He stared expressionlessly at the figure curled between the branches, almost as if frozen or part of the tree.
He had arrived a few hours ago to check on her and found her tucked up in that position. She slept as if it were a comfortable bed. The funny part was that there was no marked way up the tree. Unless she had jumped up, like he did.
He had heard her mental screaming a few hours before and decided to listen from a distance. The fool was frolicking in the water.
Saka grunted and poked the girl's small and rounded forehead with a finger, his eyes slightly narrowed.
"Wake up."
He called her in a flat tone, his right arm resting on the tree above her head. He poked her cheek next.
April was asleep when she felt a cold surface touch her cheek. Mistaking it for water, because of earlier events, she gasped awake. Then she noticed who it was, Saka, leaning so close to her face, a familiar abomination. It made her smile.
"I said wake up!" Saka yelled, his voice sending tremors through April's bones.
What a barbarian. April frowned and rubbed her eyes.
"Saka, you're late. You said you'd come back at sundown." She threw her arms around him and held on tight, glad to finally not be alone. "It's night. I was worried you wouldn't show up."
Saka pried her arms off himself with a blank expression, pushing her back against the tree.
"I arrived here before sundown, little rat!" He hissed. "But you had passed out."
April flinched, looking up at him with her big eyes even bigger and looking innocent. But it seemed the snow-white elf couldn't be swayed.
"What happened?" He asked, his arm still rested over her head.
"What do you mean?"
"Don't." He warned.
"I fell in the water!" April gasped and lowered her guilty eyes, her fingers picking at her dress.
She noticed how Saka's jaw clenched, how his figure seemed to swallow her, his eyes darkening, and it sent a flash of dread up her spine.
"I'm–"
"Don't care." He interrupted.
"..." April blinked up at him, her lips slightly parted. "...sorry."
[I don't need your sorry.] He telepathically replied and leaned back, making April let go of a breath she wasn't aware she was holding.
He gave her food and she ate, still wedged in that position on the tree. You could hear a pin drop and a sword could cut through that silence. April decided to show a tiny show of goodwill. She wiped the spoon and scooped some pudding, extending it to Saka. The food kissed the young man's blood-red lip, April noticing but keeping her mind blank about it.
He didn't crack an expression even as April wore a faint, polite smile.
"It's enough for one of us to eat." He said.
April fluttered her eyelashes and her hand jerked back.
"Wait! You're not eating at all?"
Saka disregarded her audible shock and concern and crossed his arms.
"The energy you gain from eating is enough to sustain us both."
April was flabbergasted. She had a lot to say. There was a lot wrong with that.
"But wait, you can't just–"
Saka grabbed her hand and stuffed the spoon in her mouth, shutting her up. The girl groaned, looking hard at the older boy with frustration. How could he say such things? He was starving himself because it was enough she was eating? Was there some sort of famine in the Castle? Surely the Soul Tie didn't work that way, did it?
But in the end, she finished her meal with unanswered questions and didn't chase the matter further. Saka took the bowl back and continued staring at her. The look bore through her skin and April felt like someone was aiming a magnifying glass down at her, burning her with sun rays. But it was night time and the outside light from the high window shone down on them.
"How is everyone? The disciplinary hearing with the Elf Council." April muttered, fiddling with her dress.
"They'll be fine." He said.
"Why aren't you with them?" She asked softly.
"I'm not with them." He said again.
"..." April stared at the young man, confused as to what he meant. "Okay." She darted her eyes around before taking her tails into her hand. "I was wondering… about our soul ties. Can we talk about it?"
She waited for a response from the other side but all she received was a cold glare which made her swallow and bite her lip anxiously.
"I wanted us to talk about how we're going to proceed…" April forced herself to keep talking, the cold eyes focused on her. "There are certain boundaries we must keep… between us. For example, don't search around in my memories or listen to my thoughts. I'm a girl and I need privacy. Let's keep this professional. Reading my thoughts without my consent is the same as perversion."
She finished speaking and awaited a response, gently rubbing the tips of her tails.
"Do you have something you'd like to add, Saka?"
The young man stood up, his brown tunic flowing down his figure and covering his inner clothes.
"You read my mind."
April watched him jump back off the tree, his eyes focused on her and clothes billowing. He landed on solid ground and ran his hand over his hair. The moonlight shone down on him, making him appear luminous.
"I'll check on you tomorrow morning."
He turned around and walked off and onto the appearing stepping stones, April watching his solid back as he left, him and his nonchalance.
[Privacy is overrated.]
April raised her eyebrows when she heard the words in her mind.
