Villain of my own

"Huu.... I am....haa.... I\'m actually affiliated with the \'Persona\' guild...." Eshwar said with a wry smile.

"Ah." At his words, Katline could somewhat guess what he had come here to talk about.

*

Katline asked Eshwar to sit down on the couch, so that they can relax and have a talk, properly.

"Then I\'ll start by saying it again. I am actually affiliated with the \'Persona\' guild, and since we don\'t have any rank-like system because of how low our members are, you can think of it like, I\'m actually the guild master while \'Max\' is the \'guardian\' of our guild, like the guardians from monsters." Eshwar explained.

"Me being in the persona guild is a secret that only you know about, and I intend to keep it that way, so please don\'t speak to anyone else about this." Eshwar said with a soft smile.

\'A secret between the two of us....\' Katline thought that even though there were a lot of things that could potentially be important, she ignored them and imprinted those words into her mind; it felt...kind of exciting.

"And the open secret is that Max intends to destroy the Hunters Guild with all his heart, and trust me when I say this, he will definitely do something if he puts his heart into it." Eshwar said with a slight smirk on his face, and since Katline knew how strong Eshwar is, she trusted his words without a second thought and started to get slightly anxious about Max destroying her family\'s guild. But then suddenly...

\'A guild that ignores people like that demon and Alvin doesn\'t have the right to stand tall.\' Katline thought.

"O..." Katline was about to say "Ok" and agree with whatever they wanted to do, but stopped herself just as quickly as she opened her mouth.

"Huuu...." Katline breathed out deeply and leaned forward, resting her head on her knuckles and her elbows on her thighs.

".... Why did you talk to me about it?" Katline asked herself loudly, but Eshwar, who heard her, replied with a perplexed look on his face.

"I... don\'t know....it just felt right? Ah, I intend to support him, so I thought I should....inform you?" Eshwar replied while pondering his own words, while frowning back and forth.

\'It just felt right, huh....\' Katline stared at Eshwar with a curious look on her face and a slight blush as a delusional theory about Eshwar unknowingly having feelings for her formed in her mind.

"....ok, do what you want, since I know about it, I just can\'t, not do anything, so I\'ll warn my father to be careful about Sir Max." Katline said and nodded her head.

"That will do, and I think I should go to bed." Eshwar said and leaned forward with his hand supported on the backrest to get up.

Katline\'s gaze automatically moved towards his lean and chiselled body; she savoured every moment of Eshwar standing back up, and her gaze followed his covered back as he walked to the room she had let him stay in, which was right next to her room.

CLUNK (2x)

She felt slightly disappointed at Eshwar\'s disappearing figure, which had entered the room and closed the door, but shook her head and dismissed those feelings as soon as she realised them.

After a few minutes, she too turned off all the lights and went to bed, since it was already 11 at night.

*

"Gasp!!"

"Haa...haa...haa..." Katline breathed heavily upon waking up for the fourth time since she had slept.

\'Sh*t!\' She cursed inwardly; it was the fourth nightmare she\'d had since falling asleep; this had never happened before, and why was all of this happening... it was all because of that demon. She felt terrified every time she tried to sleep; her mind was filled with terrifying what-ifs, and every one of her nightmares had something to do with that demon.

\'What if he was a creepy stalker in his past life and because of his obsession with me, he resorted to this means as soon as a miracle happened and he returned to the past with his memories intact? Maybe that\'s why he knows so much about me and tried to do things like that because he was running out of patience to fulfil his lust....\' Katline thought and shuddered at her own thoughts.

Katline then turned to face the mirror on the wall next to her and noticed a small wisp of orange flame on her head, which slowly dissolved beautifully; she didn\'t know where it came from or how it got there, but thanks to that warm wisp, she remembered Eshwar, and that was it; before she even realised it, she had walked towards the room he was in with her own pillow, which she held under her armpit.

"Huuu...." She breathed out without making too much noise and held the doorknob.

CLEE.....NKK

"...." She had held her breath for whatever reason. She closed the door behind her and slowly tiptoed towards the bed Eshwar was sleeping in, without anything covering his upper body.

BA-THUMP (5x)

Her heartbeat quickened without her realising it, and she soon noticed Eshwar flinch, slightly; if she hadn\'t been staring at him so intently, she might not have noticed.

\'He....he\'s awake!!!\' She screamed inwardly.

"...."

"...."

"...."

\'Is he really going to pretend that he\'s asleep? Now? Or does he not want to move because he thinks that I would be.... weirded out at myself?\' Katline thought and tilted her head.

"Hahaha." She chuckled softly in a buzz-like voice and entered the bed after placing her pillow next to Eshwar\'s.

"Thank you....." She mumbled in a whisper and closed her eyes.

