by Rue Volley
“Great,” he muttered.
The figure waited and then started to move towards him. What kind of trick was he about to face this time? He had already refused to kill his father, and one lover from the past…it needs to be something more. He looked up and the figure stopped.
“Oh perfect,” Josh said as he grinned.
Elin stood there and smiled at him.
“Elin, I do not wish to fight you.”
Elin grinned and tilted her head.
“I would think that you would want to do something different with me.”
Josh shook his head at her and stood his ground.
His heart was still beating hard from the vision of Rue.
“Josh, you look lonely,” Elin said as she placed her finger to her lip and ran it across slowly.
“You are not real,” Josh said as he looked at the sky.
Elin slid her sheer dress off and stood there staring at him. The ground started to vibrate and suddenly they were standing in the forest, by the lake. The ground looked soft and the air smelled sweet as honey. Josh glanced at her and Elin laughed.
“I know that you are not disgusted by me.”
Josh placed his blades on the ground and stood back up.
“No… you redeemed yourself, when you attempted to help us,” Josh said.
Elin flashed to him and stepped behind him. She touched his back and he closed his eyes. Her fingers caused a vibration to run the length of his body. Josh envisioned Rue’s face in his mind. His breath staggered for a moment.
Elin leaned up to his ear and whispered.
“Tell me that you want me.”
Josh shook his head and stepped forward, letting her hands fall from his back.
He turned to look at her. Her body looked amazing, making his hands tingle.
“No, I do not,” Josh said as he looked away from her.
Elin walked to him slowly, rubbing her fingers across her breasts.
Josh glanced at her and clinched his fists.
“You are a Lord, Joshua. You can have anything you desire, anyone you desire… as many in your bed as you desire.”
“I only want one,” he muttered.
“Oh, tell me that you are not limiting yourself… Tell me that you will allow me to…”
Josh grabbed Elin’s hand as it wandered towards his ‘you know’.
“Stop,” he said.
Elin stepped back from him and laughed.
“You waste your talent on this thing, this joke they refer to as ‘love’. You know how the blade makes you feel. It causes your heart to pound in your chest; your blood to boil. Every time you kill you want to lay someone down and do terrible things to them. I am here for you to relieve yourself of this want.”
Josh looked at her and felt his chest start to hurt; his hands felt numb… his mind wandering.
“Let me show you that your heart is your own, no one owns it.”
Josh closed his eyes and felt the wind gently graze his face. He wanted to lay her down; she was familiar to him… in so many ways. He heard a whispering on the wind… Rue’s voice. He opened his eyes and flashed to his blades, gripping them in his hands. Elin looked at him and shook her head.
“So foolish… so weak,” she muttered.
“You, I do not want… I want Rue Volley,” he screamed at the sky.
Elin faded as she laughed.
Josh fell to knees and looked at his blades. Orange chaotically swirled on the metal.
He let his head fall forward and whispered.
“Rue.”
***
I opened my eyes; I swear I heard my name. I sat up and looked around my room. No one. I ran my hand through my hair and then felt my chest. My heart was beating so hard. Why?
I placed my hands on my face and held them there for a moment. Sometimes I feel like I am going crazy… funny that I would just now realize that. Maybe me finally thinking that I was, means that I am not. Maybe it was just a memory glitch. I had to start to remember something, anything. Who just called out my name? Was it a dream, or something more?
I looked up as my door opened and my new buddy stepped into the room. He had a rolling tray with him. I looked at him and at the tray. I hoped it wasn’t a needle thing. He stopped it next to my bed and I saw a silver cover. Great… this is food. He smiled at me and popped the cover off. It was a plate of vegetables. Am I a vegetarian?
He waved his hand over the plate, like he was presenting something amazing to me. I shifted in the bed and leaned against the backboard. He pulled the white napkin from his arm and tucked it on the top of my asylum shirt. I looked away as I felt his fingers barely touch the skin on my neck.
He pulled up a chair and rolled it over me. I looked at the tray and bit my lip.
I was hungry. I really was, didn’t know if it was for cauliflower, but it would have to do.
“So… you like?” he asked me.
I glanced at him and looked for a utensil to stab at my vegetable feast. He pulled out a fork and started to hand it to me. I tried to take it from him, but he hesitated, then he let me have it.
“You are not supposed to have anything that could be used as a weapon.”
I looked at the fork and grinned.
“Oh, I promise that I won’t try to fork you to death,” I said.
He smiled and leaned back in the chair.
“I believe you,” he said.
I grinned and stabbed my first victim on my plate and put it in my mouth. It didn’t taste like anything. I chewed, with a sour look on my face. I grabbed my plastic cup and drank, washing it down.
“You don’t like it?” he asked me.
I cleared my throat as I choked the last bit down.
“No… it isn’t that. I seem to have no taste,” I muttered.
“Oh… it is probably the meds. I’ll talk to the doctor and have them mix it up for you.”
I tried to smile. I wanted to eat… but it all tasted like nothing.
I looked at him and laid the fork down on my plate.
