Chapter: 4

"Maverick."

The embers ran wild, as they twisted and took off, the energy they radiated was all consumed by the hatred, as they dazzled and gleamed, while their luminous existence was annihilated by the same fire that birthed them. The ashes held agony, as they burnt and died,the last of their breaths were glows that ran wild.

The cinders spoke unknown words to her heart, as her fingers stirred the warm air, the little sparks writhed unevenly until they dropped and embraced their end.

There would be that one flicker, and it seemed as the flame was startled by her thoughts, it flabbergasted and resumed its pattern, until once more it seized its motion and shivered before her.

The scarlet bricks appeared almost as melted, the skim of the heat struck and slid off the ancient walls. These were the bricks that made the roof under which she had always found herself, and made the floors on which she had always walked. She detested the terra cotta and fabric like scent of the edifice, it held memories, she absolutely detested it.

"Lift me up big brother!, the little girl's merry voice called, and then there would be laughter. "Higher! Higher!"

Her eyes felt thawed in the fire place, as she watched the ashes and the cinders, her back to the world.

She heard claps, and the surfaces strike, and each step of hers injected malevolence in her heart, her chest heavy, her mind far away, yet closer than each breath they took.

"Api," a small hand shook her shoulder, catching her out of her thoughts.

She faced the small child. Her eyes momentarily got lost in the dark chocolate pools and melted, as just for that brief moment she saw all that could have been, and then the aversion flowed back in, through the smallest of pores and she realized it was all that could have been, all she could have been, but was not, and never would be. She turned back to the buoyant flame that swallowed the tiny chips of wood.

"Api, play with us, please," the little girl's voice was pleading.

She felt the warmth stroke her face slightly whipped by the surrounding air. The heat was hell, but hell was home, so it felt pleasant to her empty soul.

She felt flesh lightly caress her arm. The rage broke in and her will felt weak as she ferociously knocked off the little girl's cautious hand.

The child gasped, her coal black locks shivered with her movement.

"That's enough Katie, come back," the commanding male voice ordered.

The girl did as she was told, and hid behind a tall figure, the shadow of which ever so slightly kissed the end of the wall.

"You are nothing, you are a disgrace to this family," he spat.

She smiled, and she could taste the bitterness of the words which would follow even before her mind had sought them out. She felt all the loath and poison inside her melt on her tongue and materialize into the dirt they were. "Shut up, son of a bitch.", she could picture just how his eyes widened, though she was not facing him, and she could almost hear that click, when his teeth gritted together, and how he was trying to supress the rage he felt.

He took steady and deep breaths. "I won't allow you to use that kind of language in this house, mind your manners Claire, I'm warning you."

Her eyes widened and she faced him, the fake expression of shock painted on her face. "What family? What house?" she asked ammused. "What manners?", she laughed once. "This isn't a family, it's a herd of bastards, this house," she said stading up pointing at the walls. "It's not a house, these damn bricks were glued together with blood, innocent people's blood," she closed her eyes and smiled once more. "Manners.." she said thoughtfully. "What manners? Who taught me manners?" she spat. "Where's my mother?" she said drilling her gaze into his perplexed eyes. "Where's your mother? Where's her mother?" she whispered pointing at the little girl who peeked from behind her brother's back.

There was a long silence. She could hear each word in his thoughts, as it waved around with the chilly breezes. The little girl blinked in confusion staring continuously between her sibling's dead expressions.

"It's funny, right?" she asked, her smile fixed in place. "How I can't say OUR mother," she laughed and shook her head. "This isn't a family," she said walking to the window. She leaned her elbows on the cold marble and felt the cooling breeze stroke her face and wipe away the bitterness. "I'm not a disgrace," she said recalling the words he had used earlier. "That thing is," she said indicating the seven year old little girl standing behind him.

He clentched his fists. "Shut up Claire."

"Ask her, ask that thing if it's human."

"Shut up."

"She's not normal, stop trying to cover up for her."

"Shut up! She's a little girl, stop trying to destroy her life, she's your sister!"

She let out a deep breath. "She's no sister of mine, you live up with that lie," she passed a hand through her hair. "Why wont you admit it, why do you keep lying to yourself? We're not a family, this is not a house, nobody has manners, we're all bastards, live with it."

