What Lurks in Her Eyes

Chapter Fourteen: They're Under the Table!

No more stops would be made and I knew we would reach our destination by night fall.

* * *

The stars cloaked the night sky by the time we reached the cabin. The cabin, from the outside, looked small, old, and dusty, but Anya and I didn't complain because we hadn't slept under a roof for three weeks now.

The cabin was simple, but it provided us with just enough resources and we were in no position to complain. I guided Anya inside and I was surprised to find that a candle was lit inside the house.

My eyes widened in panic.

"Stay behind me, Anya, and don't move." I whisper to her.

She nods in understanding. This cabin was a safe house for anyone who happens to stumble across it, and I didn't think that there would be actually someone way out here, in the middle of nowhere.

"Hello?" I call out, "Anyone in here?"

I raise an eyebrow when no one answers. "I'm going to look in the bedroom, I'll be back. If anything happens, scream." I tell Anya.

Again, she nods.

And I head off into the bedroom. I approach the room cautiously, and I notice that the door is shut. I hear muffled noises coming from the door.

My heart pounds in my chest and I knock. Once. Twice.

No answer.

So I go in.

The bathroom door in the bedroom was open, revealing the source of the sound. It sounded like....singing? Someone singing....opera?

When I walk into the bathroom, there's a woman.

A rather naked, young woman, perhaps in her early twenties, showering and singing her heart out. Then her eyes land on me.

She screams.

And then I scream.

She screams again and I run out of the bathroom screaming and I slam the door shut. I rub my eyes and shake my head in embarrassment. That was something I didn't need to see.

From outside the now closed bathroom door, I hear her ranting. "I can't even take a shower in peace for five minutes when a scary man comes through the door! And even worse, he screamed and shrieked like his eyes were melting off. I mean, damn, am I really that ugly?"

Before I have time to process, Anya all of a sudden runs in with a panic, her tiny hands are clenched around a bat and her body is shaking. "I-I....let me at them! Let me at them!" She yells as fierce as she can muster, all the while darting her eyes around the room in search for danger.

When her eyes lands on me, her defensive stance drops.

"Danger?" She questions.

I shake my head and laugh. "No danger. I thought I told you to stay where you are, though?"

She sucks in her bottom lip, making her look cuter than she already is. "I...y-you screamed like a cat in heat and I got afraid so...."

"So you came in here to protect me?" I ask, finishing off her sentence.

She nods.

I laugh. "If there was actual danger, I want you to be safe, I don't want you to get hurt-"

"Well, don't you think that's how I feel, too?" She cuts me off. Her words stun me. I haven't thought about that. She continues, though,  "Aren't mates supposed to work together, no matter what? Shouldn't we fight together, work together to defeat what threatens to hurt us?"