Chapter 46

"I want to go home" I pleaded with Robin when he came into the Master bedroom earlier that evening. His hair was wrapped in a towel and his body was cladded in a bathrobe. He looked like he had just had a bath and was going to turn in for the night already.

"Are you afraid?" He asked, checking out his face in the mirror before him. It was spotless. I was sitting on the chair and watching him do everything he did. The maids had left an hour ago upon his command to leave us alone. He turned towards me every minute. "You're afraid" ,he said

"I just want to go home" I cried. I had seen enough. I just wanted my room and my mom and my baby sisters.

"I thought you didn't like the situation at home?" He turned towards me. I looked away.

"Everyone here scares me. I want to go to my family. I want to quit camp. I have a family I can relate to at home" He asked me to get up but I didn't respond because I didn't want him to order me around. He tried to lift me but I jerked my wrist off his grip. I just wanted to be.

"Let me be. Don't touch me" I cried.

"Do I scare you too?" He sighed and sat on the dressing table before me. Then he looked into my face keenly and said, "Why don't you want the purging?" I didn't respond because I didn't know why exactly. I just didn't want to associate myself with him anymore. Or any student from Enchanting Promises High School.

"Didn't you want to forget everything that happened here?"

"I don't want the purging. I just don't want to see any more of these. Let me go please"

"Do you know how the purging is done? It's not difficult or scary. You only have to drink from a cup of fermented slightly alcoholic wine and bathe with it as well. For a night. 3 hours straight. It'll make you sleep for a long, long time and then ease you and make you forget all the sad events. Totally" he explained.

"Fermented wine?" I gasped

"Yes. It's manageable. Not bad" he gesticulated with his hands.

"What if I do it now and then experience more gory things before the camping ends here? What if something more insane happens and I have to watch it? Then, I'll keep coming to purge myself day after day? Is that it? Does that make any sense to you?" I yelled at him, at the top of my voice, completely forgetting that this man before me was capable of slaughtering and getting rid of me without a trace. Like he did Anita.

"After the purging, I'll give you an answer to that. I promise. For now, just clear the memories of yesterday and the days before, and be peaceful, okay?" He patted my shoulder and I started to calm down immediately. I had to smile because his presence and gaze were so soothing. He got up and went to the door. But I didn't want him to leave yet. I had so many questions to ask him.

"Goodnight, Ariana. If you want the wine tonight, just call me. Sleep well"

"Please wait" I said and ran to grab his wrist. "Are you going to bed already?"

"No. I'm staying up at the library tonight. Why?" He stood, facing me and with his arms akimbo.

"Can I ask you some questions?"

He shut the door and went to sit on the bed.

"Go on"

"Why do you bring me here..to the castle I mean? Why do you make the people here treat me so well? I'm only a child."

"Isn't it obvious why I do that?" He got up and made to leave again. " I have got work to do, Ariana. Stop asking questions with answers so clear"

"Promise me, " I continued, "that you would not harm any more people. Promise me that nothing will go wrong with Maria. Promise me that you will not cause any more deaths" He stared at me for a while and then said so coldly, "I can't promise you that"

"I can't promise you that because I'm not going to obey you"

"What?" I slowly drawled.

"I kill for a living. I was born to kill, to hunt down whatever gets in my way, and I do it without mercy because I don't know what mercy is. Mercy doesn't live here. So, I can't promise you. I'm probably going to cause many more deaths without a trace" his face was expressionless and I started to feel like a stranger in that vicinity. I mean, I actually was.

"Then, I don't want to be with you" I said. Coldly too because i was hurt.

"Your choice" he said and walked out quietly. I fell to the floor and started to sulk with invisible tears on my face. My heart was breaking. I wasn't going to let myself witness any more deaths but I was scared of leaving him. Did he really say "Your choice"? Did it mean I could leave if I wanted to?

He never hurt me, even when I was out to destroy his reputation and even when I hated him so much and knew his secrets, he still kept me safe. He always protected me. But, he said he wasn't going to stop killing. The way he said it sent chills down my spine. Maria was going to be hurt. She was probably going to end up like her sister, Anita. I didn't want that. I wished she could stop the urge to seek revenge. But, how could I tell her this, without creating more troubles?

