The Hidden

Chapter 33

The hard pounding of Connor's footsteps on the ground below echoed in my ears, each of his long strides causing me to bounce up and down in the glass jar. I felt as though I was going to throw up, I had never in my entire life traveled this far in this short amount of time, it was unreal. 

I tried to catch a glimpse of Connor's face from my spot within the jar, but he held it tightly against his stomach, making it impossible to see much but for what was right in front of me, and even that was obscured by Connor's long fingers wrapped around the glass container. 

I wondered it Connor's father was chasing after, he had seemed pretty adamant about showing me off to the world, I wondered how far he would be willing to go to recapture me. A shiver ran down spine at the thought. 

After a couple minutes of nonstop running, Connor finally skidded to a stop. I could hear his heavy panting above me, the jar moving up and down slightly in Connor's hands with each long breath.

"C-Connor?" I asked cautiously, unsure of what exactly to say, or what to feel. Connor had just basically saved my life, the same person that had broken my arm just hours before. It was so difficult for me to decide on how I felt about him, one moment I hated him and the next I almost...really cared for him...which was a hard feeling for me to address. 

"Yeah, yeah, let me get you out of there." Connor panted tiredly before he removed one of his hands from around the jar to twist off the metal lid and toss it aside onto the ground. I braced myself as he crouched down and once again slowly tilted the jar down sideways so that I could slip out. 

Slowly and cautiously, I crawled out. Once out of the glass container, I turned around to face Connor. He looked down at me, a tired but gentle smile on his lips. I stared up at him, my eyes full of unidentified feeling. I looked into his deep brown eyes and he looked into my blue-green ones, I could tell that once again he was trying to read my expression, but this time even I didn't know what I was feeling. There he was, this massive monster of a boy standing above me, someone who had caused me so much trouble as well as physical pain and injury and yet he had shown a side of himself that was gentle and kind and fun. He had saved me, and gone against his father's wishes to do it. I couldn't understand it.

"Why did you help me?" I asked him, without a hidden fear or anger in my voice for once.

Connor looked down at me in surprise, as though caught of guard by the question. "I wasn't about to let my dad take you off to be some lab rat or something, especially not now that I know you do have a family here." He told me, no bitterness in his tone when he mentioned my family this time.

I stared back at him, unable to generate a response. He just looked back at me with that soft smile, and in that vast gaze, for once I didn't feel minuscule.

"Kalla, I don't want you to look at me like a monster." Connor told me quietly, though he seemed sure of his words. "I know I've done some monstrous things, and you don't have to forgive me for them," He murmured remorsefully, "but I want you to understand that that's not what I want to be." 

My eyes widened as a wave of emotions washed over me, strong emotions for a human that weren't hate or disdain. I nodded slowly in understanding, not trusting myself to vocalize the right thing.

"You can go to your family now." Connor told me. "My dad and I should be gone soon, I have a feeling my dad's not going to want to spend bonding time together after this." He added with a dry chuckle.

I wrung my hands together as I gazed up at him. "But--uh, won't your father be mad?" I asked uncertainly. "Won't you get in trouble?"

Connor let out a small snort, "I'm sure he won't be happy and he could ground me, but I'll survive." He said with a shrug. "It's not like I'm going to take you back to him to avoid losing my allowance for a week." He told me with a sly smirk on his lips.