Chapter 38 - Page Two
Kristyon
When you spend ten of your lives running from the gruesome possibility of being annihilated, you have two choices.
One: you keep running.
Or two (my favourite): treat every life like a chapter from an exquisite book.
The first page tells pretty much the same story with more or less seasoning, depending on the author’s mood.
Sometimes, you have to scrap a page and start redrafting because some characters may need a push, or be stopped before their adventure becomes a tragedy.
But what happens on page two makes the story worth reading to the end.
Again.
“It pains me to admit that I may have underestimated the distance from you two and my first-row seat up there.” I wave a finger at the treetop while my brooding brother pulls me up.
The hand I slammed on the ground when I landed hurts, but I keep a perfectly stoic, straight face.
“What happened to stay hidden until I say so?” Galen hisses in my ear before letting me go to theatrically massage his temples. “The death of me…” he mumbles.
I flash him a smile, poking his arm. “I was, brotherling. And—if it weren’t for my athletic entrance, you two would probably still be trying to resolve the mystery of the Century.” I bow and graciously tip my invisible hat at them. “Moi.”
“I wouldn’t call that athletic. Your hand is bleeding, and your hair is a mess.”
Her voice strikes me like a perfectly shaped thunder, turning my performance into a rough piece of glass.
“Ouch, your words slash my ego worse than the stones in my skin.” I press a hand to my heart, wincing when the debris indeed hurts my palm.
After our brief meeting last night, when she was nearly blind due to Mack’s mad genius, I can finally look in the eyes of my beautiful, dangerous destiny.
“I couldn’t be asking for a more perfect end.” I extend my clean hand.
“Are you sure you two are brothers?” July ignores my offer and turns to Galen with such a familiarity I’d throw my brother in Mack’s artificial lake if we were standing closer to it.
“I’m afraid so.”
“And I’m still here trying to salvage what’s left of my reputation.” I wriggle my finger in the air.
“You’ve never had one. Stop being a clown and be grateful you still have enough breath to annoy me.” Galen smacks me on the head.
But my attention is already somewhere else.
July approaches me with her hands behind her back, and I don’t dare move a muscle. Not even when her face is inches from mine.
Her eyes narrow. “I understand we could help each other. But your bloodline hasn’t struck me as worthy of my trust recently.”
I swallow and take two steps back, cutting Galen a glare. “About that…What happened to ‘let’s wait until July is ready’? You’ve nearly told her everything while I was pretending to be a fat duckling waiting for his mother to come back, and left nothing for me to say in a more captivating way.”
“Ducks don’t nest in trees,” Galen states, crossing his arms.
“And metaphors don’t yield to the mundane rules of logic,” I retort.
He sighs, pinching his nose like I’ve seen him doing every time he’s stressed. Or uncomfortable. But I can’t help but smirk contentedly when July hides a note of amusement, biting her lower lip.
“Let’s just say that our planned arrangements encountered some obstacles.” Galen sounds unbothered, but the quick, meaningful look he shares with July tells me that’s not even a quarter of the story.
“What are you not saying? Spit it out.”
A pair of bare feet appears under my eyes as I brush off soil and grass from my trousers. Her toes wiggle as she clears her throat as if trying to get my attention. As if that’s even necessary…
When I look up, July stands before me, hands on her hips. “Galen loves keeping secrets lately. So, get in the queue, Kris. Although I’m glad to see I’m not the only one fighting to pull threads of truth from his mouth.”
“You say it so perfectly,” I smile like an idiot—and proudly so.
“Pardon me?” She tilts her head.
My name.
I scratch my head, plastering a silly smile on my face. “I mean, describing Galen’s idiotic way of believing cryptic is a synonym for enchanting.”
She pouts, studying me in a way that makes me feel naked. “Right…a bit like those people who use big words to mask their real thoughts.”
I open my mouth. Close it. Reopen it, letting out a sound between a gasp and a yelp.
“Enough, you two,” Galen snaps, coming closer and ignoring me as he halts between July and me.
“Sof, can I have a word with my brother, please?”
She gets on her tiptoes and surveys me from over Galen’s shoulder with her mouth slightly pinched and her hands still on her hips.
My silly smile doesn’t falter, and I double down with a click of my tongue and by mimicking a gun with two of my fingers, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t kill me before you can have your chance.”