She walked away towards the dark wooden door, knowing she had caused enough damage, knowing she added enough fuel to the fire. She knew she had destroyed him, killed him alive, but she couldn't bring herself to feel bad about it, after all this was how she had been living for years now, spreading her hatred and poison, passing it on, just for the sake of mere entertainment. She was a monster, she knew it, she believed it, this was what she thought was her purpose of life, consume and destroy other's.

Just before she took that last step towards the door, she turned around watching his back. "Good night, big brother," she tossed him a vicious smile and left the room. She threw that one last piece of coal among the embers satisfying the loathe that dwelled within her.

"I don't know," I told Killua as we took the last turn, entering my lane. "Maybe Hakuna Matata," I shrugged.

He snorted. "That's your exemplary life theme?"

I shrugged. "Yeah. It sounds like an okay way to go through life, I mean it was able to escort a lion cub through the fucking hardships of it, why not live that way?"

He pursed his lips thoughtfully and kicked a small pebble as he walked. "You know what?"

"What?" I said giving him a side glance.

"You're right, it is an okay way to go through life."

One corner of my mouth lifted up on its own, he was a weird guy.

"Hakuna Matata," he whispered pensively, glancing at the sky.

The wind was heavy, mostly humid and the sky was a deep grey, it could easily be mistaken for early in the evening, rather than the late afternoon it was. The clouds were stuffed and fluffy, indicating a great deal of fine rain to pour in a minimum of an hour or so.

"This chaperone venture is going to cost you some effort big boy," I said narrowing my eyes at the dim rays of the nearly setting sun, which was hardly visible behind the thick clouds. "It's about to rain."

"Rain," he rolled his eyes. "Like I haven't heard that one before," he said in a bored voice.

I took out the keys from my pocket as we reached the enterance. "Thanks."

He nodded burrying his hands in his pockets. Somehow I noticed he always did that when he was nervous or mostly, answerless, like in praising cases. Modest guy.

"You wanna... come in?" I said scratching my forehead.

His eyes slightly gleamed, amused and teasing and he gave me a tiny smile. "Maybe some other time," he reassured. You're just never going to learn, are you Claire?

I gave him a small nod. I was so done with formalities, like I didn't know he would have said that. "So.. I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Sure," saying that he strode away.

The afternoon was misty, silent and cold. I watched him as he walked away and eventually faded in the dark. Maybe it was just my imagination, or just what I expected, but either way, I thought I saw him wave.

I hugged my self once, and rubbed my palms lightly on my shoulders and inhaled the chilly air. Taking one last deep breath I opened the door and went in.

The house was empty, just the way it always was when my parents were at work. I wandered around the house randomly flipping on the lights and both the Tv sets. I had been afraid of the dark and lonliness as far as my memory could take me.

I would hear steps, scratching, whispers and then cries, I always tried to fill up the house with as much light and sound I could manage. My mother even made me go through a whole year of psychological courses to over come my various forms of phobias which just ended up with me being even more concious about them than before, mostly her trying to help out, only made things worse.

I decided to spend the alone time doing something useful instead of sitting around, like homework and things I so rarely did, such as making my bed and tidying up my room.

I looked at the messy old, yellow paged book lying on the shelf, it somehow managed to make the whole room look unneat. I should have put it away a long time ago, but I had no idea why I decided to keep it, and sadly I never had got the courage to go past the first six pages, the first two ones were all I had actually read, where there were some hand written empowering lines, which I absolutely loved, I could always relate them to what I felt. But the words jammed my brain, they made me remember. It's ancient red cover was torn and scratched, I had to admit, I hadn't kept it in the best condition, but I remembered far far back someone had told me it was all I needed. "Everything is in the book Claire, it's all you need." I took a few steps forward. What was in the book? And what was all that I needed?

I picked it up. Seven years, seven years it had last been since I had read the book's own script. I was scared, I had to admit it, I was scared, I had no idea why. I slowly flipped randomly through the pages and with each turn my heart fluttered a bit faster.

I heard the door unlock. I quickly put the book back and shutting the door of my room, I hurried downstairs.

I stood at the door greeting both of my parents as they entered.

"Hey honey," my dad said pecking me on the cheek.

"Hi dad," I said walking to my mom for the other cheek kissing session.

My mom handed me the pizza boxes and I placed them on the table. Dinner sounded like a good idea.

They both plopped down exhausted on the couch as I got us three soda cans from the fridge. Everyone grabbed a slice of pizza cutting off the ribbon for starting the dinner convos.

