“I was there for a greater cause. Your kind primarily refers to us as guardian angels or boogeymen. It’s not my fault. I didn’t know it would erupt into what it did.”
“But what’s with the protecting thing, then?”
“Can’t learn much from you if you aren’t alive.” He laughed morbidly.
“I suppose.”
“Why are you still angry?” He sighed.
“I still don’t understand why you couldn’t tell me all this the first time.”
“I guess I didn’t know you then.”
He wasn’t looking in my eyes.
“You know me now?”
“I trust you.” He said.
I felt my arms loosen up. I was completely taken off guard.
“Unlike you, I cannot deny what is right in front of my face.” He whispered, briefly making eye contact.
“Sorry.” I nodded.
I didn’t know what my problem was. He was right. He had been trying everything he could to help me understand, but I only wanted to believe what I thought was right. Maybe I just wanted a reason to hate him. I didn’t want to have to accept that all of this was for my own good from him selflessly.
So now I had to like him. Not only that, but I had to trust him too. I wasn’t entirely sure how to react to that. It made me feel very awkward; I didn’t want to trust him. Trusting strangers always ended up with me getting hurt. I couldn’t deny that something was different about him. Maybe it sort of helped with the fact that he wasn’t human.
Whatever it was, he was here now and I was stuck with him until tomorrow night. I may as well make the best of it than annoy him with all my pointless, useless questions. I was fairly certain this would be our last encounter. And even it wasn’t, every time he left, I forgot him. All the information I wanted was just a temporary fix to a problem I wouldn’t remember tomorrow. Today is now.
I’ll make it up to you.
((a moment is a lifetime to those who cherish it))
Sebastian and I had been sitting there in silence for a while. Both of us were fidgeting and trying to think of something to break the awkward silence, but no words came out. I was biting my bottom lip nearly raw. It was really getting to me, the way he was making me feel. I watched him twirl his fingers, but both of us made sure to avoid eye contact. It was as if we were a couple that had just broken up when neither of us had really wanted to.
I let out a breath of annoyance and he sighed even louder. This was ridiculous. It was getting insanely late and there was so much stuff I needed to be doing. He was apparently going to be here all night and all day; I could use him to get the heavy stuff done. When I re-pinned my bangs out of my eyes, I noticed the clock. Instantly I jumped up. It was nearly 11:00, how was that even possible?
I rushed out towards the living room not even thinking to say anything to Sebastian. Either way, he should be able to catch a hint and thus follow me. When I stepped into the living room I stopped abruptly. I found myself instantly wishing Sebastian would get a different hint and stay on the futon. He, of course, bumped right into me instead. He let out a grunt and brushed his clothes down. I didn’t want to acknowledge him in any way. I was completely embarrassed. I forgot that I had destroyed this place earlier.
Sebastian stepped beside me and fixed his bow tie. I knew he was taking in the view. I didn’t want to see his expression, but I looked at him anyway. He was sort of sucking his lips in and forcing a smile. The despair on my face went unnoticed to him.
“Nice place you have here.” He said through his clenched teeth and fake smile.
Through all the sarcasm, he actually sounded a bit unsure. I imagined he hadn’t gone inside many humans' houses to be able tell what the norm was, but I was certain he had some idea of what proper etiquette meant. Sadly the scene before him was most certainly nowhere near proper. The layers of feathers over broken glass and broken furniture scattered all about the room was something out of a horror movie. All that was missing was the blood splatters everywhere and wait, why am I thinking of this?
“I, well, I had a bit of a problem earlier. It’s nothing...no big deal.”
I shook my head. I needed all thoughts out. Aside from the images of a murder scene, I didn’t want to think of what was going through his head. I was terrified of how he must be judging me. However, right now, my focus needed to be on cleaning and packing as efficiently as possible.
