My Soulmates are IDOLS 1 | Limelight🎇| 18+ [Reverse Harem]

126: Proof

Oliver

He could hear the clock, ticking softly in the background.

Whenever Oliver heard the ominous ticks of the clock, it meant that he was afraid of what was yet to come. For the clock was not just a symbol of time, it was also a record of the horrible, horrible things that could potentially happen in the very next second.

Oliver had lived most of his childhood in an orphanage and the clock had been his friend, his companion and his only constant.

The orphanage was mentally damaging in its ever-changing nature. His 'siblings'—the orphans—and his 'parents'—the caretakers —never lasted long. They came and went like the water in the river, like the wind in his hair, or like sand, they flowed through his fingers over time.

They never stayed for him. And in those times of disconnection, his only understanding of the concept of a family was in the objects that decorated his room and made him feel at home.

Oliver was the rock, the pebbles in a river. And like those pebbles, he eroded with time from the force of the stream. Oliver was never adopted despite the countless inspections, the hundreds of meetings and the smile that he sewed onto his face while he cried tears of blood. Over time, hope left him. It escaped him like the sand that poured through the crevices of his fingers.

He was unwanted.

Some reckoned that it was probably because he was too old, maybe because he wasn't talented enough, or perhaps because he was never the prettiest or the smartest. But the truth was, Oliver remembered a time before the orphanage. And that was what stopped him from opening up to the families that tried to adopt him.

That time was what made him just a little too detached, just a little too awkward, just a little less loving. It was a memory that had confused him as a child, horrified him as a youth and later came to light when he became an adult and understood the concept.

The concept of a soul violation.

Amber was shaking, trembling before him. Her fear was radiating from her body in waves and waves. Like the crash of the ocean on the rocks, it pushed and pulled at him and his feet stumbled to follow.

It was so strong that he could almost taste it in the air, smell its sour tang. It was a poison that made his chest feel like a broken hourglass without any sand. It made him feel empty, broken and more importantly afraid.

Her fear held him. It held him and he was frozen in place, a chess piece on the board of black and white. It choked him. Its fingers wrapped around his throat, throttling him as if it were saying, 'you should do something before it's too late!'

He knew he needed to. He wanted to. From the beginning, all he had ever wanted was to hold her in his arms and shield her from everything. He wanted to protect her. He wanted to stand tall above her, like an oak tree that took the force of the storm for all the plants beneath it.

But he knew that like the oak tree that stood too tall and too strong, such actions may end up destroying her instead. He could kill her if she didn't have her sunshine, and her sunshine at this moment were the five stupid best friends that he had standing before him.

So while his chest ached and screamed at him to make his move to bring her to safety. He didn't listen to his heart for her expression was what stopped him. Despite her fear, despite her suffering and sorrow, she was strong in ways he couldn't describe.

The resolution, the determination could be seen in the sharpness of her beautiful buttercream coloured eyes. She was eager to speak her mind and he could see that she did not want any help, and his actions would simply destroy whatever resolve she had left.