REBIRTH

Chapter 8

Defeated, I made my way toward him. When he finally noticed me, his entire demeanor changed. There was no way I was going to get through the walls he put up against me. Those fuckers were tall, reinforced with steel and had barbed wire all around.

"Bout time" he murmured and began walking without further ado.

He either was oblivious or didn't care that I was struggling to keep up with his pace. Tired of half jogging after him and utterly out of breath, I decided to stop and enjoy the scenery. It was all so beautiful, that for a moment it felt like I was in a fairy tale. That moment didn't last long because prince not-so-charming turned to give me an annoyed 'are you coming' look. I would come, when I was good and ready.

"Bite me" I mouthed while I took in all the beauty before me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of that sweet fresh air, and just like that another dump of information came to mind. I couldn't explain how I knew or list the information I had just received, but somehow I felt more like myself.

I thought Mike had transferred all of it, but it seemed there had been quite a bit missing. I didn't know if there was more or if this was all my personality's knowledge and memories, but the one thing I was sure of was I took shit from no one. I loved myself first and foremost and the rest of the world was just going to have to make do with that, including the pissed off for no good reason that I could remember asshole walking in front of me.

I finally opened my eyes and smiled triumphantly. Reassured, I began making my way toward Samuel who was going to great lengths to ignore me as usual. He began walking at a fast pace again before I reached him. I assumed that meant he expected me to follow him, but not walk with him.

Since I was in no hurry to get to the Council and I couldn't just walk through all this beauty without taking the time to admire it, I took every opportunity to stop and appreciate my surroundings. I stopped and smelled the colorful flowers that lined the winding dirt path on each side, listened to the birds chirping exotic tunes, felt the dew misting my skin. It was probably my imagination, but I could have sworn the flowers leaned toward me as I passed and birds surrounded me above in the trees to show off their amazing talents for me like drawn by a magnet.

Because what the hell, I also peaked through the open windows of the caves we passed, curious to see what the inhabitants looked like, albeit without any luck. At a distance the caves looked similar, but up close I saw the tell-tale signs of individuality. Some were adorned with flower beds, others were trimmed with vibrant colors, yet others had beautiful works of art on the walls. All put together made up a beautiful symphony of shapes and colors.

Occasionally, Samuel would stop to wait for me to catch up enough, without allowing me to get too close of course. Heaven fucking forbid I got in the man's bubble.

On one of these occasional occasions, as I was getting closer to him, he began walking again and I stopped. After a couple of steps, he stopped. Then I took a few steps, and as he began walking again I stopped so he stopped. I took a few more steps, and as he began to walk again I stopped. He turned slowly and raised an eyebrow at me, under other circumstances I would have been intimidated by the look on his face, but I couldn't contain my amusement so I gave him the most innocent look I could muster and mouthed a confused 'what?'.

He narrowed his eyes at me and turned to continue. As amused as I was, I couldn't help feeling sad for him. Now I knew he was miserable because he chose to be. If he could only let go of his anger and forgive for a moment, maybe we could work together to try to figure out what had happened. I knew very little, and as much as it scared me to find out the contrary, I knew in my heart I would never leave him for no good reason. I would never ever hurt him for the sake of doing so. Whatever pulled me away from him had to be very powerful, and if he could only see this, how much I loved him, that I was his entirely, body, mind and soul, he wouldn't have to feel this way.