He lifted her further onto his lap, taking a deep breath. At least she wasn’t screaming, but that meant he was the farthest away from his comfort zone. The last time he’d tried to comfort a girl was with Lady. And that ended up with someone nearly dead.
He settled for rubbing her back and humming whatever lullaby he could remember softly, but his other arm sort of dangled and moved awkwardly as he struggled to find a spot to put it.
“It’s okay. Just relax.” The words were as much for him as they were for her.
The sound of his humming came in waves, picking up at the deepest and highest notes and missing out everything in between, turning a perfectly innocent sounding song into something out of a horror film. If anything, it was making her feel worse. There was a word to describe it. Distorted.
“Stop.” She begged, the word sounding softer out loud than it had in her head. It was almost an exhale, quiet enough that anyone else walking by wouldn’t be able to hear, but he would be. The person whose name she couldn’t quite seem to get a hold of. The one who she had been grappling against to pull herself free. Him. “Let me go.”
