Bound by surprise

You're a what?

Niyah was all too familiar with the laws that governed her existence bit she didn't have the faintest of ideas as to how to act when her belief in these laws was broken. She fiddled with the hem of her tunic as she stared at the floor. Everything in her was screaming at her not to look up. The height difference alone was humiliating.
She was snapped out of her thoughts by the feel of cold skin on her arm. It was strange, she was the one who lived without oxygen or a pulse but he was the colder of the two. "Now it's my turn to ask." He claimed confidently in his unfamiliar accent "Are you okay?"
She expelled the unnecessary air that filled her lungs in an exasperated puff and contemplated what to say. In the end she settled for an overly - simplistic "No."
His unsettling cold eyes filled her vision - though not in the blank emotionless way that she was used to seeing them, there was so much worry in those eyes that she felt her own begin to sting. She felt moisture build along her lower lash line as he attempted to shrink on himself to make his height appear less intimidating without insulting her own (or lack thereof).
That was when she gathered herself. She looked up - feeling miniscule - and spoke as she tried to stare anywhere but his wide eyes. "Listen." He nodded hurriedly at her pause and she took it as a sign to continue - thankful she knew the way the ever changing language was spoke at that moment in time - "You shouldn't be able to see me." He opened his mouth to speak but decided against it "in fact, you should be dead!" He looked interested rather than scared. He didn't look at her like she was crazy. No. He looked at her like she was any other person who had something to say. She sat and gestured openly with her hand that he should do the same - she was fully prepared to tell the open - minded boy the entire lengthy story. As she did. He looked terrified by the end if it all but he didn't question her once - she didn't know whether to be thankful for his willingness to believe or scoff at it.
His hands shook once again and he took a chance to stare at the goosebumps that were raised on his bony arms. He looked up at her through his shaggy bangs "O-okay. I believe you."
The way he had been acting had completely taken any of the surprise that would have come with the revelation away.   Still, the boy was seeming more spectacular every second she spoke to him and he actually took the time to listen.
She felt guilty.  Her curse - the curse of Caelum - was going to doom him.  His eyes were as cold an pressing as the kings, the same colour and shape.  Surely he had a curse of his own?  Maybe she was doomed too?

The girl was staring at him as if a second head had sprouted from his neck.  Her eyes were clouded with guilt as he looked at her with wide eyes.
He inhaled and walked away.  "You know," He called back in what he hoped wad a casual way of speaking "I never did catch your name." He took another step and the girl was sent flying in his direction  by her ebony cornrows.  She screeched like a banshee and left his ears ringing.  "You know," He squeaked "there's a much easier way to do that."
"I know." She looked at him humourlessly through narrowed eyes.
He meekly offered her his hand, planning to forget the last few lines of awkward dialogue the two had exchanged and continue with the conversation that was occurring previously "I'm Hayden, Hayden Jameson."
She smiled back, her overly sharp canines making what would have otherwise been sweet appear feral. "Niyah."
"No last name?" He raised a single light eyebrow.
"It may come as a surprise to you but people in the early ADs didn't care about their slaves enough to give them names beyond the ones granted by the slave dealers." She attempted to mimic his facial expression but only succeeded in squinting her eyes and drawing her eyebrows together.  He broke out in a grin and she giggled in a way most girls in his time would have been embarrassed of.  She snorted and gasped and slapped her knee, her torso shook and her cornrows fell around her face.  Her laugh was as contagious to him as she had found his grin.  The two were laughing like madmen in the middle of a near - deserted shopping centre.  He stopped after a while and Niyah followed suit.  He began to walk and shebfollowed this time, aware of what the consequences would be should she not.  She shuffled to keep up with his long strides and he struggled to converse as they walked to his flat.  She would ask him questions and he would try to find a way to answer that didn't mk either look as though he was talking to himself (in hindsight he could have easily just pretended to be conversing with a clueless friend or aqua intense over the phone).
She hadn't been to his world - she had called it Mundus - in just over a century, it made sense that she would be less than caught up on technology and cultures that had emerged since her last visit.
He had adapted to his ghostly companion faster than he would have considered normal.  Aside from the incident where she had travelled through the form of a large man who completely dominated the pavement she had failed to either scare or surprise him.  There had been a nagging in his mind for years along with a voice that had constantly been yelling obscenities and insults to his intelligence that had gone the moment her hand had touched his arm.  She was believable and he was cursed - simple.
Finally they reached the flat.  The lift had terrified poor Niyah, she had screamed at the protests of the old pully system and Hayden just had to be happy that he was the only one who could hear her (they'd probably think he was murdering some woman in a moving lift).  Finally they reached his apartment and walked through the doorway.  Much like the pully system of the lift the hinges squealed like pigs and the floor shrieked.
Niyah's nose crinkled in disgust as she looked around the room and she turned to face him.