Sam
As my dreams fade away, I hear a door open and close near me, I keep my breathing even. I sense the presence come towards my back, I was laying on my left side. I stay VERY still. I hear this person's breathing behind me, practically over me. From what I could tell, it was a boy. I move a little, to seem like I'm just getting comfortable again.
I know you're awake, girl. An aggressive deepish voice, which I'm assuming is his, comes through loud and clear in my mind. My heartbeat jumps and continues to accelerate, but I manage to keep my breathing even. I keep my face neutral. He scoffs and I hear the creak of the chair, that Lyra previously sat down in, as he sits down.
Then I'll just wait you out. Better than actually talking to you. He becomes silent. A few minutes pass with no sound from him. He's really determined to talk to me, but didn't he say that he DIDN'T want to talk to me? My curiosity got to me and my anger too, why is he being a jerk? I don't even know him! I sit up quickly and look at him to give him a piece of my mind, I stop short. He was watching me closely showing no emotion, with his hands on his knees. He has bright blue eyes, black hair and fair skin, he had a pretty muscular body too. Wearing a black muscle shirt with some holes in it, with ripped faded out jeans, and camping boots. I feel my face turn a deep red and I try to hide by yelling at him.
What is your problem?! I don't know you, and you don't know me! So why do you have to be a jerk? You just said waiting me out is better than talking to me, so you don't really wanna talk to me. Yet here you are, OBVIOUSLY having something to say, so just say it already! 'Cause I don't feel good, I want to sleep and NOT deal with the garbage you're throwing at me. I take a deep breath to calm my temper, he deserved it though. There was no reason at all to be rude to me. I brace myself for more yelling but to my surprise, he just smiles.
So you are what Lyra calls 'Atarah'. And to what I'm betrothed to… This is a horrendous situation that shouldn't even be existing in the first place. He continues to look at me, his voice to a lot quieter, I'm not even sure I'm supposed to be hearing. But my recklessness just gives me away.
It's not what, it's who you're betrothed to, watch your grammar. Who are you talking about? And what does At-are-rah mean? My head's kinda fuzzy so I don't know what's going on. Who are you?... Why are you here? My confusion reveals itself. My anger was slightly forgotten, I move the blanket closer to me. The stranger still on the chair. He sighs out of what, it seems like frustration. And the door to the room opens quietly, Lyra peeking through. She sees me and smiles kindly,
"Oh you're awake, how are you-?" She said out loud, her voice seems the same. She turned towards her left and catches "sight" of the guy, sitting there, he noticed Lyra and stands up quickly. His hair stirs. They just stare at each other, I'm guessing they have a little aria of conversation...And it includes me cause I can't hear them at all. But I can feel their presence, just it's blocked off. Not feeling good makes me short-tempered, so frustration builds quickly and slips my thoughts to both of them.
Okay, I know you guys are talking about me, so can I be included?? So I can have a say in the situation. What's going on?? I'm beginning to feel like I rode a crazy rollercoaster and I'm about to lose my lunch. I hope not, Imma be really embarrassed if I get sick in front of this dude. In the back of my mind, a thought escapes to my consciousness, He's actually really cute-NOPE, no! That's not okay, I physically shake my head to keep the thought away.
Lyra comes and sits slowly next to me like the jostle of the bed will make me lose it, she touches my arm and looks at my face, nausea ebbs away into a stomach ache,
You need to calm yourself. I am just scolding Kai here to be bothering you in your state of mind and health. You need rest to become well again, and Kai is interrupting that process. I'm telling him he needs to leave you alone… even if he needed to meet you. To talk to you… She stops, as though she doesn't want to say the rest, so I push it.
And...why would he NEED to see me?? To talk to me?.. He just said right before you came in, that he didn't even want to talk to me! I feel as though the situation is going right over my head. They look at each other, Lyra looks back at me. Pats my shoulder,
You should tell her, Kai… She gets up and leaves with that. I look expectantly at the guy, Kai, for his explanation. Still standing, he clenches and unclenches his hands, assuming not knowing what to do.
He sighs, and looks at me,
You really don't understand, do you?
