Hellbound With You

With a frown plastered on her small face, Iryz rubbed the goosebumps that had suddenly sprouted all over her skin. She had sensed someone's presence in the room earlier and it was not actually something malevolent or anything of the sort. However, her mind then slowly thought of the horror movies she had watched before, thus causing all these goosebumps to appear. She had then turned around and scanned the room to check and see if there were any spirits lingering around.

A quiet sigh escaped her lips upon seeing that there was no bloody ghost standing behind her. Was that just her imagination?

Iryz cocked her head to side. Something seemed to be off with that presence she had felt.

Suddenly, Zeres sprung up from the chair he was sitting in. His eyes were wide, looking as though something had jolted him awake from his slumber.

"Alicia?" he called out hesitantly, eyes fixed behind her. Then all too fast, he grabbed his shirt that was lying on the arm of the chair and stormed towards the door.

Iryz was about to speak when the shirt he was holding onto violently hit her face.

She stiffened, slowly lifting her hand to her face as she stood there, looking at the opened door.

Rubbing her face, Iryz let out a shaky sigh.

"So, her name is Alicia, huh." She mumbled, pursing her lips.

When she heard his footsteps coming back, Iryz straightened her back. His expression was incredibly dark again, like he was angry about something.

"You didn't… catch her?" Iryz asked in a soft voice.

He did not respond. She could sense his emotions that were in turmoil and the anger that was rolling off him in waves.

Swift and quiet like a cat, Zeres walked past her, picked up a book and sat down on the chair again.

His initially peaceful and angelic expression was completely gone without a trace right now. Gloomy face and stormy, raging eyes faced the book in his hand. He looked like the devil was after him again.

"You're not done yet?" he snapped out, without sparing her a glance. His voice was flat and filled with cold impatience.

Iryz clutched on her pencil before looking down at her unfinished sketch. Her little heart mourned at the loss of another

"It's done." The sweetest forced smile flashed across her face, even though he kept his eyes down. She had replied while gently closing the pages of the book.

She put her sketch pad away and asked him with a careful voice. "Are you going to pull an all-nighter again?"

"Yes."

"But you didn't sleep for the last two days."

The room went quiet, as if he did not hear a thing. Her gaze lingered at the beautiful man who was so focused and angry it seemed as though anything that was not about the book does not concern him at all.

"I'll pull an all-nighter too, then." Iryz mumbled out helplessly. She honestly wanted to sleep as she suddenly felt her fatigue overtaking her after being demotivated to finish the sketch. But she could not take watching this man behaving this way anymore. She wanted to help him so badly even though… even though he was still as cold as ice to her despite them being together inside a single room literally for weeks now.

At first, she had told herself she did not need to move with such haste. But right now, she wanted to finally find the book.

Knowing that this will be another long night for them both, Iryz went downstairs to prepare her normal snack items of coffee and cookies. Zeres had never joined her while she was eating her meal as he found eating meals just too time consuming. He only eats the snacks she brought up to him. And she thought that he liked coffee and cookies the most as she noticed his plate was always empty the next morning when she collected it.

After a few minutes, Iryz emerged silently from the door and approached him. She put the plate of cookies and the cup of hot coffee down next to him.

The coffee's warm, comforting and earthy aroma slowly permeated and filled the room.

She walked away from him immediately and returned to her desk without a word. The sound of pages flipping and the sounds of the cup of coffee, clicking as they put them down were the only sounds that could be heard inside the room.

Hours passed in silence. Iryz fought back sleep despite her heavy lids threatening to shut down her eyes constantly. The effects of the coffee had long since worn off. When she turned her head towards Zeres, she saw that the man was already asleep.

She stood up from her chair silently and then approached him with a blanket in her hand, tiptoeing. She knew just how easily this man gets awakened.

After putting the blanket over him, Iryz stilled. She had done this quite a few times already in the past two weeks, just staring at him while he was asleep. Well, it was not that she could help herself. He was such prime eye candy that she often caught herself staring at him in a daze before she even realized that she was already doing it. His beauty was just the kind that was meant to be worshipped and adored.

Leaning a little closer, Iryz reach out. She wanted to brush away those silver locks that were hanging over his eyes. But right before her fingers could touch a strand of his hair, her hand stilled.

Then slowly, she retracted her hand.

She was having a huge crush on this man despite knowing that his heart already belongs to someone else. Well, it was normal, was it not? Who in their right minds, would not have a crush on such a beautiful man like him?! Too bad he would only be like the beautiful moon to her. Impossible to reach and only meant to be looked at. Someone who does not even bother to look at her when he talks to her often.

Iryz finally went to bed too. Her thought was on the woman that Zeres was desperately trying to bring back. Alicia. The woman she had never met but kept thinking about.

She wished she would dream about that book tonight.