Annabel [h.s.]

four

Rain tapped against the window and added a nice background to the music that Annabel was playing from her cellphone. "Sister" by The Japanese House radiated calmly from the tiny speaker and lulled Annabel into a sleepy state.

She had been in the hospital for longer than she cared for, but at least it gave her an excuse to leave the real world and not particularly care for anything else.

The story that Harry had given the nurses was partially true, but only she and Harry knew that. Everyone else believed it to be one-hundred percent and, so, they were monitoring her just to be sure that she wouldn't try to kill herself again after she left.

It had only been two days, they could only keep her for one more, and she was hoping that they decided she was well enough to go back to her life instead of a psych hospital.

Harry walked in without a word. He pulled a chocolate bar from his coat pocket and carefully threw it on Annabel's bed so that it landed on her stomach.

Annabel looked at him curiously, her fingers quick to retrieve the delectable treat. Harry shrugged, "Hospital food is shit."

Annabel was more surprised with the fact that he'd come to visit her again. They weren't friends and they weren't lovers, so it didn't make sense to her.

"A lot of things are."

Harry stared at her for a moment before nodding. Annabel watched as his lips parted and then closed again. He wanted to say something, that much was obvious, but she wasn't going to ask him what it was. If he wanted to say it, he would.

"You said you liked that red. Why?"

Annabel stared at him for a long moment. She admired the way that his lips formed his words and wrapped around them seductively and she admired the deep colour of his eyes that seemed to change with his moods and what he wore.

"Same reason that you like it. It was rich, beautiful, and heavy with all of the things that cloud my mind. I felt weightless and peaceful."

Harry's green eyes stared into her dark ones for a long moment before he shook his head, "No, it's different when its yourself. Red isn't beautiful when it's your own."

Her gaze didn't falter in the slightest, "It is when it's mine. There is no place darker than the mind when it is left alone, you should know that."

Harry left like a breeze. He didn't say hello when he came and he didn't say goodbye when he left.

Annabel picked at her bandages and thought of his eyes. She didn't see colours the way that he did, he noticed them but he loved red, she ignored them and liked dull colors like blue and gray. Granted, red was an exception and now the other exception was the enticing green of his eyes.

She liked how there was always something different about them. When it was cold out and when he wore certain light colors, his eyes were light and pretty like sea glass and, when he was aroused and when he wore dark colors, his eyes were vibrant and dark, just like the forest he'd begun to frequent.

The hospital released her the next morning and she immediately went to the forest. Harry wasn't there, but she didn't mind, the atmosphere is what interested her the most. It was beautiful and threatening all at once.

Propped up against a lively tree, Annabel set her mind free. She didn't think about anything and she let the earth and the atmosphere consume her. Leaves crumpled under shoes nearby, but she didn't open her eyes.

Harry had found her just like she knew that he would. They were strange like that, always being able to find one another without really looking at all.