Chapter 19

Zalli could feel sweat build on her palms. In her mind, she erected a strong stone wall. A calmness settled inside her, even though her skin prickled at knowing Yoltzin was nearby.

She was at least ready to act naturally around him. She knew if she went back to showing her dislike towards him, she would definitely give her position away to Yoltzin.

The young woman brought her leg up and stomped hard on the step of the shovel. She lifted the pile of dirt with ease and placed it on the edge of the field to begin a pile.

Just as she was about to stab the ground a second time, Zalli stopped as she had elbows pulled back. She groaned as she realized she needed to get rid of the topsoil first.

So much for all that farming knowledge. Zalli berated herself.

She threw the shovel to the side and glanced at her back porch. She wondered why the man had yet to come outside.

Zalli grabbed the rake and worked on tilling the soil. She moved the dirt around the scorched stem of a dead rose bush and brought it to the pile of dirt she had left to the side.

Once she thought she brought all the damaged soil around the bush, she returned to her discarded shovel. As she crouched down to pick it up, a shadow loomed over her. She had her arms reaching in front of her for the tool when she tipped her head back to get a good view of the visitor behind her.

There stood Yoltzin, wearing a 3 piece suit. His blue suit made him seem like a dark shadow to Zalli. As always, he had his hands in his pockets and leaned to one side in his stance. He was the first to break the silence.

“Hello there, little thorn. Need any help?”

“No, I’m good on my own here.” Zalli cringed at her behavior. She was not doing so well at appearing warm and friendly. She reacted quickly to see if she could cover her mistake. “Actually yeah, sorry.”

The young woman grabbed the shaft of the shovel, then brought her free hand upwards for him to grab. Yoltzin assisted her in standing with ease.

Zalli dusted herself off, then spoke before he could say anything. She hoped she could distract him long enough by giving him a slight task to do. She wanted to give herself enough time to think clearly and reroute herself to the original plan.

“Do you think you can help me out here as well? There’s another shovel and rake in the barn you could use.”

“Sure thing, love.”

Zalli gave him a small smile, but when he turned around, she rolled her eyes at his use of another pet name. Of course, he would try to force the idea that they somehow grew closer to each other over the past few days. Not that it had an effect on her. There was not a blush growing on her face, and her center didn’t feel warm at the term of endearment.

As Yoltzin strutted towards the barn, he had already taken off a portion of his jacket and placed it in the crook of his arm. As she admired his narrow shoulders, Zalli formed a pinch expression.

So far, she was not doing too good. Her reactions to him were too sincere, and she moved more on instinct than calculated thought. Zalli had apparently lost the self she had prepared mere minutes ago to face on Yoltzin. Yet, she could not mess up this early on.

A high-pitched neigh came from Churro, as if he was telling her to get her act together. She agreed with the sentiment and moved her shoulders and head around. She wanted to solidify her will, and remove any doubt she might have of her capabilities.

Zalli asserted herself she could be friendly around Yoltzin. It was only play pretend. She had to get revenge and return the act of being affable to him, too. If she lowered his defenses, then she could take advantage of his trust. She held her chin up and expanded her chest to intake a full breath.

Not wanted to get caught staring at nothing, Zalli moved onto the next bush and moved with quick actions.

She finished piling the dirt in Churro’s cart around the time Yoltzin returned. She had a blank expression on her face, which the gentleman found concerning.

“Hey, are you okay? You look like you’re in a daze.”

Zalli only glimpsed at him before she responded.

“Yes—maybe. In all honesty, it’s taking me a while to process all of this.”

She brought her entire arm up and displayed her fields to him. When she turned to look at him properly, she saw he had left his jacket somewhere in the barn, along with his tie.

A wide-brimmed hat sat on his head. It looked like something that could belong to Ezi. The band around the base of the crown was a dark brown ribbon that went with the soft beige of the woven hat. But if you scrutinized the band, you could see there were embroidered flowers in a matching dark brown.

This was a hat Zalli was sure she had seen before in the real world.

Yoltzin took a step forward and entered Zalli’s personal space. She looked up at him with squinted eyes while he looked down with a sweet look in his own. She twitched the corner of her mouth up to settle her beating heart.

Then the man brought his arm up and placed a baseball cap on Zalli’s head. He pulled the brim down with a roughness that was enough to cover her eyes, but not so much to cause pain in her neck. Her head shook from side to side as Yoltzin secured it on.

By the time Zalli could look up and adjust her hat properly, Yoltzin had already taken two steps away and was saying something that she accidentally ignored at first. She was distracted by the button down he wore, which was open down to his navel. It exposed the white tank top he wore underneath. It clung to the curvature of his abdominal well.

