His ineptitude to grasp the jist of the situation left him two choices, none of which he could decide upon. What could have greeted whom he faced could have been a benevolent smile or hideous temper. The tar coal blood that rushed through his veins left him incapable of either as he stood there, his expression incomprehensible, his words without purpose.

His only solace lay in the fact that she faced a similar dilemma. And a sadistic pleasure in watching her wriggle with the flirtatious numbness brought a grin to his face. The gush of a possible million actions kept him exceedingly calm. He was the wick of a candle that had been burning for ages, which now, was no match to the stormy wind.And the calmness was just a masquerade for the flickering that would soon give way to the eventual darkness.

He fixated his gaze upon her, while feigning a false smile to the many curious faces around, oblivious to the chaotic ramblings of the two they accompanied.He noticed her rolling eyes and pressing of lips, a sense of urgency as if trying to bring a wildly swinging pendulum to an abrupt halt but unable to decipher which way its meant to be stopped. The twitch of her eyebrows convinced him that reality, as he wanted it, as she hoped it, lay thousand miles beyond the horizon.