LinieBaru: ObsessionIF: 03 (Patreon)

Quite a small chapter. But I guess you can expect the next update sooner.

Subaru spent the entire next day sitting on the stool near the bed and staring at Stark without looking away for more than a few seconds at a time. Her eyes stayed fixed on his face and the way his chest rose and fell under the bandages and the way his hands rested against the chains. The light from the window moved slowly across the floor but she paid no attention to it. All of her focus remained on him. The priest stayed in the corner and tried not to make any sound because every small noise made her glance over with a warning look before she returned her gaze to Stark. The room felt smaller with her constant attention filling every corner of it. Stark shifted under the blanket and tested the chains again but they held firm as always. He could feel her eyes on him like a physical weight and it made the back of his neck itch.

When the need to relieve himself became too strong he finally spoke in a low voice.

"I need to go to the restroom."

Subaru stood at once and grabbed the end of the chain that bound his wrist. She led him out of the room and down the short hall to the small restroom at the back of the church. The space was narrow with only a simple wooden seat and a basin of water. She stepped inside with him and closed the door behind them. Stark stood there with the chain still in her hand and the walls close on every side. He felt extremely uncomfortable with her presence so near while he had to take care of a private need. He considered attacking her right then. The area was tight and the chains limited how far he could swing his free arm but he was not sure he could overpower her in such a confined place. One wrong move and she could pin him or call on whatever power had let her defeat him before. He decided against it and turned his body as much as the chain allowed so she could not see everything. Subaru kept her eyes on him the whole time. She watched the tension in his shoulders and the careful way he moved. Something about his discomfort sent a strange heat through her chest. She liked that he had no choice but to let her stay. She liked that every part of his day now included her.

When he finished she handed him a cloth to clean himself and then led him back to the room without saying a word. She locked the chain to the bed frame again and returned to her stool. The rest of the day passed with her staring and him trying to ignore the constant pressure of her gaze. He asked for water once and she brought it. He asked for more bread and she fetched it from the kitchen the priest had shown her. Each time she returned she sat closer than before until her knee almost touched the edge of the mattress. Stark kept his body still and his face neutral but inside he counted the hours until night when the light would fade and she might grow tired.

Night came and the single candle on the table burned low. Subaru stood and walked to the bed. She sat on the edge and then tried to lie down beside him under the same blanket. Stark reacted at once. He swung his free fist and punched her hard in the shoulder. The blow landed with a solid sound and she rolled slightly off the mattress but she did not cry out. Instead a small sound of pleasure left her throat. She liked the force of it. She liked that he still had the strength to hit her. She climbed back onto the bed and tried again to settle next to him. Stark kicked this time. His leg caught her in the side and pushed her onto the floor. She stayed there for a moment breathing hard and then stood up with a deep face. The pain from the kick mixed with something warmer and more private that made her press her thighs together for a second. She returned to the stool but kept her eyes locked on him through the dark. Stark lay on his back and tried to sleep but the knowledge that she watched him every second made rest impossible. Every time his eyes closed he felt her stare like fingers on his skin. He stayed awake through the long hours listening to her soft breathing and the occasional rattle of the chain when he shifted.

Near dawn the sky outside the window turned pale gray. Stark felt exhausted. His body ached from the lack of sleep and the constant tension. He was afraid she would try something more intimate if he let himself drift off. He turned his head toward her and spoke in a rough voice.

"What do you want from me?"

Subaru leaned forward on the stool. Her eyes shone in the weak light.

"I want you."

Stark stared at her.

"You are a demon."

She shook her head slowly.

"I told you before that I am not a demon. I was a human in another world but something brought me here to you."

Stark had a very hard time digesting that idea. Demons did not become human. Humans did not wake up in demon bodies. Yet so far she had not actually killed anyone in the village. She had injured him in the forest but she had also treated his wounds and kept him fed. The contradiction sat heavy in his mind. He tested the chains once more out of habit and then looked at her again.

"What is so interesting about me? I am just Stark."

The question seemed to open something wide inside her. She began to speak in a steady stream of words that filled the quiet room. She told him how his determination impressed her more than any other quality she had ever seen. She described the way he lifted the heavy axe even when his body was broken and how that strength made her chest tight with admiration. She spoke of the focus in his eyes when he looked at her and how that focus made her feel chosen in a way no one in her old world had ever chosen her. She mentioned the slight scar on his forehead and the shape of his face and the way his muscles moved under his clothes when he swung. She said his voice when he shouted for her to die had burned itself into her memory because it proved he cared enough to hate her with his whole being. Every detail poured out of her while she watched his face for any reaction. The words carried a hungry edge that made the air feel thicker. She leaned closer as she spoke and her breath touched his arm. The heat from her body reached him across the small space and he could sense how the talking excited her. Her cheeks flushed and her fingers pressed into her own knees as if she needed to hold herself still.

Stark found the long list of reasons almost funny after a while. The idea that a demon or whatever she claimed to be could see so much value in an ordinary warrior made a short laugh leave his throat. The sound was rough from lack of sleep but it was genuine. Subaru froze for a second and then her face lit up with a smile so bright and wide that it stopped his laughter cold. The smile stretched too far and stayed too long. It made the pale morning light seem wrong somehow. It made her eyes look deeper and emptier at the same time. The unnerving quality of that smile settled over him like a cold cloth. She did not notice his discomfort. Instead she took the laugh as encouragement and spent the next few hours trying to make him laugh again. She told bad jokes about her own deaths and the way the axe felt when it cut through her neck. She told better jokes about the priest hiding in the corner and the way the village woman had believed her story about the turban. She mixed silly stories from her old world with twisted observations about how much she enjoyed the bruises he had given her the night before. Each time she paused she watched his face for another smile or another sound of amusement. Stark did not comment. He simply watched her go on and on. Bit by bit he began to understand her mindset. The love she claimed was not the soft kind he had seen between couples in villages. It was a grasping thing that fed on his reactions and grew larger every time he gave her any attention at all. The jokes continued while the sun climbed higher outside the window. She kept talking and smiling and waiting for him to laugh again while he lay chained to the bed and let the full weight of her obsession settle around him like another set of chains.