Miles Silas

(From Ella's Perspective)

The dinner was almost silent. Leandro never talked much. He went back to his usual self and Jed was asking me again and again if Leandro was going to kill him because he touched me.

After dinner, Jed and I went upstairs to his room and closed the door from inside. Closing the door was unnecessary, but I wanted to see how angry could Leandro get. I wanted to make sure that he was angry about that. Part of me said that it was not the case, but I could not believe it fully.

When it was fifteen past twelve, through Jed's little window, we saw a boy, perhaps one year older than us, come to sit at a table. The boy had black hair, but not as dark as Leandro's hair. He was perhaps six feet tall and had a normal figure. Not bad looking at all.

Jed was literally gawking at him. The boy was drawing, his eyes furrowed in concentration. And Jed seemed as if his eyes would come out of his sockets at any moment. I chuckled.

"You need to ask him out," I said.

"As if he will say yes to me," Jed said, sighing.

"He will. We will make him."

"By making deal with him? I prefer not."

"Don't be ridiculous. I didn't mean it. By the way, do you want to talk to him?" I said.

"How? He doesn't even know me."

"Just tell me if you want to," I said impatiently.

"I do. But..."

"That's all I need to know, brother," I said. I took a paper from the almost broken table that was in the room. Bugs had eaten the wood of the table from several places. I had a feeling if I put the weight on both of my hands, it would break.

"What are you doing, Leora? We're not kids that we'll play with paper origami," Jed said, surprised.

"Shut up and watch it," I said as I started to make a paper plane with the paper.

"That's not the correct way," Jed said observing me.

"It is. I'm making Bullnose. It's a plane though I can't tell you what a plane is now," I pointed out, folding the top right corner over to the left side, making a fold from the top of the paper to the bottom right corner. Then I unfolded the paper and repeated it for the left corner.

"What's a Bullnose? I heard about Bull's eye, but Bullnose? And besides, Bull's eye is in archery."

"They are different. Bullnose is a paper plane type. Don't ask me what a plane is. I watched it on...," I stopped before saying YouTube. I needed to remind myself again and again that I was not in my familiar world anymore. "Never mind. Bullnose is the type of paper plane that's deceptively fast and stays aloft for quite a distance."

I unfolded the paper again and folded the right top right corner over to meet the crease made from the first fold. Then I folded the left corner over to meet the crease made from the second fold.

"I still don't understand why you are doing this," Jed sighed.

"You'll thank me later," I murmured, folding the paper from several places. Jed stood there, watching my actions, dumbfounded, all the time until I was done.

"Now what?" he asked.

I smiled and went towards the open window. The boy's window was open too. But he did not notice any of us as he was drawing very intently. His window was at the length of two arms.

I flew the plane towards his window. To my relief and Jed's surprise, the plane went inside and poked the boy on the forehead.

The boy looked up at us from whatever he was drawing on. I pretended to look shocked and sorry. I did not need to tell Jed to pretend as he already was looking like that.

"Oh, sorry," I said apologetically. "We were playing."

"You were playing with this?" the boy asked. His voice was soothing, but not as much as Leandro's voice was to me. Shit! I was thinking about Leandro again! No matter how hard I tried, he kept coming back to my mind.

"We were bored," I said quickly. "By the way, I'm Leora and this is my cousin Jed."

"I'm Miles Silas. You guys can call me Miles," the boy said. He was friendlier as per his looks. He kind of looked like those who liked to avoid others.

"Cool!" I said, nudging Jed on the elbow.

"The thing looks weird. How did you make it?" Miles asked.

"Jed made it," I replied, glancing sideways at Jed who raised his eyebrow at him. I gave him a look that said- 'Just play along'.

"It looks different but good," Miles commented flipping the paper over and over on his palms.

"Jed will show you how to make it someday. By the way, do you draw?" I said.

"Yeah, just a bit," Miles replied, a bit shyly.

"Great! Jed loves drawings, don't you Jed?" I said smiling broadly.

"Yeah," Jed replied a bit unprepared. "I do like them... a lot."

"Stop being nervous, you idiotic slow rooster," I hissed at Jed, though not loud enough for Miles to hear. "Tell him that you would love to see his drawings. I'm sure he'll agree. Then compliment them... even if they suck. No offense."

"I would like to see your drawings. I actually love drawings a lot. I can't draw, but I love them," Jed said and I smiled encouragingly at him.

"They are not so good," Miles mumbled, but I was sure that he wanted to show us his drawings as well.

"Oh come on. Show us," I urged.

It did not take too much to convince Miles to show us his drawings. "Oh, I suddenly remember that I've to make a note. You two better hang out or talk. I'll just make the note. See you later, Miles."

"See you."

I climbed on Jed's squeaky bed, making creaky noise in the process. I took the book that I had brought from the castle library on my lap. I thought of reading it. But I felt fatigued.

These days when I went back to the cave, I always felt tired. Perhaps it was because of working all day long. I could not even stay awake at night. It would feel as if I had not slept in years.

Even without me knowing, my eyes gave up. I did not even know in which position I fell asleep. Perhaps with the book on my lap, my head against the wall behind.

And I regretted falling asleep this time. It did not feel like I was sleeping anymore. It seemed as if I was experiencing that night again. It was as if I was dying once again, pleading to live.

Rain was pouring on my face as my bicycle got crashed against a high sped car. It was not my fault, but the driver's. He hit my bicycle on purpose. 

But I managed to jump off my bicycle in time, or it would be the last day of my life. My bicycle got shattered as the car hit it, leaving no proof that it was the gorgeous dark blue bicycle once. 

I was in the mud, with rain waters falling on my skin, giving me a frigid feeling. Two men got out of the car. It was dark. I could not see their faces. But I knew that they were terrifying-looking. 

"Is she the girl?" one of them asked. His voice was deep. I had a feeling that he was very muscular, not in a good-looking way, but kind of giant-like. 

"It's her, that bitch!" the other one said, his voice harsh and cold, but not as much as Leandro's though more frightening, at least to me. 

I had a clear idea of what was going to happen. I did not know how they knew me, but all I knew was that I needed to run, run for my life. I forced my legs up and before they could say anything else or move towards me, I started running. 

It was hard to run with my bruised elbows and knees. But I did not stop. The mud under my feet made me fall twice, but I forced myself up every time, with the thought of not dying. 

I kept saying to myself that it would be alright. I just needed to get out of their grasp and that's all. And suddenly, something stabbed me... in the middle of my stomach. I looked down and saw that blood was pouring out as a knife stabbed me. I did not know what to do. My trembling hands grasped the handle of the knife which was the only thing that was out of my flesh. 

My mind got blurred as crucial pain took over my body, mind, veins. I felt like falling. But I did not want to die. I did not want to stop. I wanted to save myself. But... I could not. His name came to my mind. I knew he could save me, the only person who could save me. 

"Leandro!!"