Rooming With The Criminal | ✓

07 | the criminal screams

07

the criminal screams

WHEN AKARI WOKE up, the shrill sound of a scream made goosebumps erupt on her arms. She whipped her neck around to the bed to see the man thrashing around, eyes closed, perspiration making his forehead shine under the faint moonlight. The sheets were thrown to the floor and his screams turned into grunts of pain.

It was happening again.

Akari rushed to the bed, trying to get a grip on Julian's shoulders to shake him awake, but getting a grip on the wildly thrashing boy was a difficult task. A good hit on her torso made her groan before she climbed atop of the bed, straddling over the man before holding his hands down. Another kick towards her shin made her bend forward, almost toppling over him until she regained her strength to pin him down properly.

"Wake up!" Akari shouted near his right ear, already heaving due to the effort she had to put to hold him down. "Jones, open your eyes!" She continued to yell.

"Let me go." Julian's voice sounded desperate, like all the hope in the world had vanished. "Let me go. Please stop." He continued murmuring under his breath, each word laced with suffering and pain.

"Julian!" Akari spoke softly this time, feeling his pain, "It's me, Akari. You are safe."

A few seconds passed as she could see his expression shift from stressed to confused, chest heaving up and down like he found it difficult to breathe. "Akari...." He said and Akari's breath hitched with the way he said her name. It was the same way he had said it before, the same way he said it when he had a nightmare a few nights ago. It sounded like he was saying a word so precious to him, a name so softly like it's too fragile for this world.

Akari's heart pattered against her chest as she watched him slowly open his eyes, features relaxing one by one before his eyes landed on hers. There was a tense moment, a spark of electricity the moment his eyes met hers. Akari gulped, anticipating what he's going to do or say.

"You had a nightmare." Akari decided to break the moment, slowly getting up and off the bed to fetch a glass of water.

"I'm sorry." Julian said. "I'm sorry you had to see that. Did I wake you up?" He quickly added, words overlapping one another, thoughts a mess.

"Please don't be sorry." Akari said, tone soft cause what she had seen was too much for her to handle. "I'm here to help." She gave the man the cup of water who drank it all, asking for more. Akari didn't hesitate to pour more.

"It's 4am." Julian shook his head, like he was ashamed of himself. "You have an exam tomorrow. You need to sleep."

"I don't think I can sleep anymore." Akari shrugged. "Don't worry. I will spend my time studying that one chapter I skipped. You did good by waking me up." Akari tried to make him feel better and it seemed to be working a little as he smiled.

"I will stay up with you." Julian offered. "I don't think I can sleep after that." He paused, scratching the back of head sheepishly, hair a mess from his tossing-that somehow only elevated his handsomeness. "I will continue to read the storybook."

"You are really reading it?" Akari sounded surprised as she settled in her desk and turned on her night lamp to resume her studying.

"Yeah. It's interesting." Julian shrugged, leaning back against the headboard as he opened his book.

They fell into a comfortable silence. Akari flipping her pages and trying to memorise everything she decided to skip. She revised through Ha-eun's notes that she had stolen two days ago cause that girl was done with her studying. She could hear the faint flip of a page from behind her and it assured her, that he was fine.