QAIS

Chapter 5: Seeping Red, Bleeding Blue

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The dark car pulled to a stop at the stone driveway. The driver had sweated a bucket, still worried that Qais would deal with him any moment now for taking such a long pee break. The lord had been oddly silent the entire ride.

But Qais couldn’t care less about him or his damn pee break. Pasha was the one that opened the door for him, dressed in his signature black suit, his grey eyes as impassive as ever as he bowed his head for his master.

Qais glanced at the mansion. Any thoughts of hazel disappearing from his mind for the first time since the car ride.

It looked far less haunting now that it was lit up with lights and inhabited by all the servants. But the eeriness to it still lingered on.

It had been 10 years since he had last been here. A thousand different emotions passed through his eyes all at once. As if mind flashing with memories. As if he had gone back in time. As if the dozen servants there were thin air. It was just him and that haunting house. Only when he looked at the ruined garden did he realize ten years had passed.

He sighed. He really was back.

But not for good.

Pasha who stood to a side too had his emotionless grey orbs crack for a mere moment seeing Qais look at the main door longingly. The two had known each other almost their whole lives. Pasha was the one that had stuck by Qais’s side through thick and thin. Even though they were only a few years apart, with Pasha at 29 and Qais at 24.

“Welcome home, sir.” He said.

Qais glanced at him and at his awkward attempt at a smile.

“Stop smiling, you’re terrible at it.”

Pasha’s smile instantly cleared.

Being away for the renovation of the villa he had forgotten how annoying Qais was. The one week without him now felt like a stay at heaven.

Pasha swallowed the profanities in his tongue and said instead, “I hope you had a safe ride, sir."

He blinked as the younger threw his coat at his face and strode in without a word.

He heaved a sigh and folded the coat neatly on his forearm. God give him patience to deal with this boy.

As inseparable as the two were, they often provoked each other. Of course Qais did it more.

The young lord sat alone at the large ten-seater dining table, filled to the brim with every kind of dish. The earlier frown was no where to be seen as he feasted. It seemed that his mood was dependent on his hunger.

Unlike outside he didn’t even look around the old mansion or reminisce any memories. As if it didn’t even matter. As if he was avoiding it.

“The town has developed quite a bit in all these years. I hope you enjoyed the sceneries in the way sir.” Pasha said in an effort to lighten the dreary mood of the villa.

A pair of hazels flashed in Qais’s mind. The fork stopping mid-air as he suddenly got lost in thought.
He shook the thoughts off his head. He had a plan. A plan that had no room for a hazel-eyed. Especially a hazel-eyed like her.

And like a wave washing over a sandcastle, the hazel eyes faded from his mind as if they never existed. It was just a small encounter, a girl that stayed on his mind a for little longer than needed to. At the end of the day, they were just mere strangers.

Strangers that should never meet again.

“Has there been any news?” He asked instead.

Pasha noticed the shift in his eyes. The sudden flash of softness being replaced by the usual aloofness. But he didn’t say anything. It wasn’t his place to question Qais.