Raven Read Free

caught every line on her face, every twitch and flicker, every tic that would betray her true feelings. She knew he would see none of that. Only wonderment would be etched on her features. Satisfied with what he saw, he disappeared swiftly into the cave, leaving her alone in the valley with the fog descending back down the cliff face to claim her. 
     
                
     
    ****
     
     
     
    By the time Aiyana was back on her bike the heavens had opened up and poured torrents of water over her and the landscape. She slowed right down once she hit the highway. It wasn’t that she wasn’t confident on the wet road; it was all the other idiots she had to look out for. On a daily basis she found people driving carelessly and recklessly – arrogance and disrespect taking over from common sense and good manners, and that was on a good day. 
     
    Intuition gave her pause to think that these were just empty vessels of a person, perhaps a shadow of their former selves. It was kind of like the lights were on, but nobody was home. People had just stopped caring and seemed to have succumbed to the darkness that surrounded them.
     
    Her clothes were soaking wet and clung to her skin like glue, making it hard to get comfortable on the bike’s seat. She purposefully missed her exit and decided to take the next one as she knew at this time of day it would be less busy. She wasn’t in the mood for traffic and wanted to get home as soon as possible to her loft.
     
    Aiyana was a creative person by nature and worked as a freelance artist and graphic designer for a company in Germany. It gave her the freedom to draw and paint whenever she liked, do whatever she liked and still get paid to do the one thing she loved the most. She lived in a high-rise building in Miami called the Sunny Seas. More like Sullen Seas she thought to herself as she pulled on to her street.
     
    Once upon a time it was millionaire playboys, party girls and high class socialites who occupied all the expensive real estate that dominated the coastal promenade – but not anymore. They had packed up their box of tricks long ago and either fled the country or moved to Victoria, which was the one state left that was thought not to have the new race of people walking amongst them. Aiyana just thought it was a matter of time before that happened though.
     
    Her building was a drab grey colour whose paint was peeling faster than a sunburn victim, with rusting balcony rails that occupied each level. The “Sunny” sign had been half ripped from its anchors at the entry way so that it swung dangerously whenever the wind caught it.
     
    There wasn’t a single soul in sight as she climbed off the bike. The rain acted like a prison and people remained indoors for fear it would emanate something catching. As Aiyana headed up the steps for the front door, she caught sight of the crazy old woman who occupied the ground floor apartment on the left hand side of the building. Her curtains were drawn, but the hooked nose and beady eyes peered through the material, spying on whoever would walk her way. She really did seem kind of crazy and even had the stereotypical ten plus cats, but Aiyana thought she seemed harmless enough, and compared to the rest of the psychos that walked the streets she seemed like a complete saint. Aiyana nodded in her direction and the curtains hastily closed as she entered the building.
     
    She pressed the elevator button and waited for the carriage to come down. There was a musty-ness in the air and the lingering smell of stale tobacco, not completely unpleasant – but certainly it wasn’t roses. The lift chimed to indicate it had arrived at its destination and she stepped in unobstructed and pressed the button for the top floor.
     
    It wasn’t actually meant to be an apartment, although the owner of the building was tighter than a fishes arse and wanted to maximise every square inch of real estate he owned. So he had the loft that was