Oasis: Zarah and Royalty

11: Soon be here

After another while of standing out and staring at the stars I make my way back into the room and Vixan just like earlier follows me. I walk to the bed and take a sit while he decide to rest against the wall.

"Do you have any idea why I'm the only one that see him...... your conscience?"

He slowly shakes his head cluelessness visible in his eyes, "I don't know why you are, but no one is meant to see our conscience, just like I can't see yours, only those with rare gift of sight can and you're one of them."

"I'm not some being with magical powers, I'm human, I was born here and my parents are Mr Iyan Adaji and Mrs Simi Adaji and they are also humans." I argue out my point, trying to disprove his assumptions.

He walks over the the bed and sits down beside me, "They are not your birth parent, though." He reminds me.

My eyes drops down and I try not to show too much emotions, he's right the Adajis are not my birth parents, I never knew my birth parents, "My parents died in a car crash when I was an infant. According to the story I was told by the nuns at the orphanage home, my parents were on their way to pick me from the daycare when they had the terrible accident that claimed both their lives. I never knew them and when no relative came up for me, I was given up to the adoption home. Mr and Mrs Adaji came and adopted me when I was seven years old and raised me as if I was theirs and now they too are gone. I guess I was never meant to have a family." My eyes grow glassy as I am reminded that they are dead all because of me.

Pain and grief grips my heart and I find myself crying hardly at the loss of my parents, both of them.

"I'm sorry." Vixan's says in a hush voice and his hand tenderly touches my shoulder and I lean in and find myself hugging him tightly, "I'm sorry for what happened to them, both your birth parents and adopted parents."

"It's fine, it wasn't your fault." I mumble into his chest before pulling away and wiping the rest tears off my face. "I'm sorry, I ruined your shirt."

"It's not mine" he corrects and I laugh a little.

I wipe the tears on my face off and sniff the rest, "You said you wanted to ask me a question?"

"I did," he sounds a little skeptical then continues, "you might not be in the mood to answer anymore."

"You don't know that, you can't read me." I counter and he opens his mouth to object but closes it and nod instead, "go on ask your question, I'll be as honest as I can be in answering them."

"Who's Michael?" He asks taken me off guard. Of all the the question he could have asked, he chose this one.

My brows pull together and I can tell a frown is now on my face, "Why do you ask?"

"Your friend made mention of him earlier and from his tone of voice I could sense there was some kind of bad blood between you and I am a little curious to know, but you seem upset, you don't have to answer it."

Not answering it will only prove that I'm still dwelling on something that's meant to be in the past and long forgotten. It was a part of my life I wanted to hide once, but not anymore. "No, no, no. It's fine. Michael was my childhood friend from the orphanage, we grew up together and eventually became best friend and even when we got adopted, we were lucky because we were adopted by parents who were friends. So we went to the same primary school and secondary school and later university. I knew I loved him at the young age of twelve, I didn't even know what love was, but I loved him and knew he'd never love me. We got into junior secondary school the same day and on along, he was the guy that every girl wanted, but during our junior graduation party he asked me out. I was happy because, I was thrilled to be asked out by someone that every other girl wanted and would kill for."

"I felt lucky, I felt like I meant something, thinking back to it now I was really very foolish. I didn't see myself as anything more than the girl dating this popular and hot guy and I was contented with that, it felt like a great and reasonable accomplishment and so it was throughout our university year until graduation and me getting a degrees. Once I got the job at the university, he proposed to me and I said yes. I think it was actually the happiest moment of my life and once again I feel lucky. I didn't see his flaws or maybe I just refused to listen to those who told me he was cheating on me around the campus."

"It was a few weeks to our wedding when I caught him cheating on me with a younger girl. She was a student at the university we both taught and that made things even worse for me. He knew me, he knew everything about me; he knew my happy moment, my sad moment, the truth I fear to tell the world, he knew them all and I thought I knew him, but I didn't. And that was why it hurt so much that he did what he did. He was my best friend and the last person in the world I expected would hurt me. I ended everything and I thought my life was over. I didn't want to live anymore because what was the point? The only person that saw me as good enough cheated on me so that meant I wasn't good enough and I'll never be how stupid I was. Thank the heavens for my parents and thank the heavens for Raymond. He helped me through a lot during those times and I still am grateful."

"I'm sorry you went through that."

I dismiss his apology, I do not regret what I did. "I'm just glad I when through it and grateful I didn't get married cause I think I'm wiser and know better because of it."

"And if you saw him today, would you still want him to pay?" He asks in a small voice.

I shake my head, "Not really, I was hurt two years ago and if it was then, I I probably would have wanted some payback, but not anymore. I'm moving on, learning to love myself a little bit more everyday. Why did you ask?" I stare at him closely, he opens his mouth to speak but once again he's lost for words. "You're not going to make him pay Vixan!" I snap out with a wide eyes.

"I never said I would" he defends himself immediately.

"You were thinking of it," I tell him sternly, giving him a scolding eyes. "I know what he did was terrible, but I had to learn to be better, be strong. I built my whole life around him and that taught me a hard lesson."

He agrees with a nod, "I'm sorry I called you weak and vulnerable, you may not have my strength, but you have been through a lot and you moving on from your past is a sign of courage and strength."

