Cursed Ground

He couldn’t even blame it on her, especially since whenever they were in each other’s company one of them was either injured, unconscious or trying to kill the other. But in spite of the odds, there was this connection between them that could only be described as cataclysmic. It made him wonder if she felt it too.

His hand fumbled, the knot slipped and he couldn’t still the trembling that was on the rise. Then to make his edgy nerves shatter, her breath beat against his cheek and the last ounce of stillness he’d maintained was tattered and frayed.

He could feel her eyes on him, boring a hole through him as if she was searching for something in his soul and wasn’t sure she’d find it. He tried to force himself to concentrate on the task at hand—not to look at her—but it was if she was a magnet, pulling him, drawing him closer… closer. No matter how hard he tried, how much he willed himself against it, he was no match for the black hole that sucked him in and forced him to face the dark compelling eyes staring up at him. For a moment she reminded him of a quizzical child with a thousand questions on her mind, but beyond the questioning, he could see more. Much more.

Her night eyes contained a history of sorrow. Needful, sorrowful eyes, longing… aching, making way for a tear or two that slipped down her cheek and dripped on to the pillow.

He wanted to heal the pain. The pain he caused and the pain he knew nothing about, because he was quite certain what he’d done wasn’t the only thing to blame for the tragedy within that somber stare. Those eyes tempted him to ask a world of questions. Questions that led to need, and need that led to wanting… and wanting that led to a desire to love.

A desire to love her.

There was such innocence there but there was no doubt she knew the world in a way that he’d been fortunate enough to avoid. She didn’t hide it behind a masked wall. No, it was there in plain sight. This youngish woman was an old soul—a dreary, jaded soul that seemed too tired to want to live any longer. It was clear she wanted to die for more compelling reasons than the ones brought about by the present circumstance. But what were those reasons?