: There To Stay

When she heard what Dimitri said, she realized he had a point.

She could only growl under her breath in dissatisfaction.

Slowly, she got up and made her way to the table. Even if she didn't like him, she needed to eat.

She wasn't about to let this noble be the reason she didn't have a decent meal.

Seeing that she had given in, Dimitri led her to the table and sat in the chair opposite to the only other chair at the table.

She had to sit down across from him.

When she sat down, she looked at the silver plater before her. A familiar scent played with her nose causing her stomach to turn a little.

He uncovered the food and she realized that most of the dishes contained meat. She wanted to groan out in disgust. But she contained herself and maintained her 'no care' look.

There was nothing wrong with the meal in general. It had a great presentation and even serving. It's just, she hated meat.

If anything, it made her feel sick to the point that her guts would willingly turn themselves inside out at the memory of the bloody and tough grainy texture that coated her tongue whenever she ate meat before.

Dimitri discreetly noted down her reaction. She seemed to feel sick at the sight of meat on the table before her.

Luckily, butler Stevens had prepared something for this.

He only looked down at the dishes for a second before he pressed a serving of what seemed to be a well dressed salad with croutons towards her.

Kayda looked at it then took a glance at him. He ignored her gaze and started working on some papers he had somehow brought into the room without her notice.

It didn't surprise her. He was a lord of an entire territory of this size. If he didn't have any paper work, then she would start to doubt if he was even aloud to be considered as a competent noble.

Looking back down to the green dish, she didn't hesitate long before she took up a fork and stabbed what seemed to be a ball of lettuce.

Carefully, she placed it in her mouth. It tasted fine, like any piece of lettuce with dressing. But when she started to chew, her jaw stopped and her mind gave a slight start.

She was focused on what was in her mouth instead of who was in front of her and missed the small almost microscopic lift of the corner of Dimitri's lip before it completely disappeared.

The food Kayda just ate made her think for a second before she started chewing again.

What she just ate didn't seem to be just a piece of salad. Wrapped inside of it was a mixture of fish and a few other vegetables that were blended together. She couldn't taste the fishy taste that usually followed anything that lived in the water.

It was all blended together in a way that she couldn't feel the texture of the meat on her tongue all while it was wrapped inside of a layer of lettuce.

Looking up, she looked to Dimitri who was focused on his papers. Her eyes narrowed when she thought of how he hadn't even taken a second to push that bowl of salad towards her.

Looking at the other dishes, her face darkened. It was a test to see if his hypothesis was correct about her.

He wanted to see if she would reject the meat like he thought she would.

Instead of feeling upsets she only lowered her eyes and took another bite of the fish salad in front of her.

She only focused on the taste and the texture. She could eat it just fine without any unpleasant memories popping up when they where unwanted.

It tasted ok.

She didn't hate it.

After a few minutes, the entire bowl was emptied.

She felt a slight fullness in her stomach she hadn't had in a long time. When Dimitri had brought in that food, she had planned to have just a small meal with some vegetables or fruits like she always did.

Unexpectedly, she was able to eat a decent amount that didn't just consist of vegetables and fruits.

When she was finally done, she placed her utensils down and sat still. She didn't know whether to get up and leave it or to wait and stay silent. But she opted that staying silent was probably the best choice.

Noticing she was done, Dimitri placed three different colored porcelain bottles in front of her along with a glass of water.

He then stood up as he prepared to leave not before giving a few instructions.

"Take the green one after breakfast. The blue one after lunch and the white one after dinner. You're not allowed to take them without eating something first." His voice was distant as he straightened out his papers.

"Dr. Myer's orders." And then he left. Leaving her alone in her room once again.

Looking down at the bottles, she took up the white porcelain bottle and popped off the cap.

Bringing it to her nose, she inhaled a breath as she smelled the herbs concocted to make the little brown pills inside the bottle.

She didn't notice anything off. Tipping a pill into her hand, she chipped a piece of it off and placed it in her mouth.

The bitter and dry taste of medicine almost made her choke but she restrained herself as she waited and tasted the pill.

After a few minutes and no side effects, she placed the pill in her mouth and swallowed it with a mouth full of water.

"Hopefully it's not poisoned." She muttered.

Afterwards, a servant came in and cleared the dishes. Once she was alone, she found a comfortable spot on the floor and laid down.

Looking up at the white ceiling with the sun shining through the window in dancing rays, she slowly started to doze off.

It had been a long day physically and mentally. And maybe it was the medicine, but she didn't have any nightmares, at first.

As the night progress, she fell deeper and deeper into an abyss. And her nightmares began.

When she woke up in a cold sweat, she had to wrap her arms around herself to stop her body from shivering against the night air filling the room, cooling the already cold sweat that stuck to her body.

It didn't matter what she took, how tired she was, and how hard she tried not to think about it. The nightmares came. And it had already been a long time since she excepted the fact that they where there to stay.