“—stand this is a tragedy for you and your family.”

Zalli didn’t catch the first part of what he said, but she could figure out his message based on the context. She then only nodded her head in return.

She took a step forward to grab the rake, but then halted when she felt a hand grab onto her arm. The young woman turned and looked down to see Yoltzin’s hand gripping there before she looked him in the face. Her heart picked up in pace, and her throat constricted at what could happen next.

“Zalli, I am sorry that this happened.”

She softened her gaze and spoke.

“I know.”

They maintained eye contact for a while until Yoltzin let go of her arm. His fingertips grazed her own until her arm came down by her side. Her thoughts jumbled and an empty feeling settled in the pit of her stomach.

Zalli pinched her lips and tensed her shoulders as she turned away from Yoltzin. She directed him to work on the first bush in the adjacent row with his own rake as she put her hair up into a ponytail to wear her hat better.

She gnawed on her own lip while they worked in silence. Zalli did not like how his apology felt real. As if he felt remorse for causing her to have her heart break over the loss of her hard work.

Even if he didn’t fabricate the fire, all of this was his fault—to the very end. He was responsible for her imprisonment here in the first place.

Zalli turned around and side eyed Yoltzin as he worked on shoveling his pile of dirt. He was working faster than her. She squinted her eyes and scrunched up her face in defiance when she turned to look in front of her again.

As she worked on her own pile, she thought about how she might have let Yoltzin get too close to her—which was twice so far. A feeling told her that if he made contact with her skin, then he could control her conscious state. It would explain how she suddenly fell asleep the night they finished weaving the lirio roses. The young woman just couldn’t remember exactly what he had done to her.

At the fourth bush, Zalli asked Yoltzin a question, who had already caught up to her in progress.

“So, when will you resume digging?”

“I was not going to start soon.” Yoltzin threw a glance in her direction. “The treasure I search for will not vanish, I’m assuming. I have time to wait until you’re ready.”

“You can start now if you want, I don’t see any reason to make you wait longer than necessary.”

Zalli flashed a glint at the man next to her and took notice of his arms. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, exposing a thin layer of sweat cooling his forearm.

“I just want to give you time to properly grieve.”

They raked alongside each other. Yoltzin’s shoulders never passed beyond Zalli’s position.

“I think I’ve done enough of that already. If I do any more of it, I am sure I’m going to lose my sanity.”

Zalli’s gut tightened as she cut her eyes to the cause of all her troubles. Some silence existed between the two adults, growing like a vine desperate for sunlight. She was not sure what Yoltzin was contemplating.

“I will begin again tomorrow, then.” He stood at his full stature and took the handkerchief previously in his breast pocket of his blazer out to wipe some sweat away from his face. Then he returned it to the pocket of his pants as he continued to speak. “I hope you know that’s not the reason I came here for. I just wanted to check up on you.”

“I—... I appreciate that.” Zalli continued working as the man next to her stood with his weight leaning on the shovel he just stuck into the ground. “Do you-uh, know anything about Necalli?”

She thought asking about her supposed friend would help keep the pretense that she still believed this world was real. Even though he tragically betrayed her, her as her illusioned self would definitely be worried about his whereabouts.

“I talked it over with your local police force just yesterday. They said you had to file the police report, but as of right now, they have yet to know where Necalli could be.” He dug his shovel into the pile and threw it into the cart nearby, since Churro had been trailing behind them as they moved. His movements carried minor aggression, as if he didn’t enjoy talking about Necalli. “I have some of my people tracking him down, too. It seems like he just disappeared, though.”

“I see.” Zalli grabbed her shovel and fixed her hat to straighten the brim. “Are you done digging in that area?”

She threw her head toward the original digging site.

“Just about. I think whatever we get done tomorrow will complete it. I hope we can find it there. Considering how your mother’s tree is very dear to you, I would hate to dig there next. But that spot contains the highest likelihood of the treasure there.”

Zalli’s whole body froze before she could stab her tool into the ground.

“How do you know that’s my mother’s tree?”

The suspicion in Zalli’s voice was clear. She knew she had not told him anything about the tree. Only that he had to leave it completely alone.

How much about me does he actually know?

“I was curious about the tree the day you went to go harvest more lirio leaves. I just wanted to understand why it was so special to you. Now I know.”

Zalli cleared her throat and gave Yoltzin a heated gaze.

“It could just be any relative’s grave, though. Why would you assume it’s my mamá’s?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. The man placed one hand on his hip while the other rested on the rounded end of his tool.

“Considering how strongly you felt about the thing, I guessed it must have been someone who was very dear to you.”

