The Fear I Loved

chapter 27.

"There is a marionette behind you," he says in a soft, low tone, yet spoken so gentle for a young child.

Their hands briefly brush against each other.

White hot flashes appear in her sight at the strange canine teeth he possesses. Her heart starts racing erratically and strange images appear in her mind. She struggles to understand the situation, let alone grasp back to reality. 

It was quite normal for a child to speak nonsense and the adults would play along with it. She's had her share of events with Haru back in the day.

"W—What?" she gasps.

Ailiseu collapses on her back and the boy hastily steps out of the bushes. The branches and twigs left minimal scars on his small coat and pale skin, but they did not leave a permanent mark. His running footsteps waver into the distance as he runs out of the garden.

She twists her body around whilst holding her pounding head. She had reminded herself to eat before traveling and during the journey. The lords, except for Jungkook, were quite considerate in that. 

Short shallow gasps fill the air. An odd sense of warmth fuzzles around her body. She could barely move around, let alone stand up. Her ears start ringing a high-pitched tune, the monotone harmony obscuring her senses.

Her stomach knots and she feels like throwing air out.

What was the trigger for her abrupt headache? Was it the unwanted memory of that particular night? Does the gushing stream remind Ailiseu of her fall? Or was it the child's strange set of teeth? Was that an issue to ponder?

She had no idea. 

Ailiseu holds onto her overall, hoping that tugging on the material would expose her to some air. 

Her head moves rapidly left and right, back and forth. 

A light grip on her shoulder draws her out of her paroxysm. Ailiseu forces herself to lift her head and look up. The face was blurry, a series of splotched shapes, which she can discern is an oval and square. The touch through the material is a cooling sensation. The pressure is light and foreign as she knows no one would be following her after.

Her arms stopped shaking. 

"Ailiseu, are you okay?"

She squints her eyes and focuses on the source of the voice. The ringing harmony depletes and the face is clearer. 

He is the man with the curved double eye-lids, black hair obscuring his forehead and sharp protruding button nose, dewy salmon lips, thick elongated brows and round cheeks. He is the man who reserves himself at times, but tends to converse with you whenever possible. 

When you look at his eyes, they have a gentle aura and a shimmer to them. Even though he held a mysterious approach, in the beginning, he seem to have a kind side, after all.

She doesn't like Jungkook and Jimin. She could tolerate Taehyung and SeokJin for a while.

She shies away from SeokJin and sits on her bottom. She pulls her legs together and leans her head on her knees. Her back ached from straining forward, yet the pounding headache was notably worse.

"Hm, yeah. I'm fine," she remarks.

Ailiseu shakes her head and squints her eyes. 

The headache disappears and all senses gradually return; the chirping of birds and screeches of cicadas, the gushing manmade stream that sends chills and cools her body, the summer heat protruding its rays through the glass panes and the thick flowery bushes that send a variety of sweet and musky scents up her nostrils.