The Guy from the Insane Asylum

Chapter 5

"Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires." —William Shakespeare, Macbeth.

Chapter 5

The library always smelled of dust and bookworms, but this time Zachary smelled peach scented disinfectant. When his eyes landed on Bethany, he knew why. She was cleaning the tables. He realized she was the only volunteer who actually did anything around here. He hadn't seen more than five volunteers in the past year, but she was still the one with the most effort.

"Where'd you find the cleaning stuff?" Zach asked, scaring her and making her drop the Windex. He snickered as he walked over to the bottle on the floor. He squatted down to pick it up at the same time she did. They stared at each other for awhile before Bethany reached for the bottle. Zach reached for it too, hoping their hands would touch. They did.

Bethany gasped slightly when their hands made contact; her hands were warm and his were so cold. Nervous, she picked up the bottle and stood back up. "I didn't think I'd see you again today." She said, to distract herself from her hand that seemed to be on fire, despite his ice cold temperatures. Odd, she thought.

Ignoring her words, he stood up and faced her. He admired her everything. He really did believe she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. "Belle âme," was what he whispered next.

Beautiful soul.

If he looked deep into her eyes, it's what he saw.

Bethany took a step back, frightened. "What? What does that mean? How do you know those words?" Those were the exact ones she had heard the night before.

Zach didn't know why she was so freaked out. "Beautiful soul." He calmly said. "Is something wrong?"

Bethany thought the voice from last night pertained to Zach. "I heard you say that last night." She knew how crazy she sounded but she couldn't keep herself from talking.

"You what?"

"Last night!" She said more aggressively.

"You weren't here last night—"

"There was a ringing in my ear," Beth cut him off. "Then—oh my God. Then I saw your face. For like a second but I did." The pale face no longer blurry. "And when I was in bed, I heard your voice. It was you! You said those exact words." Bethany hadn't noticed she was doing so, but she was backing away from him more than she intended. Wild thoughts were running through her head.

How did he leave the asylum?

Did he follow her home?

How did he get inside her house?

How did he leave her room so fast?

"Bethany," he said her name softly and his singular blue eye began to shine while the brown one stayed dull, "you're confused. You had your TV on last night. That was what you heard." He blinked and then watched as Bethany came back to reality. He didn't like to watch it happen with her, it was terrifying. But he didn't have any other choice. She couldn't know what he could do.

Bethany cursed. "I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm talking about. I barely had any sleep last night. It was probably my TV I heard."

"No, don't apologize. You're fine."

Beth scoffed. "You probably think I'm crazy." At the sudden realization of what she said, she covered her mouth and mentally punched herself.

Zach laughed, he liked when jokes could be interpreted as dark. And Bethany liked hearing him laugh, she realized. "Aren't we all?" Zach questioned with a smile on his face.

They had a very short conversation since Bethany noticed she had already done her time for that day. But before Beth was completely out the door of the library, Zach yelled, "if you lift a kangaroos tail, it can't hop!"

Bethany smiled and slowly turned around, raising her voice as well, she replied, "is that something you do often?!"

He smirked, "if you mean bless you with random bits of knowledge that you'll probably never need in your life, then yes."

Bethany shook her head as her shoulders vibrated with laughter. "Nice to know," she said. "Goodbye, Zach."

She left him alone in the library, but he had a huge smile on his face.

Later that afternoon he tried recalling what he was doing the night that Beth heard his voice. He didn't allow her to hear him on purpose. It was accidental.

Then it hit him, he was talking about her to Mrs. Johnson. The old lady that Bethany seemed to be scared of. He even remembered when he said the words. They were mere whispers but his subconscious was totally infatuated with the thought of Bethany. I guess he somehow contacted her telepathically without realizing it.

He cursed for not being more careful. He was never this careless. Bethany just made his guard walls come down. It was something he couldn't really prevent when he was with her. And for some twisted reason, he couldn't muster up the strength to stop seeing her.

He barely even knew her!

Maybe that was why, he thought. Once he'd get to know her, he'd get bored and he'd be done with her. Maybe that's what he had to do. Get bored. Zachary knew he was a jerk. But was he really when all he was trying to do was keep Bethany alive?

No, yeah. He was still a jerk.

~

When Bethany got home, she felt weird. She didn't know how to explain it, but she felt like a part of her mind had been fiddled with. Ever since she had been going to the asylum, she'd been experiencing the most unexplainable things.

Bethany didn't believe in all those stories, they were only made to be fairytales, in her opinion. She didn't believe in vampires, werewolves, hybrids, witches, or faeries themselves. She didn't want to start believing anything ridiculous now, so she convinced herself that she was just stressed with all the homework she'd been getting. She needed a tutor. Mostly for pre-calculus but if they were good at anything else. she'd be grateful.

The only problem was that all the tutors were already taken. In her high school the tutors were taken almost right away. She didn't really feel like hiring a complete stranger, so she settled for drowning in her own misery. The only help Bethany got was from Mrs. Bristol, but she was always a little too busy to really sit down and be tutor-like.

There was a lightbulb kind of moment in Bethany's head.

When she checked out A Tale of Two Cities for Zach, she noticed all the math books he had on his record. As she drifted into an abyss of sleep, she hoped Zachary was good enough to be a tutor. She couldn't fail any classes.

Please, she sang in her head. I can't fail.

A/N:

-XOXO