Trouble In The Red District (3)

After making sure there were both comfortable, he began caressing her face. He did not know what she had been through, but from the way she reacted, he knew it wasn't anything good. 'How bad was her childhood to make her this way?' He  wondered. The more he got to know her, he felt thankful for meeting her and also grateful that even though his step-mother was twisted, she only resorted to petty tricks, if not, what would have been his story? Would he also live like her? He knew he had to force her out of her shell even if she didn't want to come out. If he has to be shameless, then so be it.

He kept talking to her but she wasn't listening or rather she could not hear anything. She kept trembling and he couldn't even get help because of the situation outside. His phone was also in the living room so he couldn't find out what to do in this kind of situation. To him who was watching her, it was like she was re-living a painful memory. Her eyes were open but she wasn't responding to anything. It was like her body was just an empty shell and her soul her left. He learnt that one of the characters of living things is response to stimuli, so he spoke to her, he touched her, he moved a finger across her eyes, she did not respond to anything. He tried pinching her, in hopes that the pain would waken her but that proved futile. She looked dead. If not for the fact that she was still breathing, he would have thought otherwise.

He chose however, to keep talking to her to elicit a positive response. "Kim, I'm sorry I tried going outside, I won't do it again, so wake up. You're not alone anymore, I'm with you so you have to wake up, you just can't choose to ignore everything, what should I do then?" He began speaking, as tears threatened to fall, he blinked his eyes severally to rein his feelings. "If you wake up, I promise to buy you every snack there is, I'll also take you out, we'll go on dates, we'll do everything you like."

What more should he say? How long should he wait here? Shouldn't he try to take her outside? Shouldn't he seek help even if he did not know what the situation outside was like? With the way she held him, could he even pull her away without scaring her? She clung to him like he was her life support. And although, he wanted her to be clingy, he didn't like that she was this way. He began blaming himself. Ordinarily, would he have gone outside? He wouldn't, it's just that his training had made him a little confident. He was sure he could protect her from harm, but that was external harm, how could he protect her from internal harm, there was no way he could do that. Especially since he wasn't even aware in the first place.

Her brilliant smile hid her pain he never took notice of it. He had always been attracted to her beautiful eyes. He felt they were clear and they had not been corrupted by the world, it renewed his hope in life. What he did not know was that her child-like eyes and beautiful smile was just a front. How much did she go through to go into shock because of his attempt to go outside? His mind was spinning, he couldn't understand anything. He tried pulling away again but to no avail so he gave up on that. He gave her a brief kiss on her cheek before embracing her. This was the only thing he could do for her. Rubbing her back, he whispered again, "It's going to be okay." He did not know how long he whispered comforting words to her but when he pulled away, he noticed her eyes were close and her breathing was even, he was glad she was asleep as relief coursed through his veins.

Though her hold on him had loosened significantly, he did not want to leave her alone in case she wakes up and can't find him. So he remained on the bed, examining her face. He caressed her face to his mind's content, he traced the contours of every part of her face as if to commit every detail to memory. From her forehead, to her brows, to her eyes, her nose, her cheeks, her chin and finally his eyes settled for her lips. Everything in him was pushing him to Kiss her again, it might be his only chance. He was reminded of her reaction then, he admired her lips, lost in thoughts. They were pink and looked enticing. He closed his eyes for a bit, shaking the thought out of his mind before he did anything crazy. He pulled her closer so he would not be able to to see her lips again, least fall into temptation.