Chereads / Forge of Shadows / Chapter 14 - Intimacy

Chapter 14 - Intimacy

"Well?" Soren asked as Issac got on his feet and walked to the kitchen.

"Tea?" Issac asked, walking awkwardly as his blood-soaked shirt and pants stuck to his skin.

Soren stared at Issac and sighed, grabbing his shoulder ha said, "Go clean up. I will make the tea."

"Ok. You are the best." Issac said, rushing to his room where he took off his clothes and threw them into the basket beside the bathroom.

He passed the mirror as he filled the tub and paused to look at the dried blood in parts of his face and the stitching at his side that finally began to throb in pain again.

Before going to the hotel, he had Zadie give him a numbing serum so that he could not feel a thing but the numbness wore off already and the pain is back.

Ignoring it, he jumped into the shower, scrubbing away the blood as much as he could without causing more damage to his skin.

After the shower he soaked himself in the bathtub, allowing the hot water to scale his body, imagining all the dirt on his body evaporating with the steam.

Pushing his hair out of his face, he looked at his hands.

The memory of the person he never knew existed flashed across his mind once again.

But all he did was touch the keypad. He frowned, clutching his hands into fists. What even is happening anymore? I can hardly understand anymore.

He closed his eyes in an attempt to quell the thought running around his mind but that did nothing except magnifying the voices from the memories he saw up to this point.

A scream filled his head as he quickly sat up, clutching his empty eye socket in pain.

What is going on???

Who is that??

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Soren cleaned up the mess in the living room before making the tea. He made sure to sanitize everything in the room as much as he could.

Once he is satisfied, he took off his shirt and washed up in the sink. Making tea after all that.

"Do you want to bathe also?" Issac asked, walking into the kitchen with just joggers and a towel on his shoulders. "You can go up and bathe."

"Ok." Soren turned to Issac, dropping the kettle he held onto the floor. "What the hell, Issac? How did you get hurt that bad??"

Issac stared at him blankly before looking at the stitches up wound on his torso. "This? It is just a scratch."

"I have seen scratches, Issac." Soren picked the kettle up and placed it on the counter, walking to him, staring at the wound. "And that is not a scratch. Seems like it is a reopened wound. Ok. There is a ton of things you need to tell me once I am out of the bathroom."

He did not wait for an answer and booked it up the stairs, shouting from where he stood, "I am borrowing your clothes!"

Issac was not even listening as he stared at the puddle of hot water and sighed.

He got a mop from the storage room and began cleaning everything up as he heated up another pot of hot water.

The entire time, he stared at his hands and braced himself to be taken into another memory against his will again but nothing happened.

Why did that happen that time then? And ... why was I so tired after just that?

He stared at the kettle as it whistled and turned it off, adding the chamomile tea leaves.

Leaving the leaves to seep into the water, he walked to the refrigerator and looked at all the cakes, trying to decide which one to eat.

Chocolate? But I had so much chocolate today already. What about butterscotch? But I want to try Blueberry too. But there is only one slice of vanilla left. It will feel like I don't like it if I don't eat it.

But then-

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"That was a nice bath!" Soren shouted walking the stairs with a towel on his head and Issac's clothes on his body. He looked over the stairwell at Issac staring into the refrigerator with a very serious expression on his face. "Oh? What are you doing?"

"Trying to make a decision." He said, pursing his lips as Soren walked up to him and stared at the number of cakes in the fridge with concern.

"Uh … how about blueberry?" he asked in an attempt to speed up his decision-making.

"Bu-"

"Then how about a slice of each?" Soren said, taking all the cakes out and laying them out on the table in the kitchen. "Ok?"

"Ok," Issac said, nodding his head vigorously. "I will pour the tea while you cut."

Thank goodness.

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"You really like sweet things, don't you?" Soren asked, looking at Issac devour the cakes like it was nothing. "To the point that it is scary."

"I think I like it a healthy amount," Issac said, shrugging. "Now, I think I owe you an explanation."

"Huh?" Soren looked at Issac, surprised.

"What?"

"I thought you would drag this out and try not to tell anything to me until much later." He said, biting onto his blueberry cake.

"Why would I do that?" Issac asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I told you that I would tell you and I intend on doing that."

"Ok." He smiled at him, pulling his legs on the couch as he leaned in. "All I know about you is that you have this way with people that makes them never be able to think negatively around you."

"Is that why you told me that I consume negative energy?" Issac asked, raising his eyebrow at the man.

"Yes, you never explicitly disagree with me so I thought that I was right."

"But where did you come up with something like that anyway?" He chuckled, taking yet another slice of cake.

"All the customers I have spoken to have told me that they just feel positive whenever they are with you. This made them look forward to talking to you every week." Soren grinned at Issac. "Well? What is it about that?"

"Oh that. That is just this." Issac said, pointing to his empty eye socket. "And you are not too far from the truth. I am consuming negative energy. I need that to live. While Araya is the complete opposite of me."

"She consumes positive energy?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at him. "But I did not feel any negative emotions rise up when I was with her."

"That is another reason why she is the exact opposite of me. She does not need to absorb positive energy to survive." Issac took a sip of his tea, looking at Soren trying to connect the dots. "In other words, her 'experiment' was perfect."

"Experiment? What experiment?"

"That is too heavy to deal with at the moment," Issac said dismissively. "Besides, I do not think I am ready to talk about it just yet."

"Ok." Soren nodded, not wanting to push it too much. "Just tell me when you are ready."

"Sure," Issac said looking away from him as he took another sip of his tea.

"You are not planning to tell me at all, are you?" Soren laughed. "Well, whatever. I will find out soon enough. Now, if this 'experiment' went well for your sister, that would explain why she had no problem with her glass eye and you did?"

"Yes. You are catching on great." Issac said dully though there is a hint of pride in his eyes. "That is also why she was able to 'disinfect' that … thing in my eye. Though it took a lot out of her."

"What is that 'thing' anyway?"

"That is our 'Anima' or would be what people call as their soul." Issac looked at Soren intently. Trying to read his emotions as he, unintentionally, continued to absorb the negative air in the atmosphere.

The man looked at Issac blankly, trying to process what he just told him.

"You mean your soul is in your eye?" Soren asked when he finally summed up the ability to speak again. "Isn't that … risky?"

"Maybe." Issac shrugged. "But I survived this long, didn't I?"

"I wonder how." Soren looked at him sceptically. "So I understand some things now. Not all but some. But ... what about you sleeping around?"

"That is the one you want to ask about?" Issac placed his cup down and shoved another slice of cake into his mouth. "I have noticed that you have been trying to hit up the people I slept with. Why is that?"

"Look," Soren leaned forward, pointing his fork at Issac, "You are a person no one knows anything about. Like I said before, for many people, sleeping with someone else is very intimate.

"I am only trying to find out more about you."

"You sound like a creep." Issac moved away from him as much as he could. "I will avoid you from now on."

"You know how I am like when I see something that I am interested in." Soren smiled at Issac. "Please stop moving away from me and tell me what all that was for."

"Fine. Fine." Issac tried to get more cake but they were out of it. "I need to buy more of this."

"Issac."

"I am looking for someone. Once they look like the person I am looking for I shoot my shot."

"So you sleep with them??? Why??"

"Intimacy, as you said."

"Intimacy, my ass."