Don'ts Of An Arranged Marriage

11. Don't Share Treats

SHIN

Can't be seen. I know even if someone came in, they won't be able to see me. It's not their eyes deceiving, neither was I hiding. But I know I was an illusion in a segment of the past. Yet it felt so real and eerie. The room, the stench, the emotions.

The scratchy grey concrete scrapes, as if the slow, haunting steps that I was advancing with were walking over a bed of shattered glass. When I let my gaze stretch across the floor- I see it. The shreds of broken ceramics. The rays from the stripped ventilation help the room into a patterned gleam, the moonlight only made the atmosphere worse.

When I heard the groan of a young girl in pain, from a corner that I cannot see- her withering visage finally adjusts to the likes of my vision as I battle to look through. In a soaring leap, it all comes back to me. Like tumbling boulders of Jenga as the freezing night engulfs me. I hug myself- the dress and fancy heels that I wore weren't a shield from the room that lacked a heater.

But I know I was the future- I know I am the future so my heart went out for the girl in a bloodied t-shirt. She was young- not more than eleven. Half in and out of consciousness, she wills her eyes to plead. They were staring right at me. Through me. I couldn't even cry for her. How long has she been here for?

I look around in search of an escape. when I see the rusty door- I couldn't move. I don't move because I know it was locked. I know we both were trapped. So I make my way to her- crouch with a knee to the ground. It takes the young girl a complete minute to hoist herself up, her hair matted by her side, impeded with dried blood. Her russet brown eyes are afraid- her chapped lips parts as she whispered-

"It's cold" a frosty smoke wavers by her utterance as if justifying the truth.

"I know" my voice doesn't crack like hers. But it's the most I could do.

"I am hungry" a sob hikes her up.

I close my eyes- as her soft cries resonate. I don't open them to look at my younger self. But when the lock ticks- I feel every little junction of the fear bite through me.

When I open my eyes, I am gasping for air. Gaping around me for something to grab, to find a defense when a hand bleakly hold mine down.

"Shin. Its me. Lee" I hear him aiming to ensure me as I struggled to get away from his touch "Its just me" he repeats it again. Much slower this wise. And it's when I fall back to the seat- staring up at the leather interior of his car as a pulsing headache complains through me.

"What happened?" sulking I rub my temples, choking the thoughts away as I always do, it has became a habit by now. But not him. The piercing  gaze of Lee flips my insides.

"You fell asleep" he narrates it cautiously, removing and discarding his cap by the glove box as he runs his hand across his hair to nap it up "And I think you had a nightmare. Just a bad dream I guess"

It wasn't a dream. But I was glad it was for now.

"Are you okay?" he should quit with the subtle regards, it will only make it irk me into blaming myself for letting the three days ruin the eleven years of my life. I was here to rectify and fix it alone. I was here to stop letting others do it for me. and with Lee- It wasn't possible. He was too considerate.

"Should we go see a doctor?"

Jostling the hair out of my face I snap to side. He was already analyzing me with his counterfeiting eyes. So when I vent- he barely reacted to it.

"You said so, it was just a dream. Can you stop treating me like a kid?"

He nods after a hefty silence. Still glossed with frustration that he shouldn't be a part of- I unlock the door and got out only to shuffle. Back and forth I turn, anyone would be standing out in a colossal arena while they had retired from the vehicle comprehending for it to be the place one has been residing in would do it too.