Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Pt 4

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We stopped in front of a huge apartment building. Even from the outside I could tell that I had never been anywhere so luxurious. It was proper, though. Of course my uncle would live somewhere out of a dream.

"This will be your room," the foreigner told me and pushed open a red wood door at the end of the long hallway. The room he presented me with was larger than the one I'd had before with heavy dark curtains covering the tall windows. He switched on a lamp next to the door. The light made little difference, the room was still dark even with it on.

"Your uncle is on your right," he explained, "Nagi, he's about your age, is across the hall way. I'm next to him." He walked over and pulled open the curtains so the room was flooded with light. "It's not as bad as it sounds."

"I never said it was bad."

"You think it's bad," he said.

"No," I told him, I do not think it is bad." He was silent.

"Why don't you ever call your uncle by name?"

"I do not know his name," I said quickly. It sounded silly saying it. I was pretty sure I had heard his name in the last week but it was all such a blur I couldn't pick out singular details such as names or faces.

"Crawford," a new voice said. I turned quickly to see the Japanese boy standing in the doorway. He was small by all definitions with brown hair and bright blue eyes and his thin arms crossed across his equally small chest. He didn't look me over as the foreigner had, just looked straight into my eyes with a look a malice that made me shiver despite not being cold.

"Callidan," the red haired man said. Neither the boy nor I looked at him. "This is Nagi," he continued. The boy turned to him and glared at the unsaid words. Then he spun on his heel and walked away.

"He is very nasty," I said without thinking. I wasn't sure if I said it in English or Japanese but it didn't seem to matter as the red haired man said nothing. And didn't intend to. I regretted saying it. "Crawford," I said instead, "You simply call him Crawford."

"Yes."

"What is his first name?"

"You'll have to ask him that," the foreigner and I looked at each other. He knew but wasn't going to tell me. Usually I would have demanded to know the answer but it just didn't feel right.

"Then I shall just call him Crawford as well," I said instead.

There was a clunk in the doorway. The was another man standing there. He too was a foreigner, unlike Nagi who was clearly Japanese. He had short cropped white hair and an eye-patch and every available area of his skin was littered with scars.

"Where's Crawford?" the red haired man snapped.

"He was tired," the silver haired one crooned and bared his teeth. Then he left.

I said nothing but the red haired man seemed to know what I was biting back, "It's not as bad as it seems."

"I still don't think it's bad," I corrected.

"Good," He said. I think he said something else as well but I was already spiraling into my own thoughts. Out of the three men I had met all three of them had sent unexplainable shivers up my spine. What if my uncle was the same? What if my mother had been right and he was as terribly cold as she had always said. And what if I had just made a terrible mistake.

"What is it, Callidan?" the red haired man asked. I think I jumped at being pulled out of my thoughts.

"Call me Calli," I said. He smiled again, this time reaching his eyes. It dawned on me that, despite how kind he had been to me, I was still afraid of him. "What is he like?" I asked, "Other than authorative?"

"He's…" He thought harder about the answer this time, "He can be very cold sometimes. But also very unpredicatable."

"You are afraid of him," I said without thinking.

"Sometimes," he admitted, "I'm sure you'll like him very much." I let the silence last this time. We turned away from each other, both unpacking things and placing them in random places in the area of the room we were in, whether or not it was where they went.

"Get some sleep, Calli," he said suddenly. I heard him go to the door, then he paused, "Call me Shuldich." I nodded but he had already left.

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