Eternally Dark

chapter 4: Drawn to you

When I woke, a sliver of hope filled me for just a moment, feeling the warmth of a blanket over me and the softness of the pillow under my head. That all came crashing down as I took in the cold hardness of the floor the painful grip of chains around my ankles and the surrounding dark. A shape moved next to me, I shrieked and pulled the blanket over my head trying to hide from what may be next to me. The blanket was pulled back down to my shoulders, before I could scream I recognised the man's face. Not wanting to be in a non-defensible position I quickly sat up. Our gazes fixed, and I became overly aware that I hadn’t stopped crying.

“Why are you crying?” He asked, again he seemed to truly want to know. I wiped at my eyes uselessly as more tears took their place. Even after I broke eye contact with him he watched me,

“My I’ve been so distracted,” He said “I’ve forgotten to introduce myself, I’m James,”

“Okay,” I drew out the word, not knowing what else to do I said “I’m Elizabeth,” He smiled, making me realise that he hadn’t been, his smile was a mix of sadness and that mystery emotion. James hesitantly moved closer to me, making it easier to see him as the room had gotten even darker than it had been when he’d last been in here. He looked relieved when I didn’t make any movement to get away from him. I gave him a small shaky smile, not really knowing why. He returned the smile and continued to study me, though I couldn’t figure out why.

“Why have you changed your opinion of me?” He asked. I was beginning to think that he really didn’t know the answers to his questions.

“I haven’t,” I told him, though as I said it I realised that I had in some way.

“You have,” He was still looking at me with complete curiosity “Before you were yelling at me to get away and now you have asked me to stay,” I shrugged,

“Would you rather I go back to yelling?” He shook his head gently,

“No, I mean you probably should but I would prefer you didn’t,” I looked at him, properly now and not just to make sure he didn’t do something while my head was turned. I took in his eyes -still blood red-, his messy black hair, his clean expensive clothes and sweet smile. He watched me as I studied him this time. I found myself staring right into his eyes endlessly deep,

“Your eyes,” I whispered, barely noticing that I’d said it. Immediately he blinked and looked away, looking almost ashamed.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to-” I began, but he cut me of

“You did nothing wrong,” He didn’t look at me, “I should go,” He’d lost his smile,

“No, please stay” I hadn’t said it purely to keep out of the dark but a part of me was pulled to him no matter how hard I fought it. He moved around and sat back against the wall, I shuffled back to sit directly next to him. As I moved the chains, rattled and pulled against me, hard, cold and painful. I winced at the pain. James reached out and tucked hair behind my ear, before I could stop him. I looked away from my ankles and back to him, I opened my mouth to say something and closed it again. Still he watched me, seeming to be fascinated, I felt my cheeks heat up as I watched him right back. I was the one to break the concentration and looked down at my hands.