I laid quietly in bed and thought about my mom and family. Jack too. If I told Robin to leave me alone finally, would he really? Or would he get angry and hurt me? Would he force me to stay with him? I didn't know. I wished I could talk to Dr Brown about it and he'd not call it hallucinations. I wished mom would not say I was crazy, and Cameron would not call me ' a little witch' because I could not cry tears and because I saw what was not there. I wished the night panic terrors would stop. I wished I didn't have any special powers. I wished I were just a normal, dumb girl. It was the only time I ever desired being dumb. Maybe it was good to be a dummy.

I was under a curse. Definitely.

I had so many questions to ask him, like, "Why don't you want to take me back home? What am I? I know I'm definitely not a werewolf or a vampire or a shapeshifter or anything like that, but what was I? Why do I have the ability to lift objects twice my size without pressure? Why do I see things that are not there?

Why can't I shed tears? Did my mom do something in the past to warrant this? Was I a covenant child sacrificed to the supernatural world? Why was I different from the girls in my estate and the ones I see on my way to school or church?

Why does he want me?

I turned and turned in bed and when I couldn't take it any longer, I stood up and ran all the way after him. He was already in the library upstairs. Barely 30 seconds and he had climbed more than a hundred row of stairs. Oh, I forgot he could move so fast.

I stood at the door and knocked hard.

"Robin! Robin, open the door please! " I cried but he'd not answer me. "I know you can hear me! Please open this door" I finally gave up knocking after three minutes and then sat on the floor there because I was clueless.

The door opened a bit with a creak after five minutes and his head popped out. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you" I said tearfully. He opened the door wider and signalled to me to come in. I hesitated for a while before going in because I wasn't expecting that. I thought he'd slam the door in my face.

That was my first time entering the library. Or any other part of the castle, apart from the Master bedroom. I couldn't help gawking at the beauty I beheld. The room was well-stacked with books, and I mean mountain of books. Books that looked like gold. Books I'd never finish in a hundred years. The room was very wide and looked like the drawings in a fantasy comic novel.

"Woah...Woahhh!" My mouth was wide agape. I started to check out the books but none of them was comprehensible. At least none that I checked. They all were written in languages I didn't understand. Apart from the books, there were many beds around. Floating. Wooden beds with soft pillows. Floating wooden beds.

He put his hands behind him and watched me drool and jump in ecstasy, as I walked round the spiralling stairs. It must have amused him because a smile played on his lips too. I felt like I was flying over the clouds. It was beautiful. Did I say beautiful? It was the most breathtaking sight I've ever seen, up till now. Even the beauty of the castle's garden, as amazing as it was could not compare with this library.

"How do you have so many books here?" I yelled. I completely forgot what brought me into the library in the first place. It was that enchanting.

He laughed. I turned to look at him because it was the first time I ever saw him laugh. It was not anything extraordinary. In fact, he laughed like a regular human. He even winced in pain when he hit his leg on the floating wooden beds once or twice.

"So many beds too!" I squealed and stretched my hands towards the ceiling. I did a spin around the room and when my head was starting to turn, I fell. On his left foot. He winced in pain as he released his foot from under my weight. That was the third time he'd show pain.

"Does it hurt? I mean, did it hurt? " I asked in surprise when I got up.

"Of course it did. What do you mean? You should apologise" he lifted himself and before I knew it, he was sitting on one of the floating beds, rubbing his foot. I bent down to look under the bed but to be honest, nothing was supporting it.

"Can I come there too? Can I sit on the floating bed?" I laughed and stretched playfully. "Please please please please, pretty please?"

He laughed again and shook his head. " Not after you injured my pinky toe. I'm not going to let you wound me again"

"I won't, I promise. I want to see how it feels to sit on a floating bed, or..will my weight pull it down? Huh?" I asked. He pointed a finger towards me and I immediately began to float in air. He did it until I landed in the soft cushion of the bed, right beside him.

"Oh my! That's smooth!" I smiled. "I love this place" I was so excited I wanted to cry. From the bed, I could see the outside view through the small windows over the bookshelves. The moon was bright outside, with several stars, but one of it stood so conspicuous.

"So, talk to me" he faced me. His smile had disappeared.

"Huh?"

"You were here to talk to me, right?"

"Huh? Oh ...yeah I guess" I maintained a serious face now. "What am I?" I asked without thinking.

"What am I?" I asked again.

"You are human"

"What are you?" I asked. Everywhere was calm. A soundtrack was playing in the background although I didn't know where it was from.

"I am human too" he said, with a serious face.

"Huh?"

"Yeah. I can feel, move, eat, sleep, work. I am human"

"But..."

"You are human, and I am human too, but we are both humans with a difference. That is why our world is different, and that's why we are superhumans" his voice was very calm.