Crystal Kingdoms • Book 1 Of The Crystal Trilogy | ✔️

-| 9 / the cabin by the lake |-

Scott and Crystal decided to stop and stay at a small cabin in the middle of the woods for the night. They had been riding all night. Well the decision was up to Scott alone to make, because Crystal was sleeping.

She had fallen asleep on his back, where she had buried her face and cried for a long time. He had made sure she didn't fall off, even though she almost did a couple times.

He eventually had to wake her. He wasn't one for physical contact, and letting her hug him was pretty hard for him. He only let her because he felt it was the only way to comfort her.

Sometimes a shoulder (or a back, in this case) to cry on, is all one needs and all a friend can offer. Not that he considered Crystal his friend; he didn't have any of those.

She had her cheek on his back, and he was pretty sure she was drooling, so his shirt wasn't only wet from tears and snot, there was also saliva on it.

“Hey...”, he told her as softly as he could. He didn't want her to fall of the horse now that they weren't even moving, that would be really unlucky. “Princess, wake up.”, he furrowed his eyebrows.

Crystal mumbled some incoherent stuff in her sleep and ignored him.

“Princess. Come on, I ain't spending the night on a horse!”, he complained. Her arms were still wrapped tightly around his waist, so he couldn't really get off the horse. He didn't want to wake her, it had been a long day for both of them, but he had no choice. “Crystal!”, he hissed.

This time, she looked up, half asleep, and started rubbing her eyes.

“What happened?”, she frowned. Her eyes were red and her voice was sore, both from the sleep and the crying.

“I'll tell you in the morning.”, he sighed, shaking his head. “Come on. Let's get you to bed.”, he told her and got off the horse. He helped do the same without falling on her face, then kicked the abandoned cabin's door open and helped her in. There were two single beds, a small couch, a table with three chairs and a tiny fireplace with some firewood inside. Everything was dusty.

It had been a long time since he last went there. He got some sheets from a cupboard and laid one of the beds for Crystal, but when he turned around she was already sleeping on the couch.

He sighed again and went outside to get their stuff. He glared at Ash and told him to not go anywhere.

“Seriously. I don't wanna tie you up all night, Crystal will kill me. Don't go, because she'll kill me if you do that too.”, he told the horse.

The horse whinnied as if saying: “Fine by me...”. Scott glared at him one last time before heading inside.

He was about to go to sleep, when he noticed Crystal shivering in her sleep.

“Dammit, princess.”, he muttered under his breath. He lit a fire with the little firewood that was left in the house and threw a blanket over her.

As he did that, she grabbed his wrist, scaring the hell out of him. “Thank you and- and I'm sorry...”, she sobbed in her sleep.

“Calm down... It's okay. Just go back to sleep.”, he reassured her as well as he could. He wasn't good with feelings.

“Sleep... That sounds good...”, she muttered and fell back asleep.

He shook his head again, and finally went to sleep himself, which was good and all, until he started dreaming.

The sound of glass bottles and locked doors still haunted him. Glass shards and the cold atmosphere of his old house gave him shivers. His neighbors' unwelcoming glares whenever he was locked outside were one of the main reasons he didn't trust people anymore.