New World | SOOKAI

Chapter 12

My world swam in front of me. Eyes up, down, left, right, drawing a cross between us. My heart was a hammer on an iron plate in my ears. I felt sick, disorientated like I had just lifted myself out of a 6-month coma in hospital. A cold sweat broke out across the back of my neck and the palms of my shaking hands as they opened and closed of their own accord. I focused my gaze on Soobin's face. Don't take me for an idiot, Soobin. You... you can't... there's just... there was no way he could have been a... he couldn't...

My arms fell from my chest like dead weights and my thoughts raced like the hooves of an antelope as the teeth and claws of his confession chased them. I ripped my eyes away from him to the piano next to us, a few hundred years old. To the bookshelves of originally composed music, even older. Then back to him, his posture, the style of his clothing, the iciness of his skin that I could still feel upon my own like an imprint. The facts I knew about him were rotating, starting to gravitate towards each other to fit together from a completely different angle of approach now.

I stepped closer to him, looking at him with the deepest intent I had ever given, studying him, the deathly pale skin of his face and the uncanny amount of pure honesty upon it that I just couldn't believe. My eyes settled on his lips, though it was not their shape or taste that now held my keen interest, but what sat behind them. I brought a shaking fingertip up to my mouth, touching the spot on my lower lip that he had bitten. Was he really..

"A vampire.." I breathed out narrowly, barely an audible whisper. The sound of that word leaving my mouth sounded so alien to me. A foreign language that I was struggling to translate.

... No. I don't believe you. I can't believe you, Soobin.

I stepped closer to him again, ignoring all the pieces of him in my mind that so desperately wanted to click into place. I wouldn't let them. I wanted to burn the blank canvas in my mind and all the thoughts that tried to paint the image of him onto it. This was a farce. You're going to have to do better than stand there and talk shit, Soobin. I'm not some wet-eared little child who would believe such an impossible declaration so easily.

I reached a hand up, sliding my fingers down into the buttoned-up shirt that sat flush against my neck and ripped it open to the side, hearing at least 3 buttons pop with the movement and bounce across the hardwood floor beneath us. My breaths were deep, laboured, I was drowning and I was only just holding my chin above water. I tilted my head to the side and stared him down, challenging him in what perhaps would be my final act of bravery... or stupidity. Your far-fetched disclosure isn't enough, Soobin. You're going to have to...

"Prove it" I said to him between my clenched teeth.

I saw his lower lip drop and quiver like a worm. I kept my gaze locked onto his own, I wouldn't let him look away. I wouldn't let him fabricate another lie. I wouldn't let him make me leave again. This was all or nothing.

He slowly stepped closer to me, in my personal space now and my breaths increased their intake but the exhales were barely present. I couldn't catch my breath now with how fast my thoughts and heart still raced inside of me. He lifted his right hand up to the side of my exposed neck, I suppressed a shudder at the feel of his wintry fingertips. His eyes now moved to where his fingers were and I slowly saw the glance in them change, like he had entered a trance; hypnotized by something I couldn't see.

His left hand lifted as I felt his long fingers comb through the strands of my hair and he was suddenly gripping it tightly. I let out an involuntary pleasurable sigh from the feeling. He had me slipping, falling for his now overbearing presence in front of me. Why was this so arousing? Why was I letting my body be fooled by him? He inched closer and dipped his head down into the juncture of my neck and shoulder. My tendons were so tight from the angled position of my head, I felt like I would snap and break under him. He inhaled me deeply and I felt a wave of arctic-cold water dowse me with the sound of his intake of breath.