The prettiest ones and darkness

Chapter 59|The Prettiest ones and darkness

"You had woken up initially before that day you woke up next to Tristan," Saif offered and Tristan almost patted him on the back for offering the answer she needed and still not delving into details. "Tristan believed you must have woken up because of a nightmare and fallen unconscious because of it."

Her brow was furrowed in confusion, obviously trying to remember when she had woken up before the time she woke up next to Tristan.

"Don't stress it," Saif warned, scared she just might overthink and fall into another relapse.

"I'm fine," Kimberly muttered, smiling at him feeling the need to reassure him.

They both stayed in the room. Tristan staring at the cold night through the window blinds, Saif sat down next to her in silence and was playing with a curl of her blonde hair while she battled with a turmoil of whether she trusted them enough to tell them about her dreams. Her night terrors had seemed like a conjured mirage of some horror movie that she must have watched because they have never made any sense. Yet so repeatedly had the same dream manifested. Sometimes starting differently but always ending with the damn hand choking her.

"I do have these nightmares when I was a child, repeatedly and it had made my childhood a blur of restless nights and the scare of going to bed," she brought her knees to her cheeks, deciding to spill the beans already since it was seeming like a lot was going on with her that just might not be normal, "Then I had clocked 12 and the nightmare had vanished. I was happy and close to normal. I could breathe, Nonna was happy too. She had suffered more than I had in my turbulent nights."

Tristan stared intently at her while her gaze was fixated on Saif making him realize that she was only sharing this part of her because of him anyway. She felt safe with him, they both had some kind of connection he was a stranger to. She was only here for a few weeks and she was already picking favorites. He withdrew his gaze from them, they didn't matter, nobody did.

"What happened? Why had it suddenly resurfaced?"

Tristan was half expecting her to say they had returned when she had clocked 18, so he could smirk and throw an insensitive illusion in the air of her terrors being made up by the silly werewolf movies popular amongst the teenagers on Earth so her next statement had shocked him.

"The nightmares had started when I'd gotten here. Some days, unlike my childhood I didn't have them, and some days, it comes in full force, raging, upsetting, and," she gulped then paused.

Tristan raised his brow, "And?"

"The river we had gone to?" She turned to stare at Saif who nodded in understanding. "That's the same river in my nightmare."

Tristan snorted, he had been too quick in concluding that the Human's nightmare was not based on an overactive imagination. She had not been to the realm until a few weeks ago so how could she blame a nightmare she have had since she was a child on a river over here.

She recoiled hurt, knowing that he didn't believe her. What was she even saying? She didn't believe herself too.

Saif glared at Tristan and gave her a look that made her insides recoil. She preferred Tristan's snarkiness to Saif's pity. She wasn't a charity case or a wet puppy.

"We would look into this dream of yours maybe revisit the sea to try and dig something up," Saif whispered and she could hear his doubt even as he said dig something up. He was beyond sure there was nothing there. He had the same opinion with Tristan but was not being in her face about it.

She gave him a little smile, not knowing why she had expected them for a split second to believe her, no him. She had never really cared about Tristan, but him? She had expected him to hold her hand and tell her he understood what she was rambling about. That she was not going crazy at least.

"It is okay Saif," she turned to stare at the wall, "It is nothing. I'll be fine."

She heard Tristan chuckle and she felt her eyes itch with tears that wanted to roll out, a pitiful sob that would make her even more pathetic. She seemed to be the human with a delusional problem, Tristan had insinuated it more than once and now she was adding a bizarre imagination into it. It won't be long before she would be walking in the hallway and hearing the maids snicker and point at her not caring to be discreet while in hushed yet loud whispers, they would call her the crazy human.

"They did say it, the prettiest ones have a wardrobe filled with dark ugly Garbage."

"Tristan," Saif's voice was raised at the same time she stood up and despite her tired legs which wanted to give way for her to fall, she ambled her way towards the toilet, mumbling something incoherent she didn't even understand but ended with the toilet and then collapsing against the door, like a proud pathetic human she was. She ran a bath so they couldn't hear her cry out.

She had never felt so frustrated that she was wired to cry when angry the way she did at the moment as she wondered why she couldn't be one of the tough ones who hurl out hurting words and fought.

But instead, she collapsed into a fitful of sobs she was too weak to hold onto. He was right. He was always right. There was surely something dark about her and not knowing what it was, was killing her.

***

Saif arched his brow at Tristan even as he exhaled knowing that his statement had been a low blow even for him.

He heard the bath running and sighed, knowing Kimberly was crying. She was too proud to break apart in front of them, him.

What had he wanted to prove by hurling such painful words at her? That he didn't care she was a trembling mess and was shaking, that he didn't want to gather her in his arms and protect her even from herself but instead he had gone out of his way to prove he was the biggest jerk that ever made use of the space, the Realm could offer.

He shrugged not being one to apologize. The only person he had ever felt comfortable apologizing to had been Saif because he had been a part of him for the longest of time but apart from him the word had always seemed unutterable to someone else. Besides, he never truly learned the meaning of the word because Abba had never taught him what it was for a King to apologize.

A King was proud and smug, never bowing to his subject so he had never found the need to apologize ever. He always made up his errors by actions, a kinder gesture to lull whatever sin that he committed.