✔ | PAINTED IN CRIMSON | T. SHARPE

TEN | PAVOR NOCTURNUS

❝ I won't hold my finger in the air
and tell you which way the wind blows
for I have tried so many times. ❞

─────── 

TEN | PAVOR NOCTURNUS

"Hey," I briefly said to Josh when I opened the door to our flat, throwing all my stuff by the couch and shrugging out of my coat, "Where is it?" I asked.

"The box? I left it in your room. Are you okay? You look terrible."

"Oh, I'm okay, it was a long trip. I'll be better when I get some sleep tonight and finish with all this," I rushed into the kitchen to open the fridge in search of anything to eat, "Macaroni . . ." I said when I saw the small bowl with it, I was starving. I shoved the macaroni into the microwave, then turned around and found Josh leaning on the doorframe, observing me, "you had dinner, didn't you?" I saw his clothes, "Where are you going?"

"Out," he grinned.

"Out? With your friends?" He shook his head, "Oh, that . . ." He nodded. It hurt a little if I'm honest.

"I asked Susan out today."

"Oh?" I uttered grabbing one of those silly pretzels from a jar on the counter top, "She's pretty," I smiled, "she is the girl from the photography department, isn't she?"

"She is, we're going out for dinner," he walked closer, with a big smile on his lips. His warm hands cupped my face and I couldn't help thinking of Sir Thomas cold touch, "You sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, I'm okay!" I said, smiling, "Uhm, I'll leave early tomorrow, I'll go back to Allerdale Hall."

"Again? I thought this was the last time, thought you wouldn't go back." The macaroni was ready.

"I have a book to finish dear Josh," he simpered and took a deep breath, "alright, bugger off," he chuckled as I pushed him out of the kitchen to the living room, "you have a date, don't make Susan wait or you will fuck this up from the beginning."

"Just let me grab my keys then," he went to the couch to get them, "I'll be back in a few hours, you go to bed, you look awful!" I slapped him on his chest.

"Shut up, just leave already," he laughed, "you don't want to be late."

"See you later." He said before walking through the door and sharing another smile before closing it behind him. I returned to the kitchen and put the kettle on. I ate too fast only to get started with what I wanted to do. With a mug of tea in a hand and the book in the other, I made my way to my bedroom and put the mug on the night stand. I stared at the book for a moment, "Okay . . . let's see . . ." I crawled into bed, opening the book.

"Ghosts are real,
that much I know . . ."

That was the first line of the book. I took a deep breath, a part of me wanted to know the story and there was this other part that didn't because I was scared, however I read three chapters in thirty minutes and didn't stop there.

"The wind howled and the cold filtered through the walls. Every floor board creaked with the voice of a hundred tortured souls and the shadows devoured even the brightest light and they were starting to devour her light. She grew weaker every second that passed by, alone, in that bed, dying. . ."

Read a paragraph in chapter seven, by this time I was crying. They way they used her, the way they poisoned her, the way she was going to die and how no one would know. I wanted to know more but I felt I wasn't ready to read the part where Edith finds out about them I just couldn't, it all was so heartless, so inhuman, so sick.