Wanting My dear Iris

Chapter 3

It was past midnight and the young boy, Noah, tossed and turned in his bed, unable to sleep. It had been a few weeks since he arrived at the Spencer's abode but he found it hard to adapt. It was a new bed, a different ceiling and different view out the window. The change was too sudden leaving his sleep worse for wear.

Mr. Spencer had said he was free to roam around the house as he wished, so he took the opportunity to walk out of his room and explore the mansion. His eight year old mind took in the antiquated interior and polished furnishing with a discerning eye. He felt some familiarity with the countless portraits hanging on the walls as similar portraits were found in his family home. He moved along one hallway after another until he was downstairs standing in front of the kitchen where he could hear muffled sounds.

Listening closely, he heard the young daughter's voice speaking irately to her father, "Daddy! That's not sugar! How could you make such a silly mistake?"

Her father meekly answered back, "I'm not really used to the kitchen, maybe we should ask the cook to redo it for us—" He immediately fell silent under the glare of his nine year old daughter.

"Hand me the whisk, daddy," she said curtly and her father obliged.

The pair were both standing in their pajamas in the dimly lit kitchen, working on the new confectionery Iris had learned to make from the cook. Lately, she had been making desserts for Noah every day, hoping he would open up after tasting the sweetness she had loaded in them. And every time she would return dejectedly as he would never even bother tasting her hard work.

Then slowly as she whisked the batter and gave instructions to her father, she said, "I just want him to eat sweet things when he's with us. I want there to only be happy memories from his very first day in this house. That way he'll surely forget about the bad memories and only remember the good ones." She grinned at her daddy and said, "If we keep making this with all our love, one day it will reach him for sure."

He listened to her pure hearted thoughts and lovingly wiped the icing from her nose. "I'm jealous."

Noah looked at the chirping father and daughter duo for a little while longer before returning to his room.

That night he slept soundly for the first time in a long while.

The next morning when all three of them were done with breakfast, Iris went to the kitchen to return with the dessert she had baked last night with her father, she placed the dish in front of Noah and waited in anticipation.

His blue eyes swept over her face wondering how she was always so full of optimism but he quickly dispelled that curiosity when he remembered the first day he had came to this mansion, when she hugged him and let loose her tears showing all her vulnerabilities to him. Without thinking he grabbed the spoon and took a bite from the dish propped before him and then regretted it immediately afterwards.

"It's sweet," he said with a grimace on his face.

She was so surprised that he had actually tasted it that she completely missed the look of distaste on his face.

Her father looked at the two and smiled. "Well would you look at that."

He secretly thought now he wouldn't have to help his daughter bake overly sweet confectioneries late at night but what he didn't expect was how the next words that left Noah's mouth would doom him to accompany his daughter every night in the kitchen.

"It's very delicious. Thank you." Noah smiled sincerely.

Iris answered back cheerily, "It's no problem at all! I can make these every day if you'd like."

"I'll look forward to it," he said with a smile and finished the dessert in front of him without a single twitch.

Jonathan thought, either Noah had nerves of steel or he must really like overly-sweet desserts. Either way he couldn't help but smile at the two children and concluded that both of them would make fast friends if this keeps up.

What Jonathan didn't realize was how he would eventually come to regret this ill-fated union between both children in the future. As, right now, he couldn't see the darkness that lay hidden within the little boy's heart.

Once this darkness was swayed by someone it would never let go, devouring it's prey into the deepest abyss of his broken soul.