The fire begun to hiss and grow as the security pushed the people out, making a huge panicked crowd gather at the entrance, trying to rush out to save their lives as there was no reassurance that the fire wouldn't spread to the whole mall.
There were sirens of alert blasting through the mall as the workers begun dialling the police and the fire brigade teams. Laurent had to literally push Lysandra out of the mall despite her headstrong protests.
She simply stared up at him with hazy wild eyes which made him furrow his eyebrows and straighten his lips into a firm line. Sadness clouded her features and there was a certain unexplainable terror overtaking her face. Her eyes held the innocence and gentleness of a Bambi but, her persona reflected that she had seen far more horrors of life than she let on. He stepped forward, getting close to her in the idea of comforting her and she shot her head up, looking at him in a peculiar way that managed to scare the hell out of him.
"Don't touch me!" she repeated, lodging her hands into her hair, tousling it.
"It's okay, Lysandra."
"No!" she screamed and then softened her tone. "No, nothing is okay."
Laurent ignored her protests as he bundled her up in his arms so that her arms were locked within his embrace; it was as if hugging a rag doll. She flogged in his hold but, he held on tighter. She felt so fragile, held in his arms like a little dove who has been caged for far too long, forgetting how to spread her wings wide and fly at all.
"Shh," he cooed. "It's okay. You are okay."
She finally relaxed in his hold, grabbing his shirt within her fists and holding onto him tighter. Her head was nestled in the crook of his neck whilst she attempted to calm her ragged breathing. He swayed them sideways, resting his chin atop her head and muttering comforting reassurances once in a while.
Minutes passed and people flickered in and out of Lysandra's vision as she rapidly blinked to clear her teary eyes. It was then that she finally paid attention to what was actually going on around her. The truth hit her like a whiplash, making her jump away from Laurent's embrace as if his touch burned her.
"Lysandra," he whispered, lifting her chin to stare at her. One moment of his green orbs clashing with her against hazel ones was enough for her to force herself to look at her feet where she felt safe from his penetrating gaze. It scared her, if she were to admit the raw truth brutally. It was as if he could see right through her walls, the fear that she kept hidden and the unexplainable want of love, the need of having someone to cherish her as she is - it seemed as though everything was painfully clear to the snooping features of the Adonis standing before her.
She was no fool to deny how handsome he was or how girls gathered around him, like flies around a candy. The emeralds that he had for eyes would definitely swoop a girl off her feet and the rest of his immaculate features were not something that Lysandra was a stranger to. She had clearly experienced his charms first hand and yet, she was not any other girl to fall upon his feet. She had never found herself worshipping a man for the chiseled looks and she would be damned if she ever brought herself to do that.
Her attitude towards Laurent was a bale indifference at that moment and she would continue with the same, without a waver in whatever she made him to be. And no matter how many gorgeous men came her way to impress her, love was the last thing she'd bring into her life. It would be nothing but, the ruin of them both.
She would seep into the person like a wildfire, destroying him from within, step by step. The branches of her flame would gradually grow out into a tree until the roots are seated in his head, acting like a warrior of her demons who would lead them to victory. She would gladly let herself drown but, she would cease to exist if she ever brought herself to willingly mangle another soul to ashes because that was the only thing she was capable of.
Consequently, she would let go of everything that managed to spring up a directed adoration towards another being.
Let me go, she implored. Without a response in return from a certain someone who everybody said existed.
"Lysandra!" he called out again, shaking her shoulders lightly as his worrisome figure scrutinised her utterly lost figure.
"We should leave," she clipped in a tone that conveyed that the topic was not up for discussion.
Laurent nodded and grabbed their bags, leaving Lysandra to walk behind him to the parking lot. The car ride was quite silent, dangerously so. She had shot his inquisitions down twice and Laurent had no choice but to comply with what she wished for. He was tempted, curious, more so, to know what it was that frazzled Lysandra Verlice.
She perfectly knew that she portrayed herself to be that person who was rarely affected by anything. All that people saw of her was an aloof persona, typically unresponsive unless it was an absolute necessity.
For once, she respected Laurent for keeping his mouth shut for the forty or perhaps, fifty minutes it had taken them to get home. When the car came to a stop right before her house, she muttered a reluctant thank you and got down the car with the bags. He looked as if he had something to say to her and as if noticing his hesitation to do so, she had given him no time and practically sprinted back to the house, without looking him in the eye even once after their uncalled, momentary intimacy back at the mall.
Thank God, she thought as soon as she stepped into her room, no one was there to stop her midway. She tossed her belongings away and rushed into the bathroom not able to keep her tears at bay anymore. She crumbled down onto the cold, tiled floor, hiding her face in between both of her knees. Lysandra's body shook as sobs wracked her body.
