Secondhand Garagyre

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

LAITHOG

6 months later… December .

Where is she…?

Thanks to her incessant ramblings with her dead brother, I know it is Friday .

The female comes to the cemetery every Monday , Wednesday , Friday , and sometimes after her morning worship on Sundays .

In the last six months, she hasn’t missed a single day… and I have become accustomed to the sound of her voice.

It is not as if I actually miss her or anything.

That is preposterous!

How can I miss a mere mortal and a soggy, annoying one at that?

I cringe slightly at my last uncharitable thought.

Grief has no timeline.

Time does not heal all wounds; it merely gives the body the ability to adapt to the loss with the passage of time. I know my tears are etched into my stone body, a stamp for all to see. It does not shame me to be seen thus, so I will not shame the little human for her tears.

The irritation I have felt for her initially has faded as the days turned into weeks, then months. I have learned all about the female, not that I really have had a choice. I’m a captive audience, so to speak.

My sole frustration is that I still do not know her name. She has no need to introduce herself to her brother and has no clue that I am something other than a statue mounted next to his grave. The female is never accompanied by anyone else either. Thus , her name remains a mystery.

Where is she?!

The sun has yet to fully set, so I am bound to my stone form whether I like it or not. It has been far too many years since I fed. I do not dare risk any of the sun’s rays touching my skin. It would essentially incinerate me on the spot. I am not stupid even if my mate told me so in a backhanded way many times.

Yes , I know I am pretty, but when she told me so in that tone, she was really calling me an imbecile. The gods spared me when Ilayahan was murdered for a reason, and I am beginning to think this little human is the reason. There is no other explanation for why she, and she alone, awoke me when no one else has.

Not my family, nor my friends could reach me. I have slept deeply, so deep I thought I would never wake again.

Did I hope to never wake again?

Yes … I have prayed to any gods listening to take this pain from me.

Because … what is life with half a soul?

Sighing , I strain my ears again. Listening for any slight movement that might signal the little human’s arrival. More often than not, she lingers until the setting of the sun, allowing me to rescind my stoneslumber from my eyes and observe her from beneath my lashes.

Lately , my mind has debated back and forth on what it would be like to reveal myself to the pretty little human.

Yes , I have noticed her uncommonly pretty appearance for her species, and over time, my initial disgust at her lack of additional appendages has slowly faded. I am hardheaded but not completely stupid, no matter how my mate told me there is evidence to the contrary.

My internal clock, the one every Garagyre possesses, tells me the sun is beginning to sink from the sky, and she still have yet to arrive. The first inkling of unease slithers through me. She hasn’t ever missed a visit with her brother…

Where is she?!