THIEVES ━ SHURI UDAKU

▬ twenty- four: new beginnings

Caleb had picked up a new habit somewhere along the way. While in the beginning, he found it difficult to get out of bed in the morning, things had changed. Now, he couldn't sleep at night. He'd tried emptying his mind as his mother had always told him to, but he found that idleness was not a quality that he was accustomed to. He'd taken to the nights, after everybody else had laid their heads down and were fast asleep, to work. Often after, he'd cleaned up the house and all that his mind could think of, he simply sat there by the dining table, his mind wandering.

That specific evening, he was halfway through the bag of fruit flavoured gummies that he'd taken a liking to when he heard careful footsteps behind him. It was Honey, leaning against the weak doorframe, her arms crossed over her chest. She was watching him with the look that had become familiar to him over the past few months. It was a look that said she worried about him. Caleb wondered if that was what his mother had seen whenever he had looked at her.

"You want a gummy?" he asked casually, tossing her a knowing look ever his shoulder. His sister had a sweet tooth and he doubted that there was a single bone in her body that could stand to refuse a treat. As he'd expected, she nodded and she was beside him in a matter of minutes, her fingers sticky.

She bit a worm and trained her gaze on him. "How often do you do this?" she asked.

"Nearly every night," Caleb answered simply, his face screwed up in guilt although he wasn't sure why he felt so bad. Instead of fussing over his lack of sleep or the toothache that he was sure to develop from the candies, Honey simply nodded and glanced at her as an indication that he should go on. "Cleaning, sometimes but mostly thinking."

"About Shuri?" she asked and Caleb winced at the sound of her name. It wasn't as if he didn't think about her well enough but it was a while since he'd heard the name and the first thing that filled his mind was the look of hurt on her face the last time they'd spoken.

He inhaled sharply and bobbed his head. "Amongst other things but I don't want to talk about it?" Caleb would have preferred to have simply stayed buried in his thoughts for as long as he could and avoid voicing his thoughts. His certainties that he'd destroyed one of the best relationships in his life and that he'd lost her for good.

Honey grabbed another gummy. "Alright, you don't have to talk about it but there are some things that I think you should see." She got up off her seat and bounded through the halls before she disappeared completely from sight.

Caleb grabbed a bear and chewed on it nervously, his mind wandering. If he knew his sister at all, he was certain that this was some ploy to get him to call Shuri but he wasn't sure that he could do that. He wanted to, so badly but he wasn't sure that it was what was best for either of them. He'd hurt her and he hated himself for it. He wasn't sure what had possessed him to say the things that he had but he regretted it every moment. Perhaps what he was most terrified about was the possibility that Shuri wouldn't want to see him.