Prey

Chapter 74

Doe's POV:

"Can't sleep?"

His voice broke through the silence of the dark room, ceasing my wandering thoughts with it.

We had technically 'gone to bed' a little over an hour ago, but I could for the life of me get my brain to shut up.

That, and I wasn't too excited about what was to come tomorrow.

I shook my head, my nose brushing against the fabric at his collar bone.

"I'm just... thinking," I replied quietly.

"About?"

Everything.

Everything that happened today.

Trying to finally collect some coherent thoughts and dissect these new emotions that I hadn't been able to experience until now.

But I wasn't sure I wanted to divulge all of that to him yet. Not when he was a source for most of them.

"I don't know what to do anymore now that she's gone."

I hadn't realized that waiting for Layla to return had become somewhat of a constant for me.

It was something that I always had to look out for... It was one of the only consistencies I had.

Just sitting around and waiting for the next time she decided to come back. Repeated over and over and over.

Until now.

Now there was nothing. My future days were empty and yet full of possibilities now that she was no longer a threat.

It was exciting and unnerving all at the same time.

He shifted himself back just enough for the soft glow of his eyes to come into view.

"What do you want to do?" he questioned.

"What can I do?"

The freedom of it all was daunting, and I didn't know where to start, or how to start.

I was just now beginning to understand how much time out of my days was spent worrying in one way or another.

On top of how many decisions that fear had a play in.

How much I wouldn't let myself do...

The hand on my back tapped twice against me, a long-existing silent signal we'd figured out. This one telling me that he was about to move.

I pushed myself up on my arm to allow him to do just that, watching him roll onto his back.

We then put ourselves in the same position as the night that he rubbed my back, both settling into it with a deep sigh.

"Well," He started, trailing his finger over my spine, "You could start with letting me get you that guitar while you're gone. That'll at least give you somewhere to start while you figure out what you want to do from there."

The guitar... Right, that could be real now. There was no reason not to go for that anymore.

And the lessons Xander promised me.

"Yeah," I breathed out, drawing random little patterns against his shirt with my nails right beside where my head laid, "I'd like that. Are you gonna get the violin too?"

There was a short silence, my head lowering as his chest deflated.

"The matching one? Yeah, I think I will. It's about time I picked that up again." his words were reminiscent.