good and evil can call upon your help if they know your name."

Alfred tried to process this. It seemed logical, yet illogical at the same time. In the meantime, the boy had lost his smile and was now poking the fire with a stick.

"I'm sure you will find out sooner or later, but I hope you never will." The boy was now looking straight into Alfred's eyes. "If you ever get the chance, do not return, Alfred, for this is no place for a human if he wants to live."

Alfred blinked, but when he opened his eyes, he was looking at the ceiling of his room. It was partly illuminated by the morning sun which crept through his curtains. He sat upright.

A dream?

No wait, hadn't he pinched himself?

Hadn't it hurt?

At breakfast, Alfred was silent. He had uninterestedly stabbed his pancakes while his brother was happily pouring syrup on top of his own and his parents had shot him worried glances. He knew his silence caused them to worry, but he just couldn't bring himself to be cheerful at that moment.

After breakfast, his brother Matthew had managed to force him to say what was bugging him. Matthew. Silent, unnoticeable, often forgotten, but at times he turned into another person. He had laughed him, poked him and told him it was merely a dream, that he should stop watching scary films.

Right now, Alfred was sitting on a thick branch of his favourite tree in his garden. He overlooked the town in which they lived. A dull, small town in which nothing ever happened. Alfred had already vowed to himself he'd leave the town as soon as he could, and in the meantime he would drown himself in the stories he loved so much.

Action-filled stories about heroes, aliens, villains, magic and beautiful damsels in distress, although Alfred had always loved their heroes more. So what if it was a dream? It was something that kept him distracted. Wasn't Mattie also the one who kept on complaining about his comic book collection? Well, comics seemed utterly boring compared to what he'd dreamt last night.

Oh, right! He wanted to see if he could find the song the boy had been singing. He looked at his watch and jumped out of the tree when he noticed that Superman was telling him it was 20 past 3.

He ran towards his house's back door and continued through the hallway.

"Alfred!" His mother called. "Could you come here for a second? I want you to meet our new neighbours!"

Alfred sighed. Perfect timing. His brother Mattie always wanted the only computer in the house at half past three to talk to his foreign friend so he really had no time to lose right now. If he had to wait he would miss the sunset, which he always watched.

He wasn't planning on telling that to anyone though. He could already imagine his brother's smirk as he started to wonder if Alfred had a girlfriend, or perhaps a boyfriend, to watch it with. He really only watched it because in so many stories, his favourite scenes were in front of sunsets.

Alfred hung his head through the door, raised his hand and said "hi" to two unfamiliar people sitting on the sofa in front of his mother. He had already pulled his head out of the living room when his mother called once again, "Alfred!"

"Whaaaaaat is it mum?" He said, stepping into the living room. He decided it would probably be over sooner if he just cooperated.

"Could you please take care of Arthur for a bit? His mother and I want to discuss some things and I'm sure he'll have more fun with you. Perhaps you two can even become friends!"

"Can't we do that later? I'm kinda bus-" He was cut off by the intense glare his mother was giving him. He sighed and looked at their visitors. An adult woman and a boy, not much older than himself. Messy, blonde hair and eyebrows that didn't fail to catch Alfred's attention even though they were mostly hidden behind his fridge. He was staring at his knees, cheeks slightly flustered as he mumbled about something really not being necessary.

It was a lost battle. Maybe he could still get to the computer in time...

"Okay. Are you coming along... eeh?" The boy looked up. Bright, green eyes stared at Alfred. Was he surprised?

"It's Arthur." He said as he slowly stood up and hesitantly walked towards Alfred. As soon as Arthur walked out of the room, which seemed like an eternity, Alfred grabbed the boy's wrist and started to drag him up the stairs to the second floor.

"Don't wander off too far!" He heard his mother shout.

He ignored the complaints of his visitor as Alfred practically ran through the hallway, still holding Arthur's wrist. He kicked open the door to the Study and found Matthew looking up, surprised.

"Hi Alfred," Matthew noticed the panting boy behind Alfred and continued, "...and?"

"MATTIE!" Alfred practically shouted, letting go of his visitor and attacking his brother. "Please lemme look something up before you start!"

"What? No way!" His brother protested, trying to push Alfred away. "You know it's my turn! You should've come earlier!"

"I wanted to!" Alfred grumbled. "But mum wanted me to..."

Matthew looked from Alfred to the boy standing next to the door, turned back to the monitor of his computer and said, "Well, better luck next time, Al."

Alfred groaned. He took a piece of paper out of the printer, grabbed a pen and quickly wrote down all that he could remember of the song in his dreams. Surely if he was to try and conquer the computer Mattie would've screamed. And then his mum would've come. And Alfred would be sure to be grounded if that happened. He folded the paper, pushed it into one of the pockets in his pants, glared one last time at Matthew and walked out of the room.

"Let's go." He said, motioning the boy who'd stayed silent all this time to follow him. Through the hall, down the stairs, through the back door and into the garden. He did not look behind himself to see if the boy who he should be taking care of was following him. What was his name again? Ah well, he didn't care. They'd managed to take away his precious computer time, but there was no way they would succeed in stopping him from watching the sunset.

He sat down not far from the tree he had been sitting in earlier, ready to watch the sunset which was about to begin. After a few moments, two shoes appeared next to him. They stood there for a second, not moving, until their owner hesitantly sat down.

"Alfred?" He said with a slight hint of a foreign accent. "My apologies. I didn't mean to ruin your plans."

British.

Alfred turned to face his visitor and smiled. "Nah, 's alright, dude." He said as he patted his pocket. "I wrote everything down I could forget so Mattie, that's my bro, won't stop me from looking stuff up."

"Ah, okay."