There didn’t seem be to an easy way to clean everything. There were probably quite a few pieces of broken glass under the feathers and I didn’t feel like getting hurt in front of Sebastian. Where was Spike? I looked around for him. He was sitting behind me. I needed to get the feathers up first to expose the glass. Maybe a vacuum would work? There were so many feathers. Yes, they’d probably clog the vacuum or blow glass everywhere. The best bet was going to be doing it by hand.
Sebastian was still standing there in complete silence. I hoped he wasn’t trying to understand what happened. I didn’t want to talk about it. Cleaning; I needed to focus on cleaning. I wiped my hands and pushed my glasses up on my nose. Then I rushed up to the back of the couch and started collecting feathers. My bangs fell loose and started tickling my nose. I looked at my feather filled hands and instead of setting the pile back down, or using my forearm, I tried to shake the hair away. It tickled some more and I sneezed. The feathers went everywhere. Sebastian tried to cover his laughter, but failed.
“Drats.” I mumbled, ignoring him.
I got some more bobby pins from the bathroom then walked back out. Sebastian and Spike hadn’t moved. I didn’t acknowledge either of them and went back to collecting the feathers.
My hands were full in no time. I looked around for something to empty them into. I should have thought about this before attempting to pick up the feathers again. Suddenly Sebastian was standing in front of me. He had his hands held out. Was he trying to help me? I was impressed.
“Under the sink are some plastic bags, we can put this in one of those.” I said nodding towards the kitchen.
“Sink?” Sebastian asked. He raised his left eyebrow.
“Right.”
I realized I was going to have to hand the feathers over. Carefully exchanging what I had, I darted to the kitchen. The millions of plastic bags my mom saved to avoid polluting landfills ((even though she could have just recycled)) were finally coming in handy. I had used them so much during this move. I shook one open and Sebastian dumped his hands into it.
“You finish up here, I’ll go start at the other corner.” Sebastian said.
“Careful, there’s broken glass over there.” I said handing him a bag. “You do know what glass is right?”
“Yes.” He laughed.
“Well, you didn’t know what a sink was.” I mumbled and went back to cleaning up the couch.
He walked off and started doing his own cleaning. We were in silence for the most part. It made me feel good that he didn’t ask for an explanation of the mess. He just kept quiet and helped me pick everything up. He was turning out to be a really good guy.
I watched him, crouched down and picking up my mess, and found myself wishing he were in his beast form. I mean, I understood why he was in human form, but still. He was less intimidating that way. Suddenly his eyes were lined up with mine. I had been staring at him. I quickly looked away and started shoving feathers in my bag. After a few seconds, I peeked back up at him.
The coffee table was cleared off. He was staring at it with a quizzical look. I tried to watch him without it being obvious. I couldn’t help my heart, though. I felt myself wanting him more and more. It was a funny feeling. As hard as I tried, my thoughts just wouldn’t stop. Having this man in my house gave me a feeling that I had to be better than I was. He was too perfect this way. He flashed into his natural form and I jumped a little. Luckily, I did it right on cue so he didn’t notice. My lips curled into a small smile. He was sweet. He was smiling, too. Focus, Mira.
I closed my eyes. When I opened the
m he was holding the broken table leg where it was supposed to be. A few seconds later it seemed the leg and table were fusing together. I watched the line that signified it was broken slowly erase, as if a giant invisible pencil was being used. When everything blended, he wiggled the leg. It didn’t budge. Then he flipped the table over and placed it where it belonged. I was highly impressed with him. He admired his work then turned his back to me and went for the feathers by the sliding glass door. Unfortunately he was in human form again. Maybe what he just did would only work in his natural state? That meant he hadn’t done it for me.
I get my hopes up too much. This is why I avoided people. I expected the world from them, complete strangers. Still though, I was only human; a teenager, at that. My heart craved affection. The feeling of someone else around me that wanted to be around me sent my stomach into butterflies. He was forced here in this world, but that didn’t mean stuck at my side. I had to get close to him again. He was cleaning up much faster than I was. I had to hurry to catch up to him.
