The Hollows Of Hiraeth (✔️) | 'Hollows' Book I

Chapter Sixty-Eight

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T h e H o l l o w s   O f
H I R A E    T    H
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I stood up and made my way over to it, reading the annotations and glancing at the images. I frowned as all of the images and annotations seemed similar, then I realised that they were about me.

"Is this some sort of murder investigation?" I asked Jameson who raised his eyebrow at me.

"You're not dead." He pointed out and I rolled my eyes.

"You know what I mean." I realised that there were many other ways that I could've rephrased my previous question.

Jameson sighed, "It's stupid really," Jameson commented, reaching out to take off a post-it.

I stopped him by touching his arm, "No, it isn't," I told him whilst looking for his reaction, but glanced back to the board instead. "Yeah, it's a little morbid," I put in, referring to the bloody images, "But it's not weird." I reassured him before noticing a very brutal and bloody image.

I raised my eyebrow, "Was that–" I paused as I stared wide eyed at the image, "Was that what it looked like?" I asked, my voice quiet and shocked as I tried to peel my eyes away from the image of my stab wound.

"It was bad." Jameson responded and I finally looked away to see him sorrowfully gazing at the board.

"They wanted me dead." I pointed out and Jameson glanced back at me with raised eyebrows.

"But in the last few," I glanced at the images and annotations, "They haven't done anything that puts my life at risk.." I trailed off, unable to finish my conclusions.

I heard Jameson scoff beside me, "Are you sure? You nearly got shot the other day." Jameson pointed out, unintentionally putting salt onto a sensitive wound.

I brushed it off quickly and shook my head, "Yeah, but all these recent attacks are very different to the first," I referred to the bloody image on the board, "At first they tried to kill me, now it's like they want to scare me off." I made my point, having no idea what it meant in the grand scheme of things.

"Are you scared?" Jameson's question surprised me momentarily, as I if I was expecting another light lipped comment off him.

I glanced at him to see him already looking down at me, then found that I couldn't take my eyes off him. At first, I didn't entirely know what to say, since I hadn't thought he would ask this in response.

"Well I wouldn't say I'm delighted that I'm being assaulted," I pointed out, "I don't know, honestly, I think I'm more creeped out than scared." I concluded my rambles and Jameson nodded, still gazing down at me.

"If I'm scared it'll be because I can't predict who's going to get caught in the crossfire," I swallowed, ignoring the topic of Angela, "I mean, you got pretty beat up." I pointed out, hoping my dismissal of Angela's death would go unnoticed.

Jameson smiled softly, "Your compassion for others is admirable," He gave me a small smile, "And predictable," Jameson added with a laugh, "But I'm your guardian, I'm supposed to get caught in the crossfire." Jameson explained but I found myself shaking my head.

"So you just sign up to get yourself killed?" I asked and Jameson pondered my question.

"Are you saying I'm not a good guardian?" He finally resulted to and I rolled my eyes.

"I'm saying you could get killed—your job is to get killed." I repeated and again Jameson paused.

"My job isn't to get killed, it's to protect you." Jameson replied, a glint of amusement in his eyes but his posture remaining tense, in his usual alert way.