Enlightenment

Part 14

Eventually I managed to get to my feet and chase after him. He had disappeared into the trees nearest the border of my land, but I could easily follow his scent as I ran along, far less gracefully than usual. He must have done a lot of damage to the back of my head, although I wasn't too worried as I was fairly certain it would heal.

I could hear his heavy breathing in the distance along with the sounds of him crashing through the undergrowth and I could tell I was catching up... but no! he would get to the fence before me! I cleared the last of the trees just in time to see him leap towards the fence.

I shouted a warning but it was too late. The instant his fingers met the electrified wire there was a loud crack and he flew backwards, landing heavily on the ground.

An odd silence followed, and I realized what was missing: his heartbeat. "NO!" the shout tore from my lips without any conscious thought as I dropped to the ground beside him.

After a brief moment of panic my long years of experience kicked in and I desperately applied CPR, frantically trying to restart his heart and breathe for him.

As my lips met his for the third time to force air into his lungs I suddenly heard the miraculous sound of his heart, stuttering at first and then settling into a strong, steady rhythm. Moments later he tensed before shoving me away weakly and rolling away on his side coughing and spluttering.

I laughed and sank to the ground in relief, allowing him to have some space as he recovered. He tried to speak, before collapsing into another round of coughing. I waited patiently until he tried again,

"wha- what happened?"

"You touched the electric fence, luckily you didn't grab on or you would have been completely fried... but your heart stopped."

 He gasped as horror suddenly clouded his face "I'm not-"

"No you're still human, I restarted it for you." I quickly regained my cool, calm composure as the memory of what happened prior to his brief escape came back to me. I would not let him get through my barriers again.

            I stepped towards him, ignoring the way he shrank away and wrapped an arm around him as I hoisted him to his feet. He shuddered, but I ignored his attempts to pull away and half carried half dragged him back towards the house.

            Julia stopped halfway through singing loudly to whatever song she had on full volume on her iPod as we entered the kitchen, but didn't comment.

            The staircase proved to be a slight problem as he didn't seem to be able to get his legs to work properly, so eventually I grew impatient and lifted him up causing him to yell in surprise as I ran up the remainder of the stairs and deposited him at the top, before helping him to his room and depositing him on his bed.

            The second he lay down again he passed out. But I wasn't concerned as I could still hear the steady pounding of his heart. I felt my hunger rise at the thought but I hurriedly pushed it back down.

            I was unable to prevent myself from watching him sleep for a moment, taking in his face, peaceful in unconsciousness... but I could not allow myself to care about him. I would only end up getting hurt in the long run. Even people who do not want to leave always do in the end; it's just how life works.

            Leaving the room I turned and locked the door, before sinking down in front of it, almost like I was on guard. It took Julia and Chris a couple of hours to grow impatient enough to come and find me, I passed the time carefully monitoring Jamie's heartbeat and breathing. Julia looked annoyed;

"What happened?"

"I did something stupid" I sighed and her face softened at my words, Chris remained impassive. "There has been a change of plans; we will not be leaving tonight. We'll go tomorrow instead."

To my surprise neither of them protested, they simply agreed and left me sitting there.

            I reflected on the incident that almost happened before he decided to make a run for it. For a moment there I had almost thought he... but no. of course it was all a lie, there was no way he... we could ever- NO! I cursed myself for being so senseless. None of it was real, so it was no longer worth thinking about. I forcefully shoved it to the back of my mind. I would pretend that it never happened.

            It was another six hours and twenty four minutes before he woke up. I heard the increase in his heart rate and listened to his breathing speed up. After a few minutes he groaned and rolled off of the bed, before his footsteps padded towards the door.

            I opened it just as he reached it, causing him to jump in surprise, I was careful to keep a cold blank expression on my face the entire time, my voice was impassive;

"Hungry?" I was answered by the loud growl of his stomach. "I'll take that as a yes then." He nodded, his face going hard and blank to match mine. Without another word I turned and ran to the kitchen, with a speed that to him, I would have simply disappeared.

            By the time I heard him making his slow way down the stairs, I had already gotten most of the ingredients out of the cupboards and placed them in the appropriate places. He was silent as he entered the room and sank into one of the kitchen chairs, although I could feel his eyes on me.

            It didn't take long for me to prepare him a large portion of spaghetti bolognaise, following the simple instructions on the back of the bag of pasta and adding a few extra herbs and vegetables.

            Once I had filled a plate for him I found there was a lot left over so on impulse I tipped it onto a second plate, placing one in front of him and one on the opposite side of the table for me. Once I had found the appropriate cutlery I slid into my seat and glanced upwards to find him staring at me. I glared at him;

"Don't worry it's not poisoned." His eyes narrowed with suspicion for a second before he gave in and took a cautious bite. I then watched his eyes widen in surprise before he took another.

            I stared at a forkful speculatively before putting it in my mouth. To me it tasted bland and boring, the pasta and the vegetables had almost no flavour whatsoever, whereas the meat had an almost pleasant taste which nowhere near rivalled blood. I scrunched up my nose and swallowed.

            Jamie was staring at me again. I didn't meet his eyes as I shrugged,

"Is it ok?"

"It's good."

I frowned at him, "well, there is no need to sound so shocked."

He ignored my comment, "Can you taste it?"

"Not properly." I stood up abruptly and left. I didn't want to get into any personal conversations with him, although to my relief he also seemed to be pretending that nothing had changed.