_-^-_ Chapter VIII: Flashbacks _-^-_
~ 16 Months Earlier ~
Her eyes inched open as she heard chaotic bells ringing throughout her head. She turned her head slightly to look at her end table and found dark fire numbers glaring back at her telling her the time was 8:17. She groaned at the fact that she had only gotten about 6 hours of sleep opposed to her normal 9. She had been on the phone all night with some of her friends, something she was now desperately regretting. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat there for a while and felt the cool breeze that was blowing in from her open window. She let out a sigh and stood and walked to the mirror.
Chloe stared at the other person in the mirror with disgust; she always looked terrible when she woke up in the mornings. Her hair was all tangled and ensnared looking as a forest of brown thin trees, her face was pale as always a bright moon amid a suede sky, and eyes of blue-green seawater that stared back at themselves with cloudy disorientation which was the result of the Sandman's nightly visit. She turned away from the sight of herself and stepped out of her room. Chloe descended the flight of stairs that was set before her bedroom door and groggily navigated the hallway. She finally stumbled into the kitchen in time to witness their dog, Comedy, tip the box of cereal over spilling its contents in a rainbow wave of marshmallows and toasted bits.
"What the hell?" exclaimed her father as he set his paper down. "Dammit CD."
At that moment the doorbell rang, and as the bells chimed throughout the interior of their home, her father went into a flurry of motion and sound.
"Son of a bitch dog," he spoke as he spilled his coffee into the mess of cereal on the kitchen table as he attempted to restrain the dog from eating the cereal. "Clo, can you get the door?"
Chloe shrugged and went to the foyer. She had no worries of who was behind the large red door, thinking them to probably be Jehovah's Witnesses or solicitors. She swung the large door inward and goggled at the one on the other side.
Standing on her front porch was tall, dark, and handsome teenager. His eyes captured her in a deep embrace of fall leaves that swirled about her in a cyclone of colors. A voice called to her from outside of her autumn storm and pulled her back to the reality of her front porch.
"Hey, I'm here to help paint your house," he said.
"Huh? Oh yeah, come in. My father will be just a second," Chloe said shaking her head, remembering that they had just moved into their new house and it hadn't even been painted yet.
"This is a nice house you have here," the painter commented, trying to make conversation.
"Yeah, we just bought it, we haven't even had it painted yet," Chloe laughed nervously, while mentally punching herself in the head.
"Yeah, I think I got that."
"Yeah, I guess you would."
What followed was an infamous uncomfortable silence. A nervous silence that made the air thick with nervous laughs and toes being stared at. This silence was only broken by Chloe's father bumbling into the front foyer after the dog ran out the open front door.
"That stupid dog, he'll be back," said Mr. Garnet, breathing heavily. After he regained his composure, he noticed the man in the front of his house and extended his hand. "You must be the painter, nice to meet you."
The painter shook his hand firmly and introduced himself, "Nice to meet you too sir. The name's Aidan Paige."
"So, would you like some breakfast or would you like to get started first thing?"
Chloe prayed inside her head that he would sit down to breakfast with her but was disappointed by his answer, "Ah, no that's ok sir. Might as well get started as soon as possible."
The two men stepped out the front door and around the back. Chloe resigned herself from following and walked to the kitchen to have her breakfast. Chloe didn't get a chance to talk to the man of autumn Aidan Paige until around 5 o'clock that day when he was painting a side of her house that sat just below her bedroom window. He was standing on a ladder that reached all the way to her window. He had asked her to put a few paint cans on her windowsill and she had obliged. Chloe was silently watching him from above as he moved his paintbrush back and forth across the wall of her home. She sighed at the sight of him, she wanted to get to know him but she had no idea how.
