Dark Star

16. Trouble

Vesper had really started to hate the color blue. She had decided this as she sat on the floor of the room where she had been left, locked up once again. The walls of the room were painted a weird color of light blue. It was so pale, it was almost white, but after staring at it for what seemed like hours she never wanted to see that color blue ever again.

Of course, she knew her hatred toward the wall was only because of her situation. Any other day, she probably would've liked the color. She was so worried about everything though, and then again she was so tired of being worried. Her entire day had been focused on nothing else, just worrying about what might happen.

Vesper closed her eyes, blocking out the world of blue. She had been sitting with her knees to her chest, her arms wrapped around them to keep herself warm. She layed her head back against the wall, wishing all of her troubles would fade away with the blue. With her mind trying to keep her worries away for a few blissful moments, other thoughts began to creep into her head. Thoughts that she had not yet allowed herself to contemplate, until now.

As she closed her eyes again, a memory flashed through her head. She remembered the cold feeling of the bathroom stall against her back, and Josef cupping her face in his hands. He had kissed her. She still felt like it had been a dream. If she lived to be one hundred years old, she would never forget the feeling of his lips against hers. It had been her first kiss.

Her thoughts were all in a whirl. She didn't have feelings for Josef, she couldn't. Not after everything that had happened, everything she had been through today. The logical part of her understood this very well. However, when she thought about that kiss and the way Josef had looked at her, her heart pushed her logic out of the door, locked it, and threw away the key.

Unfortunately, her logic did bring one big point to the argument. Had Josef not just threatened her a few moments before? He had told her he would never harm her, then he had put a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. And if that wasn't true anyway, he had already hurt her before he made that silly promise. Vesper knew he wasn't exactly the kind of guy a girl like herself should fall for. She was just asking for trouble with someone like him.

However, something kept her coming back to that moment, that kiss. She felt like she was missing some vital piece to a puzzle. There was something more to Josef, somehow she knew it, but she didn't know what. For the hundreth time that day, Vesper wished she could open locked doors. She wanted answers to her questions, more than ever now, and she couldn't stand all of the uncertainty inside her.

She tried to keep herself from reliving that kiss, playing over and over again in her head, with no avail. She just couldn't seem to get it out of her mind. All of a sudden, while thinking of it for the thousandth time, she made a startling discovery. She had kissed Josef back. He hadn't forced her to, but she had. Of course, once she acknowledged this, she realized she had known it all along, but she had been trying to block it out. That is what had bothered her so much about it, because she couldn't figure out why she had.

What was the matter with her? Could she really have fallen in love with Josef so fast, after everything that he had done? Although, wasn't that what love was supposed to be. Unconditional, forgiving all sins, asking for nothing in return. Was she willing to love someone like that, after what she had been through? Was there even a possibility he felt the same way about her? Or had the kiss meant nothing to him?

That is what was the hardest thing to think about. She had seen glimpses, here and there, of the kind of man Josef might be, but he always kept that side of him hidden. For some reason, he wouldn't or couldn't be that person. What is he hiding?

All of a sudden she heard a key turning in the lock on her door. She jumped to her feet just in time for the door to open, revealing Josef with a surprisingly-unharmed-looking Carter in tow. She looked between the to men, trying to discover what was going on. Carter was handcuffed, but otherwise it didn't look like the thieves had done anything to him. What had happened in the past hour or two? She looked to Carter for answers.