Shadows between us
807 Words
The next day when she was at school, Lyra told herself that she would avoid Marek and she would avoid Rhett both. Another cryptic warning also another smirk that made her pulse misbehave was something she wasn’t ready for. Her endurance reached its limit second period.
Rhett stood in the distant corner holding a book when she entered the library though he wasn’t reading. She walked on in, and Rhett was right there. His eyes lifted, also they caught hers across the room as if he’d been waiting and dying to see her.
She hesitated. She could walk away. She should walk away.
Her feet, in its place, betrayed her.
She dropped into the chair across from him, saying, “You have a bad habit of lurking.”
He countered, his voice quiet but edged by something that wasn’t entirely annoyance, “And you have a bad habit of ignoring good advice”.
She rolled her eyes. What is it that your vague warnings of “stay away” do mean? Yeah, super helpful. Use complete sentences perhaps for the next time.
They stared toward each other. The moment was only a fleeting one. His expression softened just enough that she noticed, though not much. “You would never look at me in just the same exact way if I were to tell to you everything.”
Her pulse jumped. She wanted to ask what that meant, but his gaze was so steady, so unreadable, soooo…… that she didn’t trust her own voice. Before she could respond, Marek walked past the aisle, shot them both a knowing glance, and muttered, “Some of us actually read in here.”
Rhett’s jaw tensed, but Lyra found herself smiling despite herself.
On her way home she stopped by the market to get fruits most especially apples cos they’re her favourite, honey jars and handwoven baskets, she also had to get new pair of shoes for Sila cos his was slowly getting worn out.
While the fruitseller was getting her change across the road she saw a man in a dark coat amidst the crowd.
He stood still, watching her like an owl, didn’t even flinch.
Her heart sinked deep.
Tension arose, she couldn’t see his face clearly cos of the hT he had worn. Tall, composed, deliberate….
It was him, her foster father, her uncle, the man that always appears in her dreams.
Lyra felt this in her heart.
He was slowly moving, not towards her but away, slipping through the crowds and ended up in a narrow alley between two shops.
Lyra followed immediately trying to track him, running through crowds, beckoning on a pathway from them.
She reached the alley it was empty but faint scent of smoke and cedar was all in the air. She looked down to the ground and saw a piece of paper, written in it was “ stay out of Gravemoor till the moons rise”.
Rhett said this as well, “ what will happen if I don’t stay out?”….
She didn’t tell Marianne, she didn’t tell Silas as well.
She sat on the porch with the paper in her hand and her head full of questions and thoughts.
She didn’t hear Rhett’s footsteps until his shadow stretched abroad from ends to ends.
“You look like you’re either about to cry or set something on fire” He said
“Or both “ she murmured.
He bent his head slightly “what happened?”
She hesitated, looked up and shook her head and said “nothing you’d believe”
“Try me”
For a second, the world shrank to just his eyes, they were cool, guarded, beautiful but with a flicker of something she couldn’t just name, it made her feel unsteady like as if she were standing on an edge of a cliff.
“Why do you even care what happens to me, Rhett?” She muttered instead of answering him
He didn’t flinch “if if something were to happen to you the balance shifts and I…..” he words got caught up, he had this fear in him “ I don’t want that to happen” he said really softly….
They both looked at each other silently, the night birds humming between them.
Lyra’s fingers tightened around the note, she didn’t know if she could trust him, not completely tho, in that particular moment she wanted to, she needed to…..
Later in bed, she looked at her ceiling, Confiding in it with her thoughts, her birthmark outlined itself on her shirt, she could feel it like a heartbeat in the dark, she found some sort of comfort in the warmth of the birthmark or maybe she was just getting use to it.
Somewhere in Gravemoor her uncle was waiting, she could feel it.
- Writer
