Cursed Souls - Chapter 15 15 Seeing Oaki

“Well” Noah started to say.

“Let’s not talk about it,” Chris said rather aggressively.

The two started walking down the tunnels when Chris once again buckled over in pain. Chris looked up at Noah then fell onto the ground on his knees. Just then Dao ran down the stairs and started barking. Noah looked over at the familiar mutt, rather overjoyed to see her. Dao, however, didn’t feel the same, seeing as she ran past him and straight into the darkness. Her barks and small yipping continued. Then the jingle of her collar could no longer be heard. Chris got back up to his feet.

“Damn mutt stop licking me,” he said rather irritated.

Noah looked over at him in astonishment. Dao passed them. There was no dog around them. He looked back over to Chris.

“Ummm I’m not sure how to tell you this but there is no dog here buddy.” Noah said confused.

Dao started barking even more now. Then the jingling of her collar came out of the tunnel. She bit Noah’s pant leg then started running into the darkness. Noah ran after the dog. Chris still in a daze stumbled forward a few steps then sat down. He was really dizzy. He looked down over towards the passed out Bows. ‘Maybe those idiots took more out of me then I thought’ he thought to himself scratching his head. However, he didn’t need to think about Oaki anymore. It felt as if she and he were interconnected somehow. He scratched his head again. ‘Did I pass it during the end of that fight? But then how was I back on my feet?’ He started thinking again.

Meanwhile, Noah had stopped running in the dark thinking back to the day that this all started and Oaki had been hurt. He reached into his pants pocket and grabbed the small flashlight he had used in the Meda-U when he was examining Chris. He turned it on and started running after Dao. He ran into a small room like a tunnel. He peered around looking for Dao. That’s when he saw the blood on the ground. It was in a small sprinkled amount all the way down here. He looked over into the corner and saw Dao nudging Oaki’s hand and licking her, trying to get her owner’s attention. He removed his shirt and ran over to Oaki. She was cold and shivering, seeing as she was only in shorts and a tank top. He bent down and slowly brushed her cheek with his hand. He missed her so much. Being without her felt empty and lonely. He snapped back to his senses. He put his shirt on her to try to warm her up. He lifted her up and started to walk out of the tavern. She opened her eyes slightly. She could feel the warmth from his bare chest. She knew it was Noah. His scent was intoxicating. She missed the safety of him so much. He carried her all the way to the Meda-U and gently set her down on the bed. He grabbed all the medical supplies he thought he was going to need and picked her back up. He just got her back. And there was no damn way he was going to be separated from her again. He carried her down to there room and put her in the bathroom. He was so paranoid and nervous that this time he locked the interlocking door with a chair and the regular door. Oaki started to come back to her senses at least for a little bit. Noah took a warm rag and started to rub all the dirt and blood from her face. He filled the tub with warm water. She had lost so much weight. It looked like they hadn’t feed her when they took her. Her face lacked any and all pigment. He slowly removed her blood-stained shirt. She winced when she lifted up her arms. But she didn’t put up much of a fight like when they first meet. She looked down at the water at her reflection and thought to herself, ‘at this point, it doesn’t matter if he sees me in a bra and underwear. I’m ugly. I know I am when I look in the mirror. I’m destined to spend the rest of my life here in this room anyway, so he will eventually one way or another see my ugly body. I can’t hide it anyways in this state so it doesn’t matter.’ She looked down and started to tear up. He took off his pants and got into the end of the tub.

“Fair only seems fair,” he said smiling at her.

She looked up at him trying to smile. But he could see through her. The pain inside her eyes she always tried to mask so well had broken and the wall comes tumbling down.

“You don’t need to do that.” She said in a cold tone.

“I’m sorry,” he said looking down.

This was not what she expected. She looked up and saw him. He still continued to get in the tub behind her anyway. He looked just as broken looking as she felt inside.

“You don’t need to be,” she said coldly.

The bubbles in the tub started to turn a brownish reddish color. She felt her skin stinging as the soapy water touched her wounds. Of course, this was nothing new. She was used to this kind of pain. After her mom died “battle scars” had been left on her body from all the training and old memories. She turned away from Noah. She completely turned around in the tub so that her back was to him and removed her bra. He looked at her back. She was boney and very skinny. He saw the scratch on her back. A fresh new wound. It hadn’t scabbed up much. It looked like a gash on her back and she had two going from in between her shoulder blades down to her lower back. He looked up at her hair and saw the dried blood. He leaned behind himself slightly and grabbed shampoo bottle.

