Something Red

Part Eleven

"You're not an ice queen all the time."

✦✧✦

I think my brain begins to function again when I find myself mid-way up the stairs, as I propel myself upwards two-steps at a time before it stops again.

I'm thinking again when I'm in bed, under foreign covers and away from where I should not have been. I can't shake the adrenaline from my system fast enough as I lay in the dark once more finding it hard to steady my breathing.

'You did not see anything.'

'You saw nothing'

'Nothing'

I chant in my muddled head as I try not to think too much of what I saw. I sit up and run a hand through my hair.

'You were just seeing things.'

'Of course Arlo is just downstairs with a girl that isn't his girlfriend but that's none of my business! And his eyes were definitely not red! And there wasn't b-blood!'

'Wtf Scarlet, you sound like such a nut case right now...'

'Just go to sleep, you're sleep deprived and it's been a long night.'

'Yeah, that's it. Definitely.'

I let myself fall back into the pillows and groan as I shut my eyes. I'm such a fool, he saw me and I bolted like I did something wrong?! I mean it's not like I'm the one cheating and bringing women home at unholy hours WHILE I have a visitor –unwilling or not!

I let out a breath and roll over, squeezing my eyes shut and ignore the images that stubbornly flash behind my eyelids as I beg sleep to take me away.

✦✧✦

I don't take a bath when I wake up even though it seems like I've only slept for a few minutes and I know I look like a proper mess. I pull on my clothes from yesterday and fold the ones Arlo gave me neatly at the foot of the bed. I grab my phone and I'm taking the steps two at a time again as I rush down.

I nearly bump into a shirtless Arlo who looks way better than I know I do right now. He looks like he hasn't slept a wink even with the bed hair he's spotting that says otherwise. I stop myself from thinking for the other reasons why he would have bed hair. I back up.

"Hi...?"

I can't think of a better thing to say at the moment and I don't bother to kick myself for it.

He doesn't say a word, he just stares right me for a moment before his eyes go from my head to my feet – a full body check. I look down too wondering if I haven't tied my laces properly for a fleeting moment. Then he looks back at my face. If he gets the message, I do not know because he neither moves out of my way nor speaks.

I'm about to voice a suggestion about him getting the hell out of my way the most polite way I can when he does so on his own. I just give him a quizzical look before sliding past him, hiding my relief.

I'm at the door in two seconds flat and I'm about to break it open when he presses his thumb against the side panel. I forgot about how techy this house was. I don't even pretend to be grateful enough to verbalize it and I make to dart out into my freedom but I feel his cool hand slide around my wrist.

I turn around so fast I almost unscrew my neck. My crazed bottle greens meet his poised obsidian and I feel a chill go down my spine despite myself. It doesn't hurt even though I make to release myself but its firm and I can't get free.

"Arlo...?" I breathe.

"You don't look so good."

I stare at him for a moment as though he just spoke gibberish and it finally registers.