Good evening, the strange man says.
He addresses Riven with a smile where his rotten teeth are gleefully displayed.
Riven watches in silence. He stares at Adam who dormantly sits on the palm of the strange man's hand.
The boy does not move for a while and the man waits patiently for a response. Time ticks on and the iron horse maintains its charge.
Time's longest hand finishes several marathons before the sound of the boy reaches the strange man's ears.
Who are you? The boy breaks the silence, and the man maintains it for a while longer.
Evening it was when the exchange first began, now night has fallen in the time taken for the next words to be spoken.
The strange man observes the world outside with a face unreadable as he continues to hold the silver sphere in hand yet holds not the faintest of interest in the mysterious device of a time now now and instead carries it like a common rock found on a trail.
My name is not important, he says. The place you head will tell you of it soon enough, he adds with a cackle.
The boy has stood unmoving for long, fighting the quaking of the ground they stand on but refusing to move a step forward or back.
Forward he steps as the pain in his figure becomes etched deeply.
Not a scratch on the skin and not a wound on the body but the tears and the sweat tell a different story. The boy was in pain as he stepped closer to the man.
If you can't tell me who you are, then tell me what you want.
Another laugh that tainted the very air around it, a sinister air so foul that even the cursed boy buckled in its stench.
It is not I who needs something boy, he says. The strange man finally moves. He stands tall as the room and his hat brushes the roof. He bends down at the boy with a hand on the shoulder as he whispers sweet curses.
It's true, the man said. I came here for something. A sweet enticing smell brought me to this place. Not yours do not worry you are still not fat enough for me. But oh how joyous for me to find a boy so lost. The man wraps his hand around the boy's neck and invites himself into an embrace reserved for lovers and mothers.
He places the sphere that the boy so cherished into his hands so gently and closes the boy's fingers so they wrap around the gift.
And into the night the strange man goes.
…
What was that? Riven thought.
Riven didn't know why, but he was crying. He felt naked and violated. He'd never felt anything like it. From the moment the man appeared to the moment he left, Riven didn't understand a thing that was going on, a thing that was said.
What the man was, the feeling he gave, the things he said.
Riven was crying like a motherless baby, he felt so cold, so uncared for, so frail and afraid, and there was nobody to protect him.
Where did he go? Riven thought.
He just waited for me here, holding Adam in his hand. He came, he played with me, and he just left.
Why do I feel like this? Riven thought.
There was something more. When he saw that man he felt rejection from within. It wasn't just the demonic aura that the man possessed, something about him brought a reaction from within.
Like his very flesh was rebelling, like every inch of flesh pushed and pulled and blended and tore into itself, trying to leave his shell.
And yet that feeling couldn't hold a candle to the anguish he felt in his mind.
Riven wailed. Riven wept. Riven knelt on the floor with his hands on his head to keep the feelings from bursting through his skull.
Riven didn't understand why he was doing this. What was it about that man just now that made him feel this way?
What did he do? What did he do?
Was it magic? That has to be it. Nothing else can explain how I'm feeling. He rationalised the feeling, there was no other explanation for this unnatural response.
But the more Riven tried to explain it, the more the feeling returned, the more it tore at him, it ate him alive.
The strange man was long gone at this point, but Riven continued to sink closer to the ground, submerged in a lake of his own making.
Riven cried. His hands moved onto his stomach, to make him feel protected, to shake off the feeling of nakedness, to warm himself.
Then his legs tucked in, and he lay in the pool as the wails grew louder. At this point, Riven stopped thinking about why, for the what had overwhelmed him.
"The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
A metal voice sang.
A metal voice hugged Riven in a warmth that only others could give.
"Thank you… Adam."
The silver voice rocked the boy to sleep.