A Beautiful Sacrifice

Chapter Seven

He came back with a steaming plate of scrambled egg. Another little saucer holding toast was placed besides it and he had filled a glass with orange juice for her. On the whole it was a good breakfast. She mumbled a thank you and started to eat it. He was watched her for a good few minutes until she looked up at him embarrassed.

“I’m sorry.” He said.

“It’s ok.” She mumbled.

“No, it’s not, I was harsh with you, before I left you. I should not have been. I continually forget that you have no idea what I feel inside. I forget that to you I am your captor not exactly the man you want to spend the rest of your life with. I ask that you give me a little time to try to get to understand your situation.”

                She nodded, unable to phrase an adequate sentence in reply to that. She carried on eating while he stood up and walked over to the window. He even stood there as though he was looking out through the window, into the world. But there were wooden boards, hiding from his view the beauty of the outside world.

“You see these boards?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“I hate them. I long to take them off the windows and see the outside, but I can not risk that. I can not risk the chance I do not get them back on as the sun comes out. I would die Lily as simple as. I hate these boards but they are my protection. I tell you this so you understand, I hate them as much as you do. But they are not here to stop you from seeing the outside.”

“You can’t go out there?”

“No, the closest I can get to the outside Lily, except at night, is the attic. The windows there are large and have no curtains, no boards, nothing. I can gaze out of the window when the sun isn’t too bright. It is snowing Lily. Did you know? Of course you didn’t, you haven’t seen outside for a little while either.”

                He seemed to mumbled to himself, but he had captivated her unwavering attention. His face looked… so sad. He did not look angry anymore and she saw his face, that strong face, loosen, and his eyes gaze outwards. Lost in his own thoughts with a little five o clock shadow of stubble around his chin.

“What happens if you go outside?”

“I burn.”

                She couldn’t imagine not being able to walk outside, to feel the sunshine on her face and smell the flowers and the trees in spring. She couldn’t imagine never again feeling the crispness of the autumn as everything started to grow colder and the air around them became sharp. She never thought before what it would be like to gaze outside knowing yourself to be trapped inside. To hide away from the beauty of light and what it showed, to always be a creature of darkness seeing only the moon and the pale version of the days. The darkened world, with little colour and the eerie twang that made it feel anything but safe.

                She had never thought about his position like that; she had taken him only for a monster who relished in the darkness he was born to live in. Now in his face was a longing - he actually looked at those wooden boards as if he longed to claw at them and shred the wood one small piece at a time.