Juzarh Leiya“Could you help me with these?”I looked up from the book I was reading to notice Lyle passed me a tray with carrots and a knife lying beside them. I gently closed the book, placing it on the table before pulling the tray closer to myself.“What…what should I do with them?” I stuttered as I looked at them with puzzling eyes. “What do you mean what should you do with them?” he turned sharply to me. “Chop them up,” he informed me.When I didn't respond, my eyes juggling between him and the tray before me, his eyes widened in realization.“You…” he paused, looking at me, waiting for me to interrupt him, but I didn't.His face then became more serious. “You don't know how to chop carrots?”He asked quietly, as if no one else needed to hear it even though it was just the two of us.“No I don't.” I murmured, a little ashamed that he thought I could and I let him down.He walked closer to the table, standing across from me but

JuzarhLeiya“Not like that!” he yelled, causing me to freeze on the chair.“You're going to hurt yourself if you hold it like that.”He added in a calmer tone. He placed his hand over mine that was holding the knife. Walking behind me, he placed his second hand over the one that held an onion. “Hold the knife like this.” He whispered, gripping my hand firmly, but gently holding the end of the knife. He brought it to the onion, slowly bringing it down on the vegetable and cutting a piece out of it. He repeated the action a few more times, firmly but gently holding both my hands as he did so. “Like this.” He uttered softly. He was so gentle, standing so close behind me, I rested on him. I let go of my hands, letting him guide them through the process. Quietly watching the vegetable cut into smaller bits. “Aren't you supposed to let me do it now?”I asked when the onion was cut halfway.“Shh.” I heard him say. A cute giggle escaped

JuzarhLeiyaLyle had fallen asleep after our meal, leaving me by myself. Whenever one of us was asleep, the other had to find something to occupy ourselves with. He was probably used to it, but I wasn't. I was completely bored, left with my own unfriendly thoughts. I browsed through the books he had stacked on the shelves. They were a lot. I had picked up and returned a number of them. Ranging from romance novels to murder, to books about demons and angels. Even though I was casually looking through for something that would interest me, I was hoping to find a book on magic and spells. I was on the second shelf when a small paper that looked like it was hastily pushed into a book, caught my attention. I tried to take out the paper but for some reason, I couldn't. I took out the entire book with ease, and attempted to pull out the paper. I still had no luck with it. Baffled by how a small piece of paper was hanging tightly to the pages of the book, I examined the en

JuzarhLeiya I wanted to pull my hand about his way throughout the entire journey to the small spring, but he was holding me tightly. Not the firm yet soft way he used to, a more aggressive way. He was unconsciously projecting his anger onto me. We finally got to the water and he let me go. At so many points along the way, I wanted to speak on how tightly his grip was but for some reason, I was scared. He was obviously angry about something and I didn't know how he was when he was angry. I also didn't want to find out. “Isn't it beautiful?”He was talking about the water. I walked a little away from him to also observe the beauty. It truly was beautiful. It looked so clean, crystal clear, but it was still strangely flowing backwards. “It is beautiful.” I whispered, more to myself than to him.“Not as beautiful as you.”I looked up to meet his gaze, a small smile on his lips. I wanted to be flattered, I wanted to blush inwardly and project a little

JuzarhLeiyaI haven't been able to sleep properly in the past few days. Being alone with Lyle, in the same house, in an unknown town with no other residents was very distressing. I couldn't look him in the eye, my heart raced every time he was close to me, I always forced a kaigh at his jokes. Nothing was the same. The pain in my wrist had also cleared up. The mark, however, still remained. A red band around my wrist to remind me of how monstrous he could get. I also couldn't believe he didn't notice anything different about me, I wondered if he was just clueless or I was very good at pretending. Either way, he had been very much the same way as he was in the beginning. “What should we do today Leiya?”His voice distracted me from the book I was reading. Reading was all I did. I let my imagination run free. I imagined being out of here, in the real world with other people. I imagined being back at Kaltain, in the warm embrace of Helion. I imagine sitting and t