Not Acid Nor Alkaline ~ Sleep Token FF ~

13.Asylum Road

The room was dark, just some candles were giving light to have a glimpsy on what was waiting for me, or better who was waiting.

There he was, Vessel, sitting at the piano. He looked at me, eventhough I couldn't see his eyes, I knew he focused me.
A little nod was enough to signalise me I should sit next to him.

With little steps I walked closer and sat down. He didn't say a word, he just started playing. I listened to the intro before he began to sing for me. His voice filled up the room. And my heart.

First I had focused myself on his fingers playing the piano. But then my eyes were searching for something. I looked at him, his face or better his mask. Just his mouth I could see in this dimmed light. His lips, watching him sing for me.

It was like I had been in trance. I couldn't think, I couldn't look away.
When he played the last notes on the piano, he turned his head to look at me. The corner of his mouth twitched. Did he know what he was causing in me?

'This was wonderful', I heard myself whispering.
'Thank you...', Vessel returned softly.
And just before I could realise what happened, we both tilted our heads. I felt his breath on my face and just a second later I felt his lips on mine.

My heart was racing when I woke up in the middle of the night.
This was getting out of hand, and this dreams started to feel more and more realistic.
I touched my lips and imagined I could still feel the kiss I had just dreamed about.

Why did I have dreams like that? I didn't even know who Vessel really was. I knew nothing about this man.
Why was every part of my body starting to yearn for him like that?

I had a hard time falling asleep again.
So I ended up sleeping through half of the day.
'Oh you finally woke you?', Abby greeted me when I left to go to the bathroom.
'Yep, had a rough night...', I murmured.
'Quiet often lately. Is something bothering you?', she asked with worried face.
I shook my head, I didn't want to talk about it.

I took a long and hot shower and changed into some comfy clothes.
'So, what are your plans for today?', I asked Abby.
'Not sure. I definitly need to prepare some things for work. And you?', she asked me in return.
'Well, I'm going out later, meeting someone.', I tried to let it sound as if it wasn't something special.

There was a second of silence before Abby replied: 'You meet someone? So you are having a date? Who?' I bit my lip. 'Not a date...I got invited again.', I explained to her.
'You got invited? For what?', Abby was now digging into it.
'Not exactly sure about it. But Vessel invited me. The singer of this band, you know.', I was fiddling nervously with my fingers.
'Oh, he was hot! But still...they are kinda weird. Do you even know who he really is? Please, be cautious.', Abby was worrying.

Later I made myself ready for this evening. Why Vessel wanted to meet me? Would there be more people? This dream of last night came back to my mind for a second.

At 8 pm I started my way to Asylum Road. The huge, old building was dark. I kept walking until I found some flickering lights. It was a chapel. This must be it, everything else was dark apart from that.
I slowly opened the huge, heavy door and looked inside. There were a lot of candles and a piano standing in the front. I decided to go inside and closed the door behind me.

Someone cleared his throat and stepped closer to the candles, so I could see him. 'You found the way.', his low voice echoed through the room. He walked to the piano and sat down. I walked a few steps closer, but I wasn't sure what would happen.
'Am I the only one coming?', I asked, it was just a shy whispering coming out of my mouth.
Vessel nodded.

He began to play what already sounded familiar to me.
As soon as he sang the first words, I knew it was the same I had listened to yesterday. Vessel's voice sounded even more emotional than in the studio version.

It gave me goosebumps and I felt the urge to come closer to him.
I slowly walked up to him. Now I could see how perfectly his long fingers were pressing the piano keys, it looked even majestic.

Stained glass...in this chapel were windows with stained glass.

I tried to fight against myself. I tried to fight not starting to cry in front of him. I already had cried yesterday when I was alone. Now it was even harder for me to hide my emotions. But I didn't want to show him how I was truely feeling. I've never been weak around other people.

Show me what wounds you've got...I could 't. I never talked about my past.

Show me what you've lost...Oh only if you knew, Vessel. But how to tell you I lost my past life? How to tell him I lost my grandma and I lost my parents due to them killing her? They are in prison and hopefully stay there as long as possible.

I didn't even realise how the first tears actually streamed down my face by now. I was so intrigued by his playing and singing. As he played the last notes I placed my hand softly on his shoulder, standing right behind him, so he wouldn't see my tears.

The last note echoed through the chapel before it went silent.
Vessel didn't turn around, he stayed in the same position except he placed one hand on top of mine.

At first I wanted to pull my hand away, but his hand comforted me more.
Softly his thumb stroke a single time over the back of my hand.

I don't know how long we stayed that way, maybe seconds, maybe a minute or half an hour.

At some point I found my voice back and the tears had dried on my face.
'Thank you...', I whispered holding back a huge wave of emotions.

His head slightly turned, but not enough to actually face me. I squeezed his shoulder as a sign it was fine for me. I knew he wanted to turn around. And so he actually did. He turned while staying seated, now I was still holding on to his shoulder somehow and standing in front of him. He looked up to me and I down to him. I made a step back so he could stand up.

I could see Vessel's lips were pressed together. Taking a deep breath before I got all my courage together to speak again. 'Was this song for me?' I was scared about his answer. How could he even feel something for me? But how could I have feeling for him?

After my last dream this night, I knew there was more about it, but it scared me and now I was afraid to hear his answer right now.

He stood up, letting go of my hand that was still on his shoulder.
But he took my other hand in his.
'Yes, it is.', his voice sounded so dark and low.

I felt so insecure not seeing his mimic, not seeing the person behind the mask.
How could I even have feelings for a person that I never truely faced. But I knew there was some sort of connection between us.

I bit my lip trying to cope with the emotions.
This reminded me about my dream. Would I wake up if I'd kiss him?
Or would this all still be real?
I placed the other hand on his chest that was halfly covered by the robe.

Being that intimate with someone...on one hand it felt natural, on the other hand it was all so strange.
I never had a man in my life, I never new how true love felt. I just experienced some teenage love back in school, but since everything had happened with my family years ago, I pushed every man away.
Except him.

I got on my toes looking at the only part of his face I could see. His lips were now slightly parted. Was this a sign? Should I actually follow my instinct?

My heart was racing when Vessel slightly pulled me closer and leaned down and our lips softly touched. It was an innocent, yet truely emotional kiss we shared.

I took hold on his robe. One of his hands softly stroke over my long whiteblond hair and stayed at my neck. The other one was placed on my side.

I didn't want this kiss to end.