hollow // credence barebone

04. moonshine and snowflakes

...

his first reaction was to jump startled like a fish out of water.

he only dared to raise his head when he was sure that what he heard was not a fidgment of his imagination, but an actual human whose shadow leaned over him.

she was cloaked in darkness and her eyes left long trails on his face. try as hard as he can, he could not remove the memory of those grey eyes from his head. right now under the cover of the night, they seemed almost silver.

he wondered just how pathetic he looked crying in a narrow alley all alone. clothes in disarray and hand bleeding profusely, he must have looked crazy. but she was not sending him a glare full of disdain much to what he expected. she looked concerned as she slowly knelt down in front of him.

"hey," she said softly. "are you there?"

he swallowed down, unable to look away. he should have bowed his head like every other time. he should have scrambled away when he still had a chance. but now he was caged under her presence and she was rooting him there without a way to escape. and god, her voice, why was it so hard to listen to? it's like she was pouring gasoline to his already burning flame. it's like she was there to bring torment but none of it came. she kept staring at him and he kept staring back, transmigrated into non-existence.

he forced his head to nod.

"what happened to you?"

he swallowed down, biting onto words that wouldn't come. what happened to him? he couldn't start explaining even in front of himself, because he'd be brought down to the very core of everything that went wrong to make him so broken.

"wait..." she suddenly spoke a little louder. "don't i know you?"

he shivered, feeling dread back away to his lungs. she couldn't have possibly recognised him like he had recognised her. he was not memorable. all his life he was invisible. why was it all failing?

"aren't you the boy who gave out leaflets in front of the bank?"

pecks of snow began gently falling from the sky. the night seemed to darken a little more, but the brightness of the snow in the moon and the brightness of silver eyes remained. deep inside, credence felt his heart accalerate as he slowly forced his head to nod again.

he half-suspected she'd walk away now. after all, he was not much of a company and she must have had better things to do. instead, she stayed where she was, but now her eyes left his face and focused somewhere else. she took a note of his battered clothing and the hems of his coat that were spoiled by mud. then, her gaze moved onto the bleeding hand he kept clutched to his chest. the blood betrayed him as a single snowflake fell onto it and mixed with crimson, rolling down his fingers and onto his clothes. she stared silently as her mind produced connections, and he just waited.

and then, she did something he never expected.

she sat down next to him on the ground, making his head snap. at the sudden movement, she glanced back at him.

"oh, don't worry. you don't have to explain. it's just that i can't leave you here to freeze to your death alone. if we go down tonight, might as well do it together."

and that had undone the chains in his throat, for he croaked out, "w-what?"

she smiled, "oh, so you do speak english after all. you know, i began suspecting you're mute. or french."

he was breathing hard as his eyes were now riling into her. she brushed some snowflakes from her arm, letting him stare. she didn't seem to mind it. as minutes passed of the two of them just sitting in silence, credence's hands shook a little less. finally, she spoke again.