colours of viridian | BOOK ONE | J a d e d ✔️

C u r i o s i t y

S o n g : P a s t L i v e s - B Ø R N S

C h a p t e r X
M a k e n n a

We stayed in the forest until the sun began to set. He let me ask things about him and he answered most of the time.

I still thought he was a jerk.

I mean, he had tried to eat me.

I thought I was allowed to hold a grudge on him for that one.

But he was so...fascinating. He had the answers to things I had always wondered about. It was like he could have personally lead me to the tree of knowledge and hand me an apple. I just wanted to know everything about him and the world he came from. Even if that meant bringing all the evils to life.

"Were-creatures?" I smiled mischievously as he rolled his eyes.

He ran a hand through his hair, staring up into the patches of darkening sky through the trees. "Yeah, but it's a bloodline curse. Not an infection or whatever you guys seem to believe. You can't just catch it from their saliva or whatever. You're born with it and that's it."

I had moved off of the fallen tree trunk and was now resting my back against it as I watched him carefully. He had quick movements when he brushed his hair back or did something that came without thinking, but he also could be still and silent and seem so in tune with the world that movement wasn't necessary. His strange eyes took everything in as if the entire forest -right down to the specks of dirt- intrigued him. It was like nothing could ever satisfy his hunger for curiosity.

"It's getting late." He suddenly spoke, breaking the spell I had been under watching him. His viridian green eyes flashed to mine as they grew darker with the sky, "You should get home, Kenna." His voice was low as his eyes stayed on mine all-knowingly.

Pursing my lips, I tried to remember which way I came from. I could feel my cheeks flush with heat. "Um-"

I barely got out a sound when his lips twitched up just enough to be noticeable, "I'll show you the way." He stood up and began walking away, not looking back to see if I was following him.

Like I said, he was kind of a jerk. He had no sense when it came to being a gentleman. He treated me like...a science experiment. I would have been more annoyed if I hadn't been doing the same to him.

"Hurry up. I'm not coming back for you." He grumbled as I stuck my tongue out at his back and quickly gathered my things.

My painting of him was rolled up, securely under my arm as I jogged through the little moss clearing to catch up to him. "So, can you fly? Or run super fast? Or both? Do you sparkle at all? -Oh, oh, oh! Can you live under water? Or would you be like Stephan and drown over and over again?" I grinned, thinking of even more questions I had yet to ask him. The Vampire Diaries was about to be re-watched from season one. Notes would be taken.

His eyes flickered down to my short height without turning his head, "Why did that painting turn out right?" He ignored my endless list of questions, flashing his eyes to the painting under my arm.

Once again I blushed as the answer came to me straight away. It was something that I just felt weird telling him. Like maybe he wouldn't like the reason. I may have been learning all about his species, but as a person, I knew next to nothing about him.

His bright green eyes kept watching me, persistently piercing into my own. "Tell me." He sighed when I kept my mouth shut. "I'll leave you." He threatened with a look that dared me to try him.

Huffing loudly, I rolled my eyes, "Alright. I guess, with my first drawing I had only been trying to capture the evil monster." I looked up at him, tilting my head to the side as I studied him silently, "It wasn't right because that's not all there is to you. I mean, you're an asshole and a monster yes," my head turned back to the path in front of me with a nonchalant shrug, "but you also have a side that's...normal. Maybe even kind. You can't have one without the other so the drawing I did before didn't capture you correctly. It was empty. There was no real life to it but this notion of evil."

I was babbling by the time I could hear myself speak again. I could get pretty intense when talking about my art. If he hadn't had suddenly smiled in amusement, I could've had gone on all night. But he did, despite his clear annoyance at anything that caused him happiness.

Maybe he hated happiness because when he smiled he had dimples that made you suddenly forget all about those scary fangs that were once inches away from your skin. This guy a monster? Puh-lease.

"Kenna," he suddenly scowled breaking my trance.

I frowned in confusion at the seriousness in his voice, "...Viridian?"

"We're about to reach the road, it's just behind these trees." He told me, his eyes turning hard as if he were planning on doing something he didn't want to do and was mentally preparing for it.

I took a step back subconsciously, my heart speeding up only enough to make me aware of my uncertainty in his intentions. "Okay." My voice was quiet as I bit my lip anxiously.

Viridian shook his head, "I'm not going to hurt you." He promised. "Look in my eyes."

I found myself doing as he said, wondering what it was that had him so serious. His eyes were so green and blue and even had some specks of a light jade in them. They were all I could focus on as the colours seemed to swirl around my brain like an intense headache that didn't so much hurt as it did create a tight pressure. As long as I didn't think, nothing hurt. It just swirled and flowed through me like nothing I had ever experienced before. Yet, in a way I couldn't recognize, it felt sort of...familiar. Like a sensation of something I knew from a long time ago.

"Unless I tell you to, you won't remember talking to me today or seeing me after school on Monday or anything about me -besides how I was the new guy that pushed you out of his way and hurt your arm when he grabbed you..."

†⚜†

:( VIRI WHY MUST YOU DO THAT?
*sigh* I hope you still liked it.