KILL THIS LOVE | JENLISA

Chapter 47

Jennie

"Do you remember where you grew up?"

Lisa said nothing. She continued to gaze at me silently, her fingers tracing obscure patterns on the surface of the desk.

"Don't you remember anything familiar about this place!? Or anywhere else? Anything at all?" My tone came out louder, harsher than I had intended to.

Her fingers ceased the motion all of a sudden.

I almost clutched my eyes shut in the fear of her flipping the table or reaching over to break my neck. But Lisa Manoban did the last thing I could reckon she'd do in that predicament. She smiled.

"They're not all nightmares, you know." she then looked away, her eyes flickering to one of the ceiling lights up above.

Was she even listening to me?, I wondered.

"Sometimes I see this..this white horse. She was beautiful. I'll scream for her to stop, calling her Lily. She wouldn't, she moved with the wind." With that, her smile was beaming. The light shone down on her flawless face, forming a luminous halo all around her. Lisa looked otherworldly. Her smile felt ethereal to me. One of the few things that made her look real at the same time.

There weren't a lot of things to her like that, but I was on a hunt to find them all whenever I could.

Trying to make Lisa seem real. Trying to humanize her, as much as I could. And with what she'd told me today, I couldn't help but empathize with Lisa Manoban who herself wasn't capable of empathy.

"I.." I began gingerly, feeling Lisa's complete attention on me now. "I used to get them too." A hint of anxiousness caved into my lungs at the mere thought, but I continued nevertheless, "Nightmares, I mean." I looked away, to nowhere in particular. "I would get them every day, until I was seventeen. I would wake up in the middle of the night, screaming because..." I cut myself off, my eyes brimming with moisture.

Lisa said nothing to me. Of course, why would she.

Blinking away rapidly and clearing my throat, I turned to her again.

"Your parents. What happened to your parents? They must have looked for you?" I had only just begun when Lisa glimpsed at me, her eyes burning with an intense look deep inside.

"That's two questions in a row."

She simply stated, but it was as obvious as a blank paper to me, that there was more to it. But I decided to not light the fuse to the ticking time bomb that was Lisa Manoban.

Lisa leaned in, with the intent of a fervid being.