What If Our Life Threads Bind?

Chapter 49

AUSTIN

I turn around sleepily on the soft mattress to probably hold Martha with my hands or perhaps wanted her to hold me, either way but found no one. Frowning, I mumbled "Martha" with my eyes still closed and felt the cold bed sheet with my wandering hands. Slowly I peeled open an eye and frowned as I sat up.

"Martha?"

No answer.

I rubbed my eyes and yawned as I checked my phone, and then after a minute my eyes focused on the little note that sat next to my car keys.

I'm off to somewhere. Your breakfast is on the table. Will be back soon... :)

"Where?" I huffed in a husky voice and not expecting a reply back, I got up from my bed with a scrunched up face and headed to the kitchen. She had already left me a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee. I smile absentmindedly as I think back at the little note she had left for me.

Typical old fashioned Martha leaving a paper note instead of a message on the phone.

I quickly finished my breakfast and stripped off from my clothes, entering the bathroom. As I flossed, I thought about last night. She doesn't seem so bad or was I again just being tricked? Where is she anyway? She didn't say where she had gone, did she?

She also wasn't very clear on the girl with green eyes. The girl who had been spying on me since so long. She just told me that it wasn't her but how do I know if I should trust her? Maybe Robbie was right all along when I once blurted out about Martha spying on me and he had said, "She sounds creepy."

"But I don't know if that is Martha."

"Honestly, why would you want to know if a girl peeks at you every night? It is way beyond creepy. What if she murders you when I am not around?"

"That is exactly why I want to know who she is and why is she doing that?" I rolled my eyes.

"Right. As if she's going to be honest with you. Ever. Like 'Oh yeah, honey. I wanted to have a go on you? Thought of murdering you. I want to make you scream'." He gave me a dirty expression and I looked at him deadpanned.

"You're so weird." I said, my lips twitching.

A bell rang and I snapped back to reality. I quickly wrapped a towel around my bare torso and looked through the peephole. It was Martha. I opened the door and her eyes traveled down my body very quickly and then back up my face. I grinned and she bit her lower lip. "Welcome back." I said.

She gave me a quick smile, her cheeks glowing as she pushed past me. I closed the door behind me and looked at her walk up to the kitchen. She didn't move for a minute and I thought she was crying. I took the opportunity to follow behind her step and stood there for a minute. Her shoulders was shaking lightly and then I heard her sniff. She is crying.

"Martha?" I cupped her waist from either side, and slowly turned her around.

She sets a bottle of something at the kitchen counter. It looked like she had stored lots and lots of black slick ink in that bottle. "What happened?" I asked.

She shook her head frantically, her hands over her face. Seeing her like this, made me slightly disheveled. I moved closer to her and cupped her face, lifting it to make her eyes meet mine. She had been crying for a long time. Something is wrong. "Where did you go?" I ask her softly and she stops crying momentarily.

"To kill Augury's friend. Augury had come here for his friend's tapestry, remember? I had gone to kill him." She said in a soft voice and I frowned.

Wait...so who did she kill at the carnival?

"You hadn't kill him earlier?" I asked, still frowning, my heart pumping loudly against my chest.

"What?" She looked at me. "No, I told you to give him the tapestry, didn't I? How else would I kill him without his presence or his tapestry?" She claimed, her eyes mirroring my confusion.

"But at the carnival...you killed the guy?"

She stared blankly at me and that is when I see it. Her green eyes had something in them. Something black. As if her eyes were painted and someone by mistake spilled some black ink near the white area. "Your eyes-"

"Austin, what are you talking about? I didn't kill anyone at the carnival." She said with a horrified expression and my head buzzed.

"Martha, your eyes are-"

"Austin!" She shook me and I stared at her. What the fuck is happening? "Talk to me!" She had no color left in her cheeks.

"But you killed that-that man." I stammered. "and then you told me to run and I ran because I thought you'd kill me too."

She grew pale.

"I just killed Admetus' wife today. Didn't I tell you about the council meeting before I kill him? That is where I am coming from. What are you talking about?" She asked but she already knew the answer to that. She was visibly shaking.

I felt my face flush. "Martha, I saw you at the carnival and you were killing someone with your eyes and your hands."

She looked at me in disbelief.

"And when I ran away, on my way here, I think I met your sister, Chloe."

She didn't say anything but she kept staring at me, her eyes brimming with tears. Suddenly I felt very exposed. Maybe I shouldn't have told her about Chloe.

Wait, did she compel me again? But she couldn't have.

"Are you compelling me?" I tried to change the subject but she wasn't even listening to me anymore.

No answer.

"Martha, listen to me."

She didn't listen to me.

"Martha-"

"Yes I am !" She snaps back.

Suddenly the door bell rings again and I swear under my breath. Before I can tell whoever is standing on the door to piss off, Martha is there before me. She opens the door and gasps, her eyes wide.

Then she drops to the floor.

I run to her as she coughs and then slowly sits. At the door, stand three females of whom I have no idea about. "Sinner!" The tallest one spits at Martha as she tries to stand up.

Then the woman at the door looks at me and says, "Kill her, human. It is time."