Nigeria

Chapter Six

Five days had past since I saw Chase with the demon, and in those five days nothing has happened. We've traveled only in the back-trails, and haven't kept a fire any larger than a foot high, just hot enough to cook our suppers. And in this time Chase tried his best to act like nothing was wrong. He'd ask questions about my life, how I grew up, and my suspicions about my differences, and the country we traveled. 

I had told him only what I thought was necessary; I still didn't trust him. Not after that night. I had told him I had always suspected I was different, and came to live with it. That the country we traveled I was unfamiliar with for I hadn't traveled this far on the back roads before. Although I know my answers didn't satisfy Chase, he would pretend to be interested in everything.

*        *       *

The sun was beginning to set, the air was beginning to bite, and Chase decided to stop for the night by yet another peaceful creek surrounded by trees; Chase seemed to enjoy scenes of nature like this rather than just some bushes, and trees. 

"Tomorrow we should get to our destination," he said, more to himself than to me as he set up his bed, and took out necessary cooking items. 

My blood froze. I cleared my throat silently. 

"And where are we heading?" I asked, forcing myself to seem interested rather than nervous. Chase looked at me for a moment then back at his things.

"To a friend’s place who lives by here. She'll be helping us cross over," he shrugged as if I should've expected that answer. I just stood there. 

"Is this friend expecting anybody else, besides you when we get there?" I wondered whether that question was pushing the extent of knowledge I should know and boarding what shouldn't. Chase didn't even turn around this time. 

"I wouldn't think so. Nobody knows where she lives in this world, and very seldom do people care to know from our side," he replied, voice smooth. “She’s misunderstood, mostly. She’s always speaking in tongue, and never tells you what you want. Sometimes she even says things you’d rather not want to hear, and she’ll always acts different than other people. But she’s sweet when you get to know her; she’d never allow anybody to hurt a friend of the King. I personally think that if she’d have the chance she’d steal away the King from your mother’s grasp, and marry him herself.” Chase chuckled quietly to himself, as he started to prepare our diner of beans. I sat down beside him and smiled softly to myself; Chase hadn’t laughed like that since before the demons showed up and it was nice to hear it. It oddly comforted me.

“What’s her name, this lady we’re going to see?” I asked, hoping to carry on this weightless conversation, and hoping to learn more about Chase if it was possible. I didn’t know exactly when it had happened, but he had become more than a traveling companion, he had become my friend. I wanted to try to rid the poison that had seeped into the depths of his mind. I wanted to try to make him smile like he was now.

He turned his head, and looked straight into my odd purple eyes with his light brown eyes; I didn’t like what I saw. There was pain, immense amounts of pain under the cover of his light mood of the moment. The amount of pain I sensed made me want to hug him and tell him everything was going to be okay, another off feeling that I wasn’t accustomed to. I knew some of the pain would’ve been from the loss of his father, but I was guessing a large part was because of the deal he’d made to save his Nadine. He noticed the shift in my mood and looked away quickly before he answered my question, while lazily stirring the beans.

“Her name’s Karman. Be careful when you meet her.” His voice was back to his now normal stiffness. I nodded and turned to get my bedding ready for the night.