I just look at him, confused but before I can say anything, he continues,
No, you don't, you just got here, you don't know shit! He says the word harshly, surprising me to silence. I've never been cursed at before… by a guy. To be honest, it frightens me, so I stay quiet. He takes a deep breath and relaxes again,
Yes, what Lyra said was true… I needed to talk to you, to see you. But that reason is not important…
I took the opportunity to calmly and quietly ask the big question
If it's not important then why are you -?
I said it's not fucking important. He raised his voice a bit. He looks me in the eyes. Those blue eyes are all that I see… But his anger is swimming in my head, it's contagious, and it scares me. So I go on instinct, I back up and curl into myself. My knees in front of me, my arms around them. I never noticed but ever since Kai came in here and spoke to me, my Mark, in the front of my left shoulder-grazing the end of my collarbone, became hot and seared on my skin. I don't look at him, I look at my arms, the sheets, anything but him, nor his eyes.
Will you allow me to see your Mark?... His voice is quieter now, apprehensive in a way. His question surprised me.
Why? Thinking of showing my mark made my face heat up, I don't know why but somehow it was embarrassing. With Chris, we didn't do anything, just made out, you know. I wear freakin spaghetti straps to school (When we're not supposed to, oopsie!) so how does showing a little collarbone embarrass me? Can I make up my mind on how I show my own skin, I confuse even myself. I smile at my realization, I move my tattered shirt to the side to expose my collarbone so he can see.
Umm… yeah, I might be too pale for you to see. So.. His eyes widen in surprise and quickly comes closer, sitting on the bed in front of me, pushing my shirt farther, assuming so he can see the entire Mark. Almost like he forgot to respond, he clears his throat and hastily says,
No… I can see it just fine… He Lifts his shirt slowly, my face burns up now! Him removing his shirt SHOULDN'T be a casual thing in front of girls!!!! Especially one whom he JUST met! Did he just smile? Maybe just a little or it was annoyance or disgust. I get those a lot. But my internal rambling stops once I see what he was doing. He's showing me HIS Mark. But it's deep red like he got severely burned, it's oozing so much heat that I can feel it, or is it my Mark? It's been hot since he came in. He looks back at my Mark, I sneak a peek at it too. Mine was the same shade of red, the air around it was hot too. I could tell the skin around was sensitive so I didn't touch it. What's going on? My confusion turned into frantic spurts of questions and conclusions. I think Kai hears them because he interrupts me from the imaginary worries that I was creating just to worry.
That wasn't supposed to happen... Not until- He cuts himself off like he was about to expose a secret, He says something that sounded familiar, the only thing I understood is Lyra. He quickly walks out of the room, slamming the door behind him. The heat around my Mark cools down to normal room temperature but remains the same color. Wasn't it a different color before, wasn't it a pale white? Yeah, so why was it different now? I look into myself. I feel fine, a bit weak but reasonably decent. I haven't heard or felt Em for a while, maybe I could just talk to her. The only other sane one here, aside from Lyra. I try to imagine her, to find her presence, I'm just winging it. When I give up on finding her, my head's pounding to the max, my left shoulder, and backache. I stretch to relieve that aches and pains but doesn't work a smidgen, actually stretching made it worse. I lay on my stomach with my head on my left, keeping the door in view. In spite of all the pain that's going on, I dose until I feel sudden terror. I tense, Em's in trouble I get up slowly, my back still in pain.
I walk towards the door, my hands on the knob when it opens up before I could.
"Oh, I apologize. As I said, I got you food and water. But I won't be here for a few hours. Here." Lyra tries to hand me the tray of more soup and water. But I shake my head, ignoring my suddenly hungry stomach. A breeze strokes my arms.
"Where are you going? Where's Emberlynn?" I say, watching her surprised reaction. She recollects herself,
"It is not important right now, you just need to get better. You could hurt yourself." I shake my head more, I didn't want to be disrespectful but she was pushing my limit of tolerance with no answers. I guess I have to find her on my own. I softly push her out of my way with her giving me no resistance, as though she's given up. I feel kinda bad. But something's wrong, I need to find Em. I run out of the door in search of my best friend.