Lost Soul

Chapter Three

SLEEP PARALYSIS

• is a feeling of being unable to move, either at the onset of sleep or upon awakening, accompanied by hallucinations and intense fear

I look away, hoping I was just mistaken.

"Hey!" I freeze, a voice so eerily familiar. I gasp when a hand suddenly grasps my arm and I stare to look at his familiar face, a little lower only to see his bruised nose, it didn't look as bad anymore but it was still clearly broken, proof of what happened that night. But as I stare into his skeptical eyes, my heart beats, could he actually recognize me? Did he actually remember everything that happened?

"We need to talk" It wasn't much of a question or a suggestion, it was a demand. His eyes held a passionately curious gaze and I was slightly relieved that he didn't seem furious. I froze, unable to comprehend that he was actually here, in front of me, touching me and very much familiar to who I was. I didn't have much time to react as he drags me through the hallway, glancing back at me as if making sure that I was actually here.

He glides through the school smoothly and I can't believe I've never even noticed him before. I curse myself for having little attention of what goes around me, always being in my head and talking to my own thoughts.

He pushes the door open to the library and the smell of old books fills the air, anyone barely comes here anymore, they always preferred the public library just a few blocks from here, it was bigger and always managed to smell of lavender, I always liked the smell of antiques, the type you whiff when opening the doors of a museum. The librarian gives us a suspicious glare but keeps her mouth shut as we disappear deeper into the shelves. He pauses, grabbing two random books before going further down the back.

It was clear the school had low maintenance of the place, the tables had turned dusty but that didn't seem to bother him, he brushes off the dust with the sleeves of his jackets and glances at me, signaling me to sit down. He settles himself in front of me and opens a random page of his unknown book but by the looks of it, he had no intention of reading them.

"You" he stares at me intently and I couldn't help but feel heat traveling up to my cheeks.

"You were there. I remember..." he looked torn, whether to believe it actually happened or dismiss it as a dream but a part of me felt that it was only right for him to know the truth after I put him in so much trouble.

"You...I...I...couldn't control myself. You were in my head, I could feel how you felt and I knew...I knew who you were there for and why you did it...for this...Anne person" he shakes his head, scrunching up his nose as if he was trying to remember a nightmare of a dream. I frowned, he did remember. He felt the same things that I did, his feelings but mine were always dominant. I wondered how vulnerability felt like, having no control but seeing the situation lay out with your own two eyes, having no choice but to live through it.

It was different that time. When I looked into that murderer's eyes, I held nothing more than resentment, I didn't feel his fear of dying, a bullet in the head, all I thought about was how this man had just killed aunt Leah. Dying seemed so easy in the hands of a murderer but this person in front of me tells me of a connection of two strangers, intimate yet unknown, willing yet not truly.

"I woke up...dazed. I knew I hadn't drunk and the broken proved my point." he looks up at me with a slight glare and I shift uncomfortably in his gaze. That really must have hurt.

"I just..I thought you were a ghost. You know...unfinished business perhaps? But...you're here. Very much alive" he runs a hand through his hair and for the first time I finally look up to meet his gaze. His eyes were piercing blue, curiosity flooded them, his nose still looked a bit broken but it didn't look as bad anymore. His features were precise and masculine and I can't shake the thought of how handsome this guy actually was. But the situation didn't feel the need for appreciation of physical appearances. It needed answers.