Hellbound With You

Meanwhile in the living room on the ground floor, Little Betty was still wide awake. She was lying there, waiting patiently for Uncle Zeke to start reading to her.

Not only did Ezekiel not start reading the book to the little girl, he also ignored her as if she wasn’t there. He just kept scanning the book that Alex gave him without a word. He didn’t know why this girl had picked him to read her a bedtime story when the other two were obviously more willing. He didn’t understand why this little girl wasn’t scared of him when children always hid behind their mothers at the sight of him. Was this kid the same as that fearless Abigail girl?

”Uncle, uncle, why are you not talking to me?”

”Uncle, you don’t like talking don’t you?”

”Can you read the story out loud so I can hear?”

”Uncle, please?”

Little Betty continued talking until Ezekiel Qin’s hand that was flipping the pages finally halted.

”Stop calling me, uncle. I’m not your uncle,” he told her, his voice a little chilly.

”Then, what should I call you?” she innocently asked. ”Big brother?”

”I’m not your brother.”

”Then, shall I call you Zeke, too?” she smiled and the man silently let out a sigh. He didn’t have any tolerance for this kind of thing. He knew that Alex did this on purpose. That man just wanted to torture him.

”Sleep, kid. You’re not a baby to still be lulled to sleep by a bedtime story,” he said blankly and Little Betty’s face became gloomy.

She didn’t speak anymore as she laid there next to him.

Zeke glanced at her again when the girl didn’t move or make sound, thinking that she finally fell asleep but to his surprise, the girl’s eyes were still wide open.

She was staring at the ceiling and blinking occasionally.

Seeing that there was no sign of her going to sleep, Ezekiel pressed his temples and opened the book again.

”I will only read this once, kid. Listen carefully and sleep,” he suddenly said and the girl looked up at him with big round, excited eyes.

The man then started, ”Once upon a time, a princess…” he trailed off. For some reason, he couldn’t continue. His expressionless face seemed to have hardened in frustration. However, he still remained calm.

The girl looked at him with anticipation, waiting for what was coming next even though the man’s voice was so painfully lifeless and toneless.

”A cat and mouse decide to live together and buy a pot of fat to get them through the winter. They decide to keep the pot under an altar at the church and to only use it if necessary. The cat makes up a story and says she’s becoming a godmother in order to secretly visit the church, so she asks the mouse to stay and watch their place. The cat comes home and eventually becomes the godmother two more times. Each time, the mouse asks the name of the godchildren and the cats responses are top off, half done, and all-gone. The mouse doesn’t catch on until they go to the church and sees the empty pot. The cat turns and eats the mouse. The end.”

Ezekiel closed the book and looked at the girl but the girl’s lips were parted and her big eyes were still wide open.

”Why aren’t you asleep yet?” he frowned.

”Uncle… I mean Mr. Zeke, that’s not nice. You just summarized the story.” She rose and took the book in his hand. ”You should do it like this, okay?”

She started reading the story so skillfully and it suddenly looked like Little Betty was the one lulling the big man to sleep.

The man pressed his temples once again like an old man with the world’s burden on his shoulders and took the book from her hand.

”Fine, I’ll read it like that so sleep now,” he commanded and the girl at least listened to him. However, before she laid down she took the book and opened it to the page titled ’Cinderella’.

Ezekiel then started reading but he was nowhere near the same level as little girl’s skills. His storytelling skill was, in fact, not even on the scale and could even be considered as being below zero. But despite his monotone and bored voice, Betty still slowly fell asleep.

…

Back in Abi’s room, the atmosphere had become below freezing as the cold statue waited for Abi’s reply.

”Ah, t-this is nothing. I just tripped on the sidewalk.” Technically, Abi told him the truth because she did trip on the sidewalk but she knew full well that a half truth was still a lie. She was not trying to hide what had happened but for some reason she didn’t know why but she didn’t want to mention that a car almost hit her.

But of course, the cold statue saw it because she was very, very bad at lying. Her face gave her straight away so he just said curtly, ”You just tripped, huh?” his voice was cold as steel.

Alex’s eyes squinted at her. He then got up and grabbed the first aid kit. He sat down next to her and started cleaning her wounds.

Abi was surprised as she looked at him. She didn’t expect him to act this way. It almost looked like the beastly man was suddenly tamed as soon as she saw her scratches. This cold man being like this towards her made Abi’s heart flutter. She couldn’t believe that just a moment ago, this was the same man who looked like he was going to eat her alive.; the same man who was just about to punish her.

However, just as when Abi was thinking that the ice was starting to melt, Alex suddenly pressed on her wound using the cotton ball he was holding.

”Ouch!” she winced. ”Alex, it hurts,” she pleaded but the man didn’t release the pressure.

”Abigail, are you really not going to tell me the truth?” he asked and Abi’s eyes widened. She looked at him and she was surprised at the darkness lurking in his eyes.