“Skya! Skya!” he screamed as more panic welled up.
“I moved her out of the tub before going to you. I put her in her crib. Can you stay here for a moment while I open the shutters in your room?”
“No… NO!” Seri screamed, clinging to him more. At his screams, Skya’s cries grew louder. “Skya,” he sobbed.
“Hold tight to me, okay? I’m going to carry you to the other room and open the shutters. I’m not going to let go of you, even for a second. No one is going to take you from me, understand?”
“No one,” Seri repeated.
“That’s right, no one,” Severo murmured softly, before saying, “Here we go.” The man stood, lifting Seri up, holding him much like the man held Skya, using just one arm and resting him against his hip.
He held back his scream as the man carried him into the pitch-dark room, but then the shadows pulled away, thelight following. His eyes went to the beam of light from the bathroom. It was like Severo was dragging the darkness back, letting Seri cling to his last bit of sanity by bringing the light with them.
Whimpering when they moved further into the dark room. He let out a sob of relief on Severo shoving open the blackout curtains above the bed.
The room was still cast in shadows, but it wasn’t the pitch-black emptiness of before.
“Skya…Skya…” he sniffled.
“Yes, we are going to grab Skya now.”
Severo moved over to the crib. Seri clutched Skya to his chest the moment the Dweller set her in his arms. Skya clung to him, crying still.
One hand still a death grip on Severo’s shirt, Seri said nothing when the man moved onto the bed, continuing to hold both of them.
Seri sat there pushing around his breakfast with his fork, loathing his entire existence. Sure, Preston had taunted him, torturing him with shadows, and often dragged him into his Shadow Realm as punishment.
But still, why did the shadows terrify him so much now and not then?! Okay…they had terrified him then, but he hadn’t been a basket case, afraid of every dark corner.
It was beyond frustrating. Most of his frustration being with himself. Seri was free, yet just as much trapped as he was before. Well, he was free in a relative sense, as in he’d escaped and at least wasn’t wanted for murder anymore… He wasn’t free, free. Seri couldn’t walk around in public showing his face. He couldn’t live his life without care. His cage was bigger now, but it was still a cage.
He sighed. Skya sighed next to him before giggling. He glanced at her and she stared back, with her gummy smile. She’d likely have a tooth soon. She’d been chewing on a lot of things lately, and from what he could see, there appeared to be some almost ready to come out.
As fast as Nymphs developed, their teeth came in later than humans, for some reason. Once the first appeared, she’d gain them rapidly after that, and would catch up to her human counterparts quickly.
“Seri…” Severo said slowly. The man had been sitting across from him silently, and as he usually did, had finished his meal long before Seri…
He held his hand up. “Don’t say it. I know I’m messed up. I’m sorry I freaked out on you. And I’m sorry I forced you to sleep in my bed last night…” His face heated up more with each word. “I also should have just let you slip me into the Shadow Realm…” He frowned. “Though, now that I’m thinking about it, you said something about the windows not being treated and cameras...”
“First of all, you have nothing to apologize for. Maybe it would have helped, maybe not. As for the rest, while I kept them down as a precaution, apparently, it’s come out that the building hasn’t covered all the windows with privacy screens. I received an email from Eden a few days ago with the warning.
“Not only are the owners now in hot water, as some residents found videos of themselves online, but also the building next door has a lot of invasive cameras facing the apartment, seemingly aimed in just a way to see perfectly inside. I meant to mention it, but…” Severo frowned. “I got distracted by something… I don’t remember what…”
“Wow…that’s…that’s messed up.”
“Yeah, there are probably going to be lawsuits. Sorry for forgetting to mention it.”
“Well…it wouldn’t have mattered if the lights hadn’t gone out last night, since we kept them all closed before that.”
“Mm…” Severo grunted, before clearing his throat and saying, “Seri… You know…you’ve been…having nightmares…”
Seri frowned. “But…I haven’t been?”
The Dweller winced. “Ahh… About that…”
His eyes narrowed on the man. The shadows beneath the Dweller’s eyes weren’t as deep today, but they were still there. Thinking on it…the bags hadn’t been there before Severo started waking up later. And…he had started waking up later…around the time Seri’s nightmares had stopped. It had been a month…
“What…did you do?” he asked. “Or should I ask, what have you been doing?”