The path across the lake disappeared, and so did the white-haired young man in brown. April watched the distant door keenly. He wasn't going to come back. He left her again and the only thing he said to her terms and conditions was she read his mind.
Pointless.
"Good talk," she whispered in her head.
* * * *
After a while, she had gotten used to the sight of silver and the distant darkness at the walls. The lake was the only section of the large and spacious room the light from the high window shone upon.
Whether in a bed or on a tree, April could fall asleep easily as long as she was tired enough. It was a good thing that the little island did allow only Saka to enter and leave as he pleased. Otherwise, who knew what monstrosities would have slipped into the room while she was all alone and unguarded?
It was deep in the middle of the night. April was asleep, her arms curled around herself and her tails wrapped around herself as well. She was having a dream. Another one where she knew she was dreaming.
She was in a large open room with ashen walls that seemed to move away whenever she covered the distance. She looked at her feet and saw that her sandals were submerged in a black liquid. It was the same room her real body was asleep in. Only, the silvery lake was the inky water on the floor, the distant walls were the same ashen ones but the little island was gone.
"Good Lord! Is this how it's always going to be every night?" She muttered, picking up her dress and jogging forward.
The walls seemed to move away again and April came to a stop, panting and letting her dress drag in the black, ankle-low liquid.
"Aren't I supposed to get to the other side of the room? I mean, it's a really big room!"
She roved her eyes around. There was little light in that place and the ambiance was spooky at best, ashen walls, an invisible ceiling and black liquid on the floor. She placed her hands to her mouth and loudly called out:
"Hello? I want out! Whichever spiritual entity is toying with me, let me out!"
Her voice was absorbed by the room and she exhaled, holding onto her tails as she looked around. And then she heard it, that voice, coming ahead of her. She could hear crying. She heard the sound of someone crying in the room and her heart sank.
"Oh, no no no no no! What kind of monster is that?"
She stayed put and listened as the crying got louder and louder by the second. A figure appeared a dozen meters ahead of her, causing April to hold her breath.
"No…"
The figure appeared to be kneeling, it's back towards April. As she stared at it, wailing like a small child, the closer it appeared and the smaller it got. It came all the way to appear kneeling a meter away from April, crying endlessly.
April watched it apprehensively, her heart pounding. It looked like a little blond boy in a toga.
"It might be a shapeshifting creature and its whole figure is hidden under this ink."
But the more she listened to the boy's helpless cries, the more terrible she felt. It made her want to embrace him. Or it!
"Hey, stop crying." She whispered but the boy kept crying.
As time went, she felt her own tears forming and stinging in the corner of her eyes. She took a step closer.
"Hey, kid," her voice slightly trembled.
She suddenly hurried to his side and knelt in front of him. He started wailing. April gasped. It was a boy, a real boy. She grabbed him by the shoulders which were slack and weak.
"Hey, hey, hey… why are you crying? Stop it."
She raised his chin and saw his face, eyes closed, nose and eyelids red as he continued to cry his eyes out.
"Come on, stop it. You're breaking my heart, kid."
She knew that was a dream but that little boy's tears were real and his cries were gnawing at her heart. She found herself sniffling. She quickly wiped her eyes and frowned at him.
"What do I have to do to shut you up?"
She looked at his toga. It was torn and muddy at the bottom. His arms were scarred but his face was fine if she didn't count the swelling from the endless crying. If she listened any more, she might join him soon enough.
"Why are you crying?"
She ran her fingers through his hair and brought him into her embrace where she felt his endless tears drenching her dress. She shut her eyes and rubbed his back.
"Please, stop crying. Please…" she was whispering in her head when the boy and his endless wailing vanished in her arms. Just like that.
She gasped and looked at her empty hands. He had disappeared. April laughed at the strangeness of the whole ordeal. She laughed out loud until her laughter turned into tears. Now she was the one crying endlessly. She wiped her tears but they kept coming, dropping in the floor ink.
She cried louder and wiped them faster. They changed from clear to dark, turning black. Seeing the black tears made April even more vulnerable and she kept crying, wiping them. And just like that, a whole torrent of black poured out of her eyes and down her face.
She screamed, and simultaneously screamed herself awake, jolting forward, suddenly gripping onto the tree as she slipped. She regained her balance and wiped the tears she felt on her face with her hands. She looked at the tears. They had traces of black in them.
"Oh my god…" she trembled, realizing she was conscious the whole time and that may have not been a dream.
She burst into more tears and vigorously wiped her eyes.
"No! No no no no! I said no!"
Down in the lake, the red-headed mermaid watched the girl crying up on the tree, her pink skin shimmering in the moonlight.