The breeze turned into icy needles that pierced his skin and the vile moonlight made him feel naked. If only Vinh would call him a moron and simply have a talk with him like Yayli.
All the memories from the barn came rushing back as the blades behind Vinh's forearms glinted from the night's light. Regrets filled his body. Yayli could be coming down any second now. She would once again try to defend him against the man. Then Carter would wake up from the commotion and try to step in as well. Riyad cursed himself for not running away when the sun was still up instead of being a coward and hiding with the siblings. The door was so, so near when he was sitting on the chair, talking to Carter. All he had to do was, tell Carter that he needed to take a leak and run far away from the house.
If he failed to do anything, everything would repeat itself once more and he would be filled with self-loathing. He wasn't even sure if this time he would wake up on the field again, either.
Vinh leisurely stopped in front of him.
Riyad's butt became glued to the porch like ice on ice.
"Wow!" Vinh threw his palms onto the air. "No hi/hello? 'It's good to see you again?'"
Riyad's throat became dry; he feared that it might crack like glass if he attempted to talk.
"Oh my apologies, Jasper!" he ranted. "Did I interrupt your romantic date? Would you rather have me walk back into the crops and wait until you are done with your first kiss?"
Riyad's eyes dropped onto the blades. He had to physically attempt to not let his heart jitter out of his ribs. The sickening feeling returned. All he had to do was run back into the house, up the stairs, and hide under the bed. The edge of the blades flashed. He almost wanted to laugh at the thought of running away and away from the safety of the siblings — for the safety of the siblings.
To put someone else before my own life? He wanted to laugh as the memories of bored daydreaming during class-time returned: jumping in front of everyone as an evil robotic spider would break through the walls, hide Bibha behind his back, and then tell the spider off.
Riyad felt fragile as he looked down at his body. His weak arms looked like they could be snapped in half and his skin looked smooth and frail. He caught the sight of his own face on the visor and noticed the tear-pools under his eyes. His eyebags sagged and the laugh lines looked dark and deep. The Riyad that he once knew looked nothing like the one that was staring back at him.
"Self-reflection? Not the best time for it, but still admirable," scoffed Vinh.
Riyad's eyes trailed to the spot where he cleaned off the smudge. It was spotless. He slowly moved his left hand away. The spot where Yayli had run her hand over, left a faint, dull smudge. Riyad knew that it was there before, but he didn't want to lose his self-respect by admitting it and also by admitting his decision to not rub it away.
"Who's sorry now..." A sudden sound of music muffled from upstairs, but it didn't startle Riyad. He assumed it was Yayli fiddling with some sort of a music player. Instead, he focused on the smudge and put his palm on it.
"Whose heart is achin' for breakin' each vow..." the singer mourned with her heart.
'You're a good kid.' Riyad slowly raised his head. He couldn't tell if it was the music or something else, but it was as if it had triggered a sunrise within the darkness of his mind. Some type of awakening he couldn't quite put his finger on. It was as if he was almost at the end of a race — out of breath, out of strength — only to realize just how much energy was left within him.
"Just like I cried over you..."
Yayli will be here soon... The music slowed down to lingering seconds and the crops swayed with the likeliness of the clouds above as Riyad finally stood up and kicked the porch off into a run.
The music gave away to silence pretty soon after, but the tiny flame within him remained.
"Finally!" Vinh cheered. "I'm proud of you. You've finally gained the courage to overcome your fears. I am almost in tears, as a matter of fact. I will give you a head start. Consider it as a token of my appreciation."
Riyad ran as fast as he could. Despite the fear within his throat, he felt bittersweet: the bitterness of getting away from Yayli and some sweetness he couldn't explain. He could've been sitting down with Yayli, listening to her songs. Who knows? Maybe, Vinh was right and he could've even had his first kiss. The only thing that kept him from breaking down was his decision to run away. Yayli was safe now.
Riyad's mood was quickly doused as a whistling sound drew nearer and nearer and before he knew it, an arrow struck him on his back. He stumbled, but to his own surprise, he quickly steadied his steps and continued to run until he was swallowed by the crops.
After a little while of fighting through them, Riyad gave up and crouched deep within the sea of the golden strands. The moonlight had trouble fighting through the dense crops. Despite knowing quite well that Vinh knew exactly where he was hiding, a little voice within told him otherwise. Maybe, the crops were too high for Vinh to notice where he had gone. Maybe, the sway of the crops hid his own disturbance.
His chest fought his body to breathe as his knees hit the ground. With a bite of a lip, he reached to his back and tried to pull the arrow out, but at the slightest touch, a surge of pain waved down his body.
Why does he keep hitting me with the arrows? Riyad gave up and took control over his own body to silence his presence. The only audible noise was of the crops'. He perked his ears for any swishes of crops parting, but all he heard was the smooth but slightly grainy sound of the strands surrounding him. No crunches or slices.
It's happening again... He's going to reach in and grab me out of here...
Riyad grew impatient as minutes began passing. Fears began drowning him: what if Vinh didn't come after him and went for the siblings instead? It sounded like Yayli was on her way down and the music had probably announced her presence to the man. Did it wake Carter up, too? Riyad couldn't find a reason for why Vinh might need to get rid of the siblings this time, but if Hollywood had taught him anything was that the villains didn't always need a reason to be bad.
Despite the sheer force of gravity pulling his body down, he slowly peaked out of the crops.
"Huh?" Riyad rose to his feet.
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