Mars's POV
It had been raining for an hour . And I was hungry as hell. Enough! I was going to eat something.
So I lit the last stick of candle and dragged myself out from my room towards the kitchen. And then a flash, LIGHTNING, I stopped on my way. I stood at the spot as the cold wind from the window blew out the candle. Followed by a disturbed violence which seemed like a tornado, a hurricane, volcanic eruption or all combined. And then everything returned to as it was a minute earlier, as if the thunderous, tempestuous sound never happened. The sky darkened and the drum and gush of the water was heard. I stood there on the spot with a blown out candle. Nature.
Back to my senses, I raised my food in the darkness and placed it twenty centimetres from where it was. Then another foot and then the other..... "CRAP" I cursed as I hit the coffee table supposedly. I sighed.
"KNOCK...... KNOCK" Someone knocked at the door.
"Is there someone? I need some help", followed a sweet voice.
Now with the pain in my foot and a unlit candle in my hand, I marched towards the door, trying not to hit anything again.
I opened the door.
There stood a female... beautiful...with a torch in her hand. A beautiful female not a beautiful torch. The torch gave out enough light for us to see each other. However, my gaze could not leave her warm brown eyes with a shining pair of water droplets on her eyelashes. A drop of water, of unidentified origins rolled down from somewhere near her temple, moving down beside her eye, and then down her ivory cheek flowed slightly left towards her nose finally jumping off her face and getting lost somewhere in her blonde hair. Her child-like lips opened with a same voice as their appearance-
"Actually my car broke down" She said in her soft and somewhat needy voice.
"I see." It took me a moment to register what she had said. She wanted help.
"Can I wait here till the rain stop...." She was cut off by another monstrous noise that roared in the dark sky. The voice, surely not pleasant to my ears made her instantly shift inwards inside the house and closer to me. She stopped only when the torch in her hand had hit my torso and obviously the sound had ceased.
"I am sorry sir. Did it hit you hard?" She enquired taking a step or two backwards away from me.
"No, miss I am fine." I assured.
"So I was telling you -" She was again cut off not by the ferocious whispers of the sky but by me.
"Yes. Sure you can stay." I said as I moved aside to let her in.
She stepped inside. Even if she was wet she smelled of unknown flowers. Or might be known, just outside the brackets of my botanical knowledge. She kept the torch on the table and it gave out faint light, than it did before enough for us to see each other and the stuff in the room. And not go around hitting coffee tables. I moved towards and stretched my hand parallel to her eyes to take the lighter kept there. I took the lighter and lit the candle again.
"Should I get you a towel?" I enquired.
"Sure. That would be helpful." She smiled and even in the scarcely illuminated room I could see in her eyes, warm brown eyes doubt.
I got her a towel and also Lily's trousers and a t-shirt, also belonging to Lily. The clothes might be suitable for her as she was apparently Lily's age. When I came back to the room, the torch was flickering and did so for another ten seconds before dying and leaving us alone in the sole company of the burning candle. Now, I stood at one corner of the room with the clothes for her and she wet, in the other corner. How helpful.
"Might be because rain water got into it..." She said. In her brown eyes I could see the flame of the burning candle. God, she had beautiful eyes and a sweet voice and… You would know only if you saw her.
"Do you have a torch?" Sounded the soft melody. That is music to my ears from now on. Recollecting her words and the meaning which they made, got me back to senses because I didn't have a torch at home. We used to have one but Lily broke it and I never wanted to waste money on such a thing when I would never be here to use. But how will I explain it to her. Tell her the miser you are.
"Lost! Y-Yes lost it is. I mean Lily lost it." I said with a little stammering.
"Hm," I could not make out the expressions on her face due to the prevailing darkness but it had changed from what it earlier was. Keeping aside the topic for sometime I moved to talk out the situation at hand. Or the clothes at hand. "I got some of Lily's clothes for you and also the towel."
She started walking towards me and in an instant she was in front of me. That was fast. She still smelled of the unknown flowers. I might someday go visit a florist. "If you could show me where I could change." She took the clothes from my hands with care not to wet them. "You can do that here or go inside. You can lock the door and I will be there in the kitchen for the while." She smiled, a thankful smile. She nodded and I took the torch with me leaving her behind with the burning candle. "Let me see if I can make it work again."
I went to the kitchen and made myself comfortable on the countertop. I shaked the torch and hit it lightly here and there, expecting a miracle. The torch made a click sound when I pushed the button forward but nothing happened. After another four or five clicks, I gave up. I got myself a box of cookies and got more comfortable than before. I was munching on them when her soft not-so-childish-yet-childish voice came from outside.
"I spread my previous clothes on the chairs." She said to which I nodded.
"You want some." I asked forwarding the box of cookies towards her.
She nodded and took two cookies followed by a thank you. "We can sit in Lily's room. It's quite warm, there." I said and started guiding her. She raised the candle which she had brought with her and started walking beside me.
"This is Lily's room." I said as I unlocked the door of the room. I brought her here because it was the only presentable room in our house. Moreover she was a girl likely Lily's age so she might feel more comfortable there.
While she sat on a chair, I sat on Lily's bed."Where is Lily?" She asked as soon as we were seated. "Lily is my little sister. She is not here. She studies in another city." I replied. She nodded.
"My name is Venus." She spoke again after sometime, breaking the silence between us. She had a nice name. Wait a minute. Is she trying to start a conversation? Idk.
"Umm.... What's your name?" She spoke again. Stupid. I didn't reply to her earlier. She was really trying to start a conversation, was she?
"M-My name is Mars. Mars Jones." I replied.
"What do you do?" She inquired.
"I work in a nightclub. A bartender I am." I replied.
"What about you?" I asked.
"I am in senior year of highschool." She replied. She is indeed the same age as Lily. I nodded with a small smile.
"What were you doing here, I mean at this time in the night?" I asked her to continue the ongoing conversation.
"I don't live here. I live in Bluestone."
"Thats too far, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is. I am going to meet my father. But it started pouring and then my car broke."
"Ooh.... Where does he live?"
"He owns some business here.
Your parents, don't they live here?"
" They died in an accident, some years ago."
"Sorry." She said.
"Do you have another candle? This one's going to end.", She quickly changed the topic. And she was right that last fire of hope was dying. How was I supposed to tell her that? I am in deep shit.
"Um....No.....Yes"
FLASH.