Chapter 45

I got off the bed, staring wearily at both of them and my heart pounding in my chest.

" So this is the young man?" he asked in our native tongue and my father told him it was. 

" Okay, you may leave us now. I'll search for you once I'm done. "

Done doing what? I wondered...and as I watched my father turn around fear crept up inside me and wrapped itself around my entire being.

" Father?" I called out to him, and I'm assuming he heard the fear, the uncertainty and the hurt. He stopped with his hand on the knob, then without looking back he said, " This is for your own good Jerald. He'll cleanse you and it will be as if nothing ever happened. You'd do best to cooperate with him. "

And then he left. 

I felt betrayed in that moment. Why wasn't he listening to me, why couldn't he understand?

" My name is Dafiq. What's yours?" 

I knew that he was aware of my name, my father had literally just said it, and I was the prince so pretty much everyone knew who I was. But he still asked, I'm assuming in an attempt to get me to talk. 

" Jerald, " 

He gave me a curt nod and pointed to the couch next to my window.

" Have a seat Jerald, we have much to discuss. "

Against my wishes I went and sat down, then I watched in silence as Dafiq took the wooden chair from the table on which my desktop was an carried it over to where I was. Placing it Infront of me and sitting down. 

Then his grey eyes sought to find mine. 

" Your father tells me you were led away from the path, is he correct?"

I wasn't going to answer that how he wanted me to. I wasn't going to just let this stranger walk in and interrogate me about my personal life. 

" I wasn't led away from anything. "

His eyes widened in shock, then he leaned back against his seat and locked his fingers together.

" Tell me, is it true that you...that you engaged in unnatural relations with a fellow boy. A foreign one that too?"

His choice of words were starting to make me lose it, but I wasn't going to let the anger take over.

" I don't want to do this. " I confessed, turning my face to the side and shutting off completely. If he wanted to talk then he could go ahead and do so. But I was neither planning on replying to his questions nor listening to him. 

" I'm here to help you Jerald. Not to judge, "

he said. But he WAS judging. He had been silently judging me since he stepped foot inside my room. 

" Fine then, if you don't want to talk as of now that is okay, but soon enough you'll be required to do so. Now let me explain how we'll go about this...."

When he began the explaining that feeling of betrayal and judgement increased. 

Apparently for the next three weeks I wasn't to have any interactions with anyone apart from him. He said the cleansing was in three parts. The mind, body and soul. That the easiest one was the body so we would begin with that. 

I felt violated before he even began, and I promised myself that if he tended to lay a hand on me I would fight back,I didn't care that my father would know. I DID NOT require to be cleansed. My conscious as well as everything else was clean. 

Their hearts were the only impure things as far as I could tell. Calen had been right, my father did possess a sooty spirit.

After he completed his explanation Dafiq asked me whether I had understood. I refused to talk. To give him the satisfaction of thinking he had succeeded in breaking me. 

" As part of the body cleanse you shall be required to fast for five days starting today, " he added. 

Then he grew silent and simply looked at me, I heard him sigh, then he stood and placed his hand on the chair's backrest. 

" How many did you have relations with? Your father told me about one, are there others possibly?" 

I fisted my hands and narrowed my gaze at him. His implications making me inwardly violent. Then I stood. Dafiq and I were pretty much the same height, maybe because his back was slightly hunched over due to his age. I looked him right in the eye and hoped he saw the truth in them, the hidden rage and the feeling of intrusion I felt. Then I told him something I'm certain he wasn't expecting.

" It was only him! And I care not for your cleanse, I don't need it. Nothing you do will erase the love I feel for him. "

I sat back down and closed my eyes. 

" Nothing, " I repeated. 

He left after that, said he'd be back the following day. We hadn't even began yet I was already tired. And I regretted not having fought back when I still had the chance.

🌼💮🌼💮🌼💮

That afternoon I was reading a Geography book. There was a chance I wouldn't get to continue with my education for a while but I refused to give up, so I read. 

Then I heard the door being unlocked again and looked up to see my father...and next to him was Aliyah.

" He's not allowed to see anyone so make it quick!" my father said and my focus turned to the books in Aliyah's hands. Placing my own aside I frowned and watched as she walked towards me. 

" I was trying to study but I had a hard time understanding some concepts. Could you help me? " She placed her books on the bed. 

Something to do with calculus.

" Sure, what don't you understand?" 

" Umm, everything? It's really all very confusing, "

" Okay, " 

My father stood by the door waiting. I suppose he thought it would only take a couple of minutes. And when he realized it would take a while he said. 

" Make it quick, I'll be back in fifteen minutes to ensure you're no longer here, " then he left. 

" Let's try another example, perhaps-"

" Leave that! " she cut me off. Standing and quickly running to the door. She cautiously peered outside and blew out a breath, then she turned and hurried over to me. 

" Oh Jerald!" She quickly hugged me but I was too confused to hug her back.

" Aliyah?"

I watched her take out her phone from somewhere and then she quickly typed something before placing the phone on her ear. 

" Keep it short, we don't have much time!" she hurriedly said, then she handed over the phone to me. 

I reached out and took it with shaky hands. Aliyah returned to the door, trying to keep calm despite knowing that she was panicking inside. 

When I placed the phone on my ear I heard his even breathing. Then his cultured voice as he called me out. 

" J.R? " 

I hadn't even realized how much I had craved to hear his voice again until that moment. 

" Are you there?"

" I'm here. " I swallowed past the heavy lump in my throat. The hairs at the back of my neck prickled and I tried to sound as okay as I could. 

" Your things are safe. Don't worry about them. " 

" Okay, " was all I could manage to say. 

" I miss you.."

" Me too, "

Wrapping my entire hand around the phone I withdrew it from my ear, then I took in a deep breath and brought it back. 

" J.R talk to me. How are you? What's going on? please just talk, "

I couldn't answer any of that. I was not okay and I had no clue what exactly was going on. I couldn't tell him about the cleanse because he'd just worry more. 

" Sea buckthorn berries, " I suddenly said. He grew silent at first then asked me what I meant. 

" The berries we came across in the woods that day, I looked them up afterwards... they're called sea buckthorn, " 

" That's quite an odd name, "

" I thought so as well. "

" Are they poisonous?" Chuckling I shook my head, then I realized he couldn't see me and I told him no. 

" They're actually used in making oil that is rumoured to cure a variety of ailments. "

" Are you saying we were sleeping on a gold mine of sorts?" 

I smiled to myself. This is what I needed, this light and playful banter. Not the painful talks on how we'd never meet again. 

" Apparently so, it's good for improving the health of your skin, liver and heart. "

" My heart you say? "

I kept quiet, thinking of a way to divert, but he was kind enough to do so for me. 

" I tried making your tea, didn't quite turn out how I expected. "

" I taught you how to make it three consecutive times, "

" Perhaps you just have magic in your hands,"

" I doubt it, and if I do then it got transferred from your hands to mine, "

" I Love you. " He said out of the blue, and with my eyes on my watch I told him that I loved him too.