Before Sundown

About me, about you

After a while, my car's engine had cooled down and it was drivable again; fortunately, it was nothing too serious. The rain had also started to show signs of stopping, so me and Vlad got inside my car. We hadn't spoken to each other since I found out about everything. He was sitting in the passenger seat fidgeting with his fingers, his gaze seeming lost beneath the trees. I was resting the back of my arms on my steering wheel and my shoulders were tensed up. I could feel the heavy silence physically demolishing all my walls.

"For how long?", I asked breathlessly, at long last. I felt his eyes turning to me and burning through my entirety; but I didn't look back at him. My eyes were still fixated on the road in the distance. Confrontation was the only thing that had never failed to tear me down completely. But there was no place to run now; well, not literally, but in the given situation, as much as I hated it, I was forced to address it. Because there was no turning back to everything else I'd known until this very moment. My whole universe was changing, whether I wanted it or not.

"Longer than you can imagine", he replied firmly. I could feel a sense of pain buried deep within his voice. When I turned my head to finally face him, he had a defeated smile on, with his eyebrows lowered and nostrils slightly flared.

"I've read about... things like this", I continued, being quite unsure about the way I should formulate my speech, just so that it wouldn't come out as disconcerting. Vlad simply nodded, as he left out a veiled sigh.

"You can trust me, you know", I said lowly. "I promise." My eyes were plastered onto the side of his face, as he was emotionlessly staring into the distance. His deep red eyes that I already knew so well met mine, and for a brief second, I felt as if I was melting into the car seat, and then seeping through the car's floorboard, straight onto the pavement.

"Can I drive?", he asked, snapping me out of it and pushing me into a haze of confusion. "What? I'm faster", he added, as a slight smirk made its way into the corner of his lips. I snickered under my breath.

"Fine", I said, as we switched our seats. Vlad lost no time in starting the car and getting moving, and he was indeed driving extremely fast; faster than I'd ever dared to, but he seemed to have everything under control. I did my best to recompose as I adjusted myself into the seat. I flashed my gaze back towards him, and I hesitated for a moment, before saying:

"Will you tell me more?"

"More?", he ask with monotony, almost as if he was ridiculing me and my question. I knew he knew what I meant. 

"About you", I specified, trying to make myself more clear. He clicked his tongue then anxiously bit his lower lip, his eyes still concentrated on the road.

"I will", he replied calmly, which made my heart rate get unbelievably high. I breathed in deeply, waited a moment, and then spluttered all the air back out. "But under one condition", he continued, which now made my heart stop for a juncture. I looked at him with peculiarity, then he shifted his sight straight into my eyes. But this time, his gaze was warm, soft. He'd never looked at me like that before. And if I take a moment to think about it, no one had looked at me that way ever before. My forehead creased as curiosity was growing within me, as I was getting more and more impatient waiting for his answer.

"I'll tell you about me if you tell me about you", he quietly said with a smile, which made me exhale leisurely, and quickly turning that into a giggle under my breath, which made my whole body relax.

"You've got a deal", I replied nodding with a smile across my face, which made Vlad's face grow into a contented smile as well. We both looked back towards the road through the undusted windshield, as we approached the entrance in Sigswood. I gave him a few directions in order to drive me home, but not before offering to drop him off at his place as well; but he kindly refused.