Project “30” [Beta 2.0] (Mature / Closed)

The man blinked after Danny before shaking his head with a gentle smile, nodding and taking some of the snacks, mainly the crisps. He then looked at Iris, looking more specifically at her eyes. “I never realized how beautiful your eyes were…” he spoke with a small, somewhat warm smile.

Iris raised an eyebrow before rolling her eyes again and putting the box away. “Flattery gets you nowhere, besides, I’ve come to the conclusion that my eyes are darker than most people’s. I don’t remember the last time I saw my reflection, but I do remember looking at my eyes and wondering why the irises look black.”

“No, I find them quite attractive. Well, they’re certainly a bit on the dangerously beautiful side of the spectrum but I like that,” he claimed with a smile before he started heading up with her and back to her room where he sat down, making sure that the snacks wouldn’t find themselves on the bedsheets. That could be bad.

With a gentle sigh, Iris made her way back to her room and locked the door shut before sitting on the bed. “Perhaps after we have watched this, we can talk about the next task? Day three of the project is tomorrow after all.”

The scientist looked at her for a moment before turning away, nodding. “Sure…” if he was being honest with himself, after the ‘breakdown’ she had just earlier, he didn’t want to force her through the hell that’s going to come. He needed to come up with a plan within the night, a way to let her enjoy the Project without exposing her to too much gore.

The woman leaned her head on his shoulder again and sighed as they unpaused the film. Socialising in this way was something she’d heard a lot about from her housemates but not exactly thought to get into herself. Until now, she didn’t see the point of allowing another person into her room let alone watching a movie with them. But it was strangely comforting to have a shoulder to lean on and another heart beat to listen to.

At one point in the movie, when a couple of the characters kissed, Iris visibly turned away out of embarrassment. “Well that’s nice…” ’And rather unsettling considering he’s practically manipulating her.’

The scientist turned to Iris for a moment before reaching to her hair and gently stroking it down slightly. He smiled and then turned back to the screen. “It is… a bit, at least,” he commented, smiling softly. He then turned back to the screen, watching the movie with a bit of a nervous smile, mostly because he felt a bit embarrassed being this close to the woman. “This is comforting… being this close to you, I mean…” he muttered out quietly.

“Don’t make it weird.” Iris muttered in response, slightly leaning into him as if she were enjoying the soft tingling of his fingers in her hair. That’s when she heard the voices. They weren’t the usual ones that she found in her mind, and in fact there was only one voice this time— Aki. She looked up at him slightly, though not enough to make it obvious she was staring, and frowned as she listened to the voice. ‘So he really feels that way about me, huh. Why?’

After a moment the voice stopped and Iris turned back to the movie, closing her eyes with the intent to simply rest them. She didn’t open them again, and the soft breathing that left her nose were the only sound as her body relaxed completely against him.

When Aki felt that Iris was truly sleeping, and somewhat peacefully as well, he smiled and turned off the movie. He dared not move from that spot, letting her stay there while he got out his phone and started looking through his documents. More specifically, the ones he had planned to use for day three and so on. He sighed softly, deleting some of the more gruesome ones and sticking with the more mysterious and grimly kinds as those wouldn’t trigger her as much. At least, that’s how he felt about it. He then closed his eyes and started dozing off as well.

For the first time in a long time, the house was completely silent. That was until a loud scream ripped through the air from Iris’ room. She sat up in cold sweat, lashing out around her as if whatever had happened in her dream was still attacking her in the waking world.

Aki immediately looked at Iris when she screamed up, throwing his arms around her in an attempt to calm her down. “Shh shh… it’s alright Iris, it’s alright…” he spoke softly, patting her back and breathing out gently as he was also a bit surprised by her sudden scream.

Struggling against his hold, Iris panicked and lashed out by smacking about with no real aim. Her breath rattled with every deep inhale and exhale, and her eyes stung fiercely. “Get off me, I don’t want to hurt you!” She managed to get out through her heavy breaths. The nightmare had been the worst she’d encountered so far, and she had no intention of closing her eyes again that night.

The man looked at her with wide eyes, averting his eyes for a moment before practically tackling her down with a hug. “Calm down, calm down… there’s no need to worry. No one can hurt you, and you won’t hurt anyone…”

Iris continued to struggle for a while before eventually calming down, relaxing to a point where she was just gently banging her fist on the mattress. “I’ve never seen a lab in my nightmares before,” her voice croaked as the lump in her throat still stung, “I’ve never been to a lab before. The ceiling lights were so harsh, almost burning, and voices came from every direction talking about experiments and tests. I think I might have been one of the experiments in that scenario.”

The man’s eyes widened for a moment before he shook his head. “That’s nothing you should worry about now, it’s just a nightmare, trust me,” the scientist said, hugging her quite tightly while still being conscious about her lack of warmth. He sighed softly as he continued hugging and comforting her. “It’s alright… everything will be fine, Iris,”

Eventually the woman started to calm down, and she lay there in Aki’s arms with an exasperated expression. “Thank you,” she croaked. “I didn’t expect you’d ever see me like that.” She glanced at the window and couldn’t see the light from outside; she hadn’t even been asleep that long before the nightmares had hit her. “Well I feel gross… I’m going to take a shower.”

The scientist slowly eyed her expression before he nodded gently. “Take your time,” he spoke softly, gently running his fingers through her hair. There was something about her that made his blood run cold. It was a sense, perhaps from his curious side, that had caused him to feel the hot and cold stir inside his body and heart. Without much further thought, he leaned forward and gently kissed Iris on the forehead. “I’m here for you, alright, Iris…?”