Titan (prequel to Octavius)

eight | confrontations

"Titan?" Alejandra's voice is distant but close enough to know she's scouring the halls, looking for me. I'm huddled next to my bed, hidden in the shade cast by the partly opened window. I am rocking, back and forth, forth and back. 

It will haunt your nightmares. 

Ever since my mother died, my nights have been cursed by demonic nightmares. But this may be explainable by her death; or so I thought. 

The more I thought about the tale from the book, about La Pesanta, and the picture emblazoned on the page...

It was the beast from each and every one of my nightmares. Each night, the dream would be slightly different. One night I would be racing through a nettled wood, my face torn and cut by countless branches, which swayed like flailing arms from the trees. Another I would be locked in a tiny chest, drowning in a liquid that only seemed to be growing. 

But each dream had one similarity and constant: the burning red eyes of a beast. I would stare into them, almost as if I were looking into a mirror, and then I would awake, sweat covering me like a second skin. 

When I was younger, I would tell my father about the dreams, hoping for some kind of explanation. He only said that if I couldn't control my nightmares, he would. And he did. 

I never went to him about bad dreams again. 

And so I just learned to grow accustomed to the crimson eyes of the monster. It was almost like Stockholm Syndrome. The beast became a pet that I dreaded but couldn't bring myself to return out of guilt. 

"Titan?" She calls again, and her voice is on the other side of my door. I lower my head into my knees. I had already locked the door. 

But then I hear a click, a jingle, and a few moments later, the door swings open lightly, revealing Alejandra with the book grasped in her hand. 

"There you are." She sighs, moving quickly over to me. I scramble away, standing to my feet with a jolt, towering over her as usual. 

"Titan, what is going on, you need to stop keeping things from me." She snapped, tossing the book on the bed and slamming her hands down on her hip. 

"Why do you need to know everything about me?" I snap back, waving my hands in the air. Her mouth gapes open, her frown growing deeper and I immediately regret my words. 

"I'm sorry, I'm just..." I slump down onto my bed, placing my head in my hands. I feel the bed dip next to me, and Alejandra's head rests lightly on my shoulder. The touch sends a slight shiver down my arms and I am grateful for my long sleeves, else she would feel the goosebumps trailing on my skin. 

"It's okay, but I don't understand you, Titan." She whispers. 

"I don't know if I want you to." I mumble back. 

A hand lightly touches mine, and I pull my head away from them, connecting my gaze with Alejandra's. Her beautiful crystal eyes, so large and round like a doe, gaze up at me, pleading with my for some kind of explanation that I had no idea how to give. 

"I haven't asked you about that night." She whispers, and I swallow hard. I have been dreading this, almost hoping that she believed it was a dream. 

I pause, not knowing how to respond. 

"About the scars..." Her hand trails around my shoulder to my back and I sit up straighter, as if her touch sent an electric shock up my spine. 

"About the tears in your clothes." She continues to line her fingers against the fabric-covered space of my back, and I stop myself from reveling in her touch. 

"Alejandra, there are some things that you wouldn't understand." I respond finally, moving away from her touch slightly, scared of what it might drive me to do. 

"Just help me to." She pleads, grabbing one of my shaking hands in her's. 

Stop touching me, you don't know what I am. 

"I-I-" I stutter, trying to find the words, the nouns, the incantations that will appease her. But I know that the only answer she will accept is the truth.

"I can't." I finally finish, slumping my chin downwards in defeat. 

"Why not?" She asks so gently, her hair drifting down to tickle the edge of my palm. 

I want to know how soft her hair is between my fingers. 

"He'll do it again if I do." I say suddenly, and I pray to the goddess that she didn't hear me. 

Please please please please please please. 

But I know she did. 

"Who?" She sits up straighter, her hair shifting back behind her shoulder. But one strand drifts in front of her face, and I instinctively curl it behind her ear. It was blocking the view of her face. 

"Someone who is fully capable of hurting me, but also of hurting anyone he pleased. Including you." I grind my teeth at the thought. 

She frowns in shock, and I can see the curiosity growing in her eyes. 

"Titan, please, just tell me who." She is pleading with me know, as if she is about to combust if I don't. 

But I can't. I won't. I should. No, I can't. 

Don't say anything, Titan. 

Just do something, distract her, do something. 

"Please." She moves forwards, so close to me I can smell mint and lavender. 

Please move back, I don't want to do something I'll regret. 

But the closer her lips get to my sight, the more I want to forget everything. 

"I-I- I can't." I stutter breathlessly, my focus on anything but our conversation as I feel her breath lightly on my skin. 

"Titan..." She whispers, and a fire begins to burn in my stomach as I watch her eyes flit back and forth from my eyes to my lips. 

Goddess help me. 

My fingers raise to her chin, brushing against the soft soft soft texture of her skin. My long long fingers thread themselves back and into her hair, the silk-like texture curling around my touch. 

Our breathes mingle, mint and mint and sweet sweet addiction. 

Do it, take control. Do it!

And she doesn't move away as I press my lips against her's, gently, almost sweetly. She melts into me, and the fire in my stomach begins to roar as I pull her closer closer closer to me, hungrily and hastily, and I feel as if I am floating, as if I am on the top of the world. 

I am flying above the trees, above my father, and I feel a surge of power growing through me like wildfire until at last, I am lit aflame. 

And the door bursts open, and I am drowned yet again in darkness.

Finally taking Titan off hold :)

Really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and please please share this story with your friends/family/pets/plants/assorted spices!