Violet Eyes

31: Nothing Ever After

Before Rhys went down for bed after the Damien incident, he had something that he wanted to do. He gently opened his bedroom door and peeked down the hallway. He could faintly hear the shower running down the hall, he assumed it was Danny trying to clean all the dried blood off of him. He walked silently down the hall towards Nerissa's room, he wanted to properly thank her for saving Danny. In addition to that, he had something else to discuss with her.

When he reached Nerissa's bedroom, he leaned his ear against the door and knocked gently. "Hey, Neri. You awake?" He spoke quietly into the crack of the door. When there wasn't even a shuffle sound, Rhys made a questionable decision and pushed open her door slightly wider. "Neri?" He repeated quietly as he peeked into the room before he flung the door open quickly when he didn't see a sign of Nerissa. His feline eyes scanned the room at light speed, searching for a sign to her whereabouts, his instinct brought him to the window by her bed. He peered through the window and saw Nerissa sitting on the dock clearly with his night vision. He turned around and left her room, bound for the dock to scold her for being outside alone after what had happened.

Rhys turned around the corner of the lake house and saw Nerissa clearly in the darkness. He approached her decisively, ready to scold her, but he stopped in his tracks when he heard the faint sound of sniffing and hitched breathing. Rhys' posture dropped as he realized and he approached more quietly. When he reached Nerissa and sat down next to her, she jumped a bit.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya." Rhys said in response to her flinching. She didn't speak, instead, she just started to calm her breathing and wipe her eyes. "You wanna tell me what this is about?" Rhys asked quietly as he looked at her from the corner of his eye. Nerissa didn't say anything, she just looked off into the water. "Okay...is this about what happened to Danny?" Rhys asked her hesitantly. Nerissa tensed a bit, but only shrugged weakly. Rhys thought for a moment before his mind remembered something from the estate.

"Does this have something to do with the bodies I saw in that room?" Nerissa's pupils narrowed slightly, before she closed her eyes and sighed deeply.

"Rhys...I can trust you, right?" Nerissa whispered out quietly, Rhys could barely hear her over the soft sound of the wilderness.

"Of course you can." He answered rather directly. Nerissa glanced at him and her lip started quivering.

"I...I..." Nerissa tried to talk but the sobs overtook her again. Rhys sat in silence for a moment, before he turned his body towards her a little bit and opened his arms. Nerissa saw this and leaned into Rhys' arms as she sobbed.

"You don't have to talk about it, Neri. I just want to say one thing. What you did, no one will think any less of you for it. You saved Danny's life, and we love you for that. It doesn't matter what you had to do to achieve it." Rhys spoked decisively as he gently rubbed Nerissa's arm as she sobbed into his chest. Nerissa was taken aback by his words, she hadn't thought about it like that. All she remembered was laying on the ground in pain, hearing Danny's screams, then she just...saw red. She'd never forget it, it had ingrained itself in her mind. "Nerissa, I know that this might be hard to get through, but you're one of the strongest people I know, and I'm not talking about your ability. Even though your ability is very strong, I'm talking about up here." Rhys tapped his forefinger on her head as he finished his sentence.