Sometimes It's Even Darker

Chapter 6 - Down In The Dark

Tobi sits on a wooden chair in the kitchen and drinks the camomile brew. He can  finally feel relaxed and calm, even thou he still doesn't know almost anything about Aethernia. She listened to many stories about Edguy, Avantasia and Tobi's life, but didn't give him any precise information about herself. He knows only about selling art and creating music, but he is okay with it as he accepted her apparent need to remain mysterious. 
There is completely dark outside. The night has come and covered their forest in absolute blackness. Aethernia is sitting at the table, the candle next to her hand is burning slowly. She turned off the light and lighted only a few candles. Tobi doesn't know a reason but he likes the atmosphere which this drowsy light gives.
- Hey, Aethie – he says suddenly. He just feels a need to break the silence. He hates this sullen silence in here – You look nice with your hair as messy as you have now.
- I don't feel a need to look nice – she answers calmly, drinking a sip of her brew – But I think it might have been a compliment from you, so thanks.
He looks at her confused and a little amused.
- You are the weirdest person I've ever met, Aethie. You don't meet any people, you are so shy and silent, you don't even feel a need to look nice and you seem to be so frightened every time I speak to you. Sometimes I cannot believe that you are real. You fascinate me so much...
Aethernia clenches her fists and Tobi feels a bit insecure again.
- Fascinate. It's a funny word. Of course, Mental ilnesses always fascinate healthy people, like you. - she snorts and turns her head away from him. Suddenly Tobi feels guilty of making her sad again, so he tries to fix it up at once:
- Oh, Aethie. I didn't mean you are psycho or something like that, no! Your way of living just... enchants me. It's interesting and...
- Shut up! - she screams fiercely and hits tabletop with her strong fist. Tobi blenches, scared and shocked. When Aethernia turns her head back at him, her eyes are glistening with hate and suffering.
- You don't know how it is to live with a phobia! – she snarls and hides her face in her hands – You wanted a story, here you have a story. My mother died while she was giving me birth. I lived with my father and he was a psycho. When I was a teenager he was shutting me in a cellar every evening after I returned from school. And he sentineled me even in school. Of course it was „for my good”. „You can't meet these hideous young people, they will give you bad example, you will get pregnant” et cetera. You know what was the worst thing? He was always repeating he loves me. Every time. If love looks like that I don't wanna experience this feeling ever in my life. Just no. I learned one thing: not to trust anybody, because even the closest friends and relatives will stab a knife in your back. I escaped right after my eighteenth birthday. And I crossed the whole country to find this place. If anybody will get there without my assent, I would kill him. Noone can know about this place. You shouldn't know about it too... - she looks at him again. Her eyes are dry, but furious – I don't know why I feel so free in your company. Forget about it. About this story, about everything. Forget it.
Aethernia breathes fast and irregularly and Tobi can't breathe at all. His imagination shows him the gloomiest visions: Aethernia in a cellar. Her psycho father. Her fear and tears. They look so blue in his mind, as blue as her eyes.
They spend about ten minutes in complete silence. Aethernia calms down again and starts to sway on her chair. Left- right, left- right. Her face is emotionless again. Tobi wants to hug her, he wants to do it so hard, but he is afraid it will scare her away. The brew got already cold when Tobi speaks again:
- It's so dark in here.
- Yeah – she responds calmly – Sometimes it's even darker.