Caspian

Twenty four years, and I had not once resorted to stalking. Ever. I was breaking a lot of rules for that girl.

Amusingly, I was going about my day when a notification popped up that @bioqueen85 had liked a video of mine that I had posted years back.

Her futile attempts at stalking made me text her back if only to creep her a little bit. She had to stay away from me. I had no self-restraint when it came to her, so, she had to be the one running away. She had no business being attracted to me, though, I would be lying if I said that it didn’t give me a weird sense of satisfaction.

The next day, however, my good mood was crushed by the sight of her face, and not in a way that I hated seeing her, it was the opposite in reality, but when I saw her, I found a bruise covering a better portion of her cheek, leaving behind a visible purple mark.

After an amateur interrogation, my doubts were confirmed and she was being abused at her home, but I knew that her life depended on how I treated that information.

After the classes were over, I had a while before she was supposed to come for tutoring and I used that time to pull a few strings to keep her parents out of the town for a longer period of time. I had stalked her for months so I knew that her parents were rarely at home, and while I had originally felt bad for her, I was grateful now.

The more they stayed away, the better.

When she came at three, I found her looking half-dead, and the bruise looked worse since the make-up had worn off.

I immediately put her to sleep and realized that she was burning out. The stress, the sleepless nights, the abuse, they were all killing her. Staring at her small frame sleeping on my couch, I slowly took off my jacket and covered her with it before going back to work.

I didn’t wake her up as I had promised. I knew there was no way she would’ve been able to understand what I had to teach her, and if I were to send her home, she would’ve stayed up and studied.

So, I let her sleep until she was to wake up by herself or it was time to shut down the school, whichever came first.

“I thought you were supposed to wake me up…” she muttered, and I could sense the underlying accusation in her voice that she had tried so hard to supress.

She was right, I was supposed to wake her up, but I didn’t have the heart to do so.

“I tried but I am certain it would’ve been easier to wake up a hibernating bear,” I felt a reply roll till the tip of her tongue before she swallowed it inside and again, supressed her feelings. I waited a moment for her to reply, but when I was certain she wouldn’t, I spoke, “Come on, I’ll drop you off to your house,”

“My parents are going to kill me,” she mumbled to herself before getting to her feet. She held out the blazer in my direction before pulling it back towards her. “I’ll get it drycleaned and will give it back to you after it comes back,”

“No need for that,” I replied firmly and pried it out of her hands. I wanted it to smell like her. I already had the perfumes she owned, but she had a sweet smell that belonged to her and her only and I wanted it on my jacket. She wasn’t a drug, but she didn’t have to be one for me to be addicted to her. “As for your parents,” I pulled out a bunch of papers stapled together and handed her the pile. “We studied photosynthesis today. I know you already know that, so, you can tell your parents I taught you some in-depth concepts that I had learned during my masters. You know mostly everything in there, but a few important concepts might be new to you. I have highlighted them so you can refer to them in your free time,”

“Thank you so much,” she spoke, and smiled. An actual fucking smile that despite being laced with deep exhaustion, almost sent me to my fucking knees.

The things this girl did to me…

I pulled her outside into the hallway before turning the lights off inside my office. With a hand on her shoulder I guided her towards the parking where my car was.

I opened the door for her before walking to the other side and sitting inside. “Noctiluca, seriously?” She asked once I started the engine and pulled the car out of the driveway. “You called me a protist?”

“Well, you look like one,” I teased her, making her chuckle. Luckily, my car had a voice recorder which had recorded that rare sound, and I intended to hear it over and over again until I could have her close enough to hear it from herself every day.

“You’re right, I forgot my arms were actually two flagella,” she joked and I gave her a sideways glance to capture the lightness on her face. “So, you’re like loaded. I gathered that from your…car,”

“You mean from my Instagram that you stalked?” she rolled her eyes but didn’t deny it before continuing,

“So, why do you teach at a high school?”

I gave the road ahead a long look before answering, “I have a PhD going on at the moment, and I wanted to stay in touch with the subject,” I gave the simple half-truth as a response. I couldn’t very well tell her that I was stalking her and had only joined the school to see her every day and slowly make my way into her life, could I?

She didn’t seem to buy it, but she didn’t say anything until we reached her house. Like I had expected, it was completely empty with no sign of any activity. Her parents were in other town: her mother in Paris with her lover, while her dad was actually in a meeting on the other side of the world.

They both were only married in name, and in reality, had completely different lives. Her father had a mistress in Italy and an on and off girlfriend in Russia, and her mother had a lover in the states who she went on rendezvouses with.

