The deer quickened its pace in the small room, clattering around the standing people and furniture. There was more movement and sound coming from upstairs, and everyone watched the door expectantly. Laurine imagined the little gears of the gold clock still moving at the museum, and thought again of the larger gears that were spinning somewhere beyond her eyes. She knew that time could not be sped up or slowed down, but with the deer’s pacing and the silence it seemed to be suddenly stopped. She thought about all the dead animals upstairs in the taxidermy shop, and wondered if she could bring any of them to life from there.
The deer suddenly stumbled and stopped, twisted its neck towards the door with a crackling of bones, still adjusting to movement after so many years in the museum. The door knob twisted and the door opened sharply. She’d never met Renard, but she recognized him from the twisted hand that grasped a cane and the crooked way he stood. His eyes seemed not to focus on anyone or anything in the room, just barely resting on the deer who stared intently.
“So, it worked,” Renard said. His eyes were a watery shade of blue, and Laurine realized he must be blind. Although he was seeing something as his pupils danced around his sockets in the direction of the deer.
“Yes, but, it wasn’t easy,” Clint said. “She brought it back to life to early and we-”
“It doesn’t matter, the result is here,” Renard said, cutting him off with his voice that rustled like dead leaves. He held his hand out and swished his cane before him and slowly moved towards the deer, which stood absolutely still until one of the gnarled hands was laid upon its neck.
“Beautiful, beautiful,” Renard whispered and then withdrew his hand.
“You said you were going to help with our problem,” Clint said.
“The man from the museum? We don’t need him here.”
“We can’t just let him leave, he’s seen everything.”
“And what will happen if he tells? Will the newspapers run reports, send investigators? No, all will be ignored.”
Renard waved a hand from where Valentin generally stood to the door.
“Wait, but what if it’s him that the deer is living off of? It got its soul from somewhere.”
“They found a man today, his heart exploded in his chest, dead in the middle of the Jardin des Plantes. Just between those two beautiful rows of trees.”
oh my!!!!
awesome solution! I like Renard and love that you made him blind! Love even more you got it right about the eye color, and “pupils dancing” actually from a medical point of view is even cooler cause that can be indicitive of an altered state of conciousness, like sleep, coma, siezure, trance-ish stuff, no idea if that was indentional but I’m going to say it was :) (and thanks for the facebook prompt! to read!!)