SLEEPSONG (BoyxBoy)✔️

Chapter 40

I glanced at the corridor leading to my former room as we passed it.

I don't know what it was.

A feeling? A premonition? Deja Vu?

All I know is that I was pulling away from Woody and walking towards my room, one step at a time, before I could really figure out why I was doing so. I stopped in front of it, staring at the thin crack of the partially open door, wondering what had compelled me to come over here.

I raised my hand, pushed the door all the way open, and mu heart stopped like it wasn't supposed to. I'm still not sure if I mean that metaphorically since I don't think I've ever been that scared before in my life.

You see, Sebastian was sitting on the side of my bed, in the fucking dark, with his shoulders slumped, elbows on his knees, and his head buried in his large hands. The shock of seeing him there had my pulse racing, but after a second I began to realize that something was wrong.

Normally, he'd have known I was present long before I'd entered the room, but he didn't even seem to be aware that I had just poked my head inside. I stood there, uncertain, looking at his posture in confusion.

"Sebastian?" I tentatively called. "Hey..."

His head flew off his hands and his eyes flamed yellow, burning into my face with a look of murderous hostility. I squeaked when he lunged upright and stepped back, but he froze just as quickly as he moved, staring at me with his snarled features smoothing into a blank look.

He blinked, narrowing his eyes, and inhaled deeply before he tensed, eyes shooting back open.

"Aerin?"

I couldn't speak because the adrenaline coursing through me made it impossible, so instead I nodded very slowly and carefully. He slowly lowered his arms, staring at me in what looked like wary disbelief.

"How... are you here?" he demanded slowly, carefully, as if he couldn't believe it. My thundering pulse and the adrenaline coursing through me made it hard to talk, but talk I did.

"I was carried?" I managed to proffer. "It's... a long story."

"No... tell me, how are you... alive?" he hissed, but not malevolently, not like before; those eyes were still blinding yellow, glowing in the dark. "How did you survive?"

Confusion swept through me and I shook myself free of my stupor.

"I don't know what you're referring to," I said plainly, gesturing behind me. "Do you mean whatever the hell happened here, or--"

"HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?!" he snarled, clenching his fists; I jumped, shocked, before fear and anxiety and a mix of other things flooded through me, making my stomach knot itself.

"I-I was rescued," I stammered, swallowing my sudden nausea. "I'm alive. I'm a bit bruised, and a little woozy from where I hit my head, but alive."

"How did it happen?"

"What?"

"How did you get caught up in the attack?"

"Oh..." I muttered, frowning. "Well, when that... that... thing smashed through the window and grabbed Cassidy, I don't know... I... I just reacted."

"YOU JUST REACTED?!" he roared, going from zero to a hundred in a split second. "ARE YOU INSANE?! WHY ARE YOU SO FUCKING STUPID?!"

Anger immediately flooded through me, but I bit my tongue. I knew I wasn't stupid but I also didn't know how to counter his words, and most of all I didn't want to say something I'd regret.