Chapter Text
The mentalist looked over to the girl that now sat beside him. She had her back turned towards him and strands of (h/c) hair fell loosely behind her shoulders. She hummed a vaguely familiar melody and no matter how hard the mentalist tried he was unable to recall where he had heard the melody before.
Sleep seemed to have abandoned him as his treacherous heart had begun to race. Simultaneously, a feeling of nausea washed over him for a reason he knew all too well.
“Why do you…” the mentalist stopped mid-sentence, catching himself before any more words could be spoken. His voice was raspier than normal and his throat had begun screaming for water. He pondered briefly to himself, wondering if this really was the right question to ask right now? He quickly pushed the thought away though as the melodic humming from the (h/c) haired girl stopped.
She laughed suddenly before finishing, “why do I care about him?” It was as if she had plucked the question from his mind.
Despite knowing she couldn’t see his reaction, the mentalist nodded.
Her voice was gentle as she replied, “he’s straightforward and kind. Is there really anything else I could ask of someone?”
“Yes…” was among one of the many words that the mentalist wanted to utter but, “there are many people that are kind and straightforward,” were the words that left his mouth instead.
The mentalist’s words left a void of silence between the two of them. Perhaps it was out of embarrassment that the mentalist forced himself to sit up, or that curious part of him that watched in anticipation for what her response might entail. Regardless, the mentalist pulled himself up despite every one of his muscles screaming for him not to.
“You know,” her voice was just above a whisper and the mentalist could barely hear her over the fire that crackled near them, “back before…” she trailed off.
“Back before everyone had been trapped in stone?” Asked the mentalist, his voice booming compared to her own.
She nodded, “yeah, back before everyone had been trapped in stone.” Her voice was suddenly a little stronger, “I was terribly afraid of everything. What people thought of me, what I’d wear… even spiders! Just silly little things like that.”
The mentalist found that hard to believe but kept that thought to himself.
“Though, I was especially afraid of the dark,” she paused. To the mentalist, it seemed as if she were taking in the environment around her for the very last time. It was as if she was scared that everything around her would begin to collapse if she so much as uttered the forbidden words on the tip of her tongue. “I guess that’s why after, what I could only assume to have been hundreds of years of being trapped in the darkness of my own head, I promised myself that I’d never be scared again.”
The mentalist chuckled, “and are you scared right now?”
“Of course I am, but I still want to charge head first into this no matter how reckless it may seem. I don’t want to be the same girl that stopped for things that before would’ve made her scared.”
If the mentalist was confused, he certainly didn’t let it show; especially as the (h/c) haired girl turned and smiled. It was one of those smiles that caused the butterflies in the mentalist’s stomach to start fluttering. As if she were the sun giving warmth to the cold heart that had wanted to remain alone and absent.
“I wouldn’t hold myself back with things as trivial as the opinions of those I don’t care for. I would allow myself to feel wholeheartedly whatever I wanted. I want to care about him. So I do.”