"So, how was school?" my mom asked grabbing the tv remote.

"I'm alive, aren't I?" I asked taking a bite.

"Aw, come on school's not that bad, if you only knew how much there was to it," my mom said flipping absent-mindly through the channels.

I sighed. "The only reason I go to school is because the city library seems to have a very scarce quality and quantity of books mom, otherwise I'd get home-schooled, or maybe I'd be a nun," I said shrugging.

She pretended to shiver. "It's scary you know, how much you and your dad talk alike."

My dad and I both rolled our eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know, we both talk the same and even look the same and bla bla.."

"Seriously, even back at the college times, while we enjoyed the pleasures of having sex, your dad was busy reading off the whole library," she recalled, almost hysteric like she was living it now.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Reading gives its own contentment," said my dad looking at me for back-up.

I nodded. "I'm with ya' pops," I said taking another slice. "But hey, who knows, maybe dad was a step ahead of you all, maybe that's why we look alike."

My dad nodded. "Who knows, reading does get you book-drunk."

"I couldn't agree more," I said raising the pizza slice as a toast attemp, trying to create excitement.

My mom gasped. "Excuse me?"

"Just saying honey, you know we must take into consideration all the possibilities."

"I'm the only woman you can talk about sleeping with," my mom's voice got serious.

Talking about sex was a common argument in our house, so my parents felt no embarassment saying that out loud infront of me. That was well explained to me when my mom gave me the grown ups lecture, "Sex is something completely natural honey, it's nothing to be ashamed of." figures.

"I didn't say any names, besides, you are the only woman I've ever slept with," my dad muttered.

My dad sucked in these kind of arguments, I kinda felt sorry for him, but if a fight it was, I was neutral, just an impartial little shadow at the corner.

My mom glared at him. "Says the book drunk."

My dad gave me a desperate glance.

I shrugged and mouthed the words. "You're on your own," preparing myself to watch what my dad's rushed struggles would give life to.

My dad cleared his throat and I crossed my fingers praying he wouldn't start reciting some love poem, which would result in him ending up sleeping on the couch for a week. "But nothing beats it like that day," he said pretending to be lost in far away memories.

My mom tried her best to keep her mouth shut, but it was beyond her control, she was way too curious. "What?" she said through clentched teeth, trying to look deadly and failing.

"The fourth of March, 1995, the first time we slept together," my dad said proudly.

I had to admit, this was above his level of romance, my dad was improving, I was proud, the kid-parent was proud.

My mom's eyes softened, but she intended to keep the Romeo-dad going on for a while longer, since he so rarely made his appearance, women, who'd understand them.

"It was 2:35am, you were drunk.." my dad explained the details.

"And you tried your best to sneak out of the window, but my mother caught you, and you broke a leg, in one of your athletic escape stunts," my mom continued.

I snorted, ammused by hearing the untold story for the first time.

"And your mother has disliked me ever since, and to think she still believed that I was the one to take your virginity away. Man, she trusted you way too much, if she only knew half of how reckless you were," my dad said lost in thought.

My mom smiled, a bright grin that reached her eyes. My dad had done it.

"I love you honey," she said softly kissing him.

He answered back willingly, muttering the "I love you too," somewhere in the kiss.

I backed away noticing how passionate the kiss was getting and what it would lead to. I hurriedly grabbed the pizza box. "Eu, gross, I'm eating!"

They didn't even seem to know I was there.

"Can you atleast wait 'til I leave!" I quickly rushed away, keeping the kids-hate-when-their-parents-make-out act going.

My parents loved each other and they loved me. I still wondered what small act of kindness I ever did by mistake as to deserve such amazing parents. Only if I knew how much it would hurt later.

I impatiently kicked my foot against the desk, staring, actually glaring, into the grey haired man's eyes. Impatient, hesitant, awaiting for his answer. His look was confused, but he tried his best to put on a look of determination.

"Anytime now, Mr. Domoto," I almost shouted.

Mr. Domoto had been our neighbour for more than five years now. His wife cheated on him two years ago, and after their separation I had not even once seen him smile, the same reason why he had trust issues. His eyebrows were always furrowed and though he managed to throw out a joke from time to time he was always grumpy. He wasn't just a neighbour, he was more like family, a friend.

The Mr. Domoto was for my own comfort rather than a formality since he had been begging me to call him by name since the last decade.

