His Tears, Her Demons

Chapter Seven: The Night Before

Cristine

While Adrien taught Taka and Sumi combat and the anatomy of vampires, I remained in the library. I read various books on science, philosophy, and cultures. I found every one of them quite fascinating.

When I closed the book and began to put them away. When I look up the window, I then discover that it was nightfall." Have I been reading for that long?", I wondered," I need to start keeping track of time."

When I was done and about to leave, I saw Sumi at the door, holding two bowls of what appeared to be soup. She smiled at me and said," I brought your dinner.". I smiled back at her and went over to him.

When I was in front of her, I took the soup she gave me and smelled its aroma." It looks delicious.", I complimented. I then was about to walk out to eat in a dining room until Sumi stopped me by holding her out slightly in front of me. I looked at her a bit confused." I thought we could eat alone tonight... Taka and Alucard don't mind.", she explained.

I nodded and respond in a gentle tone," Okay." I was a little nervous about how she said it. She kept her smile but her voice was flat and indifferent like there was something else on her mind. I decided not to think of it and went to the table to eat with her.

She sat at the end of the table, I sat at one of the sides of it. There was an awkward silence between us. Looked down at the soup and tried it. It contained carrots, deer meat, potato, and onion. It didn't have a lot of flavors but it was still delicious to me.

" How are you, Cristine?", I heard Sumi ask. I looked at her. Her smile was no longer on her face, all it was a calm and unmoved expression.

" It was quite alright.", I told her, trying to smile to be polite," How was yours?"

" It was good.", she answered. She nodded her head. I turned my head away from her again.

" How is he?", she asked as if she was about to laugh. I turned to her and found her grinning. I blushed and almost laughed, knowing who she meant by "he", but wasn't sure entirely what she was asking.

" Why do you ask?", I asked her, curious to know what she was meaning.

" You both seem very close. A little more than friends from what I can tell.", she replied. I looked down with a shy smile on my face.

" Oh... We are nothing more than friends.", I told her," We never really... Exchanged any hints for any romantic interest.". I wasn't entirely sure if what I answered was true. After all, he did kiss me that night even though it was on my forehead, he did hold me close the night before my home was attacked by those priests. But in truth, I didn't know what an actual romantic exchange would be like. I was never taught and the closest thing I can get to what knowing romances are like is whenever I read a book on that subject. The smile then left my face, what was left was a small frown." Sure would be nice.", I thought to myself.

" So, what have you been reading?", heard her ask. I looked back over to her again.

" Oh, just some books on science and philosophy. They're quite fascinating.", I answered her.

" Really? Mind showing me some of it?", she asked. It was strange of her to ask since she didn't seem like the type for books, but I shouldn't judge.

" Alright, one moment.", I smiled then got off my chair then walked away, and searched through the bookcases for those books I read.

When I finished searching after a minute or so, I find her out of her and she looked at me like she did something wrong." Something wrong, Sumi?", I asked her, tilting my head a little to my left shoulder.

" I was just stretching my legs.", she told me. I wasn't sure if that was entirely true. She still had that strange worried look on her face.

" Alright...?", I responded in suspicion as I placed the books on the table. For the next hour, we were eating while I also shared some of the knowledge of these books.

But I couldn't help but notice as we are that the soup tasted a little different than before. A little saltier and even a little spicy.

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As I got myself ready for bed, I felt rather strange. My head began to feel light and my body was feeling rather heavy. I thought it was only my body growing tired. I walked to the bed, laid myself down, and pulled the sheets over me. I laid on my side to get comfortable then fell asleep.

After a few hours, I woke up, my body was in complete pain. I used what strength I had to sit up, using my right arm as support. I began to breathe rapidly. My lungs felt like they were burning as if I ran for miles nonstop.

My first thought was to get to Adrien, he would know what to do about this, at least I hope he does.

I pulled the sheets off of me and got out of the bed. I was losing balance so I had to use the wall and furniture for support. I struggled as I walked to the door. I felt as though I were gonna fall over any minute. With each step I took, my body began growing weaker and weaker. I could feel cold sweat dripping from my head.

When I opened the door, I held onto the handle so I wouldn't have fallen to the ground.

Now that I was in the hall, I had to use the walls as support to get to Adrien's bedroom. As I walked to his room, my head began to grow heavy along with my eyes. I kept on walking to his bedroom. I saw his bedroom door and called out," Adrien... Adrien...". My voice somehow wasn't very loud and my throat felt sore.

I was getting dizzy and I fell to the hard ground." Adrien!", I called out," Adrien, I need you.". My vision was blurry, my eyelids were closing, my body was both exhausted and in pain.

The last thing I heard was a door faintly opening and my calling out one final time in a whisper," Adrien...". The last thing I saw was a silhouette of someone rushing over to me than picking me up off the ground.

Not long after, my eyes completely closed and I was no longer conscious.