Vermin

The Power to Laugh

Damien's front door was open a crack. I felt a rush of panic pulse through me, was something in there? I jumped as a hand slapped down on my shoulder. I whipped round, breathing a sigh of relief as Damien's eyes met mine. That relief was short lived when I saw the furry beneath them.
"Anivana! Where were you?" He hissed.
"Don't call me that." I said pushing his hand away.
"What are you going to do, Anivana?" He spat the name out like it was a disease, something he didn't want sitting on his tongue. I struggled against the urge to slam my palms into his chest, but he continued.
"You lied to me, I'm supposed to be your friend." He snarled.
"Friends can trust each other, friends don't follow each other round in the dark." I couldn't help it, the rage was building up inside me. "Unless you still think we're more then that." I'd struck a nerve, his face told me that. Because he knew he could never have me, because I preferred females, and no matter how hard he tried he would never be more then a friend. It was if the more he couldn't have me, the more he wanted me. And it ate away at him from inside out.
"No I don't think like that." He sneered. "But do you have any idea how terrifying it was to not know were you were? When I saw you house empty, I thought the f*cking wood guards had dragged you back to Tiyrin!" I was silent for a minute, thinking about how that must of felt.
"You don't know what it was like, to have to watch those bastards drag you away, beaten and bloody." His voice cracked with emotion at the memory. "I wanted to kill me self for what happened to you. So badly Talsa and Luven wouldn't let me over the wall. And you still haven't told me where you were." I gulped, he would go berserk when he found out. He stood there staring me down, waiting.
"I was over the wall." I began.
"YOU WHERE WHAT?!" His anger exploded out of him, wave after wave crashing into me. He pushed my shoulders against the door, bending over, so his nose almost touched mine. I shivered, trying to wiggle free but he had a too strong grip on me. His muscles tensed below his coat, his dark skin pulsing with furry. I was surprised Damien's family hadn't woken up yet, perhaps they had, but they were just pretending not to hear.
"What the f*ck were you doing there?!"
"I can't tell you."
"Anivana..." He said, dangerously calm. Scowling, I pushed my knee between his legs, he winced bending over. Taking the opportunity, I shoved him away from me, jumping back as his fist hit the door. I stared in shocked silence. His knuckle remind on the door, a trickle of blood oozing through the crack he had made. Slowly, he turned to face me. The shock in his eyes told me what he too had realised, he could of killed me.
"Ani..." he chocked out. I only turned away, shaking my head. I bit down on my bottom lip, trying to stop it from wobbling. I started to walk back to my house, my fathers house. The house he passed on to my mother, beforeI took it from her. Damien made no move to stop me.

In fact, he didn't move at all.

I didn't recognize the house. The door had been broken off its hinges, hang half off, the small, weak windows smashed to dust. The guards had not bothered to make a clean job of it. I only knew it was ours from the small brown pictures on the side off the door, drawn by Elfie. There were five little people waving at me. One very small Elfie with a stick in his hand, (he always insisted it was a paint brush), standing next to him Serena, wearing a triangular dress and a crown on her head. Squished next to her, I had painted my father, as Elfie could not remember what he looked like. And next to him, he had drawn me tall and smiling, holding hands with grinning boy. Damien. I stared at his face. Damien had always had a power. A power I could never summon, and would only ever get close to when I was near him. He could look at the world for what it was, and laugh. No matter how many cruel things it threw at him, he could still smile, still joke when all hope was lost. But I think tonight, he lost that power, and I hoped to dear Breaker he got it back.