“How long did I sleep this time?” I asked him.
“Oh...” he looked at his watch. “About four hours,” he said.
I cleared my throat and shifted on the bed.
“I am sick of sleeping all the time,” I said.
He tilted his head at me.
“What?” I asked him. He smiled.
“Oh, it’s just you… The stories are so different about you, than what I see.”
I looked towards the window. It looked like summer outside. Where did the winter go?
“What stories would those be?” I asked him.
“Well, according to the staff, you are kind of a ‘punishment’ for interns, or a prize for the new guy.” He pointed to himself and I smiled.
“So, you won me because you are new,” I said.
“I think I did win,” he said.
I didn’t know how to take that. I really didn’t. I mean, he can’t possibly like me. I am a patient, someone who is considered crazy by the world. I rubbed my hands and looked at them. They looked pale, like the life was sucked out of them.
“What are you thinking about, Rue?” he asked me.
I looked up at him and shrugged my shoulders. He looked at my hands and leaned forward. He placed his hand on mine and flipped it over in his. He ran his finger across the long line in my hand and smiled at me.
“You have a long life… full of adventure,” he said.
I looked at my hand and then up at him.
“How do you know?”
He kept my hand in his and looked at me.
“My grandmother taught me how to read palms; it’s just something that I like to do.”
“And you see a ‘long life’ in mine?” I asked him.
He looked back at my hand and grinned. He gently ran his finger along the lines and I swallowed. It seemed like forever since anyone touched me. I think.
“I see a long life… children. You see this second line...? R
ight here?”
I leaned forward and looked. I did have two lines running deep in my palm.
“What is that?” I asked him.
“Well, you walk between two plains; you can see things that many cannot,” he said.
I looked up and his face was right in mine. I looked at his lips and he cleared his throat and leaned back, letting my hand go. I cleared my throat and rubbed my fingers across my palm.
“Like ghosts?” I asked him.
He smiled and stood up as he rubbed his hand through his hair.
“Well, if you believe in that kind of thing.”
I tapped my head and grinned at him.
“I have no memory. I don’t know what I believe in,” I said as I grinned.
“Well,” he said as he stepped towards the window and stared out. “Sometimes memories are over rated.” He looked back at me. “Sometimes you just have to create new ones.”
I thought about that. Maybe he was right. I could spend the rest of my life trying to remember the past, not living in the present. I grinned and rubbed my palm.
“Okay, listen… you eat. Don’t tell anyone that I gave you a fork and I will take you to the atrium today, deal?” he asked me.
I looked at my plate and wished that it tasted liked it smelled.
Why the hell could I smell it and not taste it? That was a huge pain in the ass.
I smiled as I looked up at him.
“Deal,” I said.
He nodded and walked to the door.
I looked at him. He was… what was he? Oh yea, my handler. Gotta remember that.
“Hey, what is your name?” I asked him.
He turned back to me and smiled.
“I already told you, Rue… It’s Blake.”
I blinked and felt a little pain in my temple. I tried to grin as I nodded. I tapped my head again. “Sorry… I forgot,” I said.
He smiled and walked out the door.
***
Sara woke up and her eyes went wide as she realized she was sleeping on Jonah. They must have all fallen asleep on the couch together. Theo had put in a movie, then another… then another. The last one did her in. She slowly pulled Jonah’s arm off of her and tried to roll away from him. She dropped to the floor and sucked in her breath as she popped her head up and Jonah was in her face.
“Hello, love,” he whispered.
She scooted back and hit her back on the coffee table, knocking the big popcorn bowl off of it. It clattered to the floor and Jonah sat up and started to laugh.
“You need to settle down. I simply do not wish to eat you,” he said.
Sara grinned and picked the bowl up as she kept an eye on him.
“Don’t be silly, I know that,” she muttered as she scooped popcorn up and placed it in the bowl. She looked around the room and realized that they were alone.
Jonah looked around too.
“Yes, we are the only ones who stayed for the marathon,” he said.
Sara cleared her throat.
“I appreciate the fact that you let me sleep… on the couch I mean.”
“Where would I expect you to go?” he asked her.
Sara shrugged her shoulders and walked towards the kitchen, bowl in hand. She dumped the popcorn in the trashcan and peeked back in the living room. Jonah waved his fingers at her and she popped her head back and held the bowl in her hand. She walked it to the sink and ran some water in it. She yelped when she turned around and Jonah was right behind her.
“Oh crap,” she said as she touched her heart and Jonah looked at her.
“You are a jumpy little thing,” he said as he tilted his head.
Sara rubbed her neck and gave a nervous grin.
“I’m sorry. I just didn’t even hear you come in here.”
Jonah shook his head and took a chair at the table. He flipped it around and straddled it.
“Well, I apologize, love… I am a hunter,” he said.
Sara sighed and sat down at the table across from him. She looked at her hands.
Jonah watched her curiously.
“Why don’t you allow Theodore to take your memory?” Jonah said.
Sara looked up at him and shrugged her shoulders.
