Chapter IV

The boy raised his eyes to the sound of her voice and she stiffened, clutching the peach and half of the bread tightly, perhaps too tightly, she breathed a sigh of relief nonetheless. He was not dead, this was good. Very good.

She supposed that in truth the boy did have a frightening disposition even from his weakened demeanor. He had a leather mask on his face, and his eyes were darkened by the shadow that the crudely fitting piece cast over the cut out holes on his face.

"You must be hungry," Christine stepped around the round cage and kept circling him, watching him carefully and biting her lip nervously. He stared at her with a glare, clearly not happy about her presence, "I have some food, if you would like it?" She stopped when she was a few feet from his cage.

He looked like he was withering before her. He truly looked like a skeleton. The dark trousers he wore did nothing to hide the emaciated thighs beneath them, and his arms were so thin that she wondered if he would be able to even hold up the peach. He had dark thin hair on his head and it fell messily around his face touching the sides of his jaw and the base at the back of his neck.

"Here," she stuck her arm between two bars and held the peach out to him, wondering if his hand would be able to reach out and take it, she would throw it at him but feared it would bounce off of one of the bars of his cage and roll out of both their reach, "you must reach out for it."

The boy watched her for a long time, as if trying to figure her out. She waited patiently, gazing warily towards the entrance of the cage, "please, you must hurry," she bit her lip, "if that vile man should return I do not imagine that he would be pleased about my presence."

Coming to a slow stand the young boy reached out with a magnificently long arm and stretched his fingers out to her, she tried to not stare at the gash across the front of his hand as he took the peach and quickly yanked his arm back and away from her as if she would take it away. The peach itself looked strange in his pale hands, it was colored brightly and made his skin look more grey then it already did.

"I brought this as well, I hope it is to your liking," she bit her lip nervously and extended a piece of bread. The masked male looked towards her with a snappy quickness as if he were surprised. Again he extended his arm warily and snatched the bread away. In a quick flourish he buried the fruit underneath the hay and turned his back to her. She noticed him peeling back the bottom layer of the mask. He took hold of the bread tightly and bit into it. She looked at his back with fascination.

There were so many scars at his back. And although he wore a shirt it did nothing to cover up the wounds. There were too many rips in the fabric of the clothing. It revealed alabaster white skin and ivory colored scars.

"What is your name?" She asked hesitantly.

He did not respond to her, he only lowered the leather of his mask and turned to face her, pulling his knees near his chest and resting his arms on them so that they hung out in front of him as he perched on the balls of his feet.

"Do you… do you have a name?" She asked warily, perhaps he never had one? When he did not respond she looked towards the exit of the tent nervously. Perhaps this was a mistake. The man with the whip would surely enter the tent again, "perhaps I should go now…"

This seemed to jolt the skeleton boy as he clenched his jaw tightly.

"The man will return soon, I have no doubt of it," she murmured, more to herself as she looked back to the male. Pity filled her as she stared at him. She could not just leave him. It would not be right. It would be horrible and she would be just as bad at the man that beat him. Her father had always told her that those who watched were just as guilty for perpetuating crimes against others when they could have done something to stop it.

"I can return…" she thought out loud, looking at him with a frightened stare as his eyes narrowed at her, "I can bring you food… perhaps tomorrow if you wish."

He stared without speaking. It sent a nervous jolt down the back of her neck that made her twitch very slightly. Was the boy deaf-mute? Yes! That must have been it!

"You poor boy," she murmured as she leaned her forehead against the bars, watching him sadly as he watched her, "what kind of life have you known?"

He stared at the girl with interest. It took him a few moments to figure out that she was female, but after hearing enough of her voice he knew that she was in fact a She, and not a He as he originally thought.

She had hollow cheeks with distinctly prominent cheekbones. Her jaw was sharp looking and her rounded chin was made more apparent by her obvious malnutrition. She was wrapped in a brown and grey wool cloak, and it dwarfed her already small stature. He imagined that if they were standing side by side the top of her head would touch his shoulder, maybe.

She also had severely thin arms. He had noticed when she reached out towards him. She looked thinner than even he was. He wondered how it was that she walked, how had her legs not snapped?

She had a small slender nose, and a full set of lips with a strange pallor. Her skin looked washed out to him, as if any and all color had been drained out of her. And her eyes… what an exquisite set of eyes. It is as if though the sky were fixated in them, he thought when he first took notice. And there was a strange wideness to their shape that captivated him.

She wanted to know his name, and yet he could not bring himself to answer her. He would have told her that he had many names. But it was not of importance, and she had no right to know them if she could not have figured them out by now.

Then she spoke of perhaps returning tomorrow, which made him curious. What exactly did she think she was doing? And why was she taking it upon herself to feed him? What a fatuous girl, he sneered mentally as she leaned her head against the bars and questioned what his life was like. Does she expect an answer?

"I will be back tomorrow… perhaps I will fetch something better for you to eat… I imagine that soggy bread does not satisfy whatever hunger you might have," she paused for a small moment, "why am I talking aloud? It is not as if you can hear me, you are deaf and mute."

This made his face twitch beneath the mask, is that what you think? You stupid girl.

"I must go," she murmured and ducked her gaze from him. She began to quietly walk around the circular cage outside of his enclosure, her footsteps were inaudible, and he suspected by the look of her raggedy appearance that she was living on the street. He also suspected that she had learned to walk so silently for safety reasons.

He watched her walk towards the exit of the tent, taking notice of the fact that her thin brown hair touched the bottom of where he suspected her shoulder blades to be. Before she was fully out of sight she looked back to him and gave him a shy smile, then she was gone.

A smile?

He felt his skin prickle and confusion clouded his thoughts.

Surely it had not been sincere. There was no possible reason as to why it would be sincere. Mothers smiled at their children, husbands smiled at their wives, and people smiled at their friends. No one smiled at strangers, especially not caged and masked ones.

He had done nothing to deserve that small facial gesture. Why had she done that? Was she trying to mock him? Trying to make him feel flattered and humored by the idea that he was worthy of it?

He lay back on the hay after a long moment of confusion and pulled out the peach, biting into it and reveling in the feeling of it bursting inside of his mouth. Juice ran down the corner of his lips and he struggled to contain a sigh of appreciation, but could not resist. He over-chewed the pieces of fruit in his mouth. Trying to savor it as much as possible. He would then take a bite out of the hard bread and savor that, back and forth he switched until both foods were gone and he was left only with hands and the pit of the peach.

He found himself wondering if the girl would truly return to him with more food.

Of course not, he sneered to himself, hating that she had raised such stupid thoughts in him, hating her for it, they are all liars. She does not care. He must have hired her to come and raise my hopes so that then tomorrow I will be upset at her absence. He rolled onto his side and lowered the bottom half of his mask back over his face, burying the pit of the peach angrily underneath all the hay.

Stupid girl.


Short, but the chapters are actually getting longer (I checked the word count) :) Thank you for the reviews! My original plan was to update every other day but your reviews have been so awesome and I can't help but update everyday. (FP33 You know what I'm talking about!) YOU GUYS ARE MAKING ME GO BACK ON MY SELF-PROMISES! XD. So thank you! and you know what button to hit. *waits impatiently* :)