the scent and the shadow || book two

‎♡‧₊˚twenty-four ♡‧₊

My rose sleeps like a baby, curled like an embryo, snoring softly. Her face looks relaxed in repose, but the innocent serenity of her sleeping form confutes the tempest of emotions I saw raging within her.

I stare at the gentle rise and fall of her chest, which is far from how it looked when she had visibly panicked upon running into the girl from the rehab.

Her slim fingers are wrapped around my arm, her grip firm with an implicit urgency and a silent plea to not let go of her as I am her anchor in a storm-tossed ocean. As if clinging to me can ward off the shadows that are lurking in the darkest corners of her mind. It shows her unwavering trust in me to help her cope in her vulnerable moment by being the sanctuary she seeks and the silent strength she needs without questions.

I am unable to shake the image of how profoundly running into the girl from rehab impacted her.

Her form was trembling with some kind of terror, her voice cracked as she spoke, and a haunting vulnerability had filled her otherwise mischievous gaze. It was both deeply unsettling and incomprehensible.

My Belle is the only person who dares to mock me, rile me up, and call me out on face when she doesn't like something. She's bold, expressive, impulsive as fuck, and honest about her reactions.

But today she couldn't match my gaze.

She was hiding something from me. Her body language and sudden change in behavior were a dead giveaway.

I have always had a suspicion that there's more than what Belle has let me on. They just got confirmed watching Belle's reaction to the mention of piano by that girl.

You were his favorite pupil. You were the only one he used to play piano with so I figured you'd know.

I'd noticed Belle's reaction at the sight of the deep maroon piano in the living room the first time she'd seen it when I was giving a tour of our place. I'd noticed the same reaction when she had walked into my study at the midnight of the blindfold fiasco while Chopin Nocturne 27 No1 in C# Minor O was playing in the background. She was petrified both the times. Just like she reacted today.

I had dismissed it the first time thinking it might be my overanalysis and the second time I had assumed that she'd be feeling that way because of her nightmare. I could never have imagined it had something in connection with the rehab until today.

The piano. Her sudden disappearance from the rehab. Ronald's death under such mysterious circumstances that reek of foul play. The fire that started in his office and consumed the whole place. The guy Paul who helped her escape but has vanished into thin air since. The fresh revelation about the involvement of a guy named Martin. I can easily connect all the dots now.

Did she really kill them all?

I can't imagine her being able to do something of that scale.

But how much do I really know her right now?