Chapter 10: Unease 0.2
It must have been an hour or so when their situation finally started to make sense to Pierce, she hadn't really thought about it earlier but in the end she was actually sitting on a date with the guy wasn't she? This brought on a full-fledged splash of red across her cheeks as she busied herself with eating her favorite strawberry muffin and as expected of Vladius he continued to munch on his chocolate wafers, she had remembered to carry.
When one looked at Vladius closely, they would notice that he was very well mannered for being a clueless and dense person as he was. It was frustrating to see how child like his attitude was sometimes but this adult and serious side of his had Pierce realizing she was practically codling the guy by buying him stuffs like chocolate and so on when he could definitely buy everything himself without needing any help from her.
Somewhere on the way she had just decided to view him as a small kid to be taken care of instead of a young adult to be tour guided.
The off putting emotions that had plagued her this morning returned to her as she started to feel strange again. Taking small bites of her cheese sandwich, she chewed slowly, unable to enjoy its taste in the slightest. Nibbling on the corner of the bread she gazed out at the sky that peeked through the greens, its cloudy background scaring her. She always had a dislike for clouds, it brought out the emotions she often kept suppressed.
Looking forward at her companion again, she noticed that he was looking at her instead of the food he had been eating. His eyes were sharply focused, thoughtfully trying to find something which she was sure wasn't there.
"You done?" she asked kindly refraining from looking him in the eyes, she was asking about the picnic not his stare and that thought took root in him a bit late. He nodded, not caring that he had resumed his staring.
Trying to force on a smile she started to pack everything again not really paying attention to it as her sole focus was sharply directed towards her guest who for some unknown reason was still carefully assessing her. It was unnerving.
"You look sick."
The left off sandwich which she had just picked up dropped from her hand as she jerked at the sudden sound. The rich velvet of a voice was of no doubt her guest's and to say it was comforting was an understatement. It strangely made her feel secure.
"I am not sick, just feeling down... well, anyways, congratulations, your voice is back."
He smiled nonchalantly yet a little happily, but quickly caught up to her attempted change of topic. "Are you sure you just feel down, but why is that?" His sentence croaked at the end, as he touched his throat with a masked wince.
She was surprised to hear him form such long sentences when he just found his voice back, and it must have hurt him, she wasn't blind, she noticed him rubbing his throat subtly. She vaguely argued with her inner mind about what was more concerning, her sudden worry for his health or the need to keep hearing him speak. Hearing another body made her forget there were shadows around her, it made her forget she was scared of some silly fluffy clouds.
"Don't really care, I am weird like that," she spoke with mirth and amusement at her own conclusion.
"I don't think so."
"That I don't really care or that I am weird?"
"Both I suppose..." he mused absently though she knew it was untrue, his gaze at her was fixated trying to find something she had no knowledge of. She wanted to ask what he was trying to find but kept shut fearing another conversation. It was true his voice was calming but getting stimulated with warm emotions and secure feelings by just hearing him brought in a new level of cringes in her sub consciousness. So avoiding much conversation was a good option to her, at least she won't be the creepy one.
"Let's go back home," she finally spoke after a while, keeping her head turned to look anywhere but him, she just didn't feel like sitting there any longer. The same emotion of fear and dread she felt at the park last night assaulted her again, a foul smell wafting to her nose. A smell similar to that of a dead rat's.
Standing upright with sudden nerves her feet got away from the blanket, she found herself crouching behind Vladius, clutching his shoulder and looking on at the bushes. Only this time the bushed were not moving which was even more unnerving.
The safe heaven she had named the place earlier to be was no longer one and it was a glaring factor suggesting how much of a paranoid she was being since the guest's arrival. 'Something is definitely wrong with me these days.'
"Is there something there?"
She clutched Vladius with more firmness, her eyes wide and the breathing labored with a sudden rush of panic.
He asked again, this time turning his head to look at her, his face held a seriousness she couldn't refuse or ignore. "Is there something wrong?"
"This place is-" she paused uncertainty, wondering what to tell, "I feel wrong here, this place is scary."
"How so?" his voice was curious, his face not so.
She flicked back her hair behind the ears, licking her dry lips to clear her speech, "It is scary."
"Why?"
"I don't know! It just is... I want to get out of here," her faint voice sounded small, her heart beating faster than before.
Vladius shook off her hold to stand and collect their belonging neatly in the basket, he was quick with his work. All the while he managed to stay level headed and had his attention on the bushes where the girl kept staring at.
When they were finally out of the greenhouse, she didn't care whether her jeans got wet or her boots, all she cared about was getting away from there as fast as possible.
"You look paler than usual Slayworth," came the worried comment from Vladius, he was lagging behind her but wasn't that far away to not even notice the sudden change in her.
She heard the water splash in a distance at regular intervals, increasing in noise as it got closer to her, looking back she noticed Vladius following her catching up to her pace. He didn't seem to care whether his shoes were getting wet or not either.
"Why was that place frightening as you say," he tried to understand to the best of his abilities. She was thankful for his support but what could she say? Still... "I think I saw shadows there, moving."
"Shadows move with the object."
"But not against them."
"Wha-"
"I mean to say," she started patiently as if explaining to a kid, "those shadows were moving as if they were alive and I have been getting this strange vibe of negative feelings since you got here, there was even a time when I didn't want to enter my own house. Look I am not saying it was you, not you, but I am telling you something is wrong, even in the greenhouse I felt pressured to leave. And before we came out I smelled a foul odor coming from in there, and the shadows... don't get me started on that."
Now when she thought about it, everything happening had been the fault of her sixth sense and she really didn't know if she was just being paranoid or if things were really that wrong.
Vladius was just looking at her thoughtfully, his eyes didn't give away anything but she could tell he wasn't believing her. "Just forget it," she said firmly with a tight smile, her grey eyes hard with understanding, "I know I don't sound believable."
"No-"
"Please stop, let's just get going." She felt hurt now more than anything else, she should have known he wouldn't believe her yet she had hoped. 'He is still a guest, a stranger... if Gracia doesn't believe my sixth sense after living with me for so many years then why would he.'
Silence befell their company as they made their way back, the guest stayed quiet at her request while Pierce was thinking what she could do to avoid the topic if it was ever brought up again. With any luck he might forget her desperate little speech if she tried bribing him with candies and chocolates. It might just work if she was talking about him, the grown up kid.
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