Trust issues

" I didn't mean to hurt you or anything, but you were throwing things at me and making it difficult for me to tend to your wounds. So I had to force you to stop throwing a fit. Sorry if I made you feel some sort of way" Darren slowly recounted, choosing his words carefully. Darren didn't want her to think he was calling her crazy. It was obvious that he believed the pain from her wounds was what made Kyley react as aggressively as she did earlier. He understood, and he wanted her to know he really did.

Silence reigned over in the room for a long while. Kyley didn't respond to Darren's apology, she just lowered her gaze in thought.

' He is genuinely apologizing?' Kyley repeated in her mind, over and over again as though she were trying to remind herself that this was real. Kyley had never been apologized to by anyone. Never! And hearing Darren apologize to her made her feel some kind of way.

' Moreso, he actually cares' Kyley could tell from the sincerity in his tone that Darren meant what he said. Believe it or not, she could just tell!

She became conflicted as she felt a sweet feeling mix with doubt, uncertainty and insecurity in her heart.

" I..." Kyley didn't know what to say. " I was scared" She uttered in a broken tone and hid her gaze. She really was scared back then...

Darren felt sour hearing this, he couldn't help but blame himself for how Kyley felt.

" Kyley" he called out softly, his expression softening as he gazed upon the devastated Kyley. The latter looked up hearing her name being called.

" I'm sorry" Darren apologized once again, this time it came from the very core of his being.

Kyley hearing these words felt her nervous heart soften. She shook her head and said " I-it's fine". She didn't express much of how she really felt. Kyley looked away once again, unable to look Darren in the eyes.

An awkward moment of silence befell the room. Not until Darren decided to ask the questions that had been eating deep at him.

" Was it a member of your pack?"

" What?" Kyley didn't understand what he meant by that.

" You were attacked right?"

Kyley's pupil constricted hearing this question. She realized that Darren really hadn't heard her crash down the staircase. And now she wondered if she should let him know that she had reopened herself while trying to escape.

' What if he.. what if he truly was a psycho and had only been acting nice up until now because he really hadn't realized that I was trying to escape from him?' Kyley thought, unsure whether to tell Darren what had really happened.

Kyley shot a gaze at Darren out of curiosity, and seeing show he raised a brow to inquire, she was forced to look away.

' What to say? What to say?' Kyley contemplated feeling pressured. She knew it'd raise suspicion if she took too long to answer. However, nothing genuine enough really came to mind.

Feeling her time run out, she decided to tell the truth.

" I... I fell off the staircase" Kyley blurted out in a low tone. It was more embarrassing to say it than she'd prior imagined.

' Is she trying to hide what happened from me?' Darren frowned at first, confused as to what she meant. " Really?" He couldn't help but ask just to be sure.

" Yes. it was too dark" Kyley said almost whispering.

Darren stated at her Kyley with a bewildered look on his face. The image of Kyley slipping and falling off the staircase suddenly surfaced in his mind and he had to put all effort to not burst out laughing. However, he couldn't hide the amused expression on his face despite how hard he struggled to hold back his laughter.

Kyley on the other hand expected some sort of outlash from Darren as to why she was roaming about his house. She hid her face and waited for it. However, it never came.

There was only an awkward silence in the room, which made Kyley raise her gaze to see just what Darren thought.

However, she was in for a surprise when she saw the amused smile on Darren s face as he obviously struggled to not burst out in laughter. Kyley couldn't help but frown at him.

" Ahem! Sorry, I just couldn't help it" Darren cleared his throat and said when he saw the frown on Kyley's face. " Well.." He clapped his palm on his lap and sighed out loud as he stood up and walked towards the wooden bucket to grab the mop stick immersed in it. " It's a good thing I have a way to clean your mess" Darren said with the clear intent to taunt.

Kyley glared dangerously at Darren. He could really be annoying sometimes.

" Hey hey, loosen up. Jeeze, the frown on your face could shame Halloween. Haha!" Darren chuckled as he pulled out the mop from the bucket.

Splash!

A small gush of soapy water poured all over the floor, and Darren began to clean the bloodstains on the floor.

Kyley stared at his figure as he mopped the floor, her thoughts conflicted.

' How kind and nice...' Besides Sam, Kyley hadn't had a conversation like this before. ' Sam always taunted and made fun of me like this too. I wonder how she's doing now? More importantly, is Darren like Sam?' Kyley questioned. She didn't know what to think of Darren. He was just such a a complicated being that Kyley was left clueless.

Despite her efforts, Kyley just wanted to know if she was safe with him or not. And with her past experience with people, Kyley found it hard to determine this.

She understood Darren's showcase of goodwill, but she'd been through so much betrayal to believe such a farce. Kyley had promised herself to never let her past repeat itself, and she knew there was a great price to pay. The price being putting her guard up always and never putting her trust in others.

' No! He might be nice to me but I shouldn't believe that blindly. The fact that he isn't hostile towards me now doesn't mean that he wouldn't be later. I'm never letting my guard down again' Kyley steeled her mind in resolve. Even if Darren was being kind to her now, it didn't change the fact that he still harbored evil intent towards her. Therefore, she had to be cautious still.

As Darren swept the mop around to clean the bloodstained floor, his mind was full of certain thoughts.

' Did she really fall of the stairs?' He still found it hard to believe that Kyley, who seemed to lack trust in him, would tell her what had really happened. Besides, falling off the stairs really wasn't what Darren pictured. Although it pretty much explained a lot of things, Darren still found it unbelievable.

' Let's say it's true. Why would she roam about the house and fall off the stairs? How did she even fall off... Wait!... She said it was dark. Hmm... Doesn't that mean this was probably in the night?' Darren aligned his train of thought.

' If it was at night time then that'll explain why she'd fall off the stairs...' Darren knew how dark it got at night in his house. After all, they were in the depth of the woods and the tall trees blocked the moonlight from reaching the house.

' That makes sense. But hold on...' Darren stopped when something suddenly occured to him. He couldn't help but shoot a glance at Kyley who was now looking outside the window with a thoughtful expression on her pretty face. Darren couldn't help but smile wryly having realized something.

' How could I have overlooked such a thing?' He shook his head at his own mistake. Now he understood why Kyley had roamed about the house and fell off the stairs, as well as why she'd threw stuffs at him.

Kyley had awoken in his house which was an unfamiliar surrounding to her. Of course she'd feel endangered and unsafe.

Darren remembered how she'd tried to make him leave her in the city back when she thought he was some sort of a hunter who wanted to use her to capture other members of her pack.

It made even more sense now that he thought about it.

Kyley felt entrapped. Being a stranger to Darren, she didn't trust him and believed that he had some sort of hidden agenda towards her.

Now Darren wouldn't think this way if he hadn't see Kyley's scars. It was quite obvious from those scars that she had suffered some sort of trauma and would generally react this way to being saved by some stranger.

Darren wouldn't blame her, however. After all, he knew just how dangerous he could quite be.

' Sigh! I really need to learn how to deal with people... Women especially ' Darren lampooned internally.

He quickly mopped the rest of the blood stains.

" There we go..." He picked up the bucket and put it in a corner before turning to face Kyley who had been shaken out of her thoughts by Darren's sudden 'announcement'. Darren smiled at his accomplishment and looked Kyley in the eyes as he said.

" Would you like to go outside?"