Night's Shadow

Chapter 2

Sayomi met up with Aki and the three other builders at the bottom of the village steps, next to her cart. Two of the builders rushed past her with an arm full of logs as she descended the steps. She was amazed at how they could carry all that wood and run up those stairs at the same time. Just before she got to the bottom, the last builder tried to hurry after the others, but tripped and fell. His logs went everywhere and he tried to get up to retrieve them. Sayomi picked up two and handed them over to him. 'Here, do you need any help with them?' she asked him. The poor man was clearly embarrassed and was blushing madly as he retrieved the rest of the logs. 'Thank you and I'll be fine. Thanks once again.' he said, not looking at her and quickly, but carefully, walked up the stairs. Sayomi smiled and continued down to where Aki was waiting. 'He seemed sweet.' she said to him.

'Who, Ken? Yeah, he's pretty cool but as you can see, he's a bit of a klutz.' Aki replied, shaking his head.

'I like him.' Sayomi said. Aki scoffed and started unloading some logs. She went around to help him, grabbing three and turning to walk up the stairs. Aki followed behind her, carrying five. Before they reached the village, Sayomi remembered something. 'Um, Aki? I've been meaning to ask you something. It's about Blake.' she said, waiting for him at the top of the stairs. Aki looked at her strangely for a moment before joining her at the top of the stairs. 'Yeah, what is it?' he asked cautiously.

'Could you tell me about him?'

'Why do you want to know about him?'

'Well, when you all left, he said some strange things to me. Stuff like, 'Watch your back' and 'Don't trust everyone you meet.'' Sayomi explained, walking beside Aki through the town. Aki growled something under his breath and looked around. They were near a small alley way between two buildings and he pushed her in. Dropping his logs on a wooden crate, he put two hands on either side of her shoulders and pinned her against the wall. 'Forget everything he said. Forget everything you heard about this place. In fact, it would be better if you leave. Leave and never come back here again.' he whispered furiously. Sayomi was extremely confused. These two men were acting as if she had done something wrong. They were acting like they wanted to hide something from her. 'So you're basically saying that I should just forget about this place.' she asked him, clutching her logs.

'Yeah, I guess you could put it that way.'

She scoffed. 'As if. Look there's either something wrong with this place or it's just you. I don't care what you tell me, I'm not buying it. And I'm certainly not going to walk away like nothing happened.' she said, pushing him back. He grabbed her arm as she went past her. 'You're making a massive mistake.' he hissed.

'Get off me. The only person making the mistakes here is you. Now if you don't mind, I have a job to do and I'd like to get back to finishing it.' Sayomi said, ripping her arm out of his grip and stalking past him. 'What is wrong with these people? Can I not have a simple conversation without being threatened?' she muttered to herself as she marched to the graveyard. She avoided eye-contact with everyone there as she deposited the wood in a wheelbarrow filled with logs. She turned to leave when someone grabbed her arm. Not again, she thought. 'What?' she snapped, whirling around to glare at the person who grabbed her. She came face to face with an extremely attractive young man. Blond, spiky hair framed a tanned face and blue eyes. 'That's not a very nice way to greet your fiance.' he grinned.

'Haku!' Sayomi exclaimed, jumping on him. He chuckled and steadied her.

'Whoa there.' he said gently.

She buried her face in his shoulder. 'I haven't seen you in so long!' she said, hugging him tightly.

'Tell me about it! I've missed you so much!' he laughed, spinning her around. She squealed and clung on to him. 'Oi Haku! Get a room!' someone shouted. Still laughing, Haku set her down to shout a reply. 'You're just jealous Blake!'