Diamond Fires

CHAPTER 4: The Night's Revealing

Miri looked out of the inviting window and simply stared at the pale moon. Its watery light against the dark sky gave her a sense of still calm. It was cold. She pulled the sheets closer around her tired body.

She supposed there wasn't a better way to spend another of her insomniac nights, seeing as the day gave her no time to unwind. She needed it, after all the abnormal things that were happening to her, and were happening much too fast! She hadn't had the time to stop and just think and question. Why did touching Tristan Stone cause such a catastrophic reaction, that shouldn't even be scientifically possible?

She wasn't stupid. It was clear that something unnatural and out of the human understanding was occurring, but how? And why her? The night brought out a particularly philosophical and esoteric side of Mirilae Hale. She pondered things such as fate and her place in the universe, making her head spin.

She stopped herself.

Won't be much use having an existential crisis now, will it? Calmly breathing out and expelling all her complexities, she shifted her attention towards the symbolic flower on her bedside table. In her sleep, someone had laid a single lily on both bedside tables. She picked it up in her shaking fingers. It was just like the moon, pure white and a gaping reminder of innocence.

She'd been innocent once; a time cut too short. Presently, she felt a tingly feeling on the back of her neck and turned towards the boy who was staring at her.

Grudgingly, she spoke, "Can I help you with something?"

He didn't say anything and just kept staring at her. In the still dark, his eyes shone more orange than in the daylight and she shivered. He made her uncomfortable. She pulled the sheets closer around her frame, again. She looked away but couldn't bring herself to say anything.

After a century, he whispered, "I'm bored."

She swept her eyes back over to him, "So?"

"A secret for a secret?"

She was taken aback and pulled a piece of hair behind her ear, "Why, all of a sudden?"

He lay back in his cot and stared at the ceiling. The ward was completely silent and the atmosphere oddly serene.

She pushed it further, "Finally learnt how to communicate with humans?"

He scoffed, but then said, "You're different. You're like a puzzle that I can't figure out and that's never happened before. It makes me angry." He still stared at the blank ceiling.

"Well, that's definitely something I see. In fact-" she turned her head to him, "It's one of the only emotions I've seen from you. Other than, you know, being a complete git."

She was trying to rile him up, make him angry enough to finally burst out all his motivations. His troubles, his fears, whatever it was that caused him to be so bitter. She couldn't be quiet and plain around the infuriating mystery that was Tristan Stone.

He didn't react and simply shrugged, "Fair enough. So how about that secret?"

She smiled, "You really want to know, don't you?"

He turned and fixed his glowing glare on her, "Tell me. And don't chicken out, you wouldn't want the people here to know that you're a coward, now would you?"

The words hit her like bullets in her skin. Coward. She snapped and stood up, advancing on him, "Coward? What do you know about me?"

He was slightly taken aback and then smirked, "Enough to know that you're a coward."