“Stop it! What do you think you are doing?!” he spoke harshly, shaking her once more, holding her from her wrists.

Vanya’s eyes rounded in shock. But they soon narrowed in realization. The bloodied face in front of her eyes, the face she did not expect to see tonight, made her tongue sour. She took a deep breath and spat on Rhohaz’s face.

He looked to her disgusted and threw her hands to herself.

“What was that?!” Rhohaz growled.

“It is your fault! You deserve it and more for stalking us for the past two nights! Do you think I did not notice? I saw you watching us from outside the infirmary and now here tonight. Why? Are you thinking of kidnapping us and dumping us back into the sea? Or better yet just take our lives while we are asleep?--”

“What?!” Rhohaz sounded confused while wiping his face with his sleeve leaving streaks of blood on it.

“Which one is it? What do you want?! I know you don’t want us here, clearly–”

Rhohaz held his hands out in an attempt to get Vanya’s attention. “Hold on, one thing at a time.”

Vanya stopped, her heart beating faster than ever, only to let herself catch a breath.

“First off,” Rhohaz started, “Why did you punch me in the face?”

“Because I caught you red-handed–”

“Doing what?”

“Watching us? From the shore. Do not deny it!”

“Why would I watch you from anywhere? I already know you are with my grandmother, in my grandmother’s home.”

“Then why are you out here?” Vanya pressed on.

“Because my home is right there,” he pointed at the brick house straight ahead of the pair.

“I meant,” Vanya tried rephrasing her question hurriedly realizing Rhohaz was making a fair point, “What are you doing at the shore in the middle of the night?”

Rhohaz paused for a moment before replying, “I couldn’t sleep. I am only taking a walk. Am I not allowed to talk a walk in my own backyard? But wait,” he went back to Vanya’s previous accusation, “What do you mean by I stalked you at the infirmary?”

Vanya rolled her eyes. “I saw you. By the shoreline like a ghost, twice at that. Do not deny it!”

Vanya watched Rhohaz think for a moment. His eyebrows furrowed in thought and his eyes shifted gaze before he looked to her and said in a stern voice, “It was a misunderstanding. I was simply walking trying to clear my head. I’m sorry if it offended you or your sister in any way.”

This took Vanya by surprise. His apology was not something she expected. It was too quick.

He’s too quick to admit it…interesting.

It made her feel as if he was holding something back, covering something up. Before she could say anything, he quickly spoke in one breath.

“You must not be out here in the middle of the night. It is not safe. No one is allowed to leave their homes alone after nightfall.”

“No one? Well, you're clearly out here basking in the moonlight. Those rules must not apply to you then,” Vanya retorted.

She expected Rhohaz to clap back but he only stared at her before letting a smirk travel across his face unable to hide it from her. He cleared his throat to reply saying, “On second thought, you’ll punch whatever’s in your way so I think you should be fine.”

Vanya rolled her eyes seeing him smile with a bloodied nose. It made her oddly calm, despite his wrongdoings towards her and Joan. The moonlight made him look different.

“You should go now. It's late,” Rhohaz spoke only to get shut down by Vanya who was already taking steps toward Tilly’s porch.

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

Rhohaz let out a laugh in disbelief. Nevertheless, out of spite, he followed up, “You should know, I’m not letting you off the hook for punching me in my nose. You must pay for it…soon!”

Vanya kept walking to the porch as if she heard nothing yet her face showed a smile mirroring Rhohaz’s. Her fist still ached making her wonder how strong she must have landed on Rhohaz’s nose. She partly wanted to go inspect her achievements and partly wanted to inspect them to ensure nothing was broken. Then again, she felt satisfied, for it was a punch in the making for what Rhohaz did to her and Joan, nearly costing them their only chance at safety and perhaps survival.

***

Rhohaz woke the next morning with barely any sleep, clutching onto his face in pain. He held it in as he rubbed a herb paste on the bruises covering his nose and went back to lying on his back with his eyes closed feeling the herb paste tinging his nose.

He wished for a moment that his mother would wake him, help him with his injury, and let him sleep in all day. But that was no longer his reality. The last time he saw his mother alive and well was over ten years ago when he was merely a boy. He missed her.

He breathed deeply remembering how Roza had completely avoided him last night when he came home. He tried following her to her room, knocking on her door, and trying to get her to listen to his apology.

That’s what Mother would want me to do…

He thought as he laid in bed, thinking of how he gave up so easily and never said anything to his sister last night. He felt terrible for what he did. He felt his sister’s disappointment in him more than he thought he would. He had let his younger sibling down and as his father’s son, that hurt him more.

