EVELYN (ON HOLD)

4 ~ His Touch

"The worst distance between two people is misunderstanding." --- Neetesh Dixit

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All I can say is that I didn't feel a thing.

The process took half an hour and it felt like 5 minutes. Time in the real world passes much faster than in the cell. It may be because things actually happen here.

I touch the white wraps around my head with the tips of my fingers. It's rough and tight and wrapped from my forehead to my neck, with the top of my head left for air.

The chip that read my thoughts was extracted from the back of my head, they told me. There's a large plastic pack hanging next to my chair and it's filled with red. It's blood and it scares me to look at it. To look at a substance that came from my body other than the beats of my heart or my breaths or my waste.

It scares me. I look away.

The room is cold and smells like disinfectant. The tiles are white and they're blinding me and making my head hurt and spin because everything in the room is white. The bed, the chairs, the machines, the light, the utensils and needles and everything else.

White.

I close my eyes and sit stiffly. It hurts when I rest my head back.

I hear footsteps and I open my eyes to see Archer. His hair looks brighter in the luminescence and he looks at me sadly. Like he's disappointed with me for doing something bad.

I've noticed he stares too much.

'What?' I ask, my voice annoyed and tired. It's a rhetorical question. I don't actually want an answer, I just want him to stop staring.

But he answers, 'it's not in your head anymore.'

'No,' I reply. The answer is obvious.

He sighs and rubs his forehead with the tips of his fingers to even out the worried crease. His eyebrows are furrowed and he looks like he's trying to figure something out.

'What?' I ask even though I don't really care. His problems are none of my business. He's read my thoughts and I never want to see him again. It makes me feel vulnerable.

I stand up immediately and he looks shocked. My own strength surprises me.

'You should probably rest,' he suggests, but I ignore him. I walk to the door and try to yank it open.

It's locked.

You've got to be kidding me.

I turn around slowly to see him smiling cheekily and I glare at him.

'Open the door.'

'No,' he simply says, hands in pockets, a smooth smile on his angelic face.

Fine. Be like that.

I kick the door and retreat my foot because that hurt. I kick it again and again and again, ignoring the pain in my foot.

'Hasn't living all your life in a trapped cell taught you that kicking won't open the door?' he chuckles from behind me and I groan in annoyance. I want to get out of this room. It's giving me a headache and Archer isn't helping matters.

I rest my head on the door, my back to him, because looking at his face does things to my heart that I don't like.

'It's time for lunch,' he whispers in my ear and I don't know when he came right behind me. But he's there and his whisper tickled my ear and shot tingles down my spine.

I jump away, shocked at his closeness. His proximity. But all he does is open the door by tapping his card on a metal pane on the side.

The door slides open and reveals a long hallway lined with more soldiers. And I'm still not used to seeing so many people so I openly gape at them with my mouth slightly open, eyes wide.

Archer walks out of the room and into the hall, his feet not making a sound. I walk after him and he suddenly stops. The next part happens so fast that I don't register it.

His hand is low on my back and he's so, so close to me. I think I've forgotten how to breathe. His sweet smell invades me and I resist the temptation to inhale.

And then we're walking with his hand on my waist, and I'm breathing but I'm not breathing. I'm alive but I've died again and again and again with every step we take.

It's been so long since I've been this close to a human and my sensory system can't cope. Multitasking is not an option and there's a debate in me:

Should I look?

Should I feel?

Should I hear?

Should I smell?

Should I breathe?

Should I walk?

Should I let my heart beat at this rate?

I mind can't decide, but my body can, and so with weak knees, I walk with him to a door that says Dining Hall.

And his hand doesn't move the entire way.

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