Darkness carved in bone

Chapter 10

Helen

Helen was beginning to feel exhausted after the many days on the road, well nights actually. Ten stopped for sleep during the day and travelled during the night. Helen had lost count on how many days she had slept under snow-covered pines now, the routine of their nights blending into one unrecognizable mass where she could not distinguish one night from the other. Had it been five nights since the wolves?

The sparse sunlight that gleamed through the walls of their shelter when they slept thankfully gave her some energy for the night, but it felt like the night took more than the sun could give her. It did not help that the forest seemed to go on forever, unending. Whenever they passed another tree all Helen could think about was that it meant she was yet another step closer to eternal darkness and another step further away from her home and family.

Ten's two-sidedness was another source for exhaustion. He could be darkness incarnate in one moment, and gentle and caring in the next. Like the other day, or night, when she had been so sad and desperate, and begged him to take her home. All the while, he hadn't even replied, just exhumed darkness and ignored her. Then in the next moment he had yielded and let her name the horse Shiny and smiled a smile as if he were happy because she was happy. Then just as suddenly, he had gone back to ignoring her.

That two-sidedness made her furious at him. She found she enjoyed the nice side of him, and loathed that cold, hard, and dark side of him.

"Who are you now? The nice and kind Ten, or the one who don't even reply to my questions?" She didn't manage to conceal her grumpiness.

Ten furrowed his brows at her, "You think I am nice?" There was a mix of surprise and anger in his voice. They were walking side by side at the path, with Shiny following them behind.

"Well you are sometimes," she said with a hint of kindness in her voice.

He let out a sigh, "You shouldn't think of me as nice." His voice was flat as he spoke, and his expression became strangely disappointed.

She wanted to playfully repeat his words back at him in a mocking tone but managed to stop herself. However, the anger she felt over his two-sidedness could not be contained, "Then don't be nice to me then," she said instead, in an angry voice.

He didn't give her a reply, his face going hard as he looked out into the horizon before them. The moon was beginning to shrink into a thin little strip of pale light, that made Helen barely able to see anything.

But then a thought hit her; why was he two-sided? What made him change between two so different states of mind? Why did he feel authentic when he was kind, and why did it feel like someone else was controlling him when he was dark and cold to her? An idea formed in her mind, as she realized that she might have managed to put another piece into the complicated picture that Ten was, excitement filling her.

"I have a theory," Helen began in an amused tone.

"Why am I not surprised," Ten replied with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Helen ignored him and continued. "You are not working alone, are you? That's why you can't kill me now. You are bringing me to someone who is going to kill me. Someone that controls you."

"Nobody's controlling me," he snapped back at her, his expression angry.

She raised her hands up defensively, "I am sorry, didn't mean to step on your toes," the malice was obvious in her voice. She had hit a nerve. The excitement from before grew inside her, as she knew she had been right.

He clenched his jaw and stared broodingly away from her.

"Well, I am not saying anyone's controlling you," she paused before she added in a hurry, her tone certain and assured as she spoke; "it's just that your actions suggest that its true." She knew he would be annoyed by the way she put it, suggesting she could read him like a book, and that was exactly why she had done it.