Human Nature (Book 4): Human Nature IV by Borthwick, Finlay (book recommendations website .TXT) 📗

To Mac, it sounded as though Cora was speaking from experience.

“But you’re mostly right, Mac.” She glanced over at him, “Now that we’ve all come together in this place – Me, my mother, my old friends, my new friends – I think it’s time we all got to know each other indeed.” She indicated that she had no intentions of leaving her mother ever again.

“I’m glad you’ve come to that decision!” Mac declared as he punched the air jovially. “You know, the thing I want to know most about our new friends is—” He ceased his words abruptly upon noticing something outside.

It took Cora several seconds to realise that this stop was not intentional. “Mac? What is it?” She enquired.

Mac’s expression had very quickly become one of dread, with a troubled feeling evident in his eyes.

As Cora turned her head to follow Mac’s gaze, she found herself being tackled to the ground.

“Get down!” Mac cried out as he pummelled Cora and took her down onto the floor with him.

Less than a second later, a large and bold tree branch came crashing through the window.

“Ouch!” Cora proclaimed; as the branch had smashed through the pane, she felt several microscopic shards pierce her skin.

“GAH!” Mac squealed in the exact same moment, for he too had just been bombarded with a great many sharp and stinging shards.

The large, wet, and mouldy tree branch had been blown all the way to the back of the front room, smashing the two vases on the mantelpiece above the fireplace as it was thrown.

Cora and Mac’s hair began to blow about recklessly from the overpowering draught that now ravaged through the open-air windowsill.

“Come on! Let’s go down into the basement!” Mac yelled out over the fierce gale as he gestured towards a small cupboard door on the wall that was perpendicular to where him and Cora were shielding.

In an instant, Cora complied with Mac’s request, instinctively grabbing his hand for comfort as she did so.

Mac took the lead as he and Cora made a run for the door.

“Got it!” Mac announced as he flattened himself against the wall next to the door, pulling at the handle with all his might to force it open. “Go! Get down there!” He put Cora’s safety before his own, holding the door open against the ferocious wind so that she could be safe.

The thunder rumbled out from the dismal and depressing sky once more. Though this time, due to the smashed front window, it was much louder now.

Once Cora had safely descended the stairs into the basement, Mac slipped through the gap and slammed the door shut behind him; the two of them were now safely hidden away from the hurricane beneath the semi-detached house.

‘THUMP!’

And it appeared that they had descended just in time, as only a few moments after Mac had closed the door behind them, the tyre which he and Cora had seen blow past earlier had now been thrown by the wind in through the open window and had just pounded against the same wall which the basement door was on…

Adela and Tia were taking shelter in Alek and Emile’s cottage. The engaged couple’s humble home was far out from the rest of the safe zone. In fact, it was so far out that one of the corners where two of the decaying walls around the city met was visible from out the back windows.

Tia was shaking, for the poor little girl was absolutely terrified.

“It’s alright honey, I’ve got you. Uncle Alek’s here, everything’s gonna be alright.” Alek tended to Tia, for she did indeed love him as though he were her actual uncle.

Adela and Emile were stood at opposite ends of the room, both looking out of opposing windows; things were naturally quite tense between the two, though Alek and Tia were none the wiser.

“Will—Will you protect me, Uncle—Alek?” Tia’s lips quivered as she looked up at Alek with frightened eyes.

“Of course I will.” Alek comforted her, weaving her fingers through her hair as he did so.

“It looks pretty bad out there.” Emile remarked.

“Yeah, alright. Not in front of Tia please.” Adela rebutted without turning around. “She’s scared enough as it is.”

“Right, right.” Emile acknowledged his mistake. “I’m sorry, Tia.” Like Adela, he did not turn around either. On the inside, Emile was still raging at the bombshell which Adela had dropped on him just several days prior.

“Would you like me to read you a story?” Alek asked Tia. “I’ll read you one now, and Uncle Emile will read you your bedtime story tonight. That way, you’ll get two stories in one day! How does that sound?”

Though still shivering, Tia’s face lit up with a vacant smile, “Yes please, Uncle Alek!”

Alek was jovial to hear the excitement in her voice, for just as she looked up at him as a proper uncle, he looked down at her as a proper niece as well. “Alright then. You head on upstairs and get into bed,” Alek suggested, for because Tia would have sleepovers at her Uncle Alek’s and Uncle Emile’s so very often, a special little room had been prepared just for her. “And I’ll come on up with one of your favourites!”

“Yay!” Tia happily exclaimed as she flew up the stairs in an instant.

“I’d better be quick!” Alek remarked to Adela and Emile, “Poor thing will be terrified if lightning strikes whilst she’s alone up there.”

Finally, Adela turned around; despite how tense things were between her and Emile, she harboured no ill-will towards Alek. “Thank you, Alek.” She nodded appreciatively to him, “She loves you so much, you know that, right?”

Alek smiled, “And I love her too. She’s just like the niece that I never had.” He crouched down to pick up his water bottle from under the coffee