When Darkness Falls

Chapter 2

For a few seconds after the door slammed shut behind us, I saw nothing but blackness.

Whether it was the shock of an unfamiliar body forcing her into a small wooden shack, or just her overall tiredness that made the girl sit silently on the floor besides me, I couldn't tell.

After a few moments, the grey-black filter that seemed to be placed over my eyes dimmed slightly, allowing me to view the room. Finally, I was able to see the male who pushed us away from the Darkness, and take in his rugged appearance. My eyes narrowed.

"Tate?" Although I was pleased to see him, my tone held a venomous bite. "What are you doing?"

His eyes shot up into his unkempt dirty blonde hair, and he looked across the room to the girl for a brief moment. "Saving your dumb ass?" I spend a moment thinking about the comment, before letting out a nervous sigh and running a hand through my over-grown fringe. I then pushed my cape hood down so that it lay flat between my shoulder blades.

Although in my mind I understood that Tate was trying to help, something inside me didn't really want him to. I wanted to be able to do it by myself, without him butting his ore in.

Eventually I replied. "Thanks,"

"Its alright," He looks down at his hands, which I can see are shaking slightly. I scared him. In what little light there is in the room, a thin beaded necklace glints slightly, hanging at an odd angle on his wide features. It was a stupid charm that probably didn't do anything, but he'd worn it since we were little and I'd long ago given up questioning his belief in it. "I didn't mean to scare you, kid..."

The girl flinched slightly at his referral to her, before using her skeletal hands to pull at the chords of her cape. "First of all, you didn't scare me," The quiver in her voice suggested otherwise, but neither of us were going to mention this. "Secondly, I'm not a kid," She paused. "I'm twenty four."

You had to be kidding. She was what, twelve?

I looked over at Tate, able to imagine his eyes glinting with humour.

"Oh, well, that's very much my bad, then..." The girl nodded at his words, before brushing invisible dirt of the cloth covering her lap.

"Natalia," I cringed backwards into the darkest of the shadows, his tone causing a flutter of butterflies in my stomach. It made my heart race, and my palms sweat. He was going to ask me, again; and again, I wouldn't be able to answer him. However much I wanted to, I just couldn't. "What were you doing out again at this time?" I look up at him, as he moves close to me, the light only reflecting off of his expectant eyes and the gloss on the wooden beads. "Please... enough with the bullshit..."

I do what I do best.

Lie.

I shrug lightly, before realizing he wouldn't be able to see me. "I don't know," I admitted, half dishonest and half sincere. "I felt restless."

The truth was, I really didn't know what it was that I was supposed to be doing. Every night - especially within the winter months - I would venture out for some reason or another. I didn't always have reason to like today, either. Most nights, I would just get this urge to go out into the dark, my tired body complaining as I pulled myself down narrow alleys of the town, before doing laps around the town.

Although admittedly, that may have been out of habit; checking that there aren't any strays out and about, like the woman from this evening.

Even though I couldn't see his expression now, imagining it wasn't difficult. His brow furrowed as he internally battled between pushing for more information, and respecting my boundaries, lips set in a grim line and that overall disappointed look flickering across his entire expression. His almost translucent skin would be creased in so many places on his young face, that he looks about five years older.