She spotted him late into the party that night, surrounded by a few men. She watched him, fingers curved around the glass in his hand, avidly listening to a tale one of the other men was recounting. She didn’t know what it was about him, but she knew that it was something different. Attraction. Not stories of lust that were whispered around her as a child all those years ago. Something much different, something that wanted the warmth of his skin to drive away the eternal cold from her fingers when they stroked his cheek. The party continued in its whirlwind pace around her. Voices of men and women traveled across the room, peppered with laughter, skirts twirled and glasses chimed. She knew they wouldn’t notice her. No one usually did, and the ones that did were usually too afraid to acknowledge it. But then, she saw him laugh, and all of those thoughts melted away. The joy on his face touched something inside her that echoed of warmth, vague memories of a time long past, of humanity. She noticed the crinkles around his eyes that betrayed the gentle soul he probably hid behind his intimidating frame. She continued to stand there, drinking in every detail, memorizing every line of his smile, when something caught his attention. He turned and looked straight at her. She watched as he excused himself from the group. The world slowly came to a standstill and she froze, partly afraid of breaking the spell that trapped them with even the slightest twitch. His long strides ate up the floor as he came closer to her. Five steps. Three. Two. She looked up at him. He took another step, walking straight through her, leaving nothing but wisps of silver smoke of both her and her dreams.
P.s: You may visit our judge Neelima Vinod’s Facebook page and have a look at her upcoming novel Unsettled.
I vote for this. (Y)