“Lean back and get your hair wet,” he said in a more nurturing and collected voice.

Without any struggle, she listened to him. The bubbles were thick enough to cover over her front women parts. She put the back of her head in the water. He gently pushed her hair back in the water so all of it was wetter. When he found her, her hair was damp as if she had been in water before. However, he figured not to ask her until later when she might feel more comfortable. She slowly started to raise her head from the water. He took shampoo in his hand and started rubbing it in her hair. He gently massaged her head and moved her hair so that her head was encompassed by white foam. She started to lean back again into his lap to wash all the soap out of her hair. It hurt to move her arms above her, so she just rested her head in Noah’s legs in the water. He washed the suds out of her hair. He slowly helped her sit back up in the tub again. He grabbed a rag and put a small amount of body wash on it and started to lightly scrub her back and arms. She seemed too tired to try to do everything herself, which was fine with him. Because to Noah, this is the first real time she had truly relied on him. He finished helping her clean up, the drained the tub of the water. He got out of the bathtub first and turned around to grab a towel. He knew she was in a weakened state but he didn’t want to take advantage of her. He grabbed a towel and covered her so he didn’t see anything. He helped her sit up on the small chair in the shower and closed the bathroom door behind him. He went to their dresser and grabbed her comfortable warm clothes to wear, and then returned to the bathroom. He handed her undergarments to put on and exited the bathroom. He waited outside for her to change. He went over to the dresser and also got dressed. He knocked on the door.

“You okay?” he asked

“Yea,” she said in a weak reply.

“Can I come in?” he asked once again

This time he got no reply. He went into the bathroom. He looked towards her as she sat on the ground in just her underwear. He cleaned her arm with an alcohol swab then started an IV. She didn’t squirm away or flinch at all. She looked up at him and thought ‘I don’t deserve him.’ She once again looked down. He picked her up from the bathroom floor and helped her get dressed, then carried her over to the bed. She went under the covers and turned away from him. He looked over trying to be understanding, ‘how can a person be so cold?’. He tried to rationalize that it wasn’t him. But after everything, he just couldn’t shake the feeling that it was him that he was the problem. He stood up and started to put on a shirt.

“I’ll be back..” he said while walking over to the door.

Oaki turned over quickly and sat up. She got out of the bed and rolled her IV drip over to him quickly and hugged him from behind. Noah stopped in his tracks a little surprised. He could smell the strong scent of peaches and feel arms wrapped around his stomach. He paused for a second, ‘what is she doing?’ he thought. He let his hands come up to meet hers. He grabbed her hands and turned around so he could face her. She looked up with tears in his eyes.

“Please don’t leave me here alone!” she said sniffling

He smiled lightly. He bent down and gestured for her to get on his back so he could carry her. He picked her up and grabbed her IV drip. He opened the door and walked out to the cafeteria. When they got there he sat her down at a booth and went to get her soup and a sandwich. He came back over and sat with her. She looked over at him in amusement and smiled.

“You have to eat too,” she said giggling.

He got up from the booth and brought an extra spoon back. He looked at her and raised one eyebrow.

“After you, my lady,” he said smiling

She started to eat. She glanced up at him then looked down and smiled. Around him, she felt butterflies. The way he looked at her wasn’t in a way she felt words could explain. She looked over at him again. The way his hair could be messy but cute, how his eyes were intense but kind, and how his broad shoulders were the arms that she wanted to fall into. She looked down at her wrists seeing the bruises. Suddenly she felt insecure. She looked down and her smile seemed to vanish. She finished eating and he carried her back to the room. It was night now. She laid down in bed. He laid away from her with his back turned. She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling.

“Why?” she said quietly.

Noah slightly moved unsure if she was talking to him. She looked over and faced his back and repeated herself.

“Why?” this time a little louder.

“Why what?” he asked

“Why didn’t you leave me? Why are you so good to me? Why did you risk your life to save me? Just why?” she said questioning him one after another giving him no time to reply.

“Is it so crazy to think that you are special? Why don’t you let me get close? Why are you so obsessed with doing everything yourself? Why are you so convinced no one gives a damn about you?”

Her eyes opened wide. She wasn’t expecting this kind of response from him. She wasn’t sure of what to say. She sat for a few seconds then she opened her mouth to talk but he continued.

