In The Dead of the Night

05 | clearest vision

The scents of chicken and pepper filled my nose as I took a sip of the hot broth, swallowing it down quickly before it would burn my tongue. Petals of warmth bloomed through every inch of my body, now just the right amount of heat combined with the layers of clothing and several blankets. When I got here on the train, all scared and in the dark, I never thought it would be the cold that bothered me most.

Earlier this afternoon when Shawn and I had gotten back from the city, I had almost immediately fallen asleep, with my body on top of the covers and my feet hanging off the side of the bed. This evening, I woke up to see Shawn sitting still on the bed beside me. The weight of his golden stare was still heavy on my skin.

I shivered at the thought. I took another gulp of the soup to cover the strange feeling that overtook my senses anytime the thought of that golden gaze entered my mind.

Shawn had said he had just gotten there to wake me up to eat something, but he wanted to wait a couple minutes to see if I would wake up myself. I repeated that sentence over and over until I just slightly thought it might be true.

Tipping the rest of the bowl into my mouth, I stood and walked to the main room to find him. It wasn't quite midnight, but nothing else I could think of seemed to be able to stimulate my mind for the time being. And despite all the reasons I shouldn't have gone to find Shawn, the constant stillness, cold and black, had been eating away at me all evening. He was sitting and reading his book for what must've been the thousandth time with how long he seemed to have been reading, but he still had his pencil in hand, underlining words all across the page.

"Was the food good?" Shawn asked, not looking up from the page. Not a muscle of his body moved, and he perfectly ignored what had happened just a few hours earlier. If anything, he should've been much more embarrassed than I was, but no emotion would affect you if you simply didn't let it in.

"It was. Thank you for that."

He didn't respond.

For a moment I stared down at my hands, before saying, "Would you mind if we started tonight earlier? It's technically nighttime, it's past twilight."

"Why would you like to start earlier?" he said, raising his eyebrow, and set his book down.

"I can't think of anything else to do," I admitted. The edge of his mouth lifted a little.

"How about you go wash off in the lake first? I went in a few minutes ago, and I promise it's still very warm."

Subconsciously, I wrapped my sweatshirt closer around me, as if simply the mention of something warm made me realize all over again just how cold this building was. I imagined how nice it would feel to go from the brittle cold of the November air to the encompassing warmth of the lake. "Thank you," I said, my teeth now threatening to chatter. "I'll be right in."

I ran to the beds to grab an extra blanket to dry myself off before running out the door and quickly to the dock. I stripped myself of each and every layer of clothing, trying to will my body to move faster so I could jump in the water already.

Finally, I was bare of the clothes, tossing the last small piece of fabric to the ground, and for a moment, I let the wind hit my exposed skin just so the dive would feel that much better. Only a few seconds passed before my will gave out and I dived into the water.

It must've been one of the best feelings I'd ever had. So warm, but so crisp and so fresh. Water running down my face and flowing like beautiful silk around my skin. Closing my eyes, I let out a small sigh of contentment as my lips spread apart into a smile and my mind slowly warmed up, and calmed down.

Moonlight illuminated every crest and trough of the gently moving lake, turning rich, deep blues into a canvas of highlights and shadows of pearly white and midnight black. How did I look, glistening with water, right now? The water moved too much to serve as a good mirror, but the reflection it offered was glowing and calm.