***

\'What the heck is this!!!\' I screamed inwardly, despite the fact that I was awake, no, more like I hadn\'t slept; I had sent a wisp of \'orange flame\' to her room; of course, it was a \'torch of emotions\' that was supposed to incite fear and worry in her; I would have scared her five times before leaving her alone, but I never expected her to walk into the room I was sleeping in!!!

I flinched because I felt like if she continued to stare at me like that for another minute, she would have drooled.

\'Damn.... Faye was much better, and when I am with Hana, it feels like she herself will manipulate herself with all the weird ways of her thinking and create new misunderstandings, without me even doing anything.\'

\'Haaa....\' I sighed inwardly and decided to shut up and sleep because I hadn\'t decided to manipulate Katline with the \'intention\' of manipulating her, at least not yet; I just wanted to instil doubts in her mind about Vinny. Like a minor level of manipulation(?)

Though it isn\'t like she is ignored from being manipulated right now, it will come to her gradually and in a roundabout way.

"...." I breathed out sharply and thought, \'It isn\'t your time, yet,\' and closed my eyes to go to sleep.

***

The next morning.

"Umm...." In the morning, Katline felt uncomfortably comfortable while sleeping, she frowned with her eyes closed and felt something bumpy on the back of her left hand while feeling something warm and firm on her right hand; her right leg appeared to be stuck somewhere while something else poked at her thigh.

"?" Katline definitely remembered going to sleep quite comfortably without anything she was feeling on the bed, so she tried to feel it; she groped whatever was beneath her right palm, and whatever she was groping felt hard and firm. She then moved her left hand on something bumpy, and that too felt hard. She ignored it because it wasn\'t anything different from the one previously, though it did feel slightly harder.

She then moved her right leg up and down, then....

"Mmm..."

"!?" Katline\'s eyes widened in surprise when she heard a voice other than hers; her vision cleared slowly and she saw Eshwar\'s naked upper body right in front of her, her right hand was on his chest while her left was on his abs; and her right leg was crossed across his, and that something she felt poking at her thigh was...

"Kyaaa!!" Katline yelped in surprise and jerked back instantly while pushing Eshwar towards the bed\'s corner.

"Ack....!!" Katline was forced to shut up by Eshwar, who abruptly sat up and gripped her neck, half-awake.

"Shut it....who sent you...huh?" Eshwar rubbed his eyes leisurely while Katline struggled to breathe; he then looked at her with a confused expression.

"Wha....why are..." Eshwar was questioning her, dazed.

TAP-TAP (4x)

"Ah, sorry." Eshwar let go as soon as he noticed Katline tapping on his forearm and apologized.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough...you...I, cough, can\'t believe you did, cough, this first thing in the morning." Katline said while coughing and gasping for air.

"No, no, no, I thought somebody was attacking me in my sleep." Eshwar explained with a apologetic expression on his face.

\'So that why he woke up in the middle of the night when I walked into the room....wait!\' Katline thought.

\'Somebody attacked him in his sleep?\' Katline didn\'t know how to feel about that; it meant that he was constantly scared of deep sleeps, and looking at the way he reacted, it seemed like he was used to it.

\'Why would anybody want to kill him?\' Katline couldn\'t understand why.

"Ow..." Eshwar flicked her forehead softly.

"Don\'t make that face, it\'s nothing new." Eshwar said with a small smile on his face and massaged her temples, attempting to relieve her unconsciously formed frown.

"...." Katline forced a smile at his reply; it somehow stung her heart that he used something like that, which she wouldn\'t even dare to imagine, at least not yet.

"And remember." Eshwar tapped on her bandaged neck and said with a smile.

"Heroes heal faster." Eshwar said.

\'.... right, heroes heal faster, which means that I have to get over my fear about that demon and get stronger than I am now. I don\'t want to disappoint Eshwar, and after hearing his reply about how he has gotten used to someone trying to kill him in his sleep.... I have it easy....\' Katline thought and before she completed that thought Eshwar raised his hand as if he was telling her to stop.

"Mine\'s physical, I\'m stronger, I am an Rank-AA hero, my senses are stronger, so I am constantly aware of my surroundings, at least most of the time." Eshwar said.

"You. I don\'t know what you\'re thinking, but you have it much harder than I do. Emotions aren\'t something to laugh at, and mental healing takes much longer than you think. I\'m not saying you should be over it by the time these marks heal; I\'m asking you to wear them until you believe you\'ve gotten over it." Eshwar explained.

"...." Katline turned silent and her eyes welled up in tears; her fear was much stronger than she had initially thought, and when she thought about how she had it easy, she subconsciously started to tremble.

"Do you understand?" Eshwar asked with his right thumb on her left cheek while the rest of his right hand was on her neck. She suddenly felt small; she didn\'t know if her face was smaller or his hand was bigger.

"Mhm." She held back her tears and nodded her head vigorously.