He had a girlfriend now, but his self-created suspicions and doubts poked his brain at regular intervals and due to his lack of trust and his knowledge about my limited abilities at hacking, he decided to put the poor girl to the test. But all of a sudden his conscience kicked in and the guilt was starting to show on his face, which resulted in the apparent pause for a conscience argument. I did feel sorry for him, but I knew he was well aware of what was best for him, way much more than me.

"I'm getting late for school," I informed him, as he seemed to go on ignoring me. "Aw, come on Mr. Domoto don't be an asshole, make up your mind already!"

He sighed. "What's the point of using the surname if you just have to shit coat it anyway?" he asked in his thick voice.

"That's just how respectful I happen to be," I smiled sarcastically.

"Remind me to get a carton of aspirin for next time you come around."

"Give me a break," I said slapping his shoulder. "You're a fourty year old ancient man, if I didn't come around and boost your blood pressure from time to time you'd be rotting in your grave by now," I looked out the window. "And instead of flowers, they'd put shit on it," I whispered.

"You little.. " he muttered.

"I've got ten minutes to get to school, so, that's either about the time I need to get there or bury a dead body in your backyard, so, chop chop," I said clapping my hands together.

He sighed. "Alright, do it."

"Finally." I heaved a sigh of relief and quickly placed my fingers on the keyboard, hurriedly ticking the keys. "Jeez you're girlfriend's an idiot, who leaves their bluetooth on like that?" I asked myself. "I'm in; data, inbox and... done," I said pressing the enter key.

My dad had taught me all I knew about device hacking, of course my mom was clueless otherwise she's throw a fit on how we'd get arrested or something, it wasn't like we infiltrated pentagon or anything.

I looked at Mr. Domoto, his eyes were sad, and it would have been hard to see, if I didn't know him so well. "Her whole message inbox and outbox, that is her sent and received messages even the factory restored ones are in there. So, go on. Knock yourself out, you're gonna love it," I said trying to cheer him up.

He just kept staring out the window, his gaze lost in what seemed like a time far away.

I clenched my teeth and sighed. "Listen, no one's a saint, and no matter how hard you try to make it perfect, trust me, something will turn out wrong, but you know what? It's alright, that's what makes it worth trying, and in the end it all comes down to how much you love her, 'cause if it's enough, you'll trust her." I was surprised at myself for the sudden emotional lecture, it was so not my thing, but I thought I did quite well this time.

He looked up at me confused, even more than I was.

I figured the best thing I could do was give him some alone time, I quickly got up and grabbed my school bag from where I had left it on the floor, I walked past him, wishing I could at least hug him, or in some way make him realize I was there for him. I turned the knob and stepped out.

"Hey, not a word about this to my mom," I quickly said.

He gave a sharp nod, trying to act all military.

I rolled my eyes and hurried out, praying I'd make it in time before the first bell.

School was a mess as always, I fell two times while waking to class, one most royally my own, and the other a sacred push from my most lethal enemy. I spilled soda on my shirt and spent the whole break trying to wash it off and if that wasn't enough, I was about to face my one nemesis, the battle that I had been fighting since the fifth grade; my shield: the protractor, my sword: the compass, and my battle field, my own mind.

Geometry. I could deal with english projects, history assignments, mathematical equations, catching cattle with lassos, maybe even tame wild dogs, and even face gym, but geometry was something I sucked at so very much, to be honest, I sucked at it so much, I had to take extra classes for it. It was absurd how I could deal with algebra and calculus just fine but was unable to grasp the concept of this one subject. We just didn't click.

So, as I sat with sweaty hands, under the careful eye of my geometry professor, actually imagining what were the chances of a meteor crashing right into the school, I looked at the tense, black spiky haired boy who sat right beside me.

His eyebrows were furrowed and he clutched the pencil with such force, it was seconds away from literally breaking. I had to admit, he looked way more miserable than I felt. I tried my best to keep my big mouth shut, but I was a nerd, it was beyond me.

"Uh, you have to calculate the angle of depression first," I whispered, cursing myself at the same time.

He immediately turned to me, a bit shocked, like he had just been transported from some other universe. He sighed and scratched his head. "I have no idea what that is."

Life truth, I sucked at geometry, but compared to him, I could win a nobel prize. I held back a giggle. "Look," I emphasized placing his protractor on the weird figure he had managed to make. "Go on, just take out the angle and write it down in the equation."