She let it all out, for once, without a care in the world.
She had faintly heard Jade and William asking her if she was okay but, she was in no position to answer them even with a one word response. It was somewhere around midnight that she finally had drained all of her tears and got up, splashing water on her face.
Her reflection in the mirror was unrecognisable. Her hazel eyes were dull, red and swollen as an after effect of her breakdown and her face was rather suspiciously pale, having messed up her sleep schedule due to the new place jitters. Her fiery hair was up in a messy bun and that was the only thing a little presentable in all of her.
Turning on the shower, she peeled all the layers off and let the warm water hit her bare skin, soothing her limbs and nerves. Feeling much better after the bath, she dragged a soft t-shirt dress over her head and walked out of her room in want of something to drink. Her throat was starting to ache, the insides feeling like they were scraped open.
As soon as she opened the door of the refrigerator, the sudden exposure to bright light making her squint, her stomach growled and she rolled her eyes. As soon as she grabbed some foods along with the juice bottle, the light in the kitchen flickered on, making her drop the packet of sandwich bread on the floor.
Jade stared back at her with hard eyes, her red hair tied up in a similar way as to hers. Lysandra nervously smiled picking up the fallen packet and transferring everything in her hands onto the marble countertop. She was painfully aware of Jade's glare and yet, ignored her as her hands worked away to assemble a cheese sandwich. Finishing up, she was in the process of pouring the orange juice into a tumbler when she heard the older woman clear her throat.
"Lysandra," she said, making her turn around and smile innocently. "Is everything alright?"
"Peachy!" she answered rather hyperactively, "Just peachy. Do you never sleep?"
Her attempt to cleverly dodge Jade's question did not go unnoticed but, the woman thought it better to approach her so-called daughter in a softer way.
"My sleep doesn't matter," she said. "What matters is the fact that something happened to you. Is everything alright?"
"Yes, Jay. Everything is perfectly alright. I was just a little frazzled by the fire accident back at the store."
"Oh, my God. Are you okay, darling? Are you hurt?"
Jade continued her assault of fussing around with Lysandra in the attempt of locating any burns that she might have gotten.
The lady's concern warmed her heart. It was a pure connection that she felt with her, something that she had never been exposed to in her whole life and she was glad of that one decision of hers.
She was glad that her voyage led her to them.
"Jay!" she laughed, pushing her wandering hands away. "Only one store was affected by the fiasco and we weren't in there at that moment, thankfully. I was just a little, what should I say, affected. I think."
"Oh, poor child! Come here," she said opening her arms wide open and Lysandra gladly gave in to her. "You should've come straight to me, Lee. Why lock yourself away!"
But the teenager who was in better spirits after the little chat, couldn't help but tease her a little.
"Oh, your hugs are awful! If not for them, I would've surely come to you for comfort."
"What?" Jade reeled back making the girl laugh out loud. "You little devil!"
Lysandra never knew what made everyone call her the Devil. It was a funny coincidence, she thought, that William, Jade and even Laurent called her that atleast once in the past. She was a devil, alright, she declared rather bitterly before getting back to that moment. The moment where she was the happiest, laughing with one of the kindest of women, Jade Verlice, in her kitchen while hogging midnight snacks.
"Oh, I'll show you what the Devil does," Lysandra said before purposefully threatening to empty the remaining contents of the juice bottle onto the ground.
"Don't you dare, Lysandra!"
"Maybe I will," Lysandra quipped, laughter shining through her eyes. "The Devil that I am."
"God, she needs someone to put her in line!" Jade muttered under her breath and flitted her eyes back and forth between the bottle in the teen's hands and her more than amused features. "You better put that down, young lady."
"Let's see what you've got, Mrs. Verlice," she challenged before taking off to run across the house with Jade chasing behind her in a fast paced walk.
Giggles and laughter filled the house instead of the silence that hovered every night. Lysandra couldn't help but think of how satisfied she felt in that particular moment, looking at the huge smile on Jade's lips matching her own wide grin as they ran around in the house like little toddlers.
It had the normalcy that she had been searching for. It had the feeling that had always been atleast an inch away from her reach whenever she tried to grasp it within her hands. It had the very thing that she had always craved for — pure love and a family to love her for what she was.
At least, the shell of what she truly was.
pretty sad until the end, don't you reckon? well, it was sort of a filler chapter. do let me know how you feel! and follow me if you fancy my work.
would you rather cry alone or have someone to comfort you and hold you while you break down?
(alone it is, for me)
P L E A S E V O T E