THE UNTOUCHABLE [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER 5: SUNLIGHT TO A BARREN SOUL

He knew he had done something wrong. Something he should never have done, ever.

But he could not help it. He was curious. He had spent his entire childhood and now adulthood in the castle, cast away, forgotten, and pushed aside.

He had gone out of the scarlet fence a few times.

He just wanted to see how "ordinary" human beings live.

He stood among the massive trees and shrubs in the forest and just watched, in silence, human beings who walked on the winding hilly paths. Families. Friends. Lovers. Strangers.

How does it feel to have a family—a family who loves me? he wondered.

How does it feel to love and be loved by someone else, and that person stays with you through all storms of life, maybe have a child? Build a life together?

Arran knew Sylve would be furious, she might even finally hate him enough to execute him, if she knew he had been sneaking out of the scarlet fence when she and her followers took a deep rest because of their weakened condition.

But he saw nothing wrong, nothing dangerous in what he had been doing. He would make sure to always stay out of sight of anyone, he would make sure he did not leave any traceable tracks. He always had his silver necklace around his neck and before sunset he would always come back to the castle of Sylve. So when Sylve awoke from her slumber, she would find him in the back garden, tending to their plants.

He was a cursed, abhorred being. He knew that, he knew it all too well.

He looked like a human being, but he was not, nor would he ever be, just an ordinary human being. His blood was tainted. He ranked below human beings.

His archery and sword and hand-to-hand combat skills were extraordinary, he had so many years to practice. All that so he would be ready to lay down his life to protect Sylve, her followers, and those human beings outside the scarlet fence when the time called for it.

Arran was fine with it—with the fact that his life was disposable, he should suffer, he should be kept in the castle, in the prison of scarlet fence and bracelet. He should serve human beings and guard their safety.

Though today his steadfast though sad heart fluttered, like the last tree leaf of summer that finally was ready to give up and fall to earth by the strength of the autumn wind.

He saw her.

That moment was the exact moment he learned what sunlight meant to a barren soul like his.

She was light to his darkness, and he basked in the warmth of it. He caught a glimpse of her as she walked through the forest with two other people—he would guess they were her parents.

Charlotte.

That was the name he heard the older man, he assumed he was her father, calling her.

Charlotte. He repeated the name to himself, he did not want to forget it. He engraved the name in his heart. Deep and protected.

When he saw that she knew she was being watched, he realized he had to keep a farther distance from her, so he did. He did not want to scare her, she should never know that he existed. Never. He would just fade away in the background among the trees and let her have her space.

She went with the two other to the site where the human beings were doing some digging. Arran did not like that—digging so close to the chasm. But Sylve had said they would not interfere for now. Thus Arran decided not to do anything about the human beings' digging activities. It did seem to him that they were trying to learn something. Learning was good.