'Maybe I should just ask him out or something,' Chloe thought to herself, but she then shook her head and deemed herself to chicken to try. She sighed again and leaned forward. The weight of her push pitched the two cans of open paint from her windowsill to the space below. Things seemed to go in slow motion as Chloe watched the paint cans fall. She made a swipe for the cans but missed by an inch or two. Her eyes bulged in her head as she remembered the person sitting below her window.
She watched in hopeless horror as the autumn man was doused in gray paint from head to toe. Chloe saw him tense as the thick cold liquid made contact with his skin. Luckily he kept his hold on the sides of the ladder for if he had not he would have plummeted along side the two empty buckets of paint.
Aidan didn't see the two paint cans fall and he didn't here the gasp that escaped the lips of Chloe who was right above him. He only noticed the paint was when he was hit with a wave of gray sky that painted him as a cloud. He felt as if it was raining paint and he had just been caught in the storm. After the paint had finished soaking him from head to toe. He turned his head upward and saw the girl he had seen that morning.
She had seemed a bit dim this morning and he would have thought her to be now if he hadn't seen the look and feel of her eyes on him. Her eyes were wide with horror and her face looked stricken and paler than she had been that morning making her as white as paper. Aidan became lost in her seawater eyes, swimming in the irises of her eyes and drinking them in as if they were an aphrodisiac. Her hair was framing her face as she looked down at him, like a forest of trees holding a giant pearl within itself.
He saw her beautiful face and the look of fright that held it, and couldn't help himself. He smiled up at her, causing her demon of fright to slowly slink away and lifting the corners of her mouth into a beautiful smile holding white teeth of ivory. They both began to laugh at the events that had occurred.
_-^-_ Present _-^-_
The two's laughter swallowed both of them into a swirl of flower petals that smelled of roses and faded to black. This was always the way that Chloe's memory of her and Aidan's first meeting ended and she savored it every time. She took a deep breath through her nostrils and caught a small hint of roses and sighed. She had met her Aidan only a year and four months ago and now they were getting married.
That made her smile. She loved the sound of it. They were getting married. She would be Chloe Paige, Mrs. Aidan Paige. She couldn't wait until that day. The day when she would be guaranteed the rest of her life with her love, Aidan Paige. Her heart fluttered just at the thought of spending the rest of her life with that man. Them living in a small two-story home, white picket fence in the front, dog running rampant in the back, and the two of them sitting on their front porch swinging on a love-seat swing. Chloe snuggled against his chest and him with his arm around her. Chloe's heart began to fly around and around inside her chest and only settled back down when she heard a jingling of keys on their street in front of their house.
Chloe sat up from the swing that she was sitting in and saw a dark figure standing at the door of Aidan's car. She heard a key entered into the lock and the door swing open. Chloe acted immediately.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing? Get away from that car right now!" Chloe exclaimed, then another though raced to the forefront of her mind; how did this person have the keys to Aidan's car? "Where did you get those keys? Have you done something to Aidan?"
The person had frozen when she had first spoke up and now was closing the door still frozen. Chloe had moved close enough to be able to describe the pattern on his silken black shirt, which was a sea of black glistening scales.
"I don't want to hurt you Chloe. Don't make me turn around. Turn around, go back up to your porch and forget you ever saw me here," the mysterious man spoke, painfully.
This statement frightened Chloe, but the fact that he had tried to command her gave her renewed courage. "Whoever you are, turn around this instant and explain your actions, and don't try anything funny because I have a knife in my pocket and I am not afraid to cut your fucking balls off!"
The man sighed shakily (and Chloe thought she distinctly saw tears fall to the cement) and slowly turned around, and as he did so Chloe whipped out her pocketknife and switched into place with the longest and sharpest blade out. The man finally was facing her with his head down and his earlobe length hair hiding his face.
Chloe was snarling with her arm and knife held poised to slash when the man raised his head to face her. When she saw his facial features time stopped for Chloe Garnet and the only sound that she could hear was her pocketknife clattering to the sidewalk beneath her.
