Chiller (harry styles)

44: Little Hope

I wish I had brought something to tell the time with. A watch, perhaps. We are eating something tasty and garlic, but I can't taste it the way I want to with all the thoughts I have running through my mind. I reach for my drink and think:Harry's naked muscles as he moves inside me. I shake my head. That is a dirty thought. I take a bite of food, twist the fork in the noodles and think: brainwashed soldiers at the hands of the Devil. That's an even dirtier thought, but at least that one is true. The clock ticks on, even though I can't see it exactly. I mean the clock of the world, the constant hour and reversing minute that allows humanity to segregate its years from its days and its future from its past. The rest of the meal tends to go this way. Ny mind thinking wild thoughts and nothing at all actually occurring around me. Harry stares at me, talking romantically and excitedly. I only have to half pretend to do the same. Though a part of me is terrified of the future, another part of me is aware of how in love I am with this boy and that we are in one of the most romantic cities in the world. When the meal is done we pay our tab and leave. My head is on my sleeve. Not my heart.

***

There's a splinter in my leg. For a moment I just let it sit in my skin. I don't want to annoy Harry or the Italian man rowing us through the beginning parts of the river. But then it begins to really irritate me. My hand wonders down to the place where I feel the most pain, and I tug on a hard piece of what I suspect is the wood. Harry looks back to see the changing colors in the sky reflect against the water the way most people do when they are on these canoes in movies. He notices the pain in my eyes that I am attempting to conceal.

"What's wrong, babe?" He asks me tenderly, his head tilting to the side.

It isn't a big deal, but something in me doesn't want to tell him. I can't quite figure out why.

I shake my head a little.

"You caught me thinking." I tell him. "You know, about everything."

He smiles at me, but it's grim and weak.

"I'm sorry." Is all he says, then he reaches over and places his hand on my knee. He squeezes it.

Why was it so easy to lie to him? To the one I love the most? Perhaps I would be better off not knowing the answer yet. I take a deep breath, and when he moves his hand and turns around I check the splinter in my leg...

And I gasp.

It isn't a splinter at all. It's a dart.

Who would shoot at me? Who would aim, and it was obvious they had waited until I got inside the canoe, and make me suffer? Someone has it out for me. Enough to follow me and my lover probably half way around the world just to fire a dart at me. The way I see it this may mean only two things: I either have a dedicated stalker, or a supernatural who plays in dark magic hates me more than the rest of them. I pull out the dart and hiss with pain. The blood drips down my leg, but I will myself to believe I feel no pain. I can make myself release the mortal pain of my body. My mind is a more powerful tool. I breathe in and out, and repeat the phrase that I do not feel any pain.

I do not feel pain.

I do not feel pain.

I do not feel pain.

After several long minutes I feel something in my leg break off, like a quick crack of a pencil, and the pain does go away. I rest my hand on Harry's shoulder. He turns around, a broad smile on his face. His hands find my cheeks and he brings me in to kiss me, a deep and long kiss. We are both breathing hard when he pulls away.

"Your eyes, baby. They look like you know something I don't." He responds.

I press my lips together. Well, that's because I do. I do know something he doesn't. Someone hates me in particular. I have a hunch it could be Shaduiel, the angel who attacked me while I was in the library at Annabelle's. But it just doesn't add up. He's an angel. Any of the Host could have better ways and weapons to destroy an enemy or even just torture one. This enemy is mortal. And pretty childish based on their choice of weaponry. Darts? I haven't seen one with so much yellow and purple color on it before. I laugh inside my throat. It isn't even funny. None of this is funny. I shake my head and look Harry deep in his eyes.