Nonlinear

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓;

She balanced her head to the side, pure and assaulting amber eyes boring into him as she muttered only the word, "Shame."

Scarlet returned her unwavering stare with a scowl of his own.

"You're to be set on trial," she confided, leaning tauntingly close to him as she tracked her eyes on his lustrous shackles. She knew he could not do anything to her with the harsh chains gouging into his skin. "For the murder of one of the system's most royal justices."

Scarlet scoffed humourlessly as her statement revolved sickeningly inside him. "Murder."

"Yes, murder." Her eyes found his again. They were sharing the same imprisoned air now. "Is that not what I said?"

Scarlet shifted with a screw of his face. "I did not kill any royal justice."

"You did...You didn't. It's Franklin Pyxis' words and money against yours when it comes to the high council of Sevgi." Franklin Pyxis. She backed away from him, rolling behind him to the machines that beeped an ominous memo. "He has money and you're a murderer. It's pretty simple really." Her voice held humour-hilarity that told scarlet that she didn't quite believe the verdict that ran her glossed lips.

"Who are you?"

Her corner rang with amusement. "I don't know. Who am I, Mr murderer?"

You're infuriating, the letters zapped in his mind. That was what Scarlet concluded the mysterious woman was. Obnoxious, infuriating, that's who you are.

"Somebody must have really loved you." Her sweetly rasped voice came again with a new topic. Her tight twists delineated his skin as she appeared out of nowhere to peer back down at him, the twinkles of room glare reclining on the outline of her delicate figure. Scarlet concentrated his gaze solely on her artic irises of affluent coins.

"Excuse me?"

"Your beauty marks," the strange young woman acknowledged casually. "I read that they show where your past lover kissed you." Her finger hovered just above Scarlet's lips where a twilight coloured dot kissed lacquers into the pink of his top lip. "That's why they were given the name of beauty marks." She withdrew her finger with an enchanting and conspiring smile. "Because they show the beauty of your past lover's long-lost love." Her finger found the bottom of her chin as she eyed Scarlet again. "But I heard elsewhere that the past is much more sophisticated than that-that it's considerably more impressive than that."

Her index finger found his temple and an incredible panic rose within Scarlet. "I could show you the gaps of your past, Scarlet..I can you show you."

She knew his name.

"No."

"You need-"

"No."

The touch of her finger pressing against Scarlet's temples made it feel as if he were immersed in a poignant noose of cost. "Sorry, but I wasn't asking for permission, lover boy."

Strange. Everything felt so strange; from the scents of bakes cooking into his tastebuds to the lit lamps that explored with passion, all the way to the strange, yet very familiar camaraderie of laughter.

He noted the heavy feeling of his closed eyes and opened them. The faces were what he first recognised- two distinct and unique faces that seemed as if they were traced from the other to be made.

"Paula said I have to wait until next year, " the girl spoke, the deflation of her sentence vivid within the dark glows of her eyes.

"Paula clearly doesn't know what she's talking about, sweetie," the woman jabbed with a roll of her eyes, the concave movement of her eyes taking a second to adapt once landing on him. "Right, Scarlet?"