Her Red City (WattyAwards2013 entry- new version)

Her Red City-Chapter Two, 'Many Souls'. Part 5

I found myself in a room draped in heavy red and black fabrics, even on the ceiling, with walls burdened with row upon row of books. In front of me, a boy with a mad shock of hair, the colour of maple wood, was pacing. He froze as I clicked the door shut, and raised a head almost hidden beneath that hair (he looks like he's been electrocuted, I thought), looking for all the world to be a wild, wolf-raised thing. His eyes were a wide, warm, garden variety brown, and peered out from beneath wired glasses.

‘You’re here!’ he said, stepping forward as if to hug me, then catching himself, regaining some form of composure. But the smile on his face was bright enough to dull the room. He was full of a nervous kind of energy. I didn’t know quite what to do, and after a few seconds the smile on him faded, and his brow furrowed as he said,

‘Though... I doubt you even knew anyone was waiting.’ Again he made to move towards me, but instead turned to retrieve a robe from the back of a writing desk’s chair. There were tatty papers strewn across the surface of the desk, and the ink blotches on them fought to smother the spidery handwriting.

He slipped into the article without breaking eye contact and strode towards me, his steps, though occasionally a little hesitant, as fluid as mercury. I found my voice. 

‘No...I don’t know much at all. I’m unsure...of...” He moved closer still, and I moved back. 

‘...Of what?’ 

‘Of this world, its...people,’ my back pressed into the wall, ‘and myself.’ He smiled again, then ducked down suddenly to my feet.

‘Don’t worry about that,’ he said, straightening, ‘it’s necessary for someone in your position to know everything. I don’t want to overwhelm you yet, though.’ He held out a shard of glass and then placed it in my hand.

'From your sneaker.' He said, with a crazy smile. He was so much like a mad professor, and so at odds with everything I'd seen, that I laughed. Ah, my heart became even lighter. I wasn't so afraid of the world I'd found myself in anymore. Still a little, though.

He crossed the room again and I found I had been holding my breath. There was something truly odd about him...he was both nervous and confident, with airs both of royalty and the common man. He returned with a rucksack, full and heavy, which he dropped by my feet.

 'You're smiling', he noted with amusement.

'Yeah, so?'

'Nothing, it's just nice that you're smiling', he said, grinning himself, before pointing to the bag.

'This is everything you'll need while you explore the Rooms, which I recommend that you do later. Start with this one, of course. I'll be around if you need me.' With that he gathered up the papers on the desk and headed for the door.

'Wait!... Who are you?'

 Another wide smile, though nothing like Renn's.

'I'm Nathaniel, King of the Red City. And you're Kateline, my fiance. Did no one tell you?' 

I shook my head.

Flummoxed.

I stared at the crown on my palm with wide, dumb eyes as he slipped around the door, saying in a teasing voice as it closed,

'I hope you like your room.' 

A/N:

A short one, I know! But two uploads in one night! I'm getting better at this :) xxx