He was already halfway through with the floor. I looked at the couch and gave up. Tossing my bag on the counter top, I opened up a new one and walked over next to him. My heart fluttered. A tiny smile crept up his cheeks. I felt my face get hot. My eyes couldn’t move from his. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack from the butterflies inside my gut. I forced myself to lean away from him in hopes my eyes would catch the hint. Suddenly there was a sharp pain in my upper thigh. I dropped the bag and looked down. There was a giant shard of glass sticking out of me.
“Mira!” Sebastian shrieked.
“I’m okay.” I lied.
Oh God, what do I do? There is a piece of glass sticking out of my leg. I need to get it out. I reached for the glass and braced for the amount of pain I would be in when I pulled it out. Then I felt a hand on top of my free one. I peeked my eye open and looked. It wasn’t a human hand. It made me feel better and I knew that was why he did it.
“Don’t. It’s easier if I do it.” He said. “Can you walk?”
He started lifting me up. I kept my leg bent. I was so close to him. My heart was going crazy.
“Probably.”
I kept my eyes at the spot where our hands were touching. I mean, I didn’t want to look at how much blood was coming out and that was a perfect distraction. My thoughts got to me and I chuckled. I had thought earlier that all that was missing was some blood and it’d be a murder scene, and here I was, oozing blood.
Sebastian helped me into the bathroom. I turned on the faucet and got a washcloth from the shower. I thought about the first aid that was under our sink. There might be bandages in it. Sebastian had been listening because when I turned around he was rummaging through it. I grinned. I hopped over to him again, then tried to get up on the counter. My leg muscle twitched and I cringed in pain.
“Here, let me.” He said dropping what was in his hands.
I watched him reach his arms underneath mine and gently lift me up on the counter. I barely even felt his hands grip me. I guess I wasn’t surprised really with how strong he was.
“The bandages…can I take this out now.” I said.
“Patience.” He smiled.
He bent over me and I closed my eyes. I felt a slight tug on my leg and shot my hands out onto his arms. I wrapped my fingers as much around his biceps as I could and started squeezing. He was going to pull it out now. Oh, it was going to hurt so badly. I braced myself for the worst of it. Nothing was happening though.
“Sebastian?” I asked.
“Mirabelle?”
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
Why was he taking forever?
“Fixing it.” He chuckled.
“What?”
I opened my eyes. My hands were still squeezing his arms. I grinned when we both looked at them and then let go. Trying to see what was happening, I followed his hands. But then I saw the glass was in the sink already. How did he? Oh, it was really bloody. My leg had to be really bad.
“Oh, how bad is it?” I asked.
“It is okay. I got the glass out. I’m trying to fix you, but it does not want to work.”
He sounded aggravated and I found that adorable. The words registered and I had to take a double look at him.
“What do you mean it won’t work?”
“I cannot stop the bleeding.”
He was starting to panic. If he were panicking, it couldn’t be good. I sucked it up and looked. There was blood all over the counter. He had a towel under my leg to try to minimize how much was getting on the floor. My sweat pants were completely ruined. Then I realized what he was doing; he had his right hand on top of my thigh and his left was on the bottom, he sort of tried to push the wound closed. I watched him hold it there for a few seconds then let go. Each time he let go more blood oozed out. It stung as if I were getting stabbed all over again.
“Sebastian, I am not a material item, I am human! You can’t fuse me together by will power. I need to have a doctor fix me up or let my body do it naturally over time.” I said.
I grabbed his hands and stopped them from squeezing my leg anymore.
“How do I help?” He asked.
I could tell he really hated feeling helpless. I was back to thinking he was adorable.
“Seeing as how I don’t have insurance, all I can do now is wrap it up.”
I looked at my leg again and tried not to freak out. I needed to evaluate just how bad this actually was versus how bad my phobia was making it. If it was something that needed to be cleaned in depth and not just by my splashing water, I’d deal with the stupid hospital and their million questions.
“You, step out.” I said.
