by Rue Volley
“I know… you started reading when you were three,” he said.
“Really?” I asked him.
“Yea… you are smart, Rue; you always have been. Smarter than me, so I followed you,” he said.
“No… you’re smart; you have killed a million zombies. I don’t even know how to use the controller,” I said, as I felt a little better.
My stomach started to ease up, and I sighed.
Kai laughed and put his feet up on the swing, as it continued to move slowly.
“That is why I left with you tonight. Not because I really wanted to, but I thought you must have a plan… and besides Josh was an ass.”
I looked at him and shook my head.
“I was an ass,” I said, as I looked at my hands.
“Yeah,” Kai said.
“Oh thanks,” I said, as I looked at him.
“Well, I just agreed… you said it.”
I leaned my head back on the pole and closed my eyes.
“I am feeling better; how about you?” I asked him.
He nodded and looked at me.
“Maybe we should go back,” Kai said.
I shook my head ‘no’.
He sat up and held his hands up to me.
“And why?” he asked me.
I looked at him and bit my lip.
“You can go if you want to. I know that you want to be with Sam… I don’t blame you. I, on the other hand, don’t want to say that I am sorry first,” I said.
Kai leaned back and placed his hands on his face.
“I swear to god… you are both the same,” he said, as he dropped his hands in his lap and looked at me.
“Me and Josh...? No, no we are not,” I said.
“Yea, you are… both just as stubborn and both just as annoying,” he said.
I smiled and stood up.
“Like I said… you can go back, me on the other hand… I am going to sleep in my bed tonight,” I said.
“Alright then,” Kai said, as he stood up and stretched out his arms.
I walked to the front door and started to turn the handle.
He stepped up behind me ready to follow.
“Kai, seriously… you can go. I will be fine,” I said.
He grinned and pushed the door open.
“Right… get in there, you brat,” he said.
I grinned and walked into a dark house that had all the familiar smells of home.
I flipped on the light and stood there staring at the living room that I knew so well. I almost started to cry as I scanned the room. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I stepped in. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
Kai tapped me on the shoulder.
“I missed it too,” he said, as he smiled at me.
“I know that we shouldn’t be here… We better try to cast a protection spell or something.”
Kai smiled.
“I can totally do that,” he said.
I placed my hand on my hip and grinned at him.
“When did you learn that?” I asked him.
“When you were relaxing in memory,” he said, as he nudged me.
“Oh yea… I was totally on a vacation, Kai… it rocked,” I said.
He laughed and placed his hands out in front of him. I stared at him, as a light started to glow in his palms. He leaned his head forward and peeked over at me.
“You might want to step back,” he said.
I did… god knows what is gonna happen.
Kai started to speak in Latin, and I tilted my head.
When the hell did he learn Latin?
He started to breath slowly, as the words just flowed from him like it was natural. I won’t lie… I was shocked. I mean, I didn’t think that Kai is stupid at all… but Latin? Come on.
A light flashed from his hands, as color swirled towards the ceiling. I watched it roll like waves out from him, and it started to settle on everything around us, making it shimmer and then it started to fade. I watched without saying a word. I mean if it was going to be successful, the last thing that I want to do is interrupt him and then fight off some freak in the middle of the night. Kai dropped his hands and looked over at me as he grinned.
“That oughta do it,” he said.
I shook my head and smiled.
“I won’t lie… I am impressed,” I said.
He shrugged his shoulders and plopped down on the couch like it never happened.
I stared at him and smiled; then I glanced at the stairs.
“I think that I am going to bed,” I said.
He nodded and flipped on the T.V. For some strange reason, I felt like he was going to stay on the couch like a guard dog until morning. I looked at him and sighed.
“Are you going to bed?” I asked him.
He peeked at me and shook his head.
“I am going to kill zombies,” he said.
I laughed and ran over to him. I dropped down and hugged him. He didn’t act like it bothered him… new for us, I guess. The only hugs I can remember being all girlie are the ones that followed me returning from one of my unexpected journeys to god knows where. I leaned back and looked at his face.
“I love you, Kai,” I said to him.
“You should… go to bed,” he said to me.
I grinned and messed with his hair, and he ‘hey’d’ me like it mattered.
“Okay… see ya in the morning,” I said.
“Uh huh,” he said, as I looked back, and he was already killing zombies on the screen.
