The small black alarm clock that lay immobile by Nick’s bedside showed the time of 2:48 in bright red lights. Nick groaned from where he laid as he saw the time. It has been a while since he has gotten a good night’s rest. In fact, ever since Riley’s death, he hasn’t been able to go through an entire night without waking up a few times. Annoyance of his sleep deprivation and sudden insomniac habits crept all over Nick moved side to side in his bed to find a position where he would be able to find his sleep once again.
He positioned himself so that his face was buried flat into his soft down-filled pillow while pulling the covers on top of his bed. Alas, he found a spot where he was comfortable enough to close his eyes and drift off into sleep. A sudden jerk of sound that evolved from down below him broke this jackpot of a find as Nick opened his eyes, not moving from his position, and listened attentively of what the sound could have been. “Did I close Uriel’s cage properly?” he asked himself as he forced himself to think back of the earlier day’s occurrence when he took Uriel out of his cage to let him flutter around the small room to get some exercise for his wings.
The sound subsided and silence was once again all that was heard. Nick closed his eyes again to give sleep another chance, but the second his lids were shut, another noise emerged. “Okay, maybe I didn’t close his cage!” he said frustrated as he kicked his covers off of him and got up while letting out an irritated grown and made his way downstairs in the dark, feeling awfully lazy to turn the lights on.
Walking down the stairs filled the air the creak of the floor. A sudden rush of cold air passed by Nick sending shivers all over his body as goosebumps filled his arms. Nick searched his way through the small pathway when reaching the main floor as he reached his hand out to grasp the doorknob of the family room where Uriel’s cage was placed. The knob of the door was a bit cold as he carefully turned it and slowly pushed the door ajar. The room was dark and the only light that allowed illumination in the room was the radiance of the moon that came from outside. He looked at where Uriel’s cage was at to find the small door of it opened, and the cage empty. “Shit,” Nick grunted. “Looks like a night of ‘where’s Uriel!’” he rolled his eyes as he quickly shut the door behind him so that Uriel would not be able to escape out of the room and be easier to find.
“Uriel,” he whispered as he went down on his knees and crept inch by inch around the room. “Uriel, where are you…come on…come out, come out where you are!” he chuckled as his funny bone was hit upon realizing that he’s talking to a bird, as if Uriel was to understand what he was saying.
A small tapping sound emerged out of nowhere and Nick quickly got up to see what it was. He shifted his eyes at each corner of the room. When his sight was faced to the direction of the glass window, he saw on the granite land was Uriel, poking its beak at the window; it’s way of calling Nick’s attention.
Nick quickly ran to the glass door and slid it opened, “How did you get out there?” he asked in confusion as he bent over and picked up the co-operative bird. Uriel immediately positioned himself on Nick’s pointer finger, his usual position and began to twitter, as if trying to say something to Nick. “Did I leave the door opened today?” Nick asked himself, as he stared at Uriel, trying to make sense of how the small parakeet got outside. “But I didn’t even go outside today,” he said as his brows curled. “Hmm…I guess lack of sleep is finally taking its toll on me, huh Uriel?” while chuckling and stroking Uriel’s feather downwards.
Just as Nick was to retreat back into the room, Uriel suddenly flittered out of Nick’s fingers and up into the air. “Shit!” Nick exclaimed, somewhat angry with himself for being stupid enough to not take him back inside the room as soon as he grabbed hold of him. “Uriel, come back down here!” he demanded while lifting his pointer finger up into the air to signal Uriel that he wants him to land back down, but Uriel kept fluttering up into the air.
While waiting for Uriel to start cooperating, Nick couldn’t help but glance at the mysterious moon, and Riley came to mind. He remembered how much she loved staring at the moon in such amazement and curiosity. A sudden gush of cold air blew as Uriel began to fly further and further up into the night sky. “Uriel, shit, come back down here!” Nick said, getting more and more annoyed.
Uriel began to fly around in circles for a few seconds then with another gush of cold air, flew in the direction away from Nick and across the big yard. Across the yard stood a lady, whom was also holding her pointer finger out, and Uriel landed on her finger.
Nick closed his eyes to try and clear his vision as he saw the figure moving closer and closer to him. His heart began to beat faster and faster as beads began to trickle down his forehead and his entire body shook in fear. The sound of Uriel’s twitters can be heard. Nick closed his eyes once more, and when he opened it, the figure that was once a few feet away from him now stood right in front of him, gazing straight into his eyes.
“Riley?” he whispered in sheer mystification.