Enigma

Chapter 45- Arabella

As Zeno dragged me to the pack’s houses, I jerked my hand out of his, taking advantage of his

distraction. He looked at me shocked. Did he expect me to do whatever he wants?

“What happened?” He asked bewildered.

“Nothing much. Just your highness holding my hand without permission.” I sneered.

“Why can’t I hold your hand?”

He looked at me like he was doing some complex calculations for a space ship.

“Oh let me think.” I started rubbing my jaw like I was thinking really hard. “You, my bully, is holding my

hand like we are friends. Isn’t that a dream come true? Why wouldn’t I want the person who made my

life a living hell, act like everything is just peachy? I mean that will exempt me from further torture. I do

have to be careful now or I would fall into a fall pretense and you would probably try to hurt me again.

Can’t be more careful these days, can we now?”

The sarcasm dripping from my tone was so sharp that Zeno flinched at every word I said. I gave him

my best smile in return. He looked… ashamed? Now that’s something new on him.

“Look I am sorry for what I did to you all these years.” I raised my eyebrows at him. “It’s just… you had

so much control over my emotions to the point that I absolutely hated it. You made me feel different but

you never gave me even a look. You didn’t even know what you were doing to me. Now I know that you

were in some sort of distress but my seven year old mind thought that you had an attitude and weren’t

giving me any attention. I thought that you didn’t even knew that I existed. I wanted to make you look at

me. Know about me. Be aware of my presence but you never even looked in my general direction.”

He glared at me like it was my fault that I didn’t know he existed at that time. I had just lost my family.

What did he expect me to do? Go on play dates with him. I didn’t even had met him before I moved in

with mom and dad.

“I thought you were full of yourself so I did what I thought was right at the time. I made you a social

pariah so you will only pay attention to me but you still didn’t even make an effort for it. Then I started

bullying you and I got what I had wanted all that time.”

He had a mad glint in his eyes. It scared the shit out of me. Before I could make a run for it, he started

pacing around and talking.

“You were aware of my presence now but I didn’t like it how hard I had to try to just make you look at

me. So I tried to make it harder for you to be in school. Why should I be the only one to suffer? You

didn’t have any friends as I had already taken care of that part. You won’t possibly pay attention to me

if you had someone else to look for, that’s what I thought. I will make it so difficult for you that you won’t

have anyone to lean on other than me but guess what? I didn’t get the response I wanted but I was

happy with what I got.”

He stopped pacing and grinned at me but his eyes said something else. There was regret shining in his

eyes. I don’t know what to think about this anymore.

“Only one emotion was enough. Only one glance was enough. Even a word from you was enough and

I hated it to the point that I wanted to torture you so bad that you will end up crying for ages. I did not

like the control you had on me at all. It made me feel like a slave to you. I wanted to ruin you for that,

for making my life hell but I couldn’t bring myself to hurt you. It made me sad at the same time.”

He sat down by a tree on the side of the trial. I didn’t move from my position. I couldn’t. It felt like

someone shot freeze ray at me. I don’t know if it was fear or shock but my body refused to move. A

large part of my mind told me to run but I couldn’t. I knew where this was going. Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

“Then the summer before high school hit. It was the worst period of my life. It felt like my life and soul

was getting drained out of me slowly. I was snapping at everyone and everything. I was a mess. Then

the bonfire night came and I saw you. All the bad feeling, the pain, the emptiness, everything left me. I

couldn’t tell how happy and vexed I was at the same time. You still had the same control over me.”

He was twisting his fingers madly. He looked agitated.

“I had decided that year that I would distance myself from you and start anew but you still wiggled your

way in my life and you were totally unaware of it. Again. So I dumped my plan of leaving you alone and

started hurting you anytime I could. Being near you made it easier to cope with the darkness that was

spreading inside me. Hell even being in the same building made it easier to breath freely. So I came

down harder on you. I couldn’t let any chance to get pass me to be near you. How could I? The feeling

without you being there was horrible and I loathed it even more. There were times I wanted to talk to

you nicely but all that would come out of my mouth would be something horrible that would be bad

enough to make you unhappy. That had unfortunately become a bad habit of mine. I tried so hard to

make you see me. I knew you hated me but I couldn’t stop. I tried even harder BUT YOU STILL

IGNORED ME LIKE I AM SOME UGLY CENTIPEDE.”

I flinched as he screamed pulling his hair in frustration. I had a very strong urge to laugh as a centipede

with Zeno’s head danced in front of my eyes but I controlled myself.

He got to his feet and closed the distance between us in two strides. If I say that I am scared, it would

be a major understatement. He fingers caressed my cheeks softly but not even the sparks made it

easier to not want to run for the hills. I shouldn’t have come here with him. Why did I have to come here

alone with him?