He began doing what I told him, and while he did so, I examined his face, trying to find any similarities between him and Killua, even the faintest, he was his cousin after all, well, according to him.

"Like this?" he said brightly, like he had actually managed to accomplish something.

I looked down at his page and read it carefully. "Uh.. no."

There was a moment of silence between us, when we kept staring at each other, after a few seconds we both burst out laughing, I had no idea why.

The professor shot us both a deadly glance and we shut up immediately.

"Gon," he whispered as he lightly held out his hand.

"I'm—" I began, before he interrupted me.

"Claire, I know, Killua mentioned you," he said.

"He did?" I said way louder than I intended. I cleared my throat. "I mean—he did?" I said shrugging.

"Yeah, you were his history assignment partner," he said grinning.

Like I could imagine that jerk mentioning me in an actual conversation; why the hell was I disappointed? I hated the weird annoying feeling in my chest. It was like I wanted him to talk about me.

"Uh, yeah, I was," I said, trying to keep the most casual tone I had.

That was to my disappointment, all I got. The rest of the day was bound to be hell. It was the first day of my chemistry labs, translation: another stupid, annoyingly horrifying year, which was to be spent as Nora being my partner for college eternity. The idea of taking lava down my throat kind of sounded better. Every year, praying for a miracle to happen didn't help, and the chances of this one being any better weren't many.

I entered the lab with Nora chattering about something idiotic, by my side. I stood near the door and decided to take a deep breath before commencing hell, while she helped herself to a seat.

"Rambo ready to enter the battle field, eh?" Killua whispered in my ear.

I turned to him, a bit startled. "And just when I thought things couldn't get worse," I muttered.

His hair was messier than even, and he wore a black collared shirt over a white one, with neat blue jeans, and as much as I would have hated to say it, it would have been unfair to say he didn't look good, because beside the looks, this guy also had a presence about him, something all his own, he was, something else completely.

He rolled his eyes. "Now that's no way to talk to your partner," he said in a fakely hurt voice.

"What?" I narrowed my eyes at him. "No way, I don't think you got the idea, but I intended for that first time to be the last."

He smirked, an evil smirk. "I could always make you."

I clenched my teeth. "I don't think you've noticed, but the professor is a male, man; now unless you happen to be gay, I think I feel pretty safe that you can't."

He looked behind me, I assumed at the teacher. "So, you're sure you don't wanna?" his voice still had the same level of confidence.

"Never been more sure in my life," I smiled as widely as I could.

"Reconsider?"

I glared at him. "Do me favour and take part in some dumb contest, win it, and get a free cruise to hell or something."

He smirked and nodded, a triumphant smirk, like he had already won.

I turned around only to understand why his smirk was fixed at his place, I had been betrayed. All the students were in pairs of two at their desks, even Nora, there was only one table with two empty seats. He kept me busy talking while everybody else partnered up. Of all the...

I faced him again. His lips were pursed, he was trying to hold back a smirk. "Hilarious, you want a round of applause for that?"

He shrugged. "Couldn't hurt."

I walked towards the seat only to see he didn't move an inch. "What? You want me to send you a royal carriage or something?"

He leaned against the door and crossed his arms around his chest. "No, but since you rejected my offer earlier, I think you at least owe me one of your own."

My mouth fell open. "You want me to ask you to be my partner," I said astonished.

"Yeah, ask, beg, implore, propose, whatever," he winked.

I narrowed my eyes. "Yeah, right."

He shrugged. "You have a minute before class starts so, I suggest you hurry up," he said glancing at his wrist watch.

"Is there a problem?" the professor asked just before I was reflecting a good comeback.

"No," I murmured.

Killua's expression was smooth and anticipating.

I clentched my teeth. "Will you... be my partner?" I sighed.

He smirked. "Let's try that again, with a please this time," pronouncing the L harder, which made it so fucking annoying.

I gasped. "You..." I said taking a deep breath. "Will you.. please.. be my partner?"

He smiled, a genuine smile, one I'd never expect out of him. "If you insist," and saying that he walked to one of the empty seats.

I sat down beside him, still a bit over-whelmed by his smile. I felt like I wanted to say please to him all over again just to see that smile once more. Maybe it was something about how it reached his eyes and brightened the sapphire blue by a shade or two. What? I was losing it.

He took out the apparatus and all of the time I tried to concentrate on working, but all I could care about was this boy sitting next to me. He didn't talk, he seemed to be focused on what he was doing, and what he was supposed to do, and that was the very thing I failed at doing right now.

