Past Memories

The categories should let you guys know where this comes from. ^_^

The night had been cold.

She was curled up in the blanket like a little kitten. He had watched her fall asleep, then curl as the cold got to her. Getting up, he put a blanket around her, making sure she was warm. She purred in reply. When he was sure that she was asleep, he went to the bedroom balcony. Taking a packet of herbs out of his pocket, he sniffed them, the narcotics immediately going to his brain. His mind was clearer and he felt sharper. The view outside the balcony was beautiful, but the small lights and fires that lit up the landscape hid an even greater danger.

He sighed.

A hint of the narcotic hers he had been inhaling wafted back into the room, and the girl, who had a sharp nose, sneezed. She woke up, saw the door slightly ajar, and got out of bed to close it. Once done, she went back to bed to sleep. He turned around, annoyed, but let it be and instead looked up to enjoy the night sky. Though it was cold, the sky was cloudless, and the stars blinked cheerfully at him. They were merry little things, and he found that he was not annoyed, but rather, resigned.

Taking a last sniff at the herbs, he threw the packet over the balcony and went back into the room, sitting on the chair next to the bed, looking troubled. He did not notice her toes peeking out from the edge of the blanket, twitching. When she began mumbling though, he turned his attention to her, anticipating what would come next. She sat up as though she had just woken from a nightmare, throwing the blanket off herself. Looking dazedly around her, she noticed him through the sleep fog clouding her mind. Cocking her head to one side, she opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off by leaning forward to hold her arms.

“Hmm?” she mumbled, still not quite fully awake. With her looking at him like that, he felt helpless.

“You should go back to sleep.” He stood up and made her lie down again, tucking her in as though she was a child, even though they were close in age.

“But you looked so sad.” He ignored her and kissed her forehead instead.

He went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, aware that she was probably holding the blanket up to her nose and peeking at him. Filling the glass with water from the wooden tap, he stared at it, not realising that it was full and spilling over. When the water had fallen over his hand, he closed the tap, moving almost dreamlike. He did not hear her get off the bed and hug him from the back, her cheek against his back. She mumbled something, but he did not need to hear her words to know her question.

“I would overflow…” he answered, just loud enough for her to hear.

“From?” She moved her head back. He turned to face her, pushing her away gently.

“You.”

Her quizzical look made him turn away quickly, and he walked into the room as though to avoid her. The glass of water he had left forgotten and untouched on a table. She followed him into the room, watching as he picked up a small pouch to be fastened to his belt. She sat at the bed, confused as to what she may have done for him to be so angry at her.

“I’m going out for a bit. You should get some rest,” he did not look at her.

“Alright,” she said in a small voice, wrapping herself in the blanket and sitting with her back to the wall on the bed.

The thoughts whirling in his head were a mass of tangled ideas, emotions and sensations. He paused in the living room where she could not see him, and waited, his eyes alighting on the papers and the pen. When he heard only her steady breathing, indicating that she had fallen asleep, he wrote a quick note to her and walked out of the house. The world was cruel to have forced him to this, he thought, regretting leaving her like that.

He kept on walking, into the darkness. It was not long before it found him, and swallowed him.

Who would have predicted that her actions would have been to follow him into that same darkness?

5 thoughts on “Past Memories

Comments are closed.