Galen’s eyes widen, and he opens his mouth, but July pushes him out of the way. “Fine. But if I suspect that you two are out here discussing more secrets…”
She spins on her heel and stalks away, then stops. Her hair shines like dark vinyl under the sun as she tosses it to one side and adds without turning, “What Roden asked of me is cruel and wrong.”
She pauses as if to find the right words, peering over her shoulder. “But I don’t know you. When mine and Galen’s happiness is at stake, everyone can become my enemy…”
I clench at the fabric of my shirt, as if struck by an invisible bullet, and she fights back a smile before scoffing and walking away, in time to miss the true pain caused by that bullet as it spreads across my face.
“What were you thinking?” Galen snaps the moment July disappears inside the building.
“I could ask you the same, brotherling. What’s up with the charming voice and the sideways looks? Don’t you think I didn’t notice it?” I stab the space above me with a finger.
Galen shakes his head, grunting. “You don’t understand. And stop calling me that! I’m older than you.”
“Seconds older. But I’ve dodged death more often. That makes me more experienced. Besides…”
He studies my face, his gaze serious, as if sensing the tone of what I’m about to say.
“She’s starting to remember without Tabitha’s help. I’ve heard what she said about the lake. That can only mean our souls have already recognised each other.” My voice softens
We’re so close I can see the silver specks in Galen’s eye shimmering, his pupils dilating.
His nostrils flare when he says through his teeth, “And you thought it was okay to force her memories to the surface by making a grand appearance?”
A shiver runs down my spine. We’ve been apart before, but this is the first time I have to remember he’s not a stranger. My fingers itch, imploring me to slap that unfamiliar expression off his face. “You’re overstepping,” I warn him.
“You should thank me— ” His voice is so low I can barely hear him.
Galen’s muscles twitch when I stab his chest with my finger. “Don’t pretend you were doing it for me. You told her you begged her to let me live. For fuck’s sake, Galen. Why did you lie?” The words are out before I can think.
His jaw clenches so tight I fear it may break as he growls, “You don’t have the right to tell me what to do. Besides, there is a chance she may not listen to anyone this time but herself…”
I can’t hold back a bitter laugh. “Well, her last words surely weren’t what I wanted to hear.
Worst case scenario, she’d run away, leaving us all in a giant pile of Oops and Oh, shit!
And, if she decides not to help me cure the Reds, I will keep doing it my way. Until my soul runs out…and fuck Roden!”
Galen shakes his head. His hair, falling over his eyes, cannot hide the regret spreading across his face.
“Roden promised her freedom. Our freedom. And, in exchange, he will wipe her mind clean of all we’ve been through together.
I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask for things to change. It—happened.”
As if wanting to miss my reaction, he pulls his hair back, turns away from me and stares at the sky. “She will forget me—and I don’t think I’m okay with that…”
The breeze is like a gentle observer. It cradles a smell that belongs to the sea, not an artificial lake, and the sounds of distant seagulls.
“You love her…” My words join the choir of gulls.
Galen’s head drops, and the echo of my words showers over me like an unexpected ice-cold rain on a sizzling day. I don’t need to search for the truth on his face. His body is screaming it. The twitch of his fingers, the slight shaking of his shoulders.
“I should’ve listened to Eve and let the Chapter erase every memory July had of me. They could have picked someone else to train her, to guide her. I could have left that damn island and stayed here with all of you. Working on a plan, fighting with you. Maybe things would have gone differently.”
For how long did he hide this pain? I grab his left shoulder and force him to look at me. His eyes, so different from mine yet equally determined, are full of desperation and rage.
“And then what? Let her become Roden’s perfect cub. Breathing only to fight against us, the bad people, with the sole purpose of cutting open our chests and crushing our souls?”
My words bounce off him. I study his face, the shadow of an old bruise under one eye and a light stubble on his chin. But nothing moves.
“You’ve said it yourself. Things change, and you can only keep living and make the best of what’s to come.” I ruffle his curls.
His lips quirk and he sighs. “I didn’t mean to…But we spent so much time together, and she is so…”
“Addictive?” I smirk. “Yeah, I heard that too and cringed on your behalf.”
“I’m sorry.”
One moment, I’m talking to my brother, the man he’s become. And the next, I see him running in the field, chasing after me, during one of his secret visits to Horigos, with Eve always by his side.