Nadia and Aniela didn't hang out a while after that. They hoped the man would cool off and forget their faces. Aniela laid in her nest. It stopped growing because of the garden of plants around her. She propped herself on her shoulders and swung her legs like a child. She started reading the next few chapters. She got used to her new narrator in her head. She didn't seem to mind it as much. The chapter on reviving flowers seemed to be reaching its end.

She grabbed a dead dandelion from the corner of the room. Like instructioned, she crushed the petals of the fellow alive dandelions until she got a strange mixture. Then on piece of paper, she drew a circle with the mixture and inside it a cross. On each of the corners she placed broken stems for the two live flowers. Then she placed the dead flower, or what is left of it in the middle. Then she started chanting:

"Rise!

Drown!

Fall!

End!

Thrive!

Surge!"

Nothing happened, but she was told she should say it a few more times and it would work. So, she repeated those words. After the eight time of saying it, the flower finally started to slowly come back alive. Its stem looked more alive, and the petals grew again. Aniela was delighted. She grabbed the flower and put it in a pot full of soil. She poured a bit of water in it and put it on her windowsill. She allowed it to grow like all her other flowers that were on the windowsill, some which died again.

She laid back in the floor with cleaning the mess, she then excitedly opened the next pages. There, she was met with the same circle as she made from the flowers. Under it, it said.

"To continue the book, you must give me a sacrifice. A flowers stem and petals."

Aniela was surprised, but did like she was told. Then the book told her to put her hand on the circle. Then, the book spoke to her. It didn't say words, but she could hear the meaning. She turned the page, and she started learning about animal necromancy.

And the first step? Gather blood.

Aniela walked outside. She held a little jar in her hand, and a hammer. She dreaded what was come to next, but she needed to do it. For research. For her. She walked along the road and crouched down. She put out a piece of cheese she found in their fridge. She waited for an animal to snatch it. And unfortunately, like she expected, there was a mouse. She looked as the mouse ate. Then it slowly made its way to her. She put her hand out to it so it would sniff her hand. She petted the mouse. "Hello there, aren't you precious?" The mouse squeaked back.

And while the mouse got comfortable with her touch, she raised the hammer, took her hand away and smashed the mouse. Her mother would have understood, right? Right, right, right. She would understand. Aniela just looked at the poor mouse, stuck. Unsure what to do. She sniffed, but sacrifices had to be made. She scooped up the mouse and put it in the jar. She was going to add it to her graveyard once she got its blood and bones. She walked home.

Once she got home, she did as instructed. Most of the blood already left the poor mouse when it got smashed, and it was in the jar. She took out the mouse, and put it in a plate she kept for these situations. She grabbed a sieve and poured the now filtered blood into a different jar. Their kitchen had many tools. Her mother loved to cook. And she was good at it. Now these tools collected dust. The Aniela took out the mouse's heart and put it in with the blood. Then she did what she usually did, took out the bones, and put the rest in a box so it would be later buried. She decided she'll keep the bones, as the book told her it's valuable. So, she cleaned the bones and put it with her other bones. Then she went to bury the late mouse.

Aniela realised it's been a long time since she sat in the park on her bench. The river still flooded like usual.

"Aniela." She jumped and turned around. There she saw Federov.

"Long time no see."

Aniela smiled. "Yes. But it's good to see you."

Federov nodded and sat beside her.

"Why haven't you been coming to see me dear?"

"Sorry, I was really busy."

"That's great! That means you have a lot to say!"

Aniela talked to him about her friends, and about their adventures.

"Nadia worries me, but I don't really know how to help her out. She gets so angry whenever she even thinks about John."

"You can't. All you can do is be there for her." Federov smiled.

"Also, l've made a new friend."

"That's wonderful. Tell me everything."

"Her name is Darla. She has chestnut hair and freckles. And such blue eyes." Aniela smiles to herself. "And she smiles softly and speaks gently. But she isn't afraid to take control, you know?"

"I know." Federov smiled. "You seem to admire her very much."

"I do! And I feel like I can tell her everything. And I don't know why, but I trust her."

"Well, some people have something in them, that makes people want to tell them everything. Aniela, I'm glad to so you make more friends. It really shows you've gone a long way."

"Yeah... You think I've changed, at least a bit?"

"I think you have."

Aniela smiled to herself and looked out into the flooding river. Silence took over for a while, but it was comfortable.

"What have you been doing?" Aniela asked.

"What?"

"While I didn't see you. What have you been up to."

He chuckled. "Well, I've been writing poetry."

"Really? My mother loved poetry. Can I hear something?"

"Sure. It's long, do you mind?"

"No. Not at all."

So Federov took out a little notebook and started to recite something.

"Black velvet sky,

Darker than evil,

Yet so fair.

Yellow crescent reflects,

Light of the sun,

Illuminating our eroded path.

Roads of many had walked,

Of the Emerald Isle,

We venture through, Not a soul in sight.

Mist decorating the air,

Joining the dazzle,

Of the stars.

This is the closest,

I'll ever get to witnessing

The outer bounds of space.

Words can't describe,

The coal black sky,

Sky like fantasy in the deepest depths of time.

Because peace is all I've got, In soul of mine. "

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Federov finished quite satisfied with himself.

"I don't get it."

Federov scowled. "What is there not to

get?"

"It's doesn't rhyme."

"Poems don't have to always rhyme."

He said defensively.

"What is it even about?"

"It's about how peaceful I feel traveling the road at night."

"You feel peaceful walking at night?"

"Well yes, there is no one there to bother me. Just me and my thoughts." Aniela furrowed her brow trying to understand.

"Aren't poems meant to be profound?"

Federov tutted. "Fine.”

But something itched Aniela, a weird sense of Déjà vu.