_-^-_ Disclaimer: I do not own The Crow, James O'Barr does _-^-_
~ 16 Months Earlier ~
Her eyes inched open as she heard chaotic bells ringing throughout her head. She turned her head slightly to look at her end table and found dark fire numbers glaring back at her telling her the time was 8:17. She groaned at the fact that she had only gotten about 6 hours of sleep opposed to her normal 9. She had been on the phone all night with some of her friends, something she was now desperately regretting. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat there for a while and felt the cool breeze that was blowing in from her open window. She let out a sigh and stood and walked to the mirror.
Chloe stared at the other person in the mirror with disgust; she always looked terrible when she woke up in the mornings. Her hair was all tangled and ensnared looking as a forest of brown thin trees, her face was pale as always a bright moon amid a suede sky, and eyes of blue-green seawater that stared back at themselves with cloudy disorientation which was the result of the Sandman's nightly visit. She turned away from the sight of herself and stepped out of her room. Chloe descended the flight of stairs that was set before her bedroom door and groggily navigated the hallway. She finally stumbled into the kitchen in time to witness their dog, Comedy, tip the box of cereal over spilling its contents in a rainbow wave of marshmallows and toasted bits.
"What the hell?" exclaimed her father as he set his paper down. "Dammit CD."
At that moment the doorbell rang, and as the bells chimed throughout the interior of their home, her father went into a flurry of motion and sound.
"Son of a bitch dog," he spoke as he spilled his coffee into the mess of cereal on the kitchen table as he attempted to restrain the dog from eating the cereal. "Clo, can you get the door?"
Chloe shrugged and went to the foyer. She had no worries of who was behind the large red door, thinking them to probably be Jehovah's Witnesses or solicitors. She swung the large door inward and goggled at the one on the other side.
Standing on her front porch was tall, dark, and handsome teenager. His eyes captured her in a deep embrace of fall leaves that swirled about her in a cyclone of colors. A voice called to her from outside of her autumn storm and pulled her back to the reality of her front porch.
"Hey, I'm here to help paint your house," he said.
"Huh? Oh yeah, come in. My father will be just a second," Chloe said shaking her head, remembering that they had just moved into their new house and it hadn't even been painted yet.
"This is a nice house you have here," the painter commented, trying to make conversation.
"Yeah, we just bought it, we haven't even had it painted yet," Chloe laughed nervously, while mentally punching herself in the head.
"Yeah, I think I got that."
"Yeah, I guess you would."
What followed was an infamous uncomfortable silence. A nervous silence that made the air thick with nervous laughs and toes being stared at. This silence was only broken by Chloe's father bumbling into the front foyer after the dog ran out the open front door.
"That stupid dog, he'll be back," said Mr. Garnet, breathing heavily. After he regained his composure, he noticed the man in the front of his house and extended his hand. "You must be the painter, nice to meet you."
The painter shook his hand firmly and introduced himself, "Nice to meet you too sir. The name's Aidan Paige."
"So, would you like some breakfast or would you like to get started first thing?"
Chloe prayed inside her head that he would sit down to breakfast with her but was disappointed by his answer, "Ah, no that's ok sir. Might as well get started as soon as possible."
The two men stepped out the front door and around the back. Chloe resigned herself from following and walked to the kitchen to have her breakfast. Chloe didn't get a chance to talk to the man of autumn Aidan Paige until around 5 o'clock that day when he was painting a side of her house that sat just below her bedroom window. He was standing on a ladder that reached all the way to her window. He had asked her to put a few paint cans on her windowsill and she had obliged. Chloe was silently watching him from above as he moved his paintbrush back and forth across the wall of her home. She sighed at the sight of him, she wanted to get to know him but she had no idea how.
'Maybe I should just ask him out or something,' Chloe thought to herself, but she then shook her head and deemed herself to chicken to try. She sighed again and leaned forward. The weight of her push pitched the two cans of open paint from her windowsill to the space below. Things seemed to go in slow motion as Chloe watched the paint cans fall. She made a swipe for the cans but missed by an inch or two. Her eyes bulged in her head as she remembered the person sitting below her window.
