The Love Between Enemies

Chapter 5 - Marshmallow

My body felt like fire as I ran, screams surrounded me as tears burnt my eyes clouding my vision. All around me was chaos as blood soaked the floor, the moon above was bright but clouded by the shadows that danced around me as a ran. My mother's screams rung in my ears, the disheveled face of my father burned in my eyes, the sounds of large stomping feet sounded behind me encouraging me to run faster. My world became dark as a pair of large, clawed hands imprisoned me in a makeshift cage of fingers and skin, it became increasingly harder to breath as I felt myself be raised up. Light flooded in as the beast opened his palm, a sickening smile adorned his face with sharp teeth glinting in the soft light of the moon. Glowing green eyes stared at me with hunger, my face paled as I recognized it to be Atlas. Without warning he pinched my hair and used it as a means to lift me and dangle me over his now open mouth. I tried to find something to grab to prevent me from falling but found that I could not move, just stare at the awaiting abyss below me. Slowly my hair was released, and I began plummeting towards my doom, it was only then I could finally scream.

I woke up with a start, sweat soaked my body as I frantically looked around. I was in a room, one of which I did not recognize, wherever I was it was warm. I appeared to be laying on some sort of cloth on what looked to be a desk due to the giant computer screen to my left and the mouse that lay on the other side of the giant keyboard. The room was quite dark, and the only light came from the computer screen and what little light that filtered through the window blinds. Carefully scanning the room some more, I realized that I was in what appeared to be some sort of small office or study room. It was hard to tell the color of the walls and the only furniture in the room was the desk I lay upon and the chair. There wasn't a giant in sight, and everything was quiet, this could be a chance to escape. It may have just been a nightmare, but I definitely was not going to stick around to give him a chance to make that a reality. Quietly I crept to the edge of the desk to search for a way to get down, almost instantly regretting that choice as I stared at what would be a painful death if I were to slip and fall. The legs of the desk had no indents or holes to use to climb down with, the desk itself was clean and was void of any sort of string. Backing away from the edge I went back to the cloth to rethink a plan of escape, if only you were still with your family maybe they would know what to do. Tears pricked her eyes at the memory of her mother and father, her father was a warm-hearted man who would help anyone in need while her mother was a bold spirited woman who had a sharp tongue and a gaze that could kill. Adira missed her parents dearly, part of her wondered what became of her parents.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of soft footsteps against hard tiled floor, panic flooded her mind as she hastily searched for a place to hide. Adira's eyes landed on a black pencil holder that held a pencil and pen at the moment, she sprinted across the keyboard towards the pencil holder, diving in just as the door handle slowly turned and the door was pushed open. I held my breath as the sound of footsteps approached the desk, time seemed to freeze as the footsteps stopped. An annoyed sounding sigh broke through the air followed by the sounds of shuffling, the noise got closer and closer only to abruptly stop and the room fell into silence once more. My heart was pounding in my ears, the fear was over whelming, I was trying my best to focus on my breathing so I wouldn't accidently start sobbing and give away my hiding place. I was so concentrated on it that I didn't even notice the change in lighting until a deep and cocky voice sounded around me.

"Found Youuuuu", it was Atlas, of all the giants to find me it just had to be him. I looked up slowly only to be met with his large digits squeezing themselves into my hiding spot and pushing me into the wall. I let out a scream of terror, almost instantly the fingers retreated almost taking me with them. By this point the fear was just too much and I just broke down crying and curled into a little ball while doing so, I wanted to be back with my parents, be back with our little group of survivors, back to the forest we were so happy in. "H-hey, I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry."

Why was he apologizing, giants are heartless monsters that don't care about humans, so why is he sorry? It's probably just a trick to get me out, yet it sounded so sincere. My thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of movement followed by something falling into my hiding spot. I let out a startled yelp and curled even tighter into my little protection ball, but nothing happened, I peaked out only to see a weird white object. I had never seen something like it, I slowly uncurled and carefully crawled over to it, outstretching my arm I carefully touched the foreign object, it was soft! I brought my face to it to smell it, it smelt sweet, my curiosity was peaked as I examined it more.

"It's called a marshmallow, it's food, thought you might want to eat something when you woke up, so I grabbed some."

I wanted to try this, "Marshmallow", but what if this is just a trick to poison me, all the negative outcomes spun about my brain. The thoughts only ceased when my stomach let out a loud hungry growl, my face reddened when I heard the giant let out a chuckle.

"You might want to eat before your stomach decides to eat you instead."

He was right, I needed to eat, cautiously I bit down on the marshmallow and instantly fell in love. It was sweet and soft and just the most amazing thing I had ever tasted! I finished the mallow quickly and instantly wanted more, I stuck my head out over the rim of the holder searching for more and instantly caught sight of a bag full of them. Without thinking I dove out of the holder and made a beeline for the bag filled with marshmallows, in that moment I forgot about the giant, I forgot about the fear, the only thing on my mind was getting to the bag. I practically threw myself in the bag and buried myself in all the marshmallows, in was comfortable and smelt amazing. Loud laughter soon broke out, you had seriously just let food cloud your judgment and walked right out of the only thing protecting you. Darn it, the marshmallows had tricked you. Adira was too busy blaming marshmallows for tricking her out of her spot that you didn't notice when the laughter had died down until you were being dragged out of your small heaven alongside your precious mallows.

"Man, I haven't laughed like that in ages, thanks pipsqueak", did this man seriously just call her pipsqueak, forget fear, NO ONE calls her pipsqueak. Climbing through the mallows she made her way to one of the giant fingers and bit down as hard as she could. Apparently, she had a pretty powerful bite because the giant was now trying to pry her off after dropping all the marshmallows. "I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, PLEASE RELEASE MY FINGER!", satisfied by his apology she promptly released his finger and fell into the awaiting marshmallows below. For once SHE was the cocky one in this situation, but that cocky attitude was soon replaced by fear, she just bit a giant. She needed to go back to the holder before he decides to punish her, struggling to get out of the pile of deliciousness she sprinted towards her safe spot only to be scooped up. "You know, for someone who was so scared a couple minutes ago you can definitely be very aggressive", Atlas words were unnoticed though by Adira as she was too busy try not hyperventilate. She felt something touch her head and began to, pet it? Slowly she looked up to see Atlas' grinning face only it wasn't his usual cocky smile, it was one of empathy. His finger continued to stroke her head as he softly spoke to her in a calm manner, "Hey, it's ok I'm not going to hurt you, I'm sorry for scaring you. I tend to take things too far when I am joking around." Adira stayed silent, she was still intimidated by him, but she had to admit that him petting her felt surprisingly nice. These giants were so strange compared to the ones she had dealt with at that horrible place, she knew she shouldn't trust giants yet part of her was telling her that maybe these giants weren't like the rest.

"Hey, I need to work on some schoolwork, so I hope you don't mind staying in here with me, Merrick had to meet up with someone so I'm in charge of looking after you for the day," he said to Adira with his usual cocky smile adorning his face. Adira didn't say anything but simply responded with a nod. He slowly lowered her down to the cloth, placed her carefully atop the make-shift bed and went to remove his hand when he felt the slightest pull on his pinkie.

"C-Could you k-keep your hand h-here?", the small girl said in a whisper. Her face was looking towards the wall and a light blush shown on her face. Happy that Adira seemed to finally start to trust him he replied while trying not to squeal like a middle school girl.

"S-SURE!", carefully Atlas placed his left hand over the small girl. She used his thumb as a pillow and pressed her back against the palm of his hand. It took everything in him not to let out a high pitched, "awwwww". At that moment Atlas swore to himself that he would protect her no matter what.