Nero Salvic~Memories of the Protector

Chapter 10

I look around fanatically, vision obscured by welling tears in the corners of my eyes.

I wipe the tears away with a quick sniff, and jump off my bed, running my hands along the walls as though that might help me to find her.

There’s a knock and scuffling and scurrying stops, and I look at the door.

My desperate breathing becomes the only thing audible in this dying room.

My whole world remains buried in silence for moments on end, it seems, only stuttered, messed up breathing echoing.

Eventually, there’s talking.

A soft voice,  like a woman’s, like the one from that night, behind the door.

“Nat?” It says.

“Go… Go away.” I stumble over my words like a scared child.

“Nat?” It says again, sounding worried now, “What happened?”

I don’t reply, and my little rotting world almost falls back into the depths, but the voice talks again.

“Nat?”

Still I refuse to reply, trying to swallow the lump in my throat.

The door creaks, but doesn’t open, as weight is pressed against it.

“It…” It starts again, “It’s still light. But there’s no one around.”

Silence is my only answer, and once more I hear the voice repeat my name.

“Nat?”

I move then, closer to the door, and sit down by it, leaning back against it like the mysterious voice outside that has a body.

But who’s voice? Who’s body?

Suddenly, it whispers, and the words echo through the cracks in the woodwork,

“I understand.”

Once again we drop into wide-eyed silence. Neither me, nor the mysterious person outside, say a thing to each other.

 But there’s a sort of understanding in our silence. Something that we share, and I’m not sure what it is.

But I’m the first to break the silence now.

“Who is it?”

They don’t reply.

“What do you understand?”

They’re doing the exact same as I did and I’m bored of silence.

I stop asking and just wait for them to talk.

But they don’t.

They push away from the door and leave in a hurry.

I get up to peep out of the door, but it swings open fiercely, almost swinging into my face.

I hear a gasp, though I’m hidden behind the door at this point, unpurposefully.

“MY DEAR GOD!” Comes a disgusted screech, and I find I’m glad to be hidden.

There’s tutting and a long, irritated sigh.

“They sent to me the wrong place.” She growls, “No son of mine would end up in a disgusting place like this.”

She turns to leave, but my mind wants to prove her wrong too much, and my body reacts.

I step out from behind the door and clear my throat loudly.