Shattered Mirror [Rewriting]

Chapter 10 - Pipe Dreams

Nomathemba sat comfortably in the armchair, her gaze never leaving her best friend who was asleep on the couch opposite her. The lounge was empty but for the two of them and she found she preferred it that way for the moment. It gave her the illusion of normalcy but that's what it remained: an illusion. So Nom concentrated her thoughts on her best friend instead. Corliss had been completely worn out after her emotional spit with Josh and it hadn't been long after she lay down that her breathing had evened out, a restless sleep claiming her. It was sad to see her face scrunched up when she should have been at peace and it was practically heart-breaking the way her body twitched and jerked at random intervals as though she were trying to fight off some invisible monster. 'She's faced enough monsters,' Nom thought bitterly and it was all she could do not to get up and wake Liss from her obvious nightmare, 'she doesn't still need nightmares too.' Liss, however, was not the only one fighting with evil in her sleep. Nom too had been battling with faceless demons that haunted her in both her waking hours and when she dared close her eyes at night. No, they probably weren't the same types of nightmares and maybe they weren't even of the same ferocity Liss had to face regularly but they were enough to force Nom from her sleep with a cold sweat lathering her skin. The horrors of her making love to Seth whilst a thick, choking darkness slowly tore her best friend to pieces or even of Seth convincing her to kill Liss were driving her made. And despite her arguing repeatedly with herself that she would never commit such a crime against the first person to make her feel welcome in this odd country, Nom was forced to remember how easily the vampire had compelled her feeble human mind. 'If he'd ordered it I would probably have done it,' Nom's jaw clenched at the thought and she finally tore her eyes from Liss' sleeping form, unable to face her when the absolute disgust and regret of her weakness reared its head. She'd wondered several times over how the heroes and heroines from books and movies dealt so easily with their misgivings and moved on, fighting for the right cause despite the mistakes they made. 'I'm not as strong as them,' Nom thought resolutely, 'then again, Liss' characters are physically stronger than me and they're not even coping.' Her mind turned to Josh but before she could wonder for the umpteenth time where he was, a wave of guilt that was not her own came over her. Her first choice would have been that it was Josh feeling bad for running off instead of making peace with Liss but the room was still empty except for her and Liss and Nom could feel the emotion wasn't coming from her best friend. The only other option was...

"Aaron?" Nom trained her gaze on the various shadows of the room, willing the assassin to step forward but expecting him to realize his slip up and close himself off as he had the other times she'd caught the barest of emotions from him.

"Yes?" his reply came as a shock and she quickly tried to pin-point where he was so it wouldn't feel like she was talking to herself if she was going to be giving him the same pep talk they'd had with Bavita earlier.

After a moment of looking she gave up and instead asked him, "Okay, dude, seriously where are you? I can't talk to you if I can't see you." Focusing on fixing his problems would be a very welcome distraction from her morbid thoughts and she prayed he'd only let her help him. 'Not that he comes across as someone who openly accepts help,' she grumbled, finally locating him when he stepped forward from a shadow to her left. The area Aaron had been hidden in was nearly half his size and Nom took a second to marvel at how he must've contorted himself to remain invisible. Before she could stop herself, Nom blurted, "Are you a flippen contortionist? Or what kind of voodoo do you do?"

"I beg your pardon?" Aaron blinked, her questions obviously having taken him by surprise and Nom instantly wanted to faceplant the nearest surface out of pure embarrassment.

'So this is what Liss felt like when she went all stupid around him...' It was enough to make her want to sew her own mouth shut. Instead, she attempted in what she assumed was the most feeble way to rectify the situation.