The Days Of Hellfire

Chapter Three.

-Narcissistic personality disorder: lack of empathy.

WINTER. STARED down at the sketch of the man with a squinted eye. This time she'd made it so he was laying down, his arm wrapped around a blanket, looking peaceful in his sleep. She tried to understand why she felt the need to draw him once more- even after she did not want to the first time around, but couldn't come up with a logical excuse. Perhaps it was nothing. She may just be drawing the first thing that popped into her mind, like she always did when she was bored. There was nothing more and nothing less to it.

She continued to observe the sketch for a few moments more before picking up her pencil and slowly scribbling over his face to get rid of him. Keeping it on her paper made her feel uncomfortable for some reason. If he wasn't there, he wouldn't bother her. That was the logic that kept her at bay.

Kristopher gently bumped his shoulder against her's, successfully drawing her attention away from the notebook page. He shook his head disapprovingly at her, telling her with his large sky blue eyes that she should be paying attention to the lesson that Mr. Kenny was now getting into and not slacking off like she was on the road to doing. She stuck her tongue out defiantly at him and signed:

I don't feel like paying attention right now.

They'd learned how to sign together during the beginning of their friendship, when they both figured out that they were both too loud or too verbal with their speaking within earshot of other people. Shy as he may be, he was never that shy whenever he was around her. They just clicked. It was like a switch had been flipped on, and they didn't really realize that being as loud as two wild hyenas eating a freshly killed animal carcass was something that they were doing. So they decided that if they were going to do something, why not learn a new language?

It took them a few months to master it to a manageable and understandable level, but once they figured the basics out, they added a few signs of their own that only they would understand. For instance, dumb bitch or stupid dick was a finger the crotch and pointing to an eye. There was other stuff, too, but this happened to be the most common sign that they used together. Well, it was more commonly used on Winter's part, considering how Kristoph mostly frowned upon using such " vulgar" and "inappropriate," language whenever he was cranky or feeling particularly seldom.

He wasn't a guy who was very big on swearing, or hearing others swear within close proximity of him. It made his skin itch, he claimed. But Winter was sure that it was just because his parents were seldom people who didn't encourage anything beyond the practical basics of the bible. And, being Kristopher, he had obeyed their beliefs with an unwavering mind.

He tilted his head to the side and clicked his tongue against the inside of his cheek, a move that showed yet another wave of disapproval from him. With a shake of his head, he signed back:

Its important that you know this stuff though, Winter.

Somehow I feel as though I will survive.

You're too stubborn for your own good.

She punched him playfully on the arm.

I'm not stubborn.

What ever helps you to sleep at night.

She decided to let the conversation lie and focus on the boring lesson, which was most likely poorly based on the quiz that he was sure to give at the end of the week. Although, soon enough, her mind ultimately drifted back to the man.

.....

At the end of class, Winter had to be woken up by Kristopher. She'd dozed off by the final half hour of the lesson and he had decided to let her sleep.