Et tú, Clarissa?

Chapter twelve

Present Day (England, Britain)

I wake up by someone's scream that scares the hell out of me and I am fast up and out the bedroom door. I cannot see Zac anywhere and the fire is about to die. No firewood makes it easy to figure out where he went. It does not even take a second before I have put on my jacket and stumbled out in the snow. My feet carry me around the corner of the cottage and there I see Zac. As I reach him, I see how he bleeds from the outside of his thigh and how the bloody axe lay beside him. He groans of pain and hold his leg tight. I fall down next to him and look into his deep eyes a while to calm him before he nods and shows me the wound. Instinctively I take my belt and strap it around his leg.

"It is okay." I tell him and smile carefully. "You are going to be fine. I got you."

I help him up and carry him back into the cottage. We soon find ourselves in the kitchen where I place him at the counter top before I search for something to clean his wound with. As I find what I am looking for, I walk back to Zac and look him in the eye to establish if his ready. Zac inhales between his teeth to cope with the pain as I place the damp cloth to his wound. I see that he wants to say something, but does not because he is too scared that his voice is going to fail him so I take to words instead.

"The downside of feeling things, is it not?"

He nods and forces a smile.

"Give me a second."

I walk over the floor and take the ointment and clean cloth from the kitchen bench to bring back to Zac. I place the ointment over his wound and start winding his leg.

"Alternative medicine?" his voice shakes even if he tries to hide it. "Do you really think-?"

Suddenly every sign of pain disappears from his face and with it, his doubts whilst his eyes widen to the size of horse hooves. He takes a hold of my hand to make sure he feels anything at all and then look up at me again. I laugh quietly and smile.

"Do I really think what?"

"Holy ... cow, where did you learn this?"

I shrug and kiss the back of his hand whilst winking. He blushes shyly and slightly relaxes by the feeling of my touch, but not as much as I had hoped.

"It does not matter, does it? Only that I know it."

He nods and I walk away to the drawer in the living room to find him some new trousers.

"Here." I say as I come back to him with the trousers. "I go and fetch some of that wood."

A smile fills his lips and I walk out from the cottage.

As I wipe the blood of the axe, a weird feeling makes the hair in my neck rise. I look up and around to see if I can find anything, but the forest around me seems empty. Perhaps too empty, but I could have sworn it felt like someone was watching me. My gaze flies around me before I pick up some more firewood and steer my steps back to the cottage. I am fast up the steps and in through the door, but the door closing behind me do not shut out the feeling.

"You alright?" Zac asks and I nod.

"Yes. Let us get this cottage warmed up."

While I put some firewood on the live coal that are about to give up, I hear how Zac starts walking towards me. The scratching and popping from the wood as the fire takes hold of it fills the silence and the warmth from the flames touches my frozen hands to make them warm again. I lose myself in the flames for a minute before Zac pulls me out of my hypnotic stage.

"Eh. I was just wondering..." I turn to him as he sits down at the living room table. "When we met, the day before yesterday, you called me Nicholas. Who's that?"