Occhiolism (#2 in the Hajar Series) [ON HOLD]

two

chapter two - safety

song of the chapter ; silhouette - wyatt

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"WHAT DO YOU mean Noah's back?" Israfil asked, his muscles cording with apprehension. He wasn't going to doubt her this time-- he was going to take her fears seriously this time. He couldn't afford to lose her again, even if Noah wasn't here and it was just hallucinations. He couldn't fail her again, not ever.

Farah shook like a decaying leaf of a dying tree in his arms, breathing hard as she mustered her words and gathered her words to form coherent sentences. "He's back," She whispered, "I saw him." The words simmered into the humid, summer air of their room. "That's why I screamed," She lifted her head to glance around them, double checking to make sure Noah wasn't there. "I had a nightmare about him, and then, when I woke up, I saw him standing in the corner of the room."

"Are you sure?" He questioned softly.

She frowned, moving away slightly. "I know what I saw, Israfil. Why don't you believe me?"

"I do," He murmured, sounding honest enough to convince her but not himself. He didn't like the way he was questioning what she saw, but he wanted to make sure it wasn't a false alarm.

She sat up and inched closer to the pillows as if she wanted to sink her body inside of them and disappear. Farah hugged her legs tightly to her chest, eyes still wide and searching through the darkness for any sign of peril. "Can you check the house?" She squeaked out.

He nodded instantly, moving the thin, black cotton sheet off of his body to follow her request, switching the light on to look through the closet, the bathroom, and then any other corner of the room, "Stay here." Israfil told her, silver eyes darting to her once more before he opened the door and proceeded to check the rest of their home for danger. Israfil's feet padded down the stairs and into the living room, the other bathrooms, basement, spare bedrooms and lastly the kitchen.

Like the rest of the house, he expected everything to be in place. And it seemed to be, at first glass, but when he felt a bristle of slight breeze more than deemed normal, he knew something was wrong. His heart thudded in his chest as his fingers reached out to brush the curtain away from the window that sat directly in front of the kitchen that led to the yard. Only, the actual glass pane was removed. It wasn't shattered, it was gone. Someone had taken it off. That's when he knew something was seriously wrong.

What Farah had seen was not a hallucination. It wasn't a dazed apparition, a figment of her imagination. It was real.

Noah was back.