Brooks cleared his throat and continued forward slowly as he said, “I can imagine the disappointment.”
He stood awkwardly at her side, unsure whether or not it was okay to sit. The last thing he wanted was to spook her. Not when he’d finally found her.
His eyes soaked in every detail of her profile, his curious gaze inspecting her like an animal. His spine stiffened when he caught a glimpse of bruising around her wrists.
She turned those blazing brown eyes toward him pointedly, “Are you going to sit? Or are you going to stand there like a hulking serial killer?” Her lip was split and one eye sported a nasty bruise.
He cleared his throat and muttered, “How could I resist that invitation?”
Brooks lowered himself to the ground but his eyes never left hers, silence thick in the air. She was the first to break as she turned her gaze back to the stars. Brooks had a million questions but couldn’t seem to make his lips form a single one.
How did she get up here? Where did she come from? Why was she here? Were those her screams echoing down the halls that night?
“What do you see in them?”
Caught off guard, he stuttered, “I don’t– I’m sorry?”
She sighed, “The stars. What do you see in them?”
“I…,” he paused and looked at the burning orbs in question. “I don’t really know. I come to look at them and they never change, almost like they’re sitting there having a grand fucking laugh at all of us. The constellations never shift, the stars never burn brighter. I guess I’m looking for something new. Something to prove that I’m alive.”
She turned her attention to his face and studied it, eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he searched the night sky.
“Do you think that you’re dead?”
“Depends on your definition of alive,” he scoffed.
She studied him as she chewed on his response. Brooks watched her think, intrigued by the way the movement of her brows reflected every emotion.
“Close your eyes,” she said abruptly.
“For what?”
“Just do it.”
He wasn’t wholly comfortable with the idea of being blind around a stranger, so he kept his eyes slit.
“Do you hear it?” she said.
“Hear what?”
“Gods, just focus.” Agitation laced her tone, and he tried his best to humor her.
He’d been on that rooftop a million times and had only ever been met with silence. No trees rustling, no wind howling just–
His ears perked as a faint rhythm brushed his senses.
“Is that… chirping?” he asked incredulously.
“Crickets,” she replied matter-of-factly. “Have you never heard crickets here before?”
“No.” He answered, stunned.
“That’s what I was afraid of,” she murmured.
His curiosity was piqued by her answer, but nothing could overcome the wonder he felt at the music of cricket song dancing through the air.
As many times as he had sat on that roof, he’d never once heard the sound of a creature filter through the dead air.
