Blue at Midnight by S D Wile, D R Kaulder Page B

that
vibrated through the walls of the coffee house. It demanded that the men leave
right now. The sheer volume and fury in this voice froze my limbs.
      Startled by the interruption the men
straightened up their clothes and walked out with frustrated expressions. It
was obvious from their body language that they were planning to continue this
outside. Slowly I peered over the counter to catch a glimpse of the owner of
this alarming voice only to find Christian standing there, radiating animosity.
Face solid, eyes bulging, brow furrowed and hands curled up in iron-fists, he
gave the impression of a mad man. He looked different, unknown, which made me
wonder how could someone you know suddenly appear so alien? Even I felt wary
about his presence. As much as I wanted to shut the front door and start
sorting out the atrocious mess those savages had left, I couldn’t find the
courage to step out from behind the counter. The terror that raged throughout
him created a thick fog of tension which I wouldn’t dare to enter.
    “They won’t come back
here, they’re gone.” Shocked that he knew I had been standing there (behind
him) my body stiffened. Suddenly I remembered all those times I’d been impolite
towards him, giving him a piece of my mind yet he never said anything in
defence.   If I knew he had a temper like
this I wouldn’t have even looked him in the eye let alone tell Sonia he was a creep. He was now staring at me because I hadn’t moved for the
last few minutes. Keeping my eyes on the floor I picked up a dustpan and brush.
    “Thank you, I...I need
to,” I found myself lost for words, confused and overwhelmed. I would have
happily stayed there all night if it had resulted in restoring the coffee house
as it was, but tidying alone wasn’t enough. Trying not to think about it I
continued to plough through as fast as I could, so fast that I found myself
continuously dropping shattered pieces of the mugs. Every time I went to reach for
something another thing dropped and every time I walked towards something I
bumped into something else. Yet I couldn’t get myself to stop, my mind was
running on overdrive. I mustn’t stop I thought. I must fix this and every
second was precious. Meanwhile my skin burnt like the sun from Christian’s
endless stare or perhaps it was just my unsettled state of mind. He probably
wasn’t even there now. Yet I wasn’t going to risk looking up in case I lost
complete control of my emotions.
    I picked up a broken chair
leg and tried to figure out if it could be screwed back on. Experiencing the
fear of not being able to fix anything, I found myself disorientated,
panic-stricken and exhausted. Desperately I continued with what looked like
hopeless fiddling, when a hand gently took the broken part of the chair from
me. I looked up and saw Christian had knelt before me as I sat on the floor.
    “You should go home,
don’t worry about this.” There was an unexpected softness in his voice; it was
as if it was the voice of another. This was the face of someone who could see
right through me, someone who could see how troubled I was. I was overwhelmed
by his gentle aura.
    “I can’t. This was my responsibility;
I was supposed to lock up. I promised Hugo everything would be fine!”
    “You’re in shock. You
need to go.”
    “Shock? Have you seen this place? I’m sorry I just need to fix this. I can’t, I won’t
let Hugo down! I’m not going anywhere until everything is as it was!” There was
no way I was going to put my needs first when this was my chance to prove that
I was the same reliable Izzie as before, not the failure everyone else seemed
to be making me out to be. This was my mess and I was going to clean it up!
    “Listen, I understand
you gave your word but you don’t have to do this all by yourself.”

Chapter 18

 
    Christian could
see she was shaking and on the verge of falling apart. He’d witnessed pieces of
her life since he’d rescued her. He was starting