Pathos - A Duskwood Fanfiction

Chapter 40 - sexual content warning

The mid November night found her walking with Jake through the quiet streets of downtown Duskwood as tiny snowflakes fell in glittering swirls from the midnight sky.

The streetlamps caught the flakes in their lights as they drifted down, and the burnt orange glow of their bulbs bathed them in hues of crimson tangerine and brilliant citrine as they fell like tiny sparkling diamonds to the frozen ground.

They had walked away from the Aurora in silence after Jake had stopped to talk to Lilly briefly before exiting the bar, and they remained in silence now as they walked side by side. Her mind was still reeling from what had happened in the storeroom of the bar just minutes prior, but her heart was singing hymns to the heavens at the sight of him and she just couldn't stop... looking.

He had pulled his hood up over his head once they had stepped outside, and the snowflakes had fallen in a glittering crown and mantle onto the fabric of the hood and his shoulders. They sparkled and scintillated as he walked, and she couldn't help but be entranced by the beauty of the sight of him right there in that moment before her.

If it had been during the day, or if the moon had been a bit brighter in the sky, the glow from the streetlamps would have been washed out or not there at all, and would have been unable to set the snowflakes aflame with crimson and golden light. She would not have been able to see him as he was right then - almost lost to the night's shadows with the black clothes that he wore, but then seeming to become a sentinel of its dark beauty as it bestowed upon him the only gift that it knew how to give - a crown of frozen, glittering diamonds.

As they exited the downtown square and started to head towards the highway, Jake finally spoke.

"I imagine that you must have some questions."

He kept his eyes focused on the road ahead as he said this, but moved closer to her. They were walking now with their arms almost touching, and she nodded in response to his statement.

"More than some," she said quietly, and Jake, though he remained silent in wait for her to begin asking, lifted his gaze away from the path that they were on and looked directly into her eyes.

So, she began.

"What happened to your face?"

To this, he stopped walking, looked around them to make sure that they were alone, and then turned to face her. After gazing into her eyes for a long pause, he took a half step closer and said her name softly before replying.

"That is a question that you absolutely have the right to know the answer to, and I will answer it, but I cannot do so at this very moment. I am sorry."

She watched him silently for a moment, staring at the pale purple bruising that surrounded his left eye. He kept his gaze on hers as she did this, allowing her to scrutinize his face for other signs of injury, and then finding none, she asked another question.

"Do they know where you are?"

Jake shook his head.

"No. I do not think so," he replied quietly. "I was...thorough."

She arched an eyebrow at this, and he offered her an apologetic smile in response.

"Again, I am sorry."

She inhaled and then exhaled a slow sigh at this, and then Jake stepped closer.

He was close enough now that she could smell the aftershave that she had been inhaling for eight days from his pillow, but it was mixed now with the warm scent of his skin and it smelled like juniper and clove and... Jake. She let her eyes drift closed as the perfume of him filled her lungs, and then opened them again slowly when she heard his voice.