“Look, don’t-don’t go near that tree.”

Her voice did not get any louder, but there was a clear, stern cadence behind it. The idea of Yoltzin being near the tree made Zalli’s heart race. Her hands that clutched her shovel shook in her emotion.

“I’m sorry, Zalli, I didn’t—I didn’t realize I would cross a boundary by visiting the tree. I didn’t even see the grave until I was up close to the trunk.”

Liar.

Zalli closed her eyes and fortified her mind. She told herself she needed to calm down. He had yet to actually dig by the tree, and she had a whole other day before it even came to that. By then, she might even escape from this place.

If she completely banned him from excavating there, she was not sure what manipulative tactics he would do to revert the situation in his favor. She needed to let him continue thinking he was in control.

Give him bait to fall for.

She spoke with tenderness in her voice.

“I’m sorry.”

Zalli left her shovel to lean against the cart and walked towards Yoltzin. Against her better judgement from earlier, she reached for his hand to finesse a positive outcome. He frowned with his head tilted to the side, but gave it to her. With another step closer to him, she gave the hand a comforting squeeze with both of her hands encompassing his.

“I didn’t mean to lash out like that. I-uh, kind of lost my cool there.”

Zalli brought her head down to appear demure and vulnerable to the man in front of her. She sensed no movement from him, which caused her heart rate to pick up. She didn’t dare raise her head just yet.

Please, fall for it. Fall for it, fall for it, fall for it.

She repeated the mantra in her head for comfort. Before she believed she should give up the ruse and step away, she gave one more squeeze to the masculine hand she held.

Her breath hitched when Yoltzin finally took a step closer to Zalli. She didn’t let go when she felt his hand hold her jaw with a gentle caress. She didn’t loosen her grip when she felt her head tilt up.

The moment the two made eye contact, Yoltzin’s lips came crashing down to hers, and they melded together like they were one. When they separated for a breath, he removed his hand from her hold to join his other in securing her head. Zalli brought her hands to clutch onto the flaps of his open blouse.

They kissed again, this time swirling their tongues around each other. She moved her hands to wrap around his sturdy core while he adjusted his hand slightly to bring his finger to hover over her forehead.

She thought nothing of it at first, focused on battling his tongue with her own, but then it hit her. The last time his finger tapped her head, her vision went black, and she ended up dreaming about him and her going into the forest. That is how it happened the night they finished weaving.

If he was going to make her fall asleep now, then she had to make sure to not easily succumb to it. She gripped his abdominal and repeated to herself in her mind.

Stay awake, stay awake, stay awake, stay awake.

She kept her eyes closed when she felt the first tap. They continued to kiss as warmth spread over her body, and her mind felt like it was fortified in forbearance.

His power must not have worked. Zalli was able to stop him from taking over her conscious state.

She should have pretended it worked, though. She had blindsided her focus to only ensure she would not succumb to slumber.

Then, if he tapped her again, she established she would fake it. She would just need to make sure she kept repeating in her mind to stay awake.

On the second tap, she relaxed all her muscles and went limp. Since he was still embracing her, Yoltzin could catch her dropping body with ease.

Zalli willed her breathing to slow down and focused on calming her beating heart. She really hoped he did not have heightened hearing, because she was sure her heart was as loud as a beating drum at the moment.

She felt an arm go under her legs. Yoltzin lifted her up into a cradle. Her head rested on his chest, which forced her to take notice of his beating heart. It was moving just as fast as hers was.

In a way, it was calming as it gave her mind something to focus on as he walked toward what she assumed was her house. With each small bounce she felt in his gait, she noticed the dimness behind her eyelids grow darker.

He must be turning the day into night.

Zalli took another deep breath in and got a whiff of his scent. There was no presence of tobacco this time. Instead, she got a mixture of the natural scent his sweat gave off with sandalwood and amber. It was annoyingly pleasant.

She heard the screen door of the back entrance squeak open. Humming came from within the kitchen combined with the sound of running water and clanking porcelain. Ezi was washing the dishes.

Yet, there was no reaction as they walked past her. When Yoltzin entered the living room, the radio could be heard while Tepi and Xilo had a soft conversation. Zalli could not figure out what they were saying, but she knew they paid the pair no mind since there was no audible reaction given. Just as it was with Ezi, it seemed no one saw them as they walked through.

Together, they went up the stairs with Yoltzin still holding her in his arms. He walked her through the hallway, which felt unbearingly long. It wasn’t until they reached her bedroom that Yoltzin stopped. When he spoke, Zalli’s stomach dropped.

“Do you think I am a fool, little thorn?”