The Psycho Is Innocent | ꪜ

Chapter 34: The Bracelet

Present

"TOBIAS, WHAT THE hell is this?" Tobias closed the door behind him and strutted across the room towards Ariel. "I thought I was the one who was supposed to ask questions." He said, his voice eerily monotone. Ariel motioned towards the bag, "what's that in the bag?" She demanded, curiosity getting the best of her. Tobias tore his eyes away from her. "Do you really wanna know?" She nodded her head eagerly.

"Okay then. I don't know what you think it is, but I know you're gonna feel really stupid for suspecting otherwise. Plus, you just ruined the surprise." He trekked across the room without sparing her a glance before disappearing into his walk-in closet. After a few seconds inside, he returned with a white box.

          Ariel stood frozen in her spot as Tobias set it down onto the floor at her feet. "Nowhere in town sold these so this guy online sold it to me. . .for about 100 something bucks. I had to drive out of town to get it for you. Open it." His eyes lingered on her with every single move that she took. Down to the simple act of her rubbing her temples to her grasping the box in her tight grip. 

She tugged it open and peered down into the foreign box. Staring right at her were 48 tubes acrylic paint. The logo which was embedded into each one was that of a knight dressed in his armour riding a gold horse. Ariel recognized the brand immediately. It was a limited edition set that was launched only a few weeks ago. By the time she went online to purchase it, they had been sold out and neither did it sell in this town.

The beauty about this limited edition set was the quality of paint and the fact that each set came with a set of paintbrushes of your choosing and colour. Ariel had her eyes set on the red set. But right before her eyes was exactly what she had been longing to purchase.
"Tobias. . ." she trailed off as she raised one of the tubes to her eyes in awe.

         "The entire bottle of red paint spilled in the bag. I'm guessing the guy who sold it to me opened it up beforehand but I didn't realize it until a week later. I was planning to give it to you as a surprise but then—well you know what happened. And after, I was just waiting for another perfect time. But you spoilt it."

Ariel pivoted on her heels to face him and parted her lips to respond. However, the hollow look in his eyes forced her mouth shut. She couldn't comprehend what he was thinking. Was he angry? Annoyed? Relieved? "You thought that was blood, didn't you? Who the hell do you take me for, Ariel?" She couldn't do anything but stare into those eyes. The sight of what appeared to be an emotionless void was fascinating. Tobias was a walking mystery and Ariel hated that she loved it.

"You thought I was gonna hurt you?" He questioned in disbelief.

"No." She finally responded, "I thought you hurt someone else."

He pulled the tube of paint out of her hand and set it back in its rightful place. He sealed the set shut and stood upright, his movements almost rigid. "Ariel, I'm not a monster. I may do bad things sometimes but I'm not a bad person so please don't let one bad thing define who I am. I don't ever want to change in your eyes." Finally she could detect the emotion on his face and in his voice.

         He was sad. Disappointed that him hurting someone else was her first conclusion to the paint in the bag. Ariel smiled comfortingly as she lowered her cold hands to his burning cheeks. She reeled him in until her chest was pressed against his and peered up into his eyes. "I can promise you one thing, no matter what you do, my perception of you will never change."

           He leaned his forehead down onto hers, "don't make promises you can't keep." He whispered. Her mouth curved into a knowing smirk and before saying anything else, she captured his lips between hers, kissing him softly. Tobias immediately melted at the mere touch of her flesh against his. He wrapped his arms around her waist, completely forgetting why and how this conflict arose.