Page 59
Story: A Soul to Revive
Ingram stood on all fours to follow her.“It will be faster if I carry you on our journey. You are slow, and I can move throughout the night.”
As she was climbing up the stairs, she glanced back with her lips tightly pulled to one side. She opened her mouth to say something, only to shut it.
“I’ll think about it,” she stated, confusing him on the matter.
At the pace they’d walked today, they wouldn’t make it to the westernmost point of the Veil for over an entire moon cycle. If he were to carry her on his back, he’d likely halve it – and even more so if he were to sprint on all fours.
He’d find out later why she was hesitant and attempt to change her mind.
Ingram wanted this journey over sooner rather than later, hoping to bring back Aleron as quickly as possible. That was his goal, and every day without his kindred left a crumbling hole in his chest. He wanted to fill it again.
The female said nothing about the fact he’d followed her inside, and she simply laid down with her back towards him. After a few moments, she rolled to check on his whereabouts.
“You should sleep too.”
He nodded and obediently laid down where he was, thumping to the ground in a curled heap. Even though it was early night, Ingram drifted off due to the consistent lack of sleep over the course of the past week.
His dreams were unpleasant.
The images that haunted him flickered between hazy memories of his pain: the sharpness of evil human faces inflicting them, and the Demons who had hunted him. And, in each of his darted gazes around the stone room or the gloomy forest, Ingram searched for his kindred – only to find himself alone.
Even in sleep, he could tell his heart had accelerated and his breaths had sharpened. The whines and yelps of his memories mixed in with the present ones that quietly burst from him.
Unable to cope with the intensity of his nightmares, kicking and clawing to be free of them, he jerked to his feet to escape. He paused, his orbs opening from blackness to a pale blue of combined fear and sorrow as he reorientated himself in the human dwelling.
On shaking limbs, his skull turned to the closest noise and scent.
Despite the darkness, her orange mass of hair was vivid as it lay sprawled around her on the distressed wooden flooring.It looks... warm,he thought, remembering how it had almost singed his palms in the sunshine.
He took a singular step towards her.
She smells nice.Almost sweet... and comforting. He wished he knew the names of the plants she reminded him of as he took another step closer.
I can hear her heart.It was tiny in comparison to Aleron’s. It sounded fragile, likeshewas fragile, as he took that last step.
Standing right next to her, he watched her sleep for a little while. Some of the anxieties in his chest faded at her lulling breaths, the way her chest waved in and out, and at her... peacefulness.
He was envious of it. He wanted her to share it.
Ingram hesitantly and carefully lowered himself into a curl with his back touching hers. He was ready to leap away and pretend he hadn’t been seeking the comfort of her unwitting touch if she woke.
He waited, then eventually eased when she didn’t.
It was such a tiny spot touching him, perhaps just the small of her lower back pressing against his ribs – his spikes jutting over her sleeping form – but the warmth of her spread into him. It soothed the rapidness of his heart and lungs, heating him as it travelled throughout his body and down his limbs.
His pale-blue orbs first lifted to just blue, realising simply this was enough to quell some of the loneliness that had been weighing on him. The longer he stayed there and listened to her heart, focussed on the rhythm of her breathing, and took in the scent of her, the more his sight gradually shifted to its normal purple.
She may not be Aleron, but for now, for tonight, she would provide him the tranquillity of sleeping next to someone.
It might have been the contact between them that allowed him to finally have peaceful dreams.
The only thing was... when he woke, he realised he’d changed positions. So had she. He was lying on his stomach with his arms and legs folded and tucked underneath him, whereas she was on her side. It brought more warmth, more touch, and comfort.
I am too restless to sleep.He was still exhausted, but his dreams – although pleasant – had been of Aleron. Somehow, behind the veil of those dreams, his loss lingered, tainting those precious moments he’d experienced with his kindred.
Ingram searched for a window in this unfamiliar room. The waning half-moon was high, and he thought it may be the middle of the night.
He slowly lifted his head as to not disturb the female who had curled into a ball with her forehead resting against the side of his biceps. Her knees were also jabbing into him, but he didn’t mind.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59 (Reading here)
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191
- Page 192
- Page 193
- Page 194
- Page 195
- Page 196
- Page 197
- Page 198
- Page 199
- Page 200
- Page 201
- Page 202
- Page 203
- Page 204
- Page 205
- Page 206
- Page 207
- Page 208
- Page 209
- Page 210
- Page 211
- Page 212
- Page 213
- Page 214
- Page 215
- Page 216
- Page 217
- Page 218
- Page 219
- Page 220
- Page 221
- Page 222
- Page 223
- Page 224
- Page 225
- Page 226
- Page 227
- Page 228
- Page 229
- Page 230
- Page 231
- Page 232
- Page 233
- Page 234
- Page 235