Changeling

Chapter 5

"Calliope, are you awake? Calliope?"

What in holy hell? I kept my eyes closed willing Ariton to go away. Maybe if I ignored him, he would leave. "Calliope?" he whispered in my ear. "Wake up."

"You are relentless," I said, opening my eye and glaring at him. I quickly glanced around the room to make sure no one else was there. We were alone.

"I've been called worse than relentless," he grinned. "In fact, just the other day you..."

"Stop, right now. I don't want to talk to you.... Wait." I remembered the flower and a worry set in. "You were here weren't you? You came here, and you made me look crazy didn't you? Did I talk to you?" I narrowed my eye at him. "Did the nurse see me talking to you?" God, who knows what I rambled off to an invisible Ariton while I was incoherent and full of prescription pain meds. Why did he have to come here?

"I thought you didn't want to talk?"

"I don't." I attempted to cross my arms over my chest in defiance, momentarily forgetting about the restraints. I awkwardly laid my free right arm across my chest and made an unsuccessful attempt to mask the unpleasant rush of pain that came with that movement.

"Are you okay?" Ariton stepped closer, responding to my gasp.

"No, I'm not okay, that's why I'm in the hospital. I'm injured and crazy."

"You're not crazy." Ariton leaned over my bed to visually examine me. Concern was etched in the deep crease in his forehead. I didn't know why he cared so much. I didn't know why I cared so much that he did. "We've got to get you out of here."

I laughed indignantly at that. "Sure," I said. "And just how do you think I'm going to get out of here? There's a guard at the door. I'm chained to the bed, and if neither of those two things was a factor, I'm fairly certain I'm incapable of walking at this moment."

"And you think I haven't thought of those things?" He took a defensive step back.

"Have you?" I questioned.

"Of course, Calliope," he said gently.

"My name is Callie."

"Your name is Calliope." His insisting amethyst eyes claimed mine causing an unexpected fluttering of my heart. The machine next to my bed reported the episode with a series of beeps that did not go unnoticed by Ariton. I felt a rush of heat rise through me at the sight of him biting his lip to discourage a smile. Oh. My. God. Stop it, stop it, stop it Callie. I scolded myself. This guy, or whatever he was, was just a figment of my imagination. Wasn't he?

"No one calls me that, my name is Callie," I said, hardening my gaze as I glared back at him.

"I call you that, Calliope."

I hated when anyone used my full name, but I had to admit, for some reason, it sounded nice coming from him.

I studied Ariton as he stood there in my hospital room. He reminded me of the Others. Was he truly different as he claimed? He shared their same pointy features. He dressed in similar fashion and he smelled like them... that smell; it wasn't a bad smell. It would be pleasant had it not been tainted by the violence I associated with it.

I shuddered at the thought of the dark hair, the dark eyes, the dark garments on pale skin and the vile sharp smiles of blood smeared faces that haunted me. Ariton contrasted that with his platinum hair, golden skin, and reassuring grin- like the Others, but not like the Others.

Then again... he had some of the same habits. In the weeks following my parent's death, I would awaken to trespassers of my sleep leaning over my bedside glaring down at me. A terrifying experience to a child so young, which was worsened by their stories of my false parentage. They claimed I was a stolen child whose true family lived in a faraway land they sought to take me to. I never wanted to admit it, but there was a piece of me that believed every word they said. I never felt like I fit in anywhere. And when I looked at old photos of my mother and father, I couldn't see myself in either of their faces. Ariton wanted to take me away too, but I didn't fear him. He resurrected the shameful hope I had as a child that I did have a family out there somewhere who would come to my rescue. Yet so many times, I cried, and I screamed, and I feared the Others. So many times, I needed help- I needed someone to believe me...