He forced himself to get out of bed when he heard sounds of clanking in the kitchen. He wanted to catch Roza before she would manage to slip out without a word.

By the time he got to the kitchen, she was gone. She had had her morning tea, picked up a fresh batch of flowers from the garden, placed them into their mother’s blue-green flower pot, and taken off.

Rhohaz sighed scratching his head. He had to apologize to her soon. He wanted to. But she could be anywhere, hiding away by herself. And he would barely have time today to look for her. His duties as a leader came first.

He put a fresh batch of herb paste on his nose, changed his clothes, and picked up his satchel to walk out the door. He was already late.

***

The door to the bedroom creaked open. The crooked cane poked Vanya a few times before pushing her to her side forcing her to spring out of her bed confused.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Yes, yes, what is it?” she asked, disheveled. Her fingers rubbed her sleepy eyes.

“The sky… it's falling down, dear. Run!”

Vanya shot her eyes open in shock and confusion. She was greeted by the nasty laugh of Tilly, who was loving her own lame joke. It managed to wake Vanya, who looked to Tilly annoyed, and that satisfied old Tilly.

“Okay, alright. That’s enough,” Vanya tried making Tilly stop. Tilly went on for a few more laughs before heaving to a stop.

“You need to go, dear. He’s here for you,” Tilly said making Vanya confused.

“Who?”

“My grandson! And he’s annoying me. Go now. Hurry!” Grandma Tilly gave a few pats on Vanya’s back with her cane before she walked away leaving Vanya confused about what to do next.

Joan had woken by this time and was watching Vanya panic.

“It’s probably nothing,” Joan tried being reasonable. That was useless, for Vanya had destroyed her hair tugging onto it while going over what she should and should not say in order to not get kicked out of Shalom. She left out the part where she punched the leader in the face the night before from Joan. She did not want Joan to know her stupid act just yet.

Joan limped to her and held her for a moment. Vanya calmed in her arms and finally began to breathe. Joan helped her get ready and be presentable with a gentle braid gracing her roughened black hair.

Without much pondering, Joan made her leave their room.

Vanya expected Tilly to be in the living room. But no one was there. She looked around and saw nobody.

She walked to the back door and opened it to suddenly see Rhohaz pacing in the garden.

He looked up at her. His eyes shone gold and went back to grey like she remembered. The panic in her head disappeared immediately upon seeing his face. Her fright soon turned to giggles and then roaring laughter.

Rhohaz rolled his eyes, seeing her bent over laughing holding onto her stomach. She was definitely overdoing it.

“Your face ha! You’ve made it worse. Where’s your nose?” she exploded pointing to his face, dirty green in the middle. His herb paste had melted around his nose making him look like he had a fluorescent green frog perched on his nose.

“Hush now. You did this to me. Stop laughing and get down here. We have work to do,” Rhohaz went unheard for a few more minutes before Vanya made her way down to the garden after laughing her existence away.

“Why did you want to see me?” she asked controlling the last bits of her giggles.

Rhohaz pulled out a broom that was lying on his side and handed it to Vanya. She shook her head refusing to pick it up.

“You agreed to help, to do your part in earning your stay,” Rhohaz reminded to which Vanya stared at the broom. She had seen brooms before, she had even seen people use a broom before, but she had never done it. She had never actually held a broom in her life.

“Come on. Pick it up. We are all gathered at the school building, well, most of us. This week’s task is to clean the children’s school…Grandma mentioned you were well enough to help starting today.”

Vanya looked shocked seeing how it was Grandma Tilly who had suggested this. Yet, she was too deep into the idea that she may embarrass herself by not knowing how to use a broom, she was scrambling to find an excuse.

“Achooo,” Vanya immediately faked a sneeze, “Oh no, well, that’s too bad for I would love to help. I am, in fact, quite ill today. Truly, I say to you, very ill. High fever.”

Vanya proceeded to let out a few coughs watching Rhohaz go from unimpressed to slightly concerned.

Vanya thought her act was going great until Rhohaz suddenly pulled out his hand and rested his palm firmly on Vanya’s forehead.

Vanya stared blankly at him. She had never had anyone cross her boundary so quickly before. Even Joan was so careful at first before they were both comfortably meshed together.

Rhohaz took a moment before taking his hand back to shake his head in denial. “You are perfectly fine. No fever and you need to practice how to fake a sneeze. The cough, however, was pretty good.”

