Chapter 35 - These Days

>Maya

These days I wake up every day with a jump. I sit up and realize my eyes are wet. I remember having a nightmare but I can’t remember what it is each time.

My heart feels heavy every single day and there is this feeling of hollowness that I just can’t seem to get rid of.

Today again I woke up with a heavy head and realized I had sweat a lot.

I sighed, got up and decided to take a shower before anything else. I grabbed my clothes and went downstairs.

Yohan was already up even though it was sunday. He looked at me while I was descending the stairs and then averted his gaze.

I stopped in my path and stared at him.

These days, there’s something odd about him too. He hasn’t been talking to me like he used to. I’ve noticed something, these days, when he looks at me I see some guilt hidden in those soft green eyes.

I walked to the bathroom but stopped before entering.

This was bothering me too much. So I turned around and looked at Yohan who was sitting in the living room doing nothing in particular. I could tell he was absent mindedly looking at his phone.

“Yohan.” I called out to him and he turned his face to me.

“Why are you acting so off these days?” My question surprised him and he didn’t have an immediate answer, but because he couldn’t give me an answer immediately he decided to think about it and took his time to answer.

“Maya,” After some time he finally spoke, “I need to talk to you about something.” He gave me a smile. Not a natural one but the one you give someone before a ‘talk’, “Go ahead and freshen up. I’ll tell you when you come out.”

“Just tell me now.”

“No, I need a few minutes to sort it out and how I’m going to tell you.” He licked his lips then gulped, “So please, I just need a few minutes.”

I nodded, “Okay.”

I went to the bathroom, took a bath, cleaned myself nicely, dried my hair, dressed up and then came out after one and a half hours.

I looked at Yohan who nodded at me and gestured to me to come over and sit down in front of him. I did as I was told and looked at him anticipatingly.

“So?” I asked.

He took a deep breath, “I’ve been thinking about it for days but I had no idea how to approach you about it or how I should tell it to you without hurting you.”

“Hurting me?”

“Yeah. You’ve been having nightmares right?” I nodded, “But you can’t remember what they were.”

I was a bit surprised at his statement, “How do you know that?”

“Because your brain is trying to remember a memory that was purposely sealed for years.”

“Excuse me? Purposely sealed? I don’t remember getting hypnotized,”

“It’s not hypnosis. It’s magic.” He said with a grim expression and I stared at him with a straight face. We stared at each other for a few seconds expecting the other to say something.

“That was a bad joke.” I finally broke the silence.

“I’m not joking.” He replied immediately and we continued to stare at each other again in awkward silence.

“I don’t know what to say anymore.” I sighed.

“I know it sounds weird, especially to a human.” He said and his words bugged me again. There it was again, speaking like a foreigner, “But it’s the truth.”

“Can you prove it?”

“I can.” He hesitated, “But I’m a bit worried.” He pursed his lower lip, “I don’t know how it’ll turn out if I show you.”

“Why? What can go wrong? What makes you think something will go wrong?” Maybe he’s just lying and wants to prank me.

“Because I’ve shown you before too.” His answer left me stunned, “But you don’t remember at all. You forgot everything.”

“What?” I wanted to laugh but it didn’t feel like he was joking. His expressions were far too serious and somehow that made me nervous.

“Why don’t I remember it?”

“Because the ring you wore was a magical ring, it made you forget everything you didn’t like or couldn’t comprehend.”

“What? The ring Quincy gave me? But- that’s just-” I shook my head, “Why is Quincy in this all of the sudden?”

“I’ll explain everything. I just- I’ll tell you everything but slowly-”

“What did you show me?” I cut his words and asked, then gulped.

He paused at my sudden question, “What I really am.” But gave me a firm answer.

“What you really are?” I whispered the words back at him and furrowed my eyebrows as I pondered on his words. Does he mean to say he’s not human? Is that why sometimes he talks like that? If I think about it logically it all seems nonsense but I can’t seem to think logically, something inside me keeps telling me he isn’t lying. His words left me with a lot to think about and I started fiddling with my thumbs while looking down, “It all sounds like nonsense.” I said softly, “But,” I looked at him, “Show me what you are.”

