Silverton's Journey

Chapter 26

Leon remained silent for a while. Does she truly believe that I am a monster? It... is obvious.

Removing this thought from his mind, he tried to focus on whether she had any injuries. He asked, "Are you hurt?"

Ophelia looked at her hands, trying to see through her tears. There seemed to be no remarkable damage to her. She shook her head, not feeling any physical sensation at that time.

He sighed and told the whimpering girl, "Let's get going." When he got no response from her, he realized she did not want to talk to him.

Ophelia kept looking at the corpses and back at her bloodstained hands. She closed her eyes, exhausted from the fighting.

"Come on, it will be alright," Leon said as he picked her up in his arms. Ophelia gasped at first, then rested her head on his shoulder while he walked towards home.

They entered through the backdoor of the house while the woods began to get darker. By that time, Ophelia had fallen asleep in Leon's arms.

Grace, hearing the noise, came out of her room. She gasped lightly seeing Ophelia and Leon and their bloodstained hands and faces. "What happened to you?" she asked.

Leon gave Ophelia to her and said, "Mother, see if she has any injuries."

As Grace took Ophelia from him, she noticed the cut in Leon's arm. "Leon, you're bleeding."

He took his cloak off and said while heading to the kitchen, "I will take care of that myself."

***

The night had fallen. Grace had already left for her work at the sanatorium after tending Ophelia's wounds. Leon sat on the couch in the darkness, flipping through the pages of The Foretelling of Destruction. He looked for an explanation behind Ophelia's sudden unnatural behaviour.

From what he had read so far, he was sure that Ophelia's instincts had begun to take control of her. He had to be more careful from then on. If she cannot control herself, dangerous accidents might happen.

With that thought, he buried his head in his hand, letting out a sigh of frustration.

Just then, he heard the faint footsteps of the girl, who stepped out of the bedroom and stared at him. Sensing her presence, Leon turned his head up to see a pale girl in white, gazing at him with eyes full of unsaid words.

The girl stood motionless, her hand gripping the handle of the door. She stood among the shadows, her messy brown hair flowing all the way down to her waist. Her eyes remained half covered with the fringe of hair that fell from her forehead, making her look enigmatic. She whispered with a tired voice, "Sir, are you reading that again?"

Leon closed the book in an instant as if it were a reflex. It had been a while since he had stopped letting her read the book. He would only read it to her whenever he thought it was important. It made her upset, but he had no choice.

Ophelia walked up to him and stood under the dim moonlight. "You... you are wondering why I did what I did today, right?" Her voice was tainted with weakness, sorrow, and especially desperation, and Leon did not know what she was desperate about.

He sighed. "Ophelia, don't think about it."

The girl sat on the floor right beside him, leaning against the couch and hugging her legs. She stared at her palms, both covered in a white strip of bandage which would allow the cuts and blisters to heal. Flashbacks of the recent morning and thoughts of guilt infested her mind. I killed so many people with these hands...

As the thoughts clouded her mind, she buried her face in her palms and let the tears flow. Perhaps she could never forgive herself, no matter what fate held for her.