Vanya sighed in disappointment. She could not think of anything else to say. Besides, she promised the council and Tilly. And for Joan’s sake, she decided to go with it, for the time being.

“Come along!” Rhohaz handed the broom to her and walked ahead leading the way.

Vanya held on to the broom like her life depended on it. Thankful that Rhohaz was looking ahead, she hid herself in the shadow of his back, where he could not see her, carefully observing the broom on her hand while following him, step by step.

She followed him up the path between the brick houses and onto the hill. He glanced back at her to see her at his step, quiet.

“Have you seen Roza this morning?” he asked surprising Vanya.

“Um no,” Vanya replied wondering why he would ask his sister’s whereabouts from her. Then she remembered his sister declaring she did not want to speak with him after their argument at the council hall.

Is she ignoring him? Ha! Rightfully so!

Vanya thought. Anger started bubbling up immediately after.

Rhohaz took a turn and stepped down a steep slope so easily. Vanya looked at the gradient of the slope and prepared for a possible fall on her head going down, with the broom split in half. Yet she stopped before taking her first step realizing Rhohaz had extended his arm in help.

She thought for a moment about coldly refusing his hand. Yet seeing the steep slope, she grabbed it forcefully and let Rhohaz guide her down. She took her hand back with much force as soon as she reached the bottom to say, “Are you trying to make up for not being so gentlemanly yesterday?”

Rhohaz looked to her, confused. She wanted to punch him in the face for she thought he most definitely knew what exactly she was talking about.

And Rhohaz did have a hunch on what she was alluding to. He knew she overheard his conversation with his sister at the council hall yesterday. He was simply trying to bury his own disappointment about his behavior. He did not want to think of how he betrayed his sister’s wishes, which she clearly communicated, and that he agreed to. He was quite aware of how much of a desperate person he must have looked like wanting to impress the council overseeing Shalom. But he was too late. He could not change the past.

He looked to Vanya. Her disappointed face looked more harsh than her angry features when she punched him in the face last night. Strangely, he wanted to say something, anything to make her stop looking so disappointed in him.

His eyes caught her knuckles on the hand that threw the punch at him, dark red with hints of purple, swollen. But before he could say anything, almost as if she sensed it, she hid her hand away.

“You should ask grandma to help you with that. She’s an excellent healer,” he said nonchalantly and watched her ignore his gaze.

Yet her anger was radiating through her eyes and without skipping a beat she spoke, “I am fine, thank you. You should get your nose checked instead. Hope it doesn’t fall off of that thick skull of yours anytime soon.”

She stomped her foot and went ahead leaving Rhohaz to let out a frustrated huff to himself. He watched her confidently walk down the path.

Vanya delighted at her perfect insult let the arrogant smile take over her face but it quickly disappeared as she heard Rhohaz shout out, “You are going the wrong way!”

Her baffled look as she turned slightly to see Rhohaz from the corner of her eye, standing there with his hands on his hips, almost made him crack laughing. But he held it for he knew he won this time.

She scurried past him and headed in front without a word. Her face was beet red.

He was about to say something witty when a shrieking cry made both of them stop on their track. The cry echoed in Vanya’s head a few times over before she fully comprehended what she heard. It was a woman, the gut-wrenching cry of a woman.

Vanya looked to Rhohaz in shock. Her heart racing and her palms sweaty. She wanted to run off to safety. She wanted to hide. The shock of the sudden cry made her knees buckle and her legs want to give in.

Rhohaz caught Vanya’s arm seeing her off balance. Another set of cries echoed through the lonely village making him look around in confusion. It was the first time he had ever heard such cries before. His eyes landed back on Vanya.

“Are you okay?” Rhohaz asked, holding her close, watching her catch her breath, her head hung over. A part of him wanted to start walking her back to his grandmother’s home. Yet, as the leader of Shalom, he was itching to head towards the cries, towards danger.

“Do you know the way back?” Rhohaz asked hurriedly. Vanya thought for a moment and shook her head. She was too focused on observing her little broom she did not pay attention to where he was taking her.

Rhohaz sighed then spoke again, “Then, stay here. I need to go. Wait till I come back to get you–” but before he could finish Vanya grabbed onto his arm, holding it as tight as she could as if she was holding onto dear life. Her fingers were cold and shaking.

She looked up at him and managed to let out a whisper, “No, don’t leave me here…”

Her words were wrapped in fear. Her pupils were shaking and her voice was barely there. It was the first time Rhohaz saw such deep fear in someone’s eyes.

“...Don’t leave me to the shadows.”