The evening was perfect, until a serpent appeared in the west sky.
Lila held the glass in her left hand tightly, while her right hand fumbled for something strong to support her. She was sitting precariously at the edge of the balcony, with her legs dangling in the air. Instinctively, she knew that the serpent could not harm her in any way. She also knew that she was the only one who could see it.
It had to be. Because if it were another extraordinary display of fireworks, the balcony would ring with appreciative oohhhs and aaahhhs, and it would be audible enough over the Happy New Year wishes. She glanced at her wristwatch. They have officially stepped into another year.
Somebody grabbed her head from behind and placed a small kiss on her lips. They laughed loudly and screamed, "Happy New Year, beautiful!"
Lila stared at his face for a second longer to recognise his face. It was Mile, the senior she has been flirting with since last month. "Shall we ditch the crowd?" he asked suggestively.
Lila looked around uncomfortably. She had planned for this. She had visited a salon and prepared herself well. She had bought fancy lingerie, even a few other intimate items she thought could come in handy. However, when her eyes settled on his face, she did not feel it anymore. She did not feel anything at all, except a cold void inside her chest.
She managed to smile and said, "I need to go home."
She typed a text for her friends, who were nowhere to be seen, and hurried out of the apartment. Without noticing much of the surroundings as she usually did, Lila stumbled into the elevator and pressed the key for the basement parking. In another few minutes, she was on the road, driving aimlessly.
The frantic thoughts started once she reached her apartment. She collapsed in the living room, just in front of the sliding glass doors that separated the balcony. Overlooking the thousands of lights highlighting the party capital of the city up ahead, the twinkling lights in the residential neighbourhoods to the right and the darker industrial regions at the far left, she could only think of the serpent. The bright, blazing red serpent that threatened her sanity still now was very familiar to her.
Her phone shivered as a lone text entered her inbox. She smiled at the name. Isla has to be the kindest and most observant person she has ever seen in her life. The one person who would pause whatever she is doing just to make sure her best friends are doing well. The message read, "You left already? Are you ok?"
Lila thought for a moment and typed, "The headache is back. Don't worry, have taken a pill."
She added after some contemplation, "Going to bed now, let us meet for lunch tomorrow." She didn't want Isla to leave everything and drive to her place now, not in her inebriated state.
Of course, she did not go to sleep as she promised her friend. She opened her journal and started writing. At first, she fumbled with the words. How do you open up about something you don't really understand yourself? It took her some effort to put the words together coherently so that they made sense later when she read them. She started with the serpent, how it emerged in the sky after the fireworks ended, and then about the unsettling feeling in her chest. Finally, about a face slowly taking shape in her mind. There were a few words, words that meant nothing to her at the moment, but she knew they were important.
When she stopped writing, she left the page open and started taking off the crimson dress she wore to the party. Carefully, she put it down on the couch, undid her hair, and made her way to the shower. She did not glance back at the open page of the diary. She had not realised how she had used an ancient, almost forgotten script to express her innermost thoughts. She was unaware that the diary was filled with this same script, something she had never learnt formally, not even in Ravenshaw.
She also remained unaware of the shadow in her living room, hovering over the open pages, as she went to bed without drying her hair first. The shadow stayed there until she fell asleep, moving around her one-bedroom apartment just as naturally as the air she breathed. Once she fell deep into sleep, it slowly left her bedroom through the open window and rushed towards the end of the city, where the elite residential neighbourhood stood. It went to the house at the end of the street and found a man buried deep into his computer. It just stood there, mingled with his own shadow.