Monsters

Chapter Six

"I thought you hated when people got in your personal space?" I questioned her through faltering breaths while raising a brow.

"Only when I'm not expecting it. It's okay as long I'm the one who initiates it. It has to be my choice. Usually, it's better if someone asks me first and I give them my permission beforehand." She explained while slowly removing her hands. "I also don't want you to fall over." She suddenly snapped her head towards the town I had almost made it to bringing a question to cross my mind.

"I had to stop you from going there because the people who are tracking me down are there. They should be gone now though. They were only here to clear out the hoard." She answered reading my mind only leading me to have more questions.

"Wait, tracking you down? Are those people the same ones who showed up outside the building?" She nodded at me and I took a step back trying to keep my voice low at this new information. "So you're being hunted? Why?" I asked and she looked off to the side shutting down just like she had in the beginning.

I was fed up with it at this point. Those "bad people" she had talked about are hunting her down for reasons she wouldn't share with me and now she brought me into it without my knowledge. It was then that I realized just how little I knew about the girl before me and suddenly the way she had acted in the building made sense. She had acted calm and collected as she told me that they were breaking in, she moved around so easily as if she had done it all before, and now she was shutting down as she had been in the beginning. This was the reason she had been shutting me out. So I wouldn't find out whatever truth there is behind all of this.

"Luz, who are you? What all don't I know about you?" I asked as my voice cracked and her face faltered for just a moment before it became unreadable once more.

"Amity, I need you to trust me. If you can't do that then we have no reason to keep traveling with each other." She spoke tonelessly and I clenched my open fist.

"Are you kidding me right now? I just found out that you are being hunted by a group of very scary and supposedly "bad people" as you say! I have every right to feel the way I am currently." I crossed my arms and gave her a disapproving look. "And you're one to talk when you won't even tell me anything about yourself. Always choosing to shut down instead." I stomped towards her, my face a few inches from hers.

"I'm not the one who should be questioned about trust," I spoke before turning and heading towards the town, stabbing a monster in passing with my pocket knife and wiping the blood off on my pants.

... ... ... ...

After gathering the supplies we could from the town Luz and I continued our journey in silence. I was reasonably upset, yet I had been over it for a while, though I had also taken most of my frustration out on the monsters I had run into. I wasn't giving her the silent treatment because I was mad anymore. I was only doing it now because I didn't know what to say to her. Sure she hadn't opened up to me, but neither did I while thinking back on it. We both barely knew each other and we were both keeping things to ourselves.

Staying mad at her would only label me as a hypocrite. Now I stood a few feet behind her as she gazed off to the world below us from the mountainside. Silently I took a few steps closer trying to find the proper words while also hesitating from the height we had been at currently. I had been a few inches from her as I raised my hand before remembering better and letting it fall back to my side.

"Don't get too close to me. I told you I have personal space issues." Luz said while still staring absentmindedly off in the distance.

"How do you always know when I'm near you? It's like you have super senses or something." I said frustrated with a joking undertone and chuckled. Her body seemed to tense up at this and I tilted my head after getting such a reaction from her. She's been doing this all too often for it to be explained away by my brain any longer. I just couldn't come up with any reason she would react like this whenever she did.

I shifted my stance and went to stand next to her at a noticeable distance. "I'm sorry I reacted the way I did. It's wrong of me to get upset about you doing something that I do as well. It's just, people are hunting you down and I have no idea why?" I turned to face her during this.

"It's hard to wrap my head around. But I do mean it when I say that I trust you. I have no reason not to after all that you've done for me in such a short time." I chuckled to myself and watch her stoic face fall as she finally let a smile grow on her face for the first time around me. It made her look beautiful and I had to turn away after such a thought, my face flushing.

Watching Luz close her eyes as if she were listening to the world around her peacefully. I felt my heart flutter at the sight and I watched as her expression shifted, her brows furrowing before she opened her eyes and turned to look at me. I looked away from her quickly feeling my heart pound and hoping that she couldn't hear it. But of course, she couldn't hear it, that would be impossible.

The longer I felt her gaze on me the more flustered I became and I cleared my throat to try and clear up this weird tension building between us. "So, are we ready to get back on the road?" I asked stealing a glimpse at her face before turning around and starting to walk without waiting for her answer.