I flash him a small smile, "Over here it's not, it just shows that you're ready to try again."

"Well then, are you ready to try again?" He asks his gaze fixated on me.

"I don't know, I ha-ven't even given it a th..thought and I don't think-" I find myself stuttering unintelligibly. "I don't think it's what I need right now, maybe someday soon, when all this is behind me."

"I understand."

Relief washes over my face, "You do? Thank god I thought I'd have to explain how and why-"

The rest words stops in my throat as Vixan cuts me off with his lips on mine and he softly kisses me rendering my head wobbly and blank. I didn't expect the kiss, nevertheless, I lean into it and find myself kissing him back.

He stops and slowly pulls away from me, looking a little alarmed. "I shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry."

I feel a little sad that he's apologizing for kissing me even though he knew I kissed him back as well, indicating that I liked what just happened. "Yeah, you shouldn't have." I bite my lips and look away from him not wanting to show the emotions in my eyes.

I feel his somewhat soft fingers entwining in mine and I turn to look at him and I see him closely staring at me with a bright look on his face. "But I'm glad I did."

I bite my lips and my cheeks heat up.

"Then why are you sorry?"

"I didn't ask for permission to kiss you."

Oh? I lean in and kiss him without asking for permission, and I feel his soft lips on mine once again.

I have no idea why I'm doing this, but it feels good and I wanted him to know I liked the kiss and my senses can barely communicate clearly and what I want is to be kissed by him.

I pull away from him and my lashes slowly part to reveal the man in front of me and I stare at him again, "Now we are both guilty," I point out with a chuckle.

A wide smile appears on his lips, and his eyes flicker with the colour red in it, "Yes we both are."

We stay silent for the next few minutes that passes, I enjoy the silence with him here and my mind is peaceful for a moment before it is taken prisoner by the many thoughts for tomorrow. I try to control them, to navigate the voices asking the annoyingly unending but needful question in my head and I find myself asking one instantly.

"What are we going to do when the spell wears out? we are barely out of the woods as it is." I ask uncertainty lacing up in my voice. "Are you going to keep casting the cloaking spell?"

The cloaking spell may be great at hiding but how long are we going to keep casting it? I'll keep hiding from the authorities because of the death of my parents and Vixan will always be the traitor to his king. That not how I want to live the rest of my life.

His finger gently trail the side of my head and brushes over my hair and I want to lean in against it. "You should sleep, it's already late. We will figure out a way around it with a clear head tomorrow."

I nod, not wanting to doubt and question him too much. I tuck myself into bed and not long after that I fall asleep.

"Get yourself up Zarah!" My eyes snaps open and my environment looks different from what I rememebr. I can see tall, green trees and I realise that I'm am on the grassy ground and as my eyes further clears up, I see my father towering over me with the look he normally gives when he's disappointed with me.

"Daddy!" I call out with relief of seeing hind I begin to get up. "You're okay, I thought I lost you," I try coming closer to him, but he holds up his hand and I freeze on my step. He's wearing a white garment and his grey hair although the way I last remember, has a side parting giving his face an edgy look. I notice that he's also standing on his two feets and not using any aid or on the wheelchair which the last time I saw him he was using. There's no way he could have recovered that quick, something seems off and I try to wrap my fingers around it.

My eyes narrow as I stare at him in confusion, "Is this a dream or am I dead?"

"You're not dead Zarah, but you're soon going to come here and we will be together." He replies with a happy smile, leaving me even more confused than I was a minute ago.

My face drops and fear grips my heart and holds it captive, "I'm going to die soon?"

He turns and walks away without giving an answer to my question, I try to run after him but I can't because for an unknown reason I'm stuck in my position and unable to move. "Daddy! Come back and answer me, I need to know!" I yell out desperately because I can't do anything else but watch him walk away and I fear for the worse. "Daddy!"

My eyes open and sweat breaks out on my face, the effect of the dream still very strong on me as my heart pound heavily and I'm shaking profusely.

I pull myself up to a sitting position to see Vixan standing across the bed already in his white armour.

"Good morning," I say, rubbing my face clumsily, before pointing out the obvious, "you're already dressed I see, did you get any sleep?"

"No, I didn't." He replies rather coldly.

I was going to call his bluff when I see his face and how serious it is and realise that he isn't joking.

I get down from the bed and make my way to him, my heart slowly picks up in its beating pace because everything about him now seems different from how it was last night and it stir up a little fright in me.

I keep a reasonable distance between us before asking, "Oh, what did you do then?"

"I was thinking." he starts off in an unfriendly voice.

"Okay..." I trail off quietly, "About what?"

He looks at me before saying, "You asked what we would do when the cloaking spell wears out and I stayed up thinking about the perfect solution."

I swallow hard, anticipating a bad turn of things, "And? What's the perfect solution?"

His gaze drops from mine as he begins to speak, "The Oasians are never going to stop coming after us and the cloaking spell is good the first time it's casted, but from then on, its side effects will follow after the second casting so we cannot rely on it for safety. We will need something more than the spell to keep us safe for the rest of our lives."

What are you suggesting them?" I demand, not liking the long story involved in this.

Finally he looks at me and says, "I decided, I'm taking you with me to Oasis as a peace offering to Lord Lox."