Etched In Their Minds

Quattuordecim: Like A Cat

The elevator doors closed and it began ascending the apartment building. Isaac and Ina stood side by side, the latter hugging Isaac's arm. She no longer cried, but insisted on going back to Isaac's home.

The elevator doors slid open and they walked out, heading towards Isaac's place. After entering, Ina let go and Isaac turned on a single light. They went into Isaac's bedroom and turned on the light as well as the air conditioner.

"You can go lay on the bed first, I'm gonna go shower real quick," Isaac said.

"....Okay," Ina replied after a short silence.

Although hesitant, she listened to Isaac's words.

"But if anything happens you have to call for me, all right?" she added before Isaac left.

"Okay, okay."

Isaac went to grab clothes and his towel and proceeded to enter the bathroom.

Ina sat timidly on the one-person bed and looked around the room.

[It's been a while since I've entered his room. It's as plain as ever.]

Her head tilted to the left and she fell down on the bed. Ina sighed and closed her eyes.

She adjusted her body to be positioned on the bed stomach-down and buried her face in the sheets.

[Kinda smells like Isaac....]

The reminiscent smell of him made Ina think back to before she rewound time, when that guy told her about Isaac's death.

Then Ina realized how creepy she sounded in her head about that smell comment.

"Pftt..!"

She lifted herself with her arms and sat on the bed with an embarrassed face.

She stood up silently and walked out of the room to drink some water, because it seemed like she wasn't right in the head at that moment.

-whale-

Isaac swiped back his wet hair while getting poured on with water from the showerhead. He had started to doubt his relationship with Ina.

[I don't think dating someone like her is healthy for me.... Thinking back, the words of those Eldritch gods sounded a bit menacing.]

He thought back to when Ina told him about some scary stuff.

=brother=

"You good now?"

"Hmm..."

Isaac continued to caress her head while she wiped the tears on her face. He couldn't hold out his curiosity and just had to ask.

"So, why are you crying?"

"Because.... umm..."

She hesitated whether to say it, then she remembered chapter eight where she told Isaac she wouldn't hide anything from him.

"Because you were killed, so I rewound time to save you from that demon...." she muttered.

Isaac's eyebrows rose from her answer and he slightly moved his head backwards and stared at Ina with a skeptical face.

She gripped Isaac's jacket and stared into his orbs with wet eyes.

"It's true, that demon was going to kill you."

[Oh.... time travel.... demon... all right, I'm in some fucked up shit...]

Technically, it wasn't time travel, but time reversal.

=sister=

He stared at the marble wall in front of him and slapped his cheek. Not too hard, but hard enough to wake him up.

[Fuck Isaac, don't think that. Maybe it's just a one time thing. My love for her is undeniable...]

Doubt was growing inside of Isaac's mind. Doubts of their relationship, what if Ina was a malicious Eldritch god and was just playing with his feelings. What if she had enemies and those enemies would target and kill him. What if he went crazy from staying with someone like Ina, who was an Eldritch Priestess. Who knew H.P. Lovecraft's Eldritch monsters actually existed, or was it actually his?

So many what ifs that could potentially happen, and almost all of them had Isaac as the most affected victim.

He was just a normal guy, working to survive, then he started dating a supernatural woman with cosmic gods in her magic book.

Any sane and rational man would see something wrong with this, add the fact that Isaac had already died. Who was to say he won't be killed again? What if the one who killed him was stronger than Ina? What ifs everywhere.

Isaac had no powers, he was a slightly above average human. After dating twenty girls in his life, he learned to not be extremely attached to one, because a mold could take from one day to break, to years to break apart. Who knows, what if Ina finally broke and revealed she was evil.

All of these negative thoughts had no positive impact on Isaac, only feeding the doubts in his head.

-west-

Isaac exited the bathroom with a fresh aura. Ina sat up when she heard the door open and looked at him impatiently, as if saying to quickly get into bed. He hung up his towel and closed the bedroom light before walking towards Ina.

"You sure you want to sleep together?I have a spare mattress that I can sleep on since the bed is pretty small," Isaac said.

"No no, I'm small, so we can definitely fit on here," Ina refused.

"All right, works for me."

Isaac shrugged and smirked before falling into the bed and grabbing Ina with him.

"Aaahhh..."

He released a sigh of relief as he laid on the comfy bed with his girlfriend in his arms.

"Are you comfy?" Isaac asked while facing down to look at Ina.

"Mhmm..." Ina timidly nodded and placed her forehead on his chest to avoid eye contact.

"Same... good night, Ina."

"Good night," she replied softly.

They stayed quiet until both of them fell asleep. Isaac embraced Ina, laying on the blanket while the air conditioner blew out cold air.

Ina breathed softly into Isaac's chest while he unconsciously snuggled the top of her head with his nose.

-dinosaur-

It was a good morning in the town of XXX. The pet parrots were whistling in delight, the family of one of Isaac's friends was preparing to go on a vacation, and Isaac and Ina were sleeping in tranquility.

Isaac's eyebrows crunched up and a groan came from his mouth. He slightly moved his body and his eyes fluttered open. Blinking a few times, he looked below and saw a lump under the blanket. He was laying stomach-up, thus it couldn't be his muscular dumptruck.

Slightly lifting the covers, he saw Ina sleeping on top of him like a cat. Not even questioning how she got there, he reached out for his phone on the nightstand and looked at the time.

[It's almost eleven.... does Ina have a stream? Should I wake her up?]

Before putting down his phone, he took a picture of Ina and made it his wallpaper. Only after that did he put down the phone.

Seeing her beautiful sleeping face on his body made him answer the question himself.

[Nah, I shouldn't. Surely she would've told me last night if she had a stream to do.]

He stared at her for a bit more before his mouth curved up very slightly. He remembered the shower thoughts he had last night.

[I love this woman, that is undeniable. I'm not gonna let silly doubts ruin this relationship.]

Heart and mind. Both compliment each other, but both can also have conflict. Such a phenomenon will lead to confusion and uncertainty.