“I didn’t leave you because I care for you. I would risk my life over and over if it meant you were safe. Why? The answer to all your why’s will always be the same. It is because I care for you. Not just in a well being kind of way. I care about the mask and wall you hide behind because you are scared of getting close. I care about trying to get you to truly and genuinely smile. I care about you as a person. Someone who I like. Someone I want to stand beside. And I can see you don’t feel the same, which is okay. Maybe eventually that will change if you decide one day to give me a chance and try trusting me, or opening yourself up more. And I will wait around forever if that’s what it takes. But you can push me away every day. I refuse to give up on you.”

She sat a little dazed for a second. She knew he cared. She just didn’t understand why. It wasn’t that she didn’t think no one gave a damn. It was the fact that it would be easier if they didn’t. She turned away from him and got out of the bed. She felt exposed, and it wasn’t the most comfortable feeling in the world. She left the room. She started to walk down the hallway when someone suddenly ran up behind her and hugged her.

“Stupid girl. Why do you have to scare me like that?”

She recognized his voice. She turned around.

“Oh princess doesn’t worry I’ll be here to protect you,” She said laughing at her.

He let go of her.

“Princess?” he said questioningly

He put his arm over her head as she put her back to the wall.

“Okay not princess.” she looked down. “Cupcake you’re not intimidating”

He looked directly into her eyes. “I’m just glad to see your doing better,” he said softly stroking the side of her face.

She pulled away and started back toward the cafeteria. He watched her and followed her. Noah laid in bed. ‘was I too harsh?’ he sat up in the bed, then started to get up and walk over to the door. He looked down the hall and saw them walking together smiling and laughing. He closed the door and laid back down in bed. Chris looked over at her and smiled.

“In all seriousness..” he stopped.

She looked over at him. “No no no. No more serious talk.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yanno you will have to talk about things eventually”

“Yea yea yea.” She said shrugging him off. She got more food and sat down in a booth. He sat with her.

He reached over to grab the glass of water sitting on the table. Oaki’s eyes glossed over white.

She saw a little boy getting reaching for a glass of water, and realized it was her hand reaching for the glass. It started to fall off the countertop and shattered on the ground. Just then an angry man came into the room and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and threw her on the ground. The man screamed, “Look what you did you little brat!” She started to get off of the floor. Her hands had landed in shattered glass. The man looked down and didn’t seem to care. Then he walked away and sat down in front of the tv. “Get me a beer!” he demanded from the other room. She got up full and went over the fridge and grabbed him a beer, and brought it out to him. Tears were streaming down her face. Just then the man looked over and got up. “You wanna cry, here I’ll give you something to cry about” he grabbed her again and punched her. She could feel a ring dig into his eyebrow. She ran into the bathroom and saw blood coming from her eyebrow, and a black eye starting to form. She looked back up in the mirror and saw the little boy again. She opened her eyes again and was back in the cafeteria. She looked at Chris and saw a scar above his eyebrow.

“Oh.My.God. He was you.” she said stammering.

He was staring at her. Her eyes had been glossed over as she was sitting at the table holding a spoon. She looked frozen for five minutes. Then suddenly she blinked and was back.

“What are you talking about?” he said looking at her concerned.

“I don’t know sorry” she said brushing it off and went back to eating her soup. She was no longer happy and laughing, but quiet and serious. She finished her food and walked back to the room.

“Have fun with your bad boy prince charming?” Noah said sitting on the bed.

“Shhhh”

“Huh?” he said confused.

“Noah I think”

He got up and looked at her. “What what is it?” he said in a scared sounding tone.

She looked at him. She didn’t want to sound crazy.

“Look I don’t know what any of this is. I’m not sure of my feelings and I have always been self-reliant”

“I know.. And I’m sorry I was wrong” he said interrupting her.

“Thing is you weren’t” She paused then continued “I know I have things to work on. But please don’t push.”

“Okay,” he said agreeing.

They laid back down in bed. He faced toward her and covered the blanket over them. His chest was against her back. She felt safe. But when she closed her eyes it reminded her of Chris in the hospital. She opened her eyes again. She heard him snoring. She laid in bed looking at the corner of the room. She closed her eyes and tried to drift off into sleep, which felt impossible, so she laid awake. Thinking of all the events from the day, especially Chris.