An Arrangement was Made

Chapter 11: That's It

It was starting to get dark. Lilith had been gone for hours now. Adam made a tipi of sticks and made a fire the way that the angels had shown him to do. It had taken a while but he finally managed to get it going before it was too dark to see.

"She'll come back," He tried to reassure himself. "One night without me and she'll come back running. She's probably scared out of her mind right now."

He jumped when he heard a twig snap. It was just a bird. That didn't scare him! He was just startled. Totally. Adam had nothing to be scared of. Lilith was the one out where the animal eating animals were. She's the one who was scared, not him.

Adam curled into himself and stared at the fire. He had never been alone for this long before. He hated it. It was so much colder without Lillith wrapped around him. It seemed darker without her around. He didn't sleep that night.

The second it was light again, he went looking for her. He searched the entire garden but couldn't find her. She hadn't come back that night. She didn't come back that day either. Adam sat near the edge of the garden where she had left and waited there for hours for her to return, but she didn't come back.
He went another two days there for her. Every minute that passed made him more anxious. What if she was hurt? What if she got lost? She was out in the danger! She had to be more scared than he was! This fear that Lillith was in danger soon outweighed Adam's fears of the monsters that lay beyond the garden.

The boy, for that was what he was despite his physical body, took a large stick and left the garden to go look for her. It was even more terrifying out there than he thought it would be. Even during the daylight, the jungles were so dense that it still looked dark. He searched for her for hours. He called her name and checked near any water source he could find. He returned to the garden when it started to get dark.

He looked for her again the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that. And the day after that. He looked and looked and looked but found nothing.

-

Charlie returned home an hour later just as she had promised she would. They had met up with Cherry Bomb while they were out. A few of Charlie's friends had decided to go with her. Vaggie had wanted to stay with Charlie, but she encouraged her to go with Cherry too.

"This could be a great opportunity to make some new friends or meet a new partner! Go with her, you'll have fun. And if you don't, you can throw me off the roof. Deal?"

"...Deal." Vaggie sighed and gave her a hug before going with Cherry, Angel, Nifty, and Pentious. Charlie did have to bribe Cherry a bit to get her to take Nifty and Pentious too, but she thought the bonding experience they would have together would be far worth it. It seemed that the group had an easier time bonding with each other when Charlie wasn't around. She wondered why that was. Sometimes she worried if she was boring.

Alastor had disappeared halfway through dinner to who knows where, so when Charlie got home it was just her and Husk. Husk went straight to his bar to drink himself out of whatever mood he was in. Charlie worried about him but because he was an employee and not a guest, she couldn't very well tell him to stop drinking. As long as he didn't do his drinking in front of the guests with addiction issues, she would leave him be.

Charlie went up to Adam's room. She could hear him playing his guitar faintly through the door. She wasn't sure what song he was playing, but it sounded familiar. It was slow and sad, but beautiful. She put her ear up to the door to hear it better.

About four minutes went by, then she heard the sounds that were unique to Pink Floyd. She knew which song this was. She didn't want to interrupt him. She sat on the floor and listened to him play. He hit each note with perfect, practiced ease.