SLEEPSONG (BoyxBoy)✔️

Chapter 115

Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen

The walk back to our rooms was a quiet one.

Jak didn't say anything even though he was obviously keeping pace with me. His coal black goatee seemed to absorb the dim chandelier lights as we headed down the hall, but his ebony skin was the complete opposite, almost seeming to shine and glow. His features had, again, settled back into their regular problem of semi-permanent bitch-face.

When he stopped and opened a door halfway to the stairway leading up to Sebastian's room I kept going, raising my left hand to wave a silent and dismissive goodnight at him. He hadn't said a word so I assumed maybe I'd misread his intentions to speak with me, but he snagged my wrist and stopped me.

I twisted, looking at my captive hand, then at his stony, silent, sharp-eyed face.

He said nothing, simply looked at me suggestively and motioned with his head again before letting go and walking into the room. Confused, I rubbed the spot he'd grabbed and tentatively followed him into a room I'd never been in before.

It had only a single king-sized bed, but I immediately gasped and covered my eyes since the curtains were partially drawn back, allowing beams of early morning sunlight to filter in. The shafts of light were dusty and blinding, setting small squares of brilliance on the floor.

My skin prickled and stung and the light hurt me, making me shrink against the wall and curl up as it burned right through my clothes. I hadn't walked into it directly, thank fucking God and all of his Angels, but even secondhand sunlight was enough to make me want to cry out in pain.

"Close the curtain!" I whimpered, sinking down to the floor. "Ow... ow, ow, close it, please!"

I heard a harsh intake of breath and there was a soft rustle before heavy footsteps scrambled across the floor; with a metallic scraping sound and an audible jerk, the prickling, stinging, itching, burning pain setting my skin ablaze from the inside vanished.

I relaxed, tentatively lowering my arms as soothing coolness washed across my flesh.

"Forgive me," Jak muttered, and I looked up with squinting, half-blinded vision to see that he was standing directly in front of me with a harsh look. "Are you hurt?"

"A little burned, maybe, but not too badly," I sighed, rubbing my slightly reddened and irritated skin with gentle hands. "I wasn't even directly in it... I'm fine."

"That much damage from so little light?" he inquired, staring at the reddening splotches forming on my arms. "What would happen to you, truly, if you were ever exposed to direct sun?"

"I'd catch on fire," I told him, then raised my hand and pushed my sleeve away from my right shoulder, turning so he could see it better. "I first realized I wasn't human anymore after a few freaky events at the hospital when I was a kid... I tried to leave while the sun was up."

His eyes flitted across the old burn scar. 

It wasn't necessarily large thanks to the help of an old woman who'd seen the entire thing. She'd had no idea what the hell was happening or how it had started. All she'd known was that a young, screaming adolescent had just burst into flames and had been in need of help.

So, what had she done?

Unloaded her water bottle on top of my burning shirt and shoved me on the ground before beating me like crazy with her old handbag. Her husband and several other people had come running to help me, too, trying to get my shirt off... and I'd gone into the hospital to have the burns treated. I'd been asked how it had happened, but I'd been flummoxed myself.