Chapter Text
Aesop’s POV:
I didn’t know what was happening. I was kneeling, and so was the person in front of me. Who was this person, tall and slender, having his arms wrapped around me? He was warm, and he was gently but firmly cuddling me, as if he couldn’t bear to let go.
One of his hands touched my neck: his skin was smooth and slightly warm, a temperature I loved. I was somehow familiar with this feeling. I had never felt skin like this from anyone else, no matter from ‘patients’ I have treated or that Jerry Carl…
Thinking of that man, I focused back on the person with his hands around me. He was sobbing, I could feel his body shudder. I heard his sharp breath as he put his head against my shoulder, trying to control his panting.
The person’s breath was warm. I heard him breathe in, breathe out, audibly and uncontrollably, as he whispered next to my ear in a trembling voice. “I - I’m s-sorry - I, I shouldn’t - h-have sta-ayed w-with you…”
A strand of his hair fell onto my face. I saw his hair, silver, almost white. They were smooth, long and silky. They smelled like roses and honey. I loved the fragrance of the shampoo he uses every day…
He slowly pulled away from me. I finally saw how he looked. He had smooth and milky skin, perfect like a porcelain doll. His eyes were ocean blue, deep and crystal clear. His eyelashes were so long, he looked a little like a girl… but tears were clinging to them, and his delicate eyebrows were arched with fear and sadness. For some reason, looking at his wide eyes made my throat feel like it was being squeezed, like something was stuck in it, and my nose felt sour.
I looked at his straight nose, his rosy cheeks and lips, and for some reason, I had a strong instinct to do something, and so I did… I cupped his cheeks with my hands and moved towards him. Pulling his face to mine, I inhaled and pressed my lips to his.
I didn’t think of why I was doing that, what I was doing - I just simply did it, as if naturally. Feeling him so close to me, I felt so happy and blessed, it was simply blissful and beautiful - this was such a beautiful thing to do… So was his appearance, so beautiful as if made in heaven, and his elegant voice, and his gentle touch… who could ever resist?
I felt as if we melted into one. His soft lips were perfect. Our mouths opened and closed in union, as if we were born to be together. His warm breath caressed my cheek, making it grow hot, and making my ears burn.
Pulling him firmly towards me, I immersed myself in his chest. I was so fortunate to be alive… I wanted to treasure this moment with him, yet I didn’t even know who he was…
The atmosphere, the tension, was so great. My heart felt like fluttering. My legs gave way, and he quickly reached out to support me, putty in his arms…
Finally, I released his cheeks and turned away, panting rapidly, trying to control my breathing.
I looked straight into his pretty eyes, admiringly and lovingly.
He looked at me with his sad puppy eyes welling with tears, the corners of his eyes wet…
“Aesop,” he said to me with a choked voice. “I - I’m so sorry… but we shouldn’t meet again… we shouldn’t…”
The moment he said hat, all the happy, blissful feelings evaporated into thin air, and what replaced them was horror: no, no, did he really believe that…
“No…” I gasped, my voice an octave higher, as I fought back tears that were fighting to burst out of my eyes. “N-no, please, please…”
“Aesop…” He pulled out a blue rose from his cloak. It was peculiar to receive a blue rose, and not only that, the rose’s colour was the same beautiful shade of ocean-blue as his eyes. Though it was somehow familiar to me as well, for some reason.
“Keep this, p-please… to r-remember me…” and he finally let his tears fall, streaming down his face.
I could barely speak as I nodded, shivering, and reached out a shaking hand to grasp it.
He slowly turned away. “I-I’m so sorry… I had always thought that hunters had no reason to be banned from falling in love with survivors, b-but… now I know…
“We aren’t meant to be together…”
I watched him leave, my sight of his back blurry from the tears flowing out of my eyes. “N-no, no, please… come back to me…”
He stopped walking and hesitated, and almost turned back to me - but he didn’t. He sighed and forced himself to turn and retreat to the hunters’ part of the mansion.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Aesop…” he murmured as he put his hand on the doorknob of the door leading towards the hunters’ area.
“It’s all my fault, forgive me…” he said, his voice breaking, as he stepped in, closing the door behind him - closing the door on me.
'It's not your fault,' I kept on repeating in my mind. 'Not your fault, not your fault…'
“Not your fault…” I cried, holding onto the blue rose firmly but carefully, cradling it in my arms. My cries echoed in the corridor linking the hunters’ and survivors’ areas - but they could never reach that person, getting more and more out of reach from me.
Tired, heartbroken and devastated, I fainted, weeping and snivelling, curled up on the floor… as everything went black.
—————
“Aesop! Come and have breakfast with us!” I heard someone call me outside my room. Oh, right… that sounded like Emma Woods, one of the ‘survivors’ I had met the previous night.
“Y-yes, I’m coming,” I mumbled thickly.
“You all right, Aesop? You sound strange,” she said, sounding worried.
“Yeah, don’t worry, I’m fine… see you in the dining room.”
Emma didn’t ask if I was telling the truth (though I think she didn’t even suspect).
“Okie Aesop, see you later!!”
I rubbed my eyes as I listened to her skipping away, humming happily. My eyes were very dry but both my pillow and my cheeks were wet, and I was having a slight headache - there could only be one explanation for this. I was crying in my sleep.
Yeah… I felt the pillow with my hands. My pillow was really soaked with tears… I had definitely cried.
But why? I didn’t even know this person in my dream, yet I was… kissing him, hugging him, crying for him.
It felt so real, I could still recall every detail in it. But I didn’t even know that person. Perhaps I would meet him during my stay in the Oletus Manor?
Then, did it mean that it was a prophetic dream, that this would happen to me in the future? I wondered why I had this dream. Usually, I couldn’t remember any dream whenever I woke up, yet I could clearly recall this dream. This dream had felt so realistic... my heart had truly felt like breaking.
Perhaps it was a warning that I shouldn’t fall in love with that person, that - hunter, in the future. But he treated me so gently in the dream, it was hard to accept that I had to avoid meeting him…
Why was I thinking about him?! I scolded myself. Here I was, going to join ‘matches’, where I would be pursued, or even hurt, by him - but now, I was thinking of him, romantically.
I glanced at the wooden, antique looking grandfather clock tick-tocking, standing next to the door which leads to the corridor. It was 8 a.m., time to meet the survivors living here…
I desperately hoped that the survivors I had met the previous night, Emma Woods, Emily Dyer, Helena Adams and Eli Clark, would be there… Or else, I might pass out right in the dining room.