Before the flying arrow

"Can I help you, child?" said the lady on the corner. She had a stern look and was looking at me through her glasses.
"Yes, I'm looking for a book on sudden weather changes." She looked at me with a frown and told me that the science department was on my left. I thanked her and went to the nearest bookshelf. Her eyes kept poking into my back, but I didn't turn around again.

The weather was not behaving normally for the last few days. A sunny tie could turn into hail or even a violent storm in the blink of an eye. I found a few books on the subject and walked back to the desk. The lady was talking to the priest of the local church. I had seen him a few times on the square and found him rather scary. There were rumours that he performed devil and monster exorcisms. I didn't believe in that kind of thing, but if I did, he certainly could. There was never a smile on his face. Despite all these things in my mind, I smiled at him and put my books on the table right in front of the lady. "Are you interested in the weather, young man?" the priest asked suddenly. His eyes lingered over the titles of my books. I was a little startled and a cold shiver ran down my spine, but I kept smiling and nodded. "Yes, sir, lately I think the weather has been behaving strangely, so I thought a little looking up wouldn't hurt." The corners of his mouth curled up a little, but you couldn't really tell it was a smile. "I can help you if you want, I have a few books in the church library that might give you answers," he said with the same grimace. Everything in my head was already trying to find an excuse not to go, but finally I said, "Ooh that would be nice, if I don't bother you with it." My inner self hit me on my forehead. Sometimes I really wondered why I was so good at lying and why I did it so often. "Okay, I'll see you in the chapel around 11 in the evening?" he asked. I nodded and he disappeared between the bookshelves.

I stepped back home and lay down on my bed. 'Come on, that guy can't be that bad. That gossip is probably just nonsense. ' I said to myself. I grabbed a book and started reading. There was a lot of explanation about the low and high pressure areas in the atmosphere, but not really anything useful. My aunt came in and dropped my newly ironed clothes at the door. "I hope you're smart enough to know where to put them," she said, already descending the stairs. I lived with my awful aunt.

My parents had disappeared when I was just a baby. We were on holiday in Rome and driving along Lake Garda when a storm blew our car off the road. My parents were never found, but I was still in the car wreck. The doctors wondered how it was possible for a nine-month-old baby to have survived without sustaining any injuries. One of the many questions that remained unanswered. The government then approached my aunt to ask if she would care for me, she said no at first, but when she heard that she would get money from the state if she let me stay, she changed her mind. I never knew whether I should be happy or sad about that, all in all she was never really friendly, but she was not insufferable either.

I put my clothes in my closet and thought again about the priest, I don't know why, but I had the feeling that something was going to happen that night that was not in my program book. After eating a pizza I ordered, I saw that it was already 10.30 pm. I walked very carefully down the stairs so as not to wake my sleeping aunt. I slipped into my shoes and jumped on my bike to the chapel. In the dark, the chapel looked more like an institution, but I went inside.


"Sir are you here?" my voice echoed against the bare walls of the building. "Back here, Jonas." The voice came from the direction of the altar. I shuffled slowly towards it. The priest stood with his back to me bent over some books with weird images of monsters. I stood next to him and read the name that was above a rather strange picture. 'The weather changing witch'.

"So, you think it's a monster that causes these storms?" I asked. He raised his head and looked me in the eyes. His grey-tinted eyes looked straight into my azure one and made me feel like my head was being cut open. I looked away and looked at the books again.
"Yes, I think it's a monster, the same one that killed your parents." That sentence hit my brain like a bomb. I heard lightning from outside and felt a strange coldness move along my arms and legs. I was having trouble breathing. He continued.
"That means the monster must have been both there and here, and Jonas, you know who was in both places too." So this was what my gut had warned me about. The priest suddenly pulled a cross out of his sleeve "Ostendit Tibi Verum," he suddenly shouted, holding the cross in his hand. An unknown force forced me to walk backwards on my knees. Run! was what I thought and did immediately, but I didn't get very far. Something was constantly weakening me and sucking the energy out of me. I almost fell, but I managed to find some balance against a bookshelf. My vision started to blur. The priest kept shouting strange things. I knew that I would lose consciousness if I did not find a solution soon. The acoustics echoed his words and the sound seemed to be pressed into my head from all sides. I tried to run to the door but my legs no longer had the strength to carry me and I fell down. I felt myself getting weaker and weaker. The coldness of the floor crept up through my back. I could barely move, but I remained conscious for a moment. I turned my head towards the priest who was now triumphantly coming towards me, but then he suddenly fell down. I looked more closely at his body and saw that an arrow had pierced the priest's neck. The coldness of the church floor now penetrated my whole body and my eyes fell shut.

That is what I remember of what happened before my real adventure. I was curious about what was going to happen. Are you too?