If he says he can prove it, then I should take a look first and then decide.

He thought about it, “Promise me something beforehand.”

“What?”

“No matter what you see. What you remember, don’t hate me.”

“Why would I hate you?” I asked out of pure curiosity.

“Just saying.” He gave me an anxious smile, “Just look at me for me. For what I am because we do not choose to be born the way we are.”

“Uhm, okay…” I nodded, “Deal.”

He sighed and stood up, “There isn’t much space here.” he said and walked out of the living room to the empty space between the lounge and kitchen, “Don’t forget your promise.” He glanced at me then took off his clothes. Even though I should be shocked at his actions, I somehow wasn’t, rather, they seemed familiar.

His body began to change and all of the sudden I had flashbacks of a certain night and my head hurt. I shook my head and looked back at Yohan but he was no longer there.

In shock, I stood up.

Panicked, I looked at the white wolf standing there looking at me with his forest green eyes.

I stood there looking at him with a blank mind.

I titled my head to one side, “Yohan?” I asked and the wolf nodded. I titled my head to the other side even more confused than I was on my calculus exam.

He didn’t move from his place. I don’t know why but he didn’t try to approach me.

“A wolf?” I whispered, unsure what to feel about this, “A werewolf?” I stepped back but ended up tripping and fell flat on my butt.

Yohan finally moved and came closer but I raised my hand and stopped him, “Wait! Stay there.” I told him, “This is a bit hard to process.” I began to breathe heavily, not because of Yohan but because my body suddenly felt weird and my head began to hurt.

Some hazy images began to pop up in my mind but I couldn’t tell what exactly it was.

It was as if I was seeing a static filled movie.

I would see an image and then static, then I would see another scene and the next moment it would get engulfed by more static.

I was remembering the time of that night. That night when he took me out for dinner and we fought. There, in the forest he showed me this before…

My heartbeat began to accelerate. I really had forgotten it...

A low growl caught my attention and I looked at Yohan. Even though he was an animal I could still see the worry in his eyes but he wasn’t coming any closer. He stood in his place because I had stopped him there. Unsure what to do, he laid down trying to appear less scary.

No doubt he was big. That wasn’t the size of an average wolf, hell no wolf has that size. He was on eye level with me when I was standing meaning he was a huge scary wolf yet his action made me feel a bit calmer but it was short-lived.

Just then the sound of the passcode being entered was heard and the main door opened.

A middle-aged man entered the view and Yohan immediately stood up wide-eyed. Following the man was Yohan’s step mother.

The couple who just entered the house stopped as soon as they saw us and looked from me to Yohan confused as hell.

Yohan shot his head back at me and I could tell he was even more worried than before. His expressions were telling me that something bad was going to happen and you know what? He was right.

An immense amount of pain wrapped my head as I looked at him and his step mother.

It hurt so much I began to bang my head on the sofa.

The static in my mind was clearing up. The pictures in my memory were becoming more vivid and the buzzing sound began to subside as proper conversations began to sound.

“Maya!” Yohan came by my side and held me. I glanced at him while my eyes watered. He was in his human form.

Tears fell down my cheeks as the pain in my head began to feel less significant when the pain in my heart started to surface.

“Yohan…” I called his name in pain, “What is this?” I must have had some seriously painful expressions since all he did was embrace me tightly and tell me comforting words.

“The pain will go away.” He said, “Don’t push them away, let them take their original place.” He whispered, “It’ll be okay. Everything will be okay.”

I acted on his words and for some strange reason the pain did start to fade, along with my consciousness.

Against Yohan’s bare warm chest, my vision began to get blurry.. The static in my memory began to vanish completely and as I began to remember what I had forgotten, sleep took me in to show everything to me in the form of dreams.