I was going to have to take off my pants. I couldn’t see anything without an extra pair of hands holding the slit in my sweat pants open, but I really didn’t want Sebastian seeing me squirm. My only option was taking half my clothing off to be able to wrap and clean the wound. Sebastian could not be in the bathroom during any of that.
“Are you sure? I can help!”
“Yes. Go.” I rushed him.
He tried begging but I kept cutting him off. Finally he stepped out and I closed the door behind him. Now it was the difficult part. I stood up on one leg and sat on the edge of the bathtub. With as much ease as I could handle, I carefully slid my pants over my hips and maneuvered the right leg around the wound. Then I plopped them in the tub I had been filling with hot water; maybe there was hope for them.
Looking down to my wound, I saw the blood was running down to my ankle. I quickly moved the rug out of the way to avoid messing that up, too. Now the process of sanitizing and containing the blood could start. The first aid kit was on the counter, out of my reach. I didn’t want to move again, but it was either that or get Sebastian back in here. Nearly falling backwards, I managed to yank a towel down. Now I needed to accomplish standing and throwing myself against the counter all in one motion. Hopefully the pressure from my weight against it would keep the bleeding at a minimum.
Up and against the counter, I felt a warm dampness ooze down my leg. Yep, I was still seriously bleeding. Well, standing around watching it wasn’t going to stop it. I had to hurry. I needed to get the box open and prep the bandages. How was I going to accomplish this alone? Why was I so stupid? I didn’t understand how I kept managing to do things like this! I knew the glass was there, I even warned Sebastian about it! And, yet, I sat down and didn’t even look. I was such an idiot.
“Please let me help now!” Sebastian said opening the door.
“No!”
I kicked the door shut as quickly as possible. Somehow I had a feeling it wasn’t fast enough. I saw him which had to mean he saw me. Oh God, he saw me in my underwear. He saw me, he saw me, he saw me. How humiliating!
My heart started racing. It was hard to breathe. I was going to pass out. I needed to calm down. The bleeding had to have clotted by now. I just wanted to be back in the living room cleaning like nothing had ever happened
. Well, actually, I just wanted to have never wrecked the living room. Wait, no, if I were wishing for things then I wish my mom was still here; both of them. My head got heavy. I could feel each beat of my heart. Focus. I’m fine. What was I doing?
I leaned away from the counter and gently tossed the blood soaked towel into the sink. I didn’t seem to be gushing blood anymore. I took that as a good sign. Cleaning it as quickly as I could without moving; I didn’t want to move any further in case it’d break the clotting, I awkwardly cut up gauze and placed it on some tape. After placing that tightly over the wound, I started to wrap it, but the wound was too high up my leg. I searched the kit for something else and found a giant bandage. That seemed more logical. With it attached to my leg, I checked the mirror. The wound was in fact completely covered. There wasn’t any blood anywhere either. Well, none that was wet and fresh.
“Mira?” Sebastian knocked.
“Patience! Learn it!” I hissed.
It wasn’t his fault, I didn’t mean to snap at him, but he was out of control. I needed to clean the bathroom. There was blood all on the counter and floor. My clothes were soaking still, but I could worry about those later. Now with everything cleaned up, I needed to worry about getting pants on.
“Sebastian? Are you in the living room?” I asked.
“No. Do you need me?” He yelled back. Where was he?
“No, no. Just go to my living room and stay there.”
“Okay.” He said.
Counting to ten, I cracked the door open just enough to be able to look out. A part of me wasn’t sure that he was capable of waiting on me. I imagined him standing right there in front of the door, eager to help in any way. I couldn’t see him at all. Taking the chance, I bolted into my room and slammed the door. Turning around, I jumped and screamed.
“What are you doing?!” I yelled at him. I backed into the corner and crossed my legs.
“Is this not the room you inhabit?”
He looked around my room to point out how it was mine. I got that. What he didn’t get was that I was standing there, hunched over, to cover up the fact I was pants-less.
Monsters & Fairytales Page 8
