Secrets In Comfort
1044 Words
The week started like every other week with quiet routines, silent exchanges, unspoken boundaries while Amy told herself she liked it the way it was; predictable, professional, and controlled, except it really wasn’t because sometimes late at night she caught something flickering in Vios’s eyes when he thought she wasn’t looking and it was something raw and haunted like a memory he couldn’t silence.
It happened over the simplest things like when thunder rolled across the city or when a sudden noise echoed through the hallway and when the lights flickered for a second.
He’d go still and not startled or restrained like someone trained to hide panic while Amy who prided herself on never caring too much found herself watching him instead of working.
It was a Thursday when the storm finally broke while the wind howled against the glass walls of her penthouse and white and violent lightning flashed cutting through the darkness.
Amy sat on the couch with her laptop open pretending to read emails, but her eyes weren’t on the screen but on him; Vios.
Vios stood by the window with his reflection pale against the glass, with no fear and no emotion but just unnatural stillness.
“You’re going to wear a hole through that floor” she said, breaking the silence.
He didn’t turn “Just watching the storm.”
“You like storms?”
His voice was quiet “I used to.”
Something in that tone made her close her laptop “Used to?”
He didn’t answer.
Amy sighed “You know, most people would call this moment cozy. Thunder, rain, expensive apartment, warm lighting, a gorgeous man standing by the window…”
He turned then with his eyes catching the light like ice “Most people romanticize pain.”
Her brows lifted “Who said anything about pain?”
He gave a faint smile that was bitter and fleeting “You did.”
Amy’s throat tightened “That’s not what I…”
“You hide it well” he interrupted softly, “But loneliness has a sound. It’s in your voice every time you say you’re fine.”
She blinked because she was caught off guard “You think you know me that well now?”
“I don’t have to” he said simply, “I’ve heard it before”
Neither of them spoke for a long moment, while the storm outside swallowed the silence inside.
Amy looked away first “You know, for someone who’s supposed to be a companion, you have a terrible sense of comfort.”
“I wasn’t designed to comfort” he said quietly.
Her head snapped up “Designed?”
Vios froze realizing that it was too late, the word had slipped out like a fracture in his control.
Amy stood slowly, crossing the distance between them “What do you mean by that?”
He didn’t meet her eyes “It’s… nothing.”
“Don’t give me that. You said ‘designed.’ That’s not how people talk about themselves.” Amy queried.
He said nothing and his jaw was tight.
Amy stepped closer “Vios.”
But there was still nothing.
Lightning flashed, casting both of them in white light for a heartbeat and in that flash, she saw the faint scar running along the side of his neck and it was too precise to be an accident.
“Who are you?” she whispered.
“His blue, burning, and unbearably human eyes lifted to hers “You don’t want to know.”
“Try me.” She responded.
He exhaled slowly with his voice low but controlled “You think you hired me.”
Amy’s pulse jumped “What does that mean?”
He gave a small broken laugh “It means you should’ve never found me.”
“Found you?” she echoed.
Vios’s jaw tightened, he didn’t answer but just looked away like the words were knives against his tongue.
The storm outside cracked the silence open as lightning flashed across his face and for the first time, Amy saw that he looked exhausted like a man haunted by a secret he couldn’t kill.
“Vios” she said softly, “What are you running from?”
He blinked once but slow “Everything.”
The power flickered, and then died completely, while darkness swallowed the room broken only by flashes of white from the storm.
“Vios?” Amy’s voice trembled.
“I’m here” he said quietly.
“Then tell me what’s happening.”
He didn’t but Instead she heard the floor creak and he was closer no with his presence warm, steady, and too real for something so uncertain.
“Why do you look at me like that?” she asked in the dark, “Like you’re afraid I’ll disappear.”
“I’m not afraid you’ll disappear.” He responded
“Then what?”
He hesitated, thunder rolled, deep and violent while Amy flinched, and without thinking, she reached for him.
Her hand found his warm and real, but he jerked back the instant their skin touched with a quiet sound escaping him, not fear but pain.
“Vios?” she whispered with her heart pounding, “What was that?”
He turned away with his shoulders tense “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Touch me” His voice cracked like glass.
Amy took a step closer anyway “Why? What happens if I do?”
He said nothing but only breathed like the air itself was a fight.
“Vios…” she whispered while searching his face in the flickering light, “What did you really sign for?”
He really looked at her then and there was no calm, no mystery, no control but only raw desperation.
And in that moment, Amy realized that whatever this man was tied to wasn’t a contract but was a prison carved into his very being, and something that burned when he got too close to being human.
His silence told her more than any explanation ever could that his man wasn’t bought, but he was running from something money could never fix, and that she didn’t just hire a billionaire’s fantasy. She let a dangerous secret into your life.
- Writer
