The Shadowed Neko (MxM)

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Ren's POV

That following night, I recalled waking up a couple of times out of discomfort. The heat and sweat felt so suffocating that I kept kicking the covers off of me. When I did wake up, it wasn't for long. Through my blurry vision, what caught my attention were the deep, red eyes that would stare down at me every time I blinked.

Yet, just as I'd seen them, they faded just as fast. All I could remember was a coolness settling on my forehead for a time. It sent a wave of relief over me and helped ease me back to sleep. Despite how uncomfortable it all was, I managed to wake up feeling mostly refreshed.

Montaro was nowhere to be seen, and I was relieved by that fact. Remembering the conversation we had before he took his leave, I couldn't help but sigh. No matter how I felt about his annoying nature, he had a point. It didn't matter who I pointed fingers at because it didn't change the fact that I was here now. I had to focus on how to deal with it so I could go back as quickly as possible.

Pushing myself up with a groan, a few strands of hair awkwardly brushed against both sides of my face. I could only think about it for a moment until I was entirely distracted by something else. Scrunching my eyebrows, I mumbled, pulling on the shirt that wasn't mine, "That fever must've been hell if I literally tried to rip this off of me..." Looking down at it, a few of the upper buttons were barely hanging on by a single thread.

One little tug, and they'd fly right off. Examining the material, I could tell it was expensive- or used to be before I unknowingly ruined it. I guess I was really out of it if I don't even remember him changing my clothes. Hopefully, he didn't care much about it since he let me wear it in the first place. Another sigh slipped past my lips after I kicked the rest of the sheets off of me.

I felt better, but I still needed a shower. With him not being here, I didn't know what I was allowed to do here. Not to mention, I didn't know where anything was. Running my fingers through my disheveled hair, I decided it was time to at least move around a bit. My stiff body creaked when my feet met the cold, hard floor. Now that I thought about it, with how dreary this room was, would the rest of the place be the same?

As I slowly stepped over to the windows, I pushed back one of the black curtains that hid away most of the sunlight. My tail twitched behind me as my eyes widened. I'd never seen them other than in pictures, and so the view surprised me more than I expected. It was a whole field of sunflowers as far as the eye could see. Each flower gently swayed in the breeze that drifted by. Their bright colors were even more vibrant than the ones in the painting on the wall behind me.

The light reflecting off of some of them burned my eyes, but I couldn't stop gawking at it nonetheless. I thought I was going to see some sort of intricate maze-like garden that was always put in the courtyard of almost every mansion, but of course, this was one of those times my expectations were shattered. This only led to more questions about him.

Did he like sunflowers so much that he got someone to plant a whole field of them, or was it something else? I didn't know why, but even the sight of it didn't ease the loneliness this place held. It even caused my mood to dip a bit. Right before my ears flattened, they shot up, finally hearing something other than my own thoughts. Still holding onto the curtain, my head turned toward the door, and as the handle twisted, that was when I heard him. He was busy talking to someone, so it took him a moment to open the door.

His tense voice was muffled from behind the door, and my ears twitched as I listened in on some of the conversation, "I'm assuming we've hit yet another dead end?" It was quiet, so I could just barely make out the voice that came from the speaker of his phone, "Ha...I'm afraid so. It was an obvious fake. The designs on the barrel and handle weren't centered. Not to mention, it was barely noticeable, but it was chipped in a few spots. Whoever owned it before didn't take much care of it. It's unfortunate, but it's not the one we've been looking for."