Petrichor

On Monday mornings, and on days when his thoughts would torment him, or when his unconscious mind would conjure up visions to haunt him even in his sleep, Orion would find himself retreating to the cemetery. Set just within the woods behind the hotel, its grounds held the bodies of the majority of the people who had died in the fire.

There was something tranquil about coming here, despite the atmosphere of death. The quietest part of town, hardly anybody came here, except on the anniversary of the fire, when people would take the time to come together and reminisce about their lost family members and friends. But this morning, it was empty, besides Orion, who had planted himself beneath the willow right in the centre, from where he watched the sun slowly rise over the horizon.

The storm last night had left the ground mushy and muddy beneath his feet, the grass damp and the air bitingly cold. Leo hadn’t returned home, although that wasn’t entirely surprising. He would predictably be staying in the hotel until Orion came to collect him for their performance at the Copper Cedar at midday.

Orion shuffled around a bit on the root of the tree. It was all he could do to kill time until then. His mind couldn’t help but wander to the same troubles that had been looping like a broken record in his head since yesterday. And every time he tried not to think about them, they just came back stronger. But something suddenly pulled him out of it all.

Footsteps. Running, wet, crunchy footsteps in the mud, stamping down over twigs and leaves and occasionally stumbling.

Orion turned about to look back over his shoulder, to see who could possibly be running so frantically in a cemetery at eight in the morning.

“Felix?”

“Orion!”

He didn’t look particularly calm at the best of times, but today Felix had a look of sheer terror on his face, insofar as his singular lens of an eye was able to convey. He came scrambling over the ground through the gaps between the headstones, muddying his usually spotless brogue shoes and the hems of his uniform trousers. And just as he tripped up over a tree root and almost landed flat on his face, Orion caught him by the shoulders.

“What’s going on?”