Page 76 of Afflicted

“Come with me and you’ll find out.”

I don’t ask any more questions, too relieved to be back in his presence to care what that black bag holds. I follow him across the yard, scurrying through the pouring rain. We head past the kitchen and an administration block, around some storage sheds and straight for a line of neat yellow and white cabins.

“Are you taking me to your place?” I ask with a giggle.

He grins over his shoulder at me. “You got somewhere better to be?”

I pad up the steps behind him, and he opens the door to a cute little room. There’s a big bed in the middle, and an armchair in front of an enclosed metal fireplace. A desk with a big chair is on the opposite wall, beside which stands a bookshelf filled with books.

I peel off my wet sweater, and walk over to the bookshelf. “You like to read?”

“Yeah, always have. I guess you have too, daughter of an english teacher and all.”

“That’s for sure. Books as presents, for every birthday.” I gesture to the shelf. “Mind if I take a look?”

He waves me over. “Course not. Go ahead.”

I look over the spines, reading off the titles, some I know, some I’ve never heard of. On one of the shelves lies a faded polaroid picture, underneath an old cassette tape. I can’t make out much of it, but it looks like a very young Silas with a pretty redhead. They’re both laughing. On the cassette tape, in black pen, are the words “For Harri”, along with two uneven little hearts.

“Who’s this in the picture?” I ask.

A beat, a moment’s hesitation in which the air becomes somehow heavier. I turn to look at him, and his eyes are fixed downwards.

“She was my best friend growing up.” His voice is a little strained, and the small twitch of his jaw tells me that maybe I shouldn’t push this, not when we just tenuously found our way back to each other. Instead, I walk to his side and look over everything he’s spread out on the desk.

“You got art supplies?” I gaze up at him in awe. “How did you manage that?”

“I put in a special request to one of the family centers,” he replies. “They sent me some things, excess stock apparently.”

I laugh, reaching down to flip open a notebook, running my fingers over the heavy paper. “This is amazing.” I smile up at him. “Are we going to draw together?”

“Well the weather’s shit and I don’t feel like going to the gym, so why not?”

Without thinking, I throw my arms around Silas and grab him in a tight hug.

“Oh my god, thank you!” I realize as he tenses that maybe that was a bad idea, not after we were panting over each other in a truck a few weeks ago. I quickly let him go and take a step back. “Sorry, I’m just excited.”

“It’s OK.” He gives me that devastating smile again, and unbuttons his khaki shirt, peeling it down his arms. He’s wearing a tight white t-shirt underneath which makes his tanned skin look even darker. He runs a hand through his damp hair, raking it back over his head and he looks good enough to eat.

He catches me staring at him, his eyes moving down to my lips.

“I wanted to apologize,” he says slowly. “For what happened, in the truck.”

“You don’t need to apologize for that.”

“I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

I shake my head quickly. “You didn’t. I was confused for a minute, but that was all.”

“Me too.” His eyes move back up my face to meet mine. “They want us to spend time together, the higher-ups. They think it’s good PR. Make the humans trust us again.”

“Good PR?”

“Yeah. They think it’s good we’re… friends.”

“Friends, huh?”

“Yes, friends.” His tongue nudges against one of his fangs, as though he’s contemplating the word. His eyes flash down to my lips for a split second, and I think he’s going to move closer to me. But then he breaks away from my gaze to look down at the desk, picking up a notepad and a box of pencils, handing them to me. “Here, sit where you like.”

---