A Royal Pain in the Ball ✓

Chapter 49 - Aflame

The air was dark.

And it was water-stenched, not some kind of sewer-smell, but it was damp. And it was gloomy.

And it was dark.

She couldn't see a thing. It was dark. Completely dark.

Until a small flicker of light turned her around, a world upside down, and suddenly she was in the middle of nowhere. Nothingness until it turned into a field. Of flowers, the greens and the bluest of skies she'd seen, it was surreal.

She hoped it was a dream, or maybe she hoped it wasn't.

Then it turned into darkness in a blink of an eye, then it turned into a blinding light. From darkness, into a light of snow-  padded roads, and the same streets where she was once stood near a pole, and waited hours and hours for Cain to come back. And the one thing that she recognized.

It was still covered in snow. Of course, it was still winter. The cobbled street of where she stood and was left to wait for a long time. Where she was freezing cold after some time and was left confused on what the hell the man was doing. She felt uncomfortable standing alone. More so now, than it was at the other day, when it was actually really happening.

She remembered.

She couldn't once forget. It was like etched and carved in the back of her mind of a memory. And there, it stood, she turned around, the cafe- the same as it was, except it was hollow. Just chairs and tables prepped like a dessert-  until the man came out.

It was him.

The same man whom asked her out for a coffee one time, and whom she thought she wanted to ask and invite to her wedding. She hoped it wasn't that much, that he wouldn't take offend and be pleased that she was moving on with her life-- forward.

Until he had that smile on his face.
He was smiling.

The man from the cafe, he was in it. A dream.

Until he got out of the door with a jingle, the ordinary, usual jingle to a shop. And he came towards her. She didn't know why, he was wearing normal clothes, a blue jacket and a white, slightly cream inner shirt. And from that afar she could see, he was quite displeased, a whole- displeased. With his smile etched on his face that she could see as he approached.

He came closer, and closer, until he was now at an arm's reach as she could hear the taps of his shoes crunching below his boots. Or sneakers.What the men usually wear, pumps. Shoes, with onyx black. Tainted by the snow. 

She had forgotten his name. But she didn't say a word.

He came closer until he was at an arm's reach.

Then somehow, her view turned 180° and she was now facing the other way. One of when she had it to her back once, and she saw that nothing was there. Except the man in front of her. He was really close, but not sexually close. With his hands in his pockets, and the buildings gone from her view.
Everything. They disappeared. No light lamps, no poles, no posts, nothing. And certainly, no people.

And she was confused, disappointed on why it had to be that way. In this way, her gaze took in only his face; and there was nothing else. No items, no people, just the two of them, and the cafe built behind her.

Odd. She knew.

Until she focused back on the man before her. The man, still smiling. There was nothing. Just a simple smile playing on his lips. And she didn't even have a mirror, not even knowing what face she was making at the moment -  or what she was doing.