Evident

20.

The dimness of the light stimulated and fought against the quietness. It was dark and it surrounded me as the illuminated surface of my camera, displayed portrait images of my mother.

The soft glow, trails along with the droplet of my tears on my cheeks. Today would have been my mom fiftieth birthday.

A day that I had missed out on.

I clenched my chest, this was the main reason why I gave up the life of an explorer. I was too willed, too clouded by the beauty that nature was that I had forgotten that I had a parent who misses me and only wishes me well.

The only two parental figure that I knew of was my grandmother and my mom. These women made sure that I lacked nothing even when they didn't have anything, their independence driven me to maintain my dignity.

Her dark brown eyes twinkled within the image as she smiled. Her black hair was so immense in length that it puffs out in a mess of its own coily affair...

I missed her and as the droplets of my tears patters to the surface of the camera, my heart squeezed to have one last moment with her.

If she was here right now, what would I say to her so that she could be proud of me.

"Concenta? Why is it so dark in here, are we playing hide and seek?" His low pitched voiced came in to the hut then, he didn't turn the lights on and I used the back of my hand to wipe away my tears, inwardly thanking God that he didn't turn it on because then he would have seen my puffy eyes.

"I haven't played that game in so long..." I smiled sadly as I thought back to that game which I had played with my mother as well when I was younger.

Listening to his footsteps which came over to me, I tried to hide the fact that I was crying by shutting off the camera and wiping away the evidence from my face.

"I know you were crying darling...." He bends his frame, uses his thumb and pointer finger to grip my chin. He tilts my head up to his face, my frame shivering as the bundles of my braids swayed across the bed behind me.

My eyes locked with his dark blues within the dark space. His scent ever the present, trails to the skin of my nostrils as I inhale him in.

"I've spent the past ten minutes standing outside, listening to your sobs."

I frowned at that.

"I care about you and I just want you to know that you can share whatever it is that you are going through with me. I know you're independent and is capable of doing things on your own but...please know that I am here."

My heart warmed as he smiled.

"I just..."

"Today my mom and I would have celebrated her birthday at home, with her poor excuse of a birthday cake seated on the table, a cake she would have bake just for the sake of our yearly tradition."

I chuckled. "My mom can't bake to save her life yet with every year when her birthday comes... weirdly enough her skills started growing."

"The reason why this one hit me so hard is the guilt that I still feel towards her death. I had missed out on four years of our traditional celebration, something that I will never get to carry on again and I still carry the weight of this fact around."

I shook my head and smiled sadly as I showed him the old knife, the metal of it was still sharp as ever regardless of the age that is tied to the thing.

"Temptation is like a knife; it can slash a man's flesh or his throat; it can be his sustenance or his poison, his strength or his downfall."

He eyes slid from mine then down to the knife. "My mother had always repeated these exact words to me from I was just a kid as I watched her cooking in the kitchen while a series of action movies played in the background."

"I know that I'm the last person to say this about your mom seeing that I know nothing about her." He sat behind me on the bed, his thighs were on either side of me and I sighed soothingly as he drew me to his tatted large chest which I couldn't see in the darkness.

"But, she sounded like a wonderful soul. Something I think you lacked very poorly in."

My mouth drops open in shock from his words and I shoved his chest playfully. A sudden air of peace easing down the tension that I felt earlier about my guilt.

"Fuck off you defective dick..."

He chuckled. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you'd want to hop on, on said defective dick.."

He presses his lips on my ear and roughly let out. "It fucks perfectly fine darling so eased that worry of yours."

Rolling my eyes at the asshole, I proceeded to left his body heat to drank some water because of the dryness of my throat from all the crying I've been doing from morning.

As I walk across the floors, I gasp. "Aureliano put me down right this bloody instant."

"I'll listen when you ask me nicely."

He lifts my body over his shoulder, his large chest vibrated against my breast with his deep chuckled as he began walking to the backdoor.

Huffing at his childish behaviour, I disinterestedly gave in. "Please."

"Unacceptable, that is too flat for me darling."

"Fuck you, as a matter of fact don't you have a bloody tribe to control than waste your time scolding me about whether or not my damn please is up to par with your expectations."

He brings a palm down on my wide backside, it brought forth a strong whack on my jiggling flesh and I jumped from that unexpected move.

"Talk to me in that manner again and I'll do more than that, baby."

I hid my face in his tatted back muscles, swallowing sharply from the heat that was now spreading into my system from the abrasiveness of his tone...