He Owns Me II

Chapter 12

Cloud walked around the couch and placed his hand on it, feeling the dry rotted fabric crunch gently under his hands. There were holes all over the back of it, burn marks some of them but the others were purposely done, the threading was undone. He imagined children playing and yanking at the loose stands and forming that hole little by little and his heart stung, his wife and children...he had left them behind.
He left the couch and walked over to the fireplace, there were logs present but they were all waterlogged, completely incapable of being lit. He picked one up and felt how swollen it was,

"Well there goes any chance of heat for the night."

He dropped the log in frustration and walked to another door he saw, a four panel door. He rested his hand in the doorknob and froze. It wasn't cold enough to be in an abandoned house. He turned and scanned the floor, no footprints other than his own. So who, or what, could be behind this door? His nerves draw taught and he turned the knob slowly. Every fibre of his body poised for confrontation, he flung it open and stepped to the side in case something rushed out but nothing came. He waited and counted in his head, '1, 2, 3, 4...' and still nothing came.
He peered around the door jam and looked into...well nothing. If there was a window it was blocked up and the light from behind Cloud did little to pierce the inky black of the room.

"Hello?" his voice only echoed

He took one step into the room and immediately all his nerves shot, the hair on the back of his neck stood up and every muscle in his body tensed and he leaped backwards out the door. He stared into the darkness at two piercing blue eyes, staring directly into his soul.

"I'm sorry if this was your home, I was just looking for somewhere to st-"

He was cut off by the owner of the eyes stepping out into the light. What first caught his gaze were the cold blue eyes shifting to a deep sea green. The owner was a tall boy, thinly built but Cloud could tell he was in no way meager. He stepped more into the light, his hair was dark and dirty but it was indistinguishable between black or brown in the dim lighting. It fell into his face but stopped short of his eyebrows. His face was war tired, thin and serious with a small scar on his lip. His cheeks sunken and his eyes small slits with dark rings around them. His clothes were tattered, a red shirt with a worn design on it, on top of it was a filthy grey sweater with twigs and leaves all over it. The knees of his jeans were losing color and had tears in the seams.

"May I help you with something?"

His voice was raspy and deep, it contrasted with the curt politeness of his words.

"I was just trying to get out of the cold," Cloud lied.

The boy surveyed him, looking down at him with a calculating stare. He walked into the living room and Cloud crawled backwards and got onto his legs. He watched the boy walk by him and around the couch to the other side of the room where he reached into a cabinet and rummaged around. He produced a small beaten up white box and walked back to cloud and stuck it out towards him.

  "For your injuries, you'll die from blood loss before you get warm."