What If Our Life Threads Bind?

Chapter 38.

On the floor of Jove's palace there stand two urns, the one filled with evil gifts, and the other with good ones.

He for whom Jove, the lord of thunder mixes the gifts he sends, will meet now with good and now with even evil fortune;

But he to whom Jove sends none but evil gifts will be pointed at by the finger of scorn, the hand of famine will pursue him to the ends of the world,

And he will go up and down the face of the earth, respected neither by Gods, nor men.

Then,

I must be the only thing that saves and drowns us all at the same time.

The most provide a loved gift of all

It will be as easy as breathing, and as hard as to get a-hold of, especially in the presence of void.

I am the hope they seek, and I will open the box of evil and good;

destined to destiny's portions.

I will bring the darkness

I will bring the peace in motion.

The alarm jerked me awake, and at first I stumbled out of bed, frantic. I have to find the Pandora box, before she opens it out to people. I need to stop her. What do I do? Then reality gradually kicked in around me, and I realized it was just a dream, and slumped back onto the bed with a groan.

"Good morning." I heard a hoarse voice, and I was about to panic and probably chop his head off with my shears when suddenly I remembered where and with whom was I. I smiled and said, "Good morning." with almost closed mouth, worrying if I have a morning breath.

"How are you feeling now?" He yawned after a minute. Why is he so cute?

"Good." I said, turning my head away as I began to slide out of bed. Well, this was awkward. Climbing out of my senior's bed was something I did not foresee. If this was a part of some rom-com novel, this would have been the part where I'd squeal. But now in reality, I barely have the power to even look at him right in the eyes without blushing, let alone squeal like a dying seal, giving him an extra suggestion on as to what sort of a freak I am.

"Going somewhere?" He asked, his voice etched with amusement. To be fair, I am walking like a drunkard. Besides, my legs feel wobbly, like they have no bones inside.

"Robbie told me not to let you walk. You need bed rest, Martha."

I was about to ask him who is this Robbie he keeps talking about when I suddenly remembered the guy during the elections. His flatmate.

"I thought Robbie was your flatmate? Where is he?"

"He doesn't stay here during the holidays. So right now I have the house to myself. I mean, well, we have it to ourselves." He said rubbing his neck, and I turned away hiding my blush.

"Can I use the bathroom?"

"I'll show you the way." He nods and I hurry behind him. I took his hand as he followed me to the corridor and then to the bathroom. When I saw him entering the restroom and gave him a minor glare that he didn't seem to notice.

"Where do you think you're going?" I asked finally.

"Into the bathroom." He looked down. "Come on, Martha. You can barely stand on your own."

"I'll be fine." I said and immediately closed the door before him. A shadow of him still lingering on the door was visible through the door. No no no, he's going to apparently hear me pee in that way and there is no way in the hell that that is going to happen.

"Uh, what toothbrush do I use?"

"You can use that spare blue one on the sill." He replied, without moving a muscle. Goddammit. I should have asked him directly to go away.

"Austin?"

"Uhuh? Right here."

"Can you go away, please?"

"What?" I could hear him smile. God, this is embarrassing.

"Yeah, you don't have to stand here. I'll be fine." I tell him and nearly slip. Okay, I'll just pretend I am fine. There is no way he's going to stand here. If I can see him from here, he would see me stripping my clothes from there, won't he?

After a pause, he hesitated then moved, leaving me alone.

The bathroom was huge, with a round mirror above the old fashioned sink and to the opposite wall was a big bath tub. I checked the lock on the door then carefully brushed my teeth, peed then washed my face.

I obviously can't bathe right now properly. I don't have any other clothes to wear. Deciding, I looked into the mirror and into my eyes. The speck of the black spot had enlarged. It looks like my pupil had deformed and was spreading its blackish-ness to the surrounding parts of my eye.

Why is this happening to me? Does this have something to do with the dream I saw today?

I am probably just panicking. Shut up, Martha. You have better things to worry about.

I fiddled with my hair. I took a strand between my thumb and index finger, nearly crossing eyed trying to look at it closely, then stood back.

Stop imagining things, I told myself and unlocked the bathroom door. It took me total five minutes to carefully cross the corridor, without stumbling and embarrassing myself in front of the boy I low-key had a crush on, to reach the bedroom. When I re emerged the first thing I saw was Austin standing by the bed, facing away from me. He was tugging his shirt up over his head, revealing his tanned back.

I stood there awkwardly, then realized he might turn around any second and catch me standing there awkwardly. I made my way outside the door to re-enter but accidentally hit my foot from a nearby chair, making a stupid noise. Austin turned around and so did I, quite awkwardly.

"Sorry....didn't see.....no... clothes...I'll...go.." I stammered and went right out, my wobbly legs doing a lousy job to keep me steady. I was almost a few steps away from the bed when I heard him laugh.

"It is okay." He said and dramatically, in a slow motion, I turned around and dared not to look up, hoping my cheeks weren't glowing too much. I tried hard to keep my eyes from straying down to his torso. He was only wearing boxers now and....Oh crap, I was looking.

Austin crawled into bed, his expression amused that I pretended not to notice. I took large strides to the bed, ignoring his intimidating gaze and tried not to think about what just happened. When will I leave this house? This is so humiliating.

"What is?" He asked, still amused, and I mentally face palmed myself.

Oh snap, did I say that out loud?

"I think I should go back home." I said in a low voice. He didn't say anything for a minute, then sighed.

"You were drugged, Martha. I can't let you go in this condition. Get well and then, you may go, if you want." He said and this time, it was my turn to sigh. "Come to bed." He said and I nodded, meekly. This is so weird.

But I don't have a choice. I need the tapestry.

I slid carefully between the sheets, which felt wonderfully warm to my touch. We both lay there in the dark, he stayed on his side and I stayed on mine, feeling a little too afraid to move. What if I moved my hand and brushed his leg accidentally? Would he think I was trying something? How embarrassing would that be?

"Don't think too hard." He suddenly said and I jumped.

"Sorry. I was just trying to remember......everything."

Something brushed my hand and we both jumped. "You're too cold." He said, barely keeping from laughter.

"No, you're too hot." I frowned, and he grinned.

"Why, thank you."

"I didn't mean that." I said and he laughed.

"Do you want something to eat? You hardly had anything yesterday for dinner. You must be hungry." He asked and on cue, my stomach made a weird growl. He giggled and I slapped his arm, before he left the bedroom to get me something to eat.