"Done day-dreaming?" he said breaking my train of thought.

"Uh, what?"

"Must be about me, that would explain the drool," he said placing one of the beakers on the table.

My fingers immediately flew to my mouth. The jerk was bluffing, I wasn't drooling. "Shut up," I said extending my hand out for one of the beakers, without realizing he was reaching out for it too, accidentally our hands touched and I pulled mine back immediately.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Impressive, but let's do soap-opera some other time," he said taunting. "Let's go back to the slobberer and the intellect for now."

"I would help, if you would stop playing the maverick scientist for a moment, and let me."

"Fine, military Rambo chemist, it's all yours," he said leaning against the chair.

I rolled my eyes at him and glanced at the board, I had no idea what experiment we were supposed to do, I quickly read the instructions and tried to concentrate while the jerk just kept watching. Ten minutes, or maybe it was five, the while we both kept quite.

"Maverick," he whispered recalling the word I had used earlier.

"What?" I said multi tasking.

"Maverick, I think I'm more of a bad boy."

I snorted. "Oh, excuse you, bad one but, I think you gotta have some qualities for that tag."

"State any I don't have," he said challenging.

"Well you are a jerk, and a total asshole, not to mention a complete annoying idiot," I said smiling. "Yeah, you know what, you are a bad boy, you're a fucking jackass actually."

He rolled his eyes. "I'd mention a quality of my own, but you wouldn't believe it."

"Try me."

"I distract you."

"What? That's not a quality, and I am not distracted by you."

"It sounds very funny, you saying that, while that's exactly what you're doing," he smirked.

I caught sight of my hands as I accidentally poured the solution down on the table. "Oh.. fucking.." I grabbed the tissue paper roll from the table and started cleaning. "I'm not distracted by you," I said again. "It's not you in particular or anything, it could be with anybody, I mean that happens all the time."

"Oh, so you have a table staining record or something?" he joked.

I sighed. "You know what," I said surrendering. "Go on, do your thing."

He smirked, again as I backed into my seat.

"Tell you what, I do the solutions, you deal with the cutting, okay?" he said like he was trying to initiate a truce with an enemy.

I shurgged and took the knife. Today sucked, I was constantly making a fool of myself. "You must be swooning with the idea that you were right." I muttered.

A corner of his mouth lifted up. "If I swooned every time I was right, I would be in a coma three hundred and sixty four days."

I rolled my eyes. "I wish you were in coma now," in the middle of that, I again managed to prove myself an idiot as I sliced my finger with the blade, I gasped. A fine line of blood was oozing out of my finger. "Oh no.." I said barely louder than a whisper as I felt the frame of my vision get blurry. Not blood. I couldn't hear anything, maybe just confused whispers, but somewhere in the middle of that, I think I fell.

Haemophobic. The least bit sight of blood freaked me out. I couldn't feel life in my legs anymore. It was like every time I saw blood, my brain shut down on its own. Call it what you will, reality, embarassment, it was both to me.

I could tell exactly where I was, even if my eyes were shut, it was the smell, it was the infirmary and I could hear his voice. He was talking to the nurse. Killua's being here was the very reason I wasn't opening my eyes. I heard the door open and then shut and there was a silence. Maybe he left.

"I know you're conscious," he said. Maybe not.

"What if I'm not," I mumbled.

"I guess that'd make sense, since you don't seem to know there's a stain on your shirt."

I immediately opened my eyes and sat up. "Oh my God, no," I gasped, but relaxed when I discovered that the idiot was bluffing again. "Asshole."

"You're such a girl," he said rolling his eyes.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"So, afraid of blood are we?"

I covered my face with my hands. "Shut up."

"Rambo's weak point," he snorted.

"Shut up!" I muttered.

"I like it," he concluded.

"What?" I said peeking through my fingers.

"Rambo-ish, short-tempered, fierce, but in the end turns out to be afraid of blood, I like it, you're exactly my type," he said smirking.

My eyes felt like they would pop out from their sockets. If I could blush I'd be a million shades of red right now. Why was this idiot messing with my head. "You, what?"

But instead of answering my question, he just walked to the door, threw me his casual wave, with an additional wink and disappeared, leaving me half confused, half startled. Who the hell was this guy.

I feel my soul's essence as I recollect its lost pieces

blood rushes through my veins as the agony ceases.