January was never raised by them as a daughter, but she was raised like an object, something they could show-off to the public like a trophy while hiding their own imperfections. If it were up to me, I would’ve removed them from the equation altogether, but I had to play carefully and take in regard January’s emotions. They might’ve been abusive, but she still didn’t love them any less.

She opened the door of the car and slid out with novel fluidity. She closed the door behind her and made her way to her house. She had just opened the door when she froze, and I immediately opened the glove compartment and extracted a gun, afraid that she had seen someone, but she didn’t look scared. She turned around, and I saw a smile break across her face before she mouthed, “Thank you,” and I hated, I absolutely hated what it did to my heart.

Before we’d reached there, I had one guard of mine check the house thoroughly for any intruders, but I still waited until she had entered the house and had turned on all the lights of the hall.

I watched from a small window near the door as she walked around the house timidly with her shoulders hunched, yawning every now and then, before climbing up the stairs to her room. I should’ve drove away after finding out that she was okay, but I couldn’t help but watch, completely enchanted.

Her room was on the other side, so, I couldn’t see her until she started climbing down the stairs. She had changed into a light pink silk camisole top that floated around her and a pair of shorts. She noticed my car through the window, and smiled yet again. She stopped her movements and pulled out her phone before typing something, and brought it to her ear just as mine started ringing.

“I must say, Mr Grey, you get creepier by every encounter,” she quoted me from earlier as I answered her call, making me chuckle.

“Pardon me for being concerned for your safety. Next thing I know, the cops are after me cause I was the last person to see you,”

She gave an airy laugh and I cursed at myself for not having the call on record. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Plus, I can scream very loudly,”

“Seems like I’ll have to test that someday,” I could see her cheeks turn red from the distance and she quickly turned away from the window and resumed her descend down the stairs.

“Or, you can test it today,” she flirted back, lowering her voice to a seductive note pulling an instant reaction out of me.

“I would rather not go to jail, Ms Decembers,”

“So, hypothetically, if you were to not go to jail, would you be open for testing the theory?” she asked, stepping towards the window beside the main entrance. I supressed a groan as images starting flooding my hair, reminding me how good it would’ve been if she was in UK or if she was eighteen. Nonetheless, I had to wait a few months, but the way she had me and a certain part of my body wrapped around her finger in only a few weeks, I knew that it was going to take all of my self-control.

“Good night, Ms Decembers,” I sighed in resignation and she grinned widely at her accomplishment.

“Good night,” she answered before cutting the call and waving at me. The tinted windows of the car blocked the wave I gave in response but she looked like she had seen it. She pulled the curtain of the window and I waited until her silhouette had disappeared before driving away.

I had two houses in the city: a bungalow and a flat. The bungalow was my official address, but I had rented the appartement to keep an eye on her. It was an old complex right behind right behind her place and from my flat, I could see right inside her room. Sure, I never misused that, and didn’t stare at her like a creep, but I used it to be certain that she was alright when her parents were out of the town.

I had one guard around her house and all times since the incident with Rhys, but being close to her made me feel more satisfied. If something were to happen, I would be there in one-twenty seconds- tried and tested.

I watched as January parted the curtains covering the large window taking up the better part of the wall of one side of the room, and opened a window as well. She stepped out into the balcony, her hair open and falling to her shoulders.

Her fingers curled around the railing of the balcony and she clutched in tightly before pushing her body weight onto it and exhaling visibly. The tiredness was etched on her face and I felt sadness course through myself at how burned out she looked.

After standing there for a minute or two, she walked back inside the room but kept the window and the curtains open. She sat down on a chair in front of her table and pulled out her books, and started studying.

I ordered her an extra cheesy pizza and paid for it online before asking the delivery boy to drop it in front of the front door and call me when he came to deliver it because the last thing I wanted was for him to see her half naked.

Half an hour later, I received a call telling me that he had dropped the pizza in front of her house and I dialled January’s number.

“Hello,” she answered dizzily.

“Open your front door, there’s a pizza there. Eat it,” I saw her pull her chair back and sprint out of her room.

“Hold on,”

“Keep the call on until you’ve closed the door again and locked it carefully,”

“Yesir!” she replied jokingly, but did as I told. “So, do you send pizzas to all your students or am I special,”

You’re special. You’re my Noctiluca.

“Got to keep my star student well fed and focused if I want a promotion,” I joked back and I could hear her smile.

“Thanks a lot for this…and everything…”

“You’re welcome, Ms Decembers. Go to sleep after dinner so you can focus tomorrow. Pulling an all-nighter benefits no one,”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Just go to sleep. Please,” I added, to soften the command and she huffed but agreed before mumbling something about the pizza getting cold and ending the call.

She was going to be the death of mine.