Chapter 4: The taste of company
Before Rhys’s arrival, Eun-woo used to have frequent nightmares. Calling them nightmares didn’t seem right. They were more like distant memories, distorted by time, but so vivid they made him shiver.
It wasn’t the content that was shocking, but the possibility that it had all really happened.
In his nightmares, lipstick slid slowly over pink sheets, muffled echoes of women’s screams mingled with the crack of something breaking and the frozen stare of a man on the verge of collapse.
Then, a window.
Beyond the glass, a multitude of eyes watched him unblinkingly, arranged in impossible spirals, surrounded by white feathers that didn’t look like those of a bird, but rather like something ancient and malformed. A long, wet tongue ran hungrily across the glass.
Then he saw his small, trembling hand trying to open the lock...
When the window opened, Eun-woo would wake up startled, with tachycardia and sweating.
He was glad to have Rhys’s company, it was like a repellent to bad thoughts and nightmares.
Rhys lay down next to Eun-woo on the floor, facing him. After a sigh, he closed his eyes, ready to rest.
They’d been together for a week, mostly in a silence that was warm and comforting. Their interactions were limited to exchanging short, whispered sentences and the gentle pronunciation of each other’s names.
Eun-woo scanned every inch of his companion’s face. He had memorized its structure, but he felt a strong urge to touch it. This was for the sole purpose of recognizing it by touch.