Days Are Numbered

11: A companion

Noah woke up sweaty, panting, and also wet. When he realized this, he bolted out of the house with his clothes into the bathroom to get cleaned up. Sometimes it occurred to him to see Emery in his dreams, with emerald eyes, and blond hair, so soft that he could slip his finger through when they got tangled and intense. It always drove him to a euphoric mode.

He cussed under his breath as he shook the thought from his head. "I missed those moments of deep passion."

He dried his hair, which was gently sprouting and, though still short, gave some kind of feeling that he had hair. He slipped on his shirt with a moan, along with his cargo pants. That was all he had—two pairs of black cargo pants and two tees with a pair of boots. That was all they had. And it needed to be very clean. Avgustin made sure of it.

Exhaustion washed through his body as he stepped out into the open, embracing the dawn breeze. It made him shiver as he looked into the sky; the day was young. It was not close to their normal morning wake-up time yet. He slipped back into the house with pain-filled steps that made him wonder how he ran so fast to get clean. Maybe the fear of embarrassment made him do that, particularly from Rafael and Browne who took turns in bullying him whenever the opportunity showed up.

As he walked into the kitchen, his stomach grumbled at the sight of the loaves of bread sitting on the counter. Noah barely had dinner the past night; Avgustin made him do 50 laps of the large lawn in 2 hours, which was impossible. He still failed to meet the set time due to a severe stomach upset as he had never run that distance before, not like he had run any distance before. He threw up his breakfast, and his intestines almost followed. Then Avgustin was not satisfied and made him pick dry leaves all around the lawn. Then he was forced to cook; he had never tried that too and the regret was visible. Luckily, Dhakirah stepped in when he was about to blow the house up. With stern instruction, he made a zombified pasta, and the boys didn't complain because they were used to eating worse. Then he was so exhausted that he almost dropped from his chair while sleep-eating.

Noah snatched some bread, stuffing it in his pocket and wiping the flour from his hands. On his way out of the kitchen, he walked into Avgustin who held his hand out to stop the collision. Noah flinched back in fear before recollecting himself and getting into the attention posture while mentally shivering in fear.

"Sir."

"What are you doing out here? It is early," Avgustin said while glancing at his watch, his brows were pulled together softly in a light frown.

Noah felt his throat go dry, and all his vocabulary went into hiding. "Can't sleep, nightmares, had to pee," he managed to push the words out of his mouth. It sounded very stupid to him, causing him to press his teeth together afterward, expecting a slap.

"You are becoming stupid day by day," Avgustin stated. "And I'll give you something to restore your speech." Avgustin's stare melted to something sinister while Noah's fear arose. He wanted to plead with the young man to let him get out of his sight, never to be seen again.

"Pick the machete and give me a 3-inch lawn. I would hate to repeat this. You have 2 hours. Starting from now," Avgustin said.

Noah held back a sigh. "Yes, sir," he muttered above a whisper, and Avgustin walked away. Noah was quick with gathering the tools to do the task. He put his back into it, determined to finish in time, which felt impossible. His muscles began to ache at his movement, and the machete felt heavier and heavier as time went by. Noah spotted the boys getting into the bathroom and heading out one after the other. When he regained his height to catch his breath, he caught Dhakirah staring at him, feeling embarrassed; he resumed his work.

Time flew by quickly with a task as such. Noah was all sweaty and tired from the work, but he still had a lot to do and little time left, so he thrived, fighting the fatigue in his arm while gritting his teeth. The grass slit his palm and fingers, but he was careless until the last tall grass was down. Noah fell to his knees, shaking and panting. Then his watch went off.