Hidden Society by Denis Daniel (short story to read txt) 📕

And this time she was extremely comfortable with Ryan by her side, he was like some kind of savior towards her. She thought maybe Ryan understood her more than I did, actually maybe that is right because all I wanted from her was to know where the hell she came from; while Ryan all he did was listening to her, her endless questions and answer all of them. And by the time we arrived at the village the girl knew almost all about our families; she was told about my twin siblings and about Ryan’s big brother and sister and his younger brother.

“Hey, don’t make people see you wedding dress, okay?” I told the girl, “They might take it the wrong way”. For all I know they might try to pin which one of us got married to her? As if someone can get married in the woods, by themselves.

She turned and looked at me shortly then forward again, “okay” she said curtly then she pulled the cloak around her, it’s a good thing it was long enough to cover her whole body down to her feet and her shoes too, which were the most unusual shoes I’ve ever seen. It was the first time I saw high heels shoes, so it was some kind of a new thing to me.

We arrived at the village finally and it’s good thing that everyone was busy opening their business or running to their working places. It was a small village but people were very busy, they never waste a second.

That gave us the advantage of not to worry too much about the girl, we could pass by people and they couldn’t even notice us and some just said a short hi and went on their jobs. I have to admit, it was way easier to get with her home than I thought. Now that we were past the large part of the village and we were couple feet away from my house, my concern was shifted to my parents, how they were going to take this situation. I knew how they never wanted to get in trouble with the king. And bringing an outsider in our house through lying to one of the officer that was a pretty bad sign. But either way what’s done is done, they were going to accept it anyway.

“Peter, are you sure about this?” Ryan asked cautiously, but I wasn’t sure what he meant because we were already right at the front door. Did he want me to go back to the forest or what?

“What do you mean?” I asked confused and so was Lexa who was by his side,

“I mean I don’t think it’s a good idea to go in with her like this.” He pointed at the door, “right through the front door.” He paused for a second and then continued, “I think we should go with her to your father’s bar first, so that he might see her as some kind of a customer and he won’t freak out so much when we explain things to him later.” He finished,

Well, at some point I thought he had a good idea, but then, with all the people that were going to go there and see her. I was sure someone was going to notice that something was off with her, and that was going to land us in trouble. The only solution now was trying to keep her out of prying eyes until my parents comes back home, as I was sure my mother went to the market for groceries and my father was at the shop or the bar, either of the two. My father is a hard working fellow just like everyone else in the village; he was selling breads in the shop, and also owned a bar, there was alcohol, and food, and women for those people who wanted to be soothed at night. And some other things, which I wasn’t allowed to know.

I took the key that was put just above the door frame; my parents always left the key there whenever there was no one at home. My siblings weren’t good at staying at home either; they must have been somewhere playing with other kids.

“Well, welcome to my home.” I welcomed Lexa, who was speculating around by the way, like she had never seen a house before.

“It looks stuffy.” She commented, I couldn’t tell if she was complimenting it or provoking it.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked almost furious because of what she said.

“I mean, even from mere glimpse of my home from my memories, houses were different than this and better even.” She said comfortably, like it was the most obvious thing, while forgetting not all of us have been in her world wherever that is; and my dad worked hard to earn this land and to build a house as big as it was, she had no right to criticize it. Besides my house was one of the biggest houses in the village, who did she think she was?

“Well, you can go look for a better house then. The one that suites you.” I couldn’t let her degrade my house, she was supposed to be grateful that I went to a lot of trouble to bring her here in my house, not to judge it.

“Ok, let’s not fight okay? I’m sure Lexa used to live in a different place and different house, but you are here now. Please just stay here until we find a way to bring you back to your home. The house doesn’t matter, as long as it keeps you safe, it is okay, right?” Ryan gently told her, and I couldn’t believe he was taking her side; that he was begging her to stay as if she had anywhere to go, I didn’t know what was wrong with him, and suddenly everything he did was to humor the girl.

“I will stay, it’s not like I know anyone here anyway.” She agreed to stay, and I agreed on one thing with her, she didn’t know anyone here, so whether she liked to live in a stuffy house or not good enough, she was going to have to.

I leaded her to the living room and offered her a chair. Then I went to the kitchen for anything that she might eat. And I found a bread and jam. I didn’t know if she could drink tea or not, but I knew she wouldn’t be able to eat the bread just like that. I was going to find out.

“I thought you might be hungry.” I said as I brought the bread and the tea to her.

“Yah, a little.” She admitted,

I settled the bread and the jar with tea in it on the table. Then I brought a cup from the cupboard. While all that time Ryan was just sitting there watching her like she was some kind of a cinema or something. She poured some tea in the cup, and the funny thing happened, but it wasn’t funny to me at that time. She took a sip and then, out of nowhere she spilled it all over the floor.

“What is wrong with you?” I practically yelled at her,

“It’s tasteless.” She whimpered, while rubbing her mouth off the remaining of the tea.

“That is why there is a bowl of sugar beside the jar.” Now I felt like I was talking to a little child.

“Peter, it’s okay, she didn’t know.” Ryan tried to defend her, again, and I was just fed up with it,

I got off the chair and started to leave, but before that, “and why are you defending her all the time? Why are you trying so hard to be nice to her? So that she might like you back. You don’t even know her.” I blurted out with disgust, I had to get that out before I left. After that I got out and slammed the door behind me, because I had just enough of that whatever it was. Why was I so angry? I didn’t know. The only thing I knew, was that I needed to get out of there. To leave them alone so that they can talk, or whatever they wanted to do.

* * *

What was wrong with Peter, why was he so angry? I know I spilled tea on the floor, but I didn’t know that could make someone so angry like the way he was. There must have been something else, not just me spitting tea on the floor. I know I haven’t been too good to him, but I had my reasons. I saw something earlier, back in the forest, and I wasn’t ready to think about that kind of thing now. I needed to figure out who I was and where I was from, and why on earth I was wearing a wedding dress deep in the forest. I couldn’t let what I saw distract me, I needed to keep my distance from him.

I know it’s not nice, after all the help I got from him, with his friend who was very hurt by what he said. I felt sorry for him, he was just trying to be nice and now his friend was angry at him for it. But I wasn’t going to change my mind, I would never let Peter get close to me. I was going to push him away as long as I could manage. I needed to know who I was going to marry before coming to this place.

“Hey, are you okay?” I heard a voice calling me from my stupor, and suddenly I came to reality, “I lost you there for couple minutes.” Ryan called and now he was completely recovered, he was like before, like he completely forgot what Peter just said couple minutes ago.

“I’m sorry I put you in that situation earlier. I’ll be more careful next time, not to make him angry again.” I apologized to him, Ryan was different from Peter; he seemed nice and caring, but he was missing something, he didn’t have this force I felt when Peter was around, that’s why I always felt like offending him all the time, so that he would hate me. And I think it was working, which was making things easier for me.

“Ah, don’t worry about him, it’s probably one of his bad mornings. He’ll be okay.” Ryan said softly and made me feel at ease instantly. I wanted Peter to hate me, but then at the same time, it got me very worried. A part of me didn’t want him to be angry at me, and I couldn’t tell why.

Then we were quiet for a moment, I was quiet because I didn’t want to think about what Peter said earlier about his friend liking me, and that he was expecting me to like him back, which wasn’t possible. Apart from Peter’s pull on me, I still wanted to know the man I wanted to marry before coming to this place. And I couldn’t add Ryan to the puzzle too, or else it was going to be very hard for me to understand anything. Well, I guess that was exactly what I was thinking about, but I couldn’t ask