Twenty-Six: And They Combust

AXEL

My eyes followed Lisa as she trailed her fingers over the spines of the book, her eyes everywhere but on me and a somewhat jittery movement to the way she was moving. I didn’t know if it was because we were alone in the house or because of the implied challenge in the air but whatever it was, it was a bit unbecoming of someone like her.

I wasn’t going to kill her for fuck’s sake. I was no psychopath, and I expected equal competition from her if we were going to tease ourselves and dance around a fire but she was making it no fun if she keeps picking the coward’s way out.

And the girl in my library right now, the one trailing her fingers over the spine of my books doesn’t look anything like Lisa Volkov, she looked like a cautious little girl especially with her hair packed into a kid’s ponytail and her eyes devoid me of make-up.

“So,” she started after she had walked the entire length of the library back and forth, “how come you have this kind of big library?”

“I love books,” I