Redemption

chapter 7

My breath halted, in fact the whole world seemed to have stopped when I turned around and found those eyes looking at me. My hand instinctively went to my face that had been covered with the black mask that has become my identity for the past seven years, a veil that kept me away from all that I had known for my entire life.

"Long time no see?" he repeated his sentence and a rush of warmth surged through my body at the familiarity of his voice, the way he was looking me like i was some stranger made my stomach curl in the worst ways possible, the butterflies turning into a chain of thorns that pierced my feeling and left them to bleed.

My hands that had been shaking due to the intense cold curled against the scarf I had once handed him on my way out of his day, the wool covering my neck along with half of my already covered face and my eyes assessed the man taking a place next to me to stand beside me under the open sky.

"I guess" my voice sounded distant and foreign to my own ears, I had to force myself to not stare at his perfect profile and continue staring at the rushing water that had picked up its pace to rush to the shore and against my already numb feet. I was going to fall sick but I already feel the sickness from my past gaining on me.

"Why are you here at this hour?" it was him who had asked and i fought the urge to look at him, if i did i would have to pay a heavy price.

"Same reason as you" I replied and i didnt know why I said that.

"Punishing yourself for your choices?" he whispered and I'm not sure if I was supposed to hear that.

"If i didn't know better i'd say you're a psychic '' i mumbled and he chuckled, i found myself turning to look at him. Still as tall as I can remember, I reached his earlobe to say the least and it was oddly satisfying to stand beside him but undeserving at the same time.

"What, do you know?" he asked and I gulped.

Exactly, what did I know about him? What did he know about this person standing beside him? I didn't say anything. Maybe I didn't have anything to say and this was all I could think of. I never said anything, he was a man of words i always did what could be done. My words held no weight, to me they didn't at least.

"I don't know how you've been standing here barefoot but I can't stand the cold any longer" the man spoke again and his voice thinned by the end and I looked down at his bare feet.

"You shouldn't have been standing here if you couldn't handle it" why did i sound so cold? Why was I acting this way? I didn't bother looking at him as I walked back onto the sand towards the dock where Ahmed stood waiting with my belongings.

"Is there no way we can talk without you walking away like this?" I heard him and his rushing footsteps behind me and my heart started racing again.

"We've barely met and you're saying as if i've abandoned you" i said and i was suddenly crushed under the weight of my own words.

"Are you sure about that?" I felt the coldness in his voice before his presence behind me.

I stopped and turned around to face him, he looked exactly how I imagined. Tall, calm and handsome, the ever focused gray eyes and the long, beautiful hair that had grown to caress his nape and fall on his forehead.

I didn't say anything, honestly, i couldn't. His eyes held the arrogance that I had witnessed all the times when he faced his opponents, when he looked at someone he knew didn't stand a chance against him and right now it was me against him.

"You've abandoned me quite a lot of times, but you always leave me indebted to you and lets just say, i return everything i get with great interest" he said with a tilt of his head and a pull to his lips, he slid his hands in his pockets while i stared with my eyebrows raised.