She watched in hopeless horror as the autumn man was doused in gray paint from head to toe. Chloe saw him tense as the thick cold liquid made contact with his skin. Luckily he kept his hold on the sides of the ladder for if he had not he would have plummeted along side the two empty buckets of paint.
Aidan didn't see the two paint cans fall and he didn't here the gasp that escaped the lips of Chloe who was right above him. He only noticed the paint was when he was hit with a wave of gray sky that painted him as a cloud. He felt as if it was raining paint and he had just been caught in the storm. After the paint had finished soaking him from head to toe. He turned his head upward and saw the girl he had seen that morning.
She had seemed a bit dim this morning and he would have thought her to be now if he hadn't seen the look and feel of her eyes on him. Her eyes were wide with horror and her face looked stricken and paler than she had been that morning making her as white as paper. Aidan became lost in her seawater eyes, swimming in the irises of her eyes and drinking them in as if they were an aphrodisiac. Her hair was framing her face as she looked down at him, like a forest of trees holding a giant pearl within itself.
He saw her beautiful face and the look of fright that held it, and couldn't help himself. He smiled up at her, causing her demon of fright to slowly slink away and lifting the corners of her mouth into a beautiful smile holding white teeth of ivory. They both began to laugh at the events that had occurred.
_-^-_ Present _-^-_
The two's laughter swallowed both of them into a swirl of flower petals that smelled of roses and faded to black. This was always the way that Chloe's memory of her and Aidan's first meeting ended and she savored it every time. She took a deep breath through her nostrils and caught a small hint of roses and sighed. She had met her Aidan only a year and four months ago and now they were getting married.
That made her smile. She loved the sound of it. They were getting married. She would be Chloe Paige, Mrs. Aidan Paige. She couldn't wait until that day. The day when she would be guaranteed the rest of her life with her love, Aidan Paige. Her heart fluttered just at the thought of spending the rest of her life with that man. Them living in a small two-story home, white picket fence in the front, dog running rampant in the back, and the two of them sitting on their front porch swinging on a love-seat swing. Chloe snuggled against his chest and him with his arm around her. Chloe's heart began to fly around and around inside her chest and only settled back down when she heard a jingling of keys on their street in front of their house.
Chloe sat up from the swing that she was sitting in and saw a dark figure standing at the door of Aidan's car. She heard a key entered into the lock and the door swing open. Chloe acted immediately.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing? Get away from that car right now!" Chloe exclaimed, then another though raced to the forefront of her mind; how did this person have the keys to Aidan's car? "Where did you get those keys? Have you done something to Aidan?"
The person had frozen when she had first spoke up and now was closing the door still frozen. Chloe had moved close enough to be able to describe the pattern on his silken black shirt, which was a sea of black glistening scales.
"I don't want to hurt you Chloe. Don't make me turn around. Turn around, go back up to your porch and forget you ever saw me here," the mysterious man spoke, painfully.
This statement frightened Chloe, but the fact that he had tried to command her gave her renewed courage. "Whoever you are, turn around this instant and explain your actions, and don't try anything funny because I have a knife in my pocket and I am not afraid to cut your fucking balls off!"
The man sighed shakily (and Chloe thought she distinctly saw tears fall to the cement) and slowly turned around, and as he did so Chloe whipped out her pocketknife and switched into place with the longest and sharpest blade out. The man finally was facing her with his head down and his earlobe length hair hiding his face.
Chloe was snarling with her arm and knife held poised to slash when the man raised his head to face her. When she saw his facial features time stopped for Chloe Garnet and the only sound that she could hear was her pocketknife clattering to the sidewalk beneath her.
_-^-_ Disclaimer: I do not own The Crow, James O'Barr does _-^-_
