Rae took a deep breath in.
She had left the apartment around thirty minutes ago, she was in the nearby park maybe a block away. She could see her home. In fact, she could see Blake’s balcony. And more specifically,
That Sundial.
She’d been staring at it for a long time, doing nothing but sit on the bench and stare at it. She was cold. The time was eight thirty, in November. If she stayed any longer, it would probably freeze her to death. But she didn’t leave, she sat there. Staring.
“Hey Rae!” A familiar voice said, cheerfully. Rae was quickly startled by it, so much that she stood up. She turned to her left to see the face of Jenny Rowland. She lived on the same floor as Rae and Blake. She didn’t meet Blake before she became ‘too cool for school’ and started making Millions online, but luckily wasn’t a super fan. This meant that Blake could talk to her without feeling the pressure of talking to just a fan.
Jenny had only recently moved into an apartment, she used to live with two girls who she called witches. She said she met them at a bar and they let her stay with at their house while she finished college. After she did, she struggled to make much money, soon enough, one of the girls became pregnant and they didn’t have room in their house. Jenny put her pennies together and loved to an affordable apartment in the city, right by Rae and Blake.
Rae didn’t believe in magic, she was more of a science and math kind of person, but did have an open mind to concepts beyond her understanding, so she never truly ruled it out.
“Oh! Hey Jen, how’s it going?” Rae asked, shivering like her body had only just realised how cold she really was,
“Oh, not much, just coming out for a stroll as usual. I don’t see you out this late,” Jenny said, rubbing her hands together,
“Well that’s probably because I don’t usually. I need a breath of fresh air since this morning... but I guess I lost track of time,” Rae said, smirking as she shrugged her shoulders ironically,
“Well, I won’t bother you too long. Blake is doing a big live-stream tonight, right?” Jenny asked, tilting her head and crossing her arms,
“Umm...” Rae had to think for a moment, “no I think that’s tomorrow night. I think it’s going to be around 6 hours, so we’ll have to be extra quiet,” Rae said, chuckling,
“Got it, the only thing I’ll be doing is watching it!” Jenny said, smiling. She lifted her arm and looked at the time, “well, I’ll see you ‘round, Rae,” she began to jog backwards, still facing Rae,
“Yeah, you too, Jen!” Rae said, sitting back down. She waved to Jenny, who waved back, she turned around and continued jogging away. Before long, she had turned a corner and was out of sight.
Rae was pretty happy she got to speak to Jenny. She was just so stuck right now, mentally. She didn’t know what it was, but that voice just struck something in her. She couldn’t get it out of her head.
Maybe the best thing to do is to just hit it head on and go back to the sundial.
She looked up again. Up at the balcony. Up at the sundial. It hadn’t moved, but it just sat there, almost like it was taunting her.
Rae had to go to the sundial.
——
Rae pulled out her key and unlocked her front door, opening it wide, she saw that all the lights were off. That meant only one thing.
Blake was asleep.
Usually, Blake sleeps in her own room, like a normal person. But just in case, Rae checked the couch and even her own room. Nothing.
She took off her shoes and placed them out of the way, so she wouldn’t trip over them.
She carefully made her way to Blake’s door, she wanted to knock, but didn’t want to risk waking her up. So she carefully turned the door handle. In her head, she knew that if Blake woke up, she would just use the excuse ‘I was just making sure you were asleep.’ Which should work perfectly.
Rae pushed the door open a little, sticking her head inside, checking if Blake really was asleep.
Rae saw Blake. Her body was facing the opposite direction to where Rae was. Perfect.
Rae opened the door further, not even a creak or a squeak from the hinges. Perfect.
She stepped inside, careful to not make any noise whatsoever.
Blake was a heavy sleeper, always had been. Rae had broken a plate in the middle of the night and she slept through it. But Rae wasn’t taking any chances, since this was her one and only rule of the house, and she was breaking it.
As she stepped through the room, getting closer and closer to that balcony door, she started to think about what she was doing. She was going through her best friends room and breaking the one and only rule she had, just to see if a stone Sundial could actually speak to her. Was she going crazy?
She didn’t have enough time to find out, because by the time she had finished that thought, her hand was on the handle. Without taking a breath, without hesitation, she twisted her arm and felt the faint scraping of the metal handle on the wooden door. The door opened, wide. Letting in a cold breeze of air.
Rae then realised the risk she had just made, letting all this air in. It could wake up Blake.
Rae quickly opened the door further, letting the sound of the door scrape against the balcony ground. She opened it so wide that it hit something on the other side. She quickly stepped outside and closed it almost as fast.
She let out a sigh as she slowed down and carefully closed the door.
She looked around, seeing the two potted palm-trees. One of which, she chipped the corner of with the door. Rae realised just how reckless she was being. She was close to grabbing of the chairs at the small little garden table and chairs when she heard something.
Instinctively, she looked right at the Sundial. But quickly realised she was wrong.
Right under her arm, she heard the faint scraping of a metal handle on a wooden door.
Her eyes went wide as she held her breath. The door opened, slowly. Rae stepped as silently as she could, pushing herself against one of the palm trees in order for the door to not hit her.
The door was opened wide, Rae was pushed as far back as possible. Any further and she would have fallen over.
She could only see the small tip of Blake’s trademark pink hair, peaking out beyond the door.
Blake stayed for a few moments, before she turned around and went back inside. Closing the door.
click!
Rae’s eyes went wide, once again. Blake had locked the door. She was virtually stuck outside, on this freezing cold balcony.
Those thoughts came back. Why did she come out here, just to see a Sundial, which can’t talk!
“Well I wouldn’t say that,” the same voice whispered in her head, all around her, “Rae Miller.”