“I just… I want to know what I did,” she muttered.
“Curious… I would assume that it is a human trait, to torture yourself in this way.”
Sara looked around the room and let her eyes settle on Jonah. He is beyond pretty really, too bad he is a cannibal… oh and the sister thingy. Otherwise Sara would just love to hang out with him. What girl wouldn’t?
Doesn’t help that he has a British accent… God, she thought.
“I deserve what I feel,” she said all small and timid.
“Oh please,” Jonah said as he stood up and waved his hand around the room. “I swear the human heart is the most confusing thing. Not to mention tasty.”
“That is gross,” Sara said as she stared at him.
“Oh I agree...! The fact that you all walk around worrying about what did happen and not thinking about today and tomorrow… it is beyond me.”
Sara leaned back in her chair.
“No…the ‘tasty’ thing,” she said.
“Oh… that was a reformed cannibal’s attempt at a ‘joke’… I fear that it did not go over well with you.”
Sara grinned as she looked down.
She did not want to laugh, but it was funny in a morbid-kind of way.
“Oh… yea, well no… I guess it was a funny thing to say. I can tell you that I don’t know anyone else who could make those kind of jokes and mean it.”
Jonah sat back down and grabbed a piece of fruit from the basket.
He bit into it and started to chew. He looked at it and “Mmm’d.”
Sara smiled at him. “Thank you.”
Jonah stopped chewing.
“For what, love?”
“For not eating me last night.”
Jonah laughed and pointed his finger at her.
“Oh, I see… You are a saucy girl; I like you.”
“Well, I have my moments I guess.”
Jonah threw the eaten core over his shoulder and hit the trashcan. Of course he would. He might have been awful at tracking, but he could hit the target. Sara stared at him for a moment and he relaxed. To have a human tell him thank you and to enjoy it, was a new yet foreign thing for him to experience.
“Curious,” he whispered.
“What?” Sara asked him.
“I think that I just felt ‘compassion’,” Jonah said as he grinned.
“See… I am good for something, other than dinner,” Sara said as she laughed.
***
Josh lay back on the ground and spread his arms out. His want to see her was overwhelming. He knew if he focused hard enough he could draw himself to her again. Black rings started to pulsate under him. He drew in his breath and focused on her face, her beating heart.
He slowed his breathing and opened his eyes. Small sparks of blue light started to float down on him. He sucked in his breath as the first spark touched his lips and absorbed into him. It caused his heart to flutter his chest. He reached up as Rue’s image started to materialize over him. He placed his hand on her face and tried to touch her, but it turned into mist under his fingertips.
“Damn it,” he muttered to himself.
Perhaps this place was trying to draw his power, his will. He knew he still longed to be with her, so why? He closed his eyes and opened them up quickly when he heard a voice. He sat up and looked around.
“Who is there?” he asked.
He heard laughter. He grabbed his blades and stood up.
He turned in a full circle, scanning the forest. No one. He heard laughter again.
“Who are you!” he yelled.
“Oh shut up.” He heard behind him.
He gripped his blades and turned slowly, as he recognized the voice.
Johnathan stood there in his white battle gear, gripping his blades.
“Of course it would be you,” Josh muttered as he stared at him.
“Yea, you dick,” Johnathan said as he grinned at him.
“You are not real; none of this is real. This is all in my mind.”
Johnathan laughed and started to pace back and forth.
“You keep telling yourself that,” he said.
Josh straightened his shoulders up.
“I am not going to fight you.”
Johnathan stopped and looked at him.
“You afraid?” he asked him.
Josh bit his lip. “You are kidding right?” he asked.
“You know, Rue has the cutest thing that she does… She sucks her breath in, just as you kiss her mouth.”
Josh closed his eyes and gripped his blades.
“I know what she does,” Josh muttered.
Johnathan stood there and tilted his head.
“I think that she has a hard time controlling herself with me. I mean come on… look at me.” Johnathan said as he pulled his blades out and looked all cocky.
“Please… shut up, you ass,” Josh said as he stared at him.
“No… I think that you should know how she feels about me; I mean I was the first to kiss her… You know, that pretty little mouth that she has.”
Josh sighed and his jaw tightened.
Johnathan walked to a large rock and sat down, flipping his blade in his hand.
“You know, the first time her and I kissed… man. I could have done anything I wanted to her. She was ready to take my clothes off, I swear to god.”
Josh pointed his blade at him.
“I would suggest that you shut up while you can.”
Johnathan laughed and leaned forward.
“You are the most arrogant asshole that I have ever met. I mean, you should thank me for warming her up, otherwise she would be all weird about you touching her.”
“Rue is not a whore,” Josh muttered to him.
Johnathan leaned forward on his knee.
“Are you so sure about that...? I mean come on… first it was me, then Caine… then you. Oh, can’t forget about Blake… she just went all easy with him.”
Josh stepped forward, trying to control his anger. He felt his heart rate jump up in his chest.
“She did not ‘like’ Blake; he took advantage of her,” Josh said as he tilted his blades in his hands.
