Love Touching Across Time

Chapter Ten: Sebastian

Lightning broke through the midnight black clouds; the rumbling of thunder following. Everyone had gone to bed hours ago, leaving me to take care of tomorrow’s preparations on top of making outfits for Kaylien. I sat down with an array of colored fabric and started on another outfit. It’s been weeks since the encounter with the Viscount and we still have made no progress in catching Jack the Ripper. The young masters’ patience grows thinner each day; any lead we have come across just lands us at another dead end.

Kaylien isn’t making things easy either. Ever since her encounter with the Viscount she hasn’t spoken a single word to anyone. She just walks around the manor or sits alone in her room; I’ve seen her help out occasionally, but that seems to be the extent of it. I could hear the rain outside getting heavier just as I finished her outfit; black shorts with a dark green shirt. At least when everyone’s asleep I can finish things at the pace I’m more accustomed to; having to slow down to what the young master says is normal is very irritating.

I neatly folded the clothes, grabbed an already lit candle and left for Kayliens room. I would wait until morning, but she’d insisted I bring them at night. Continuous flashes of lightning and the rumbling of thunder accompanied me on my way to her room. I stopped in front of the large wooden door, knocked lightly before quietly opening it and stepped inside; careful not to wake her.

I placed her clothes in the chair next to the door as always when I noticed a silhouette sitting at the edge of the bed. It was Kaylien; lightning lit up the entire room, “I’m sorry for the intrusion I just came to give you your clothes.” I took a step closer to see her better; she was looking at me. I cleared my throat, “my apologies get some rest.” I quickly turned away; ready to get the hell out of here. “Don’t…” A whimper came from behind me, that couldn’t have been Kaylien am I hearing things? I turned around; she was still staring at me, “did you need something?”

She motioned to the empty spot on the bed next to her, “stay…please?” Her voice wavered. I nodded and walked over to her, something’s not right; I don’t like this feeling. I watched the red and orange colors of the candle flame create shadows across her face, it was actually kind of beautiful. I set the candle on the table closest to her and sat down. She instantly crawled into my lap and buried her face in my chest. What the hell is going on! My body tensed up; “W…what are you doing?” Why is my heart beating faster; she just took me by surprise is all, things like this haven’t gotten to be before. Why would they start to now? I was too focused on my internal conversation that I didn’t realize she was talking. “It won’t go away, even though I bathe and scrub until my skin hurts; I can’t make the feeling go away.” I looked down at her, she was holding onto my coat like it was her lifeline; her head rested on my chest. She looked like a toddler. “I don’t understand,” she started rocking back and forth; things couldn’t possibly get more uncomfortable. That man, that horrible man! I may have worked as a stripper and yes men have treated me like crap, but not like that!”

Hmm so that’s what they call prostitutes in the future; strippers? I shook my head; this isn’t the thing I’m supposed to be focusing on right now. I smiled, “I can assure you, he will not do anything like that to you or any woman ever again.” She shot up, almost knocking me backwards and looked directly into my eyes, “you promise he won’t come back and hurt anyone?” Thunder rumbled in the background.

 I suppressed a laugh at the thought of the dead coming back to life. “I promise,” I ran my fingers from her left cheek through her hair trying to be comforting. I’m not very good at these types of things. She smiled for the first time in a while. I’d forgotten what she looked like while smiling. “Yey thank you Sebastian,” she jumped into a hug; wrapping her arms around my neck. Caught off guard, she knocked me onto my back and landed on top of me. I was wrong, it could get more uncomfortable. Lightning flashed and I could see her shocked facial expression, but she didn’t move.