“What else did you do while I didn't see you?" Federov ripped her out of her thoughts.

"I finally learned how to revive flowers!"

"That's great! And how long do they last."

Aniela looked at him blankly. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"After the first one, I stopped checking."

He pinched the top his nose. "But for proper research you should be observing what's going on. Tsk."

Aniela just shrugged. "Now I got to animal necromancy!"

"That's great. But it doesn't harm anything, right?"

Aniela didn't look at him. "Of course not, why would it?"

Federov smiled. "I'm just making sure. Anyway, you better get home dear. Goodnight."

Aniela got up. "Goodnight."

And she walked away.

Aniela walked back and forward her room. She can't keep all the jars with blood and bones in her room anymore.

Her book keeps telling her she needs to gather more, but after yesterday her room is starting to stink. Her mother would've scowled at this. The fifteen-year-old stood in the middle of the room. She knew exactly where to put them. She walked outside and went to the wall that divides the garden and the next field. She jumped over the wall, and there she saw the slab of pavement she was looking for. She didn't understand why it was there, but it was. No animals were ever in these fields, only the farmers with their tillage. But they stayed clear from her house. She jumped over the wall and stumbled to get a shovel and a box. She returned and started digging under the slab. Then she stuck the box in.

She jumped up and went to get the jars. When she returned, she put them in the box and then covered the box up with soil. It looked as if nothing happened. Happy with her handiwork, Aniela went to clean up.

Aniela had gotten her bike a month ago, but she liked walking with Darla.

So, she never said anything about it.

She walked to the road where Darla was supposed to meet her. She still wore her mother's green coat. Her mother's favourite coat. The wind howled in the girl's ears while she waited. Finally, she saw the chestnut-haired girl in the distance. Aniela smiled and walked up to Darla through the old road, which was surrounded by trees on both sides of the road. Darla smiled at her. "Lovely weather." Aniela chuckled. "It's gorgeous, isn't it?"

The girls went together to the pastel town of Glenfallen. They sat together in a little cafe and got themselves coffees. Once Aniela found the magic of caffeine, she couldn't stop drinking at least a coffee a day. Darla and Aniela talked for hours at a little black table beside the window. One sat on a plush green couch while the other sat in a wooden chair with a plush green seat. The place smelled like coffee, and Aniela was so absorbed in her conversation she didn't mind the buzz of conversations around her.

"My mum says that I drink more coffee than a college student." Darla chuckled.

"My mother didn't like coffee, she said it was as bad of an addiction as cigarettes."

"I feel like she was over exaggerating a bit."

Aniela shrugged. "Oh! By the way, I got you something."

"What is it?" Darla tilted her head slightly.

Aniela took out a little green bracelet from her coat pocket and passed it to Darla. "It reminded me of you. Green being your favourite colour and all."

"Oh! I love it." Darla smiled brightly and took the bracelet from her, her hand accidentally rubbing off her friends.

She put it on her wrist. "Thank you."

The two girls conversed for a bit, when Darla suddenly asked:

"How's your dad?"

Aniela started fiddling with her hands.

She looked away from Darla's eyes and looked down.

"Don't know."

"You don't know?"

"He isn't at home at night anymore.

When I asked why, he told me that they need someone to look after the place because people have been messing with it. He decided to do after hours."

"Oh. Where does he work?"

"At a mortuary in Glenfallen."

"A mortuary? And there's one in Glenfallen?"

"Yeah."

"But you still have time to hang out, right?"

"Why would I want to hang out with him." Aniela looked at her cup and fiddled with the handle.

"So you could build a relationship with him."

"But I don't want to."

Darla leaned in. "Why not?"

"Because he doesn't like me."

"What makes you think that?"

"He never liked me. And it got worse since mother died. One day he just told me to leave him alone. So I am."

"Oh. That's not very healthy of him." Darla put her hand on her arm.

"But Im sure he still loves you Aniela."

"As if." Aniela pulled her arm away. "I bet he blames me for it."

"For what?"

"For my mother's death."

Darla paused. "But why would he?"

"I don't know! But he acts like it." Darla realised she dug herself too deep.

"Um, how are your spells going?" Aniela suddenly enlightened. "Good! Very good!"

"Oh? What are you doing now?"

Aniela got close to her. "Can I tell you a secret?"

"Sure."

Aniela started whispering. "I found a book. A book in a ruin of a church. Or more like my friend did. It's old and made of velum. And in it, there are spells about how to revive flowers. And they actual work!"

"Really?" Darla looked at her blankly.

"Nadia found it?"

"No, not Nadia."

"But you said she was your only friend."

Aniela furrowed her brows.

"Can you keep another secret?"

"Sure."

"I'm friends with a man called Albert Federov."

"Oh? How do you know him?"

"He just started talking to me when I was younger."

"How old is he?"

Aniela shrugged. "I don't know."

"Does he look old or young?"

"Neither."

Darla raised her brows. "Neither?"

"Neither. He looks very vague, you know?"

Darla observed Aniela, looking as if she was trying to suck information out of her mentally.

"What do you talk about together?"

"About life."

"Right. Is he, Russian?"

"I don't know."

"Doesn't he have an accent?"

"No. Not really."

"And what about that book? He found it right? Do you think it's trustworthy?"

"Of course it's trustworthy!" Aniela suddenly snapped, but she composed herself.

"Also, me and Nadia do séances with an ouija board, would you like to come to one of them someday?"

"Sure." But Darla still looked worried.

Aniela walked back home, this time alone after briskly saying goodbye to Darla. She was starting to feel as if Darla is going to stray her away from the book. From her mission. Perhaps she is just wasting her time? While she could be doing research. Nothing can stray her from her path, to bring her back.