I grinned and started to walk up the stairs.
I stepped into my hallway and looked down it towards my parent’s dark room. I remembered Josh taking that room. He never even asked how I felt about it, but that is so him. I shook my head and walked to my door that happened to be closed. I placed my hand on the doorknob and opened it up. The door creaked to a stop, and I scanned the room. My room, in my house… oh, this was heaven. I ran in and jumped on my bed and rolled on my back. I grinned when I saw the constellations glowing in the dark over me. I tilted my head and started to name them off one by one. “Orion, Scorpio, Leo… Virgo… milky.”
I stopped. I placed my hands on my chest and sighed.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” I whispered.
“Nothing at all,” I heard as a reply.
I sat up quickly and there he was.
Johnathan was sitting at my vanity, like a vision from hell.
I grabbed my chest and sucked in my breath.
“Holy crap,” I said.
A girl stepped out of my bathroom, and I looked at her.
I didn’t recognize her at first because it was so dark, but then I did. It was Lizzy.
“Lizzy?” I asked her.
She smiled and looked at Johnathan.
“Okay… okay, I must have fallen asleep and this is a dream, right?” I asked myself.
Lizzy walked to my bedside and looked at me with the same soft look she had before in the tent.
“No… we are here,” she said, as she looked over at Johnathan.
“At least for a moment,” she added.
I closed my eyes tight and shook my head.
“I am only dreaming… only dreaming… only… holy crap!” I said, as I felt a hand on my arm, and I looked up to see Johnathan smiling down at me.
“I am really here,” he said to me.
I instantly started to cry.
I lunged at him and hugged him full throttle like it would be the last time.
“Oh my god… Johnathan… how?” I asked him.
He pulled me back from him and placed his hand on my face.
“You sooooooo don’t want to know,” he said to me.
Lizzy sat down on my bed and looked at me.
“So, you okay?” she asked me.
I sucked in my breath and shook my head ‘yes’. Truth was I was on the verge of a panic attack. I really was. I looked back at Johnathan and shook my head at him.
“You are dead,” I s
aid.
Johnathan grinned.
“Well, kinda yea,” he said to me.
I pulled back and moved to my headboard.
“And you,” I said, as I pointed my finger at Lizzy. “Are dead too,” I said.
She nodded and looked at Johnathan.
“We are both ‘living challenged’ at the moment,” she said.
Johnathan laughed, and I looked at him.
“So… not funny… what is that...? Some PC version of ‘dead’?” I said to him.
“Oh, I find it hilarious,” Johnathan said, as he grinned.
“Johnathan, this isn’t a joke… We all watched you sink into memory in the woods...after you got ummm,” I said, not really wanting to expand on the details of his untimely demise.
“Stabbed… yea, that was freakin’ awesome,” Johnathan said.
I sat there and started to fidget with my hands.
Johnathan leaned up and placed his cold hands on mine, and I stopped and looked up at him.
“I am so sorry. If I would have felt her coming, you wouldn’t be all ‘challenged’ right now,” I said, trying to sound nice about his dilemma…but it came out sarcastic.
Lizzy laughed and stood up, staring up at my ceiling.
“Nice constellation,” she said.
I looked up and shook my head at the cheap glow in the dark plastic stars staring down at us.
“I soooo shouldn’t even be here,” I said.
She looked at me and grinned.
“Well, I am glad that you are… We have wasted enough energy coming here. Johnathan kept saying that you would be here.”
I looked at Johnathan and tilted my head at him.
“Why would you think that I would be here...? I mean we were all at the carnival,” I said to him.
Johnathan shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know… You never do what other people expect you to do and coming here wouldn’t make any sense… So, I thought you would.”
I crinkled my eyebrows.
“Oh thanks,” I said to him.
He laughed and looked at Lizzy.
“Rue likes to do everything backwards,” he said.
I pushed myself from the bed and placed my hands on my hips and stared at the two of them. I had a moment where I felt like I needed to defend myself to this revelation, and then I suddenly realized that he was right. I relaxed my arms and shook my head.
“OMG… I said the most awful things to Josh,” I muttered.
Johnathan leaned forward and grinned.
“Tell me,” he said.
I looked at him and tilted my head.
“Well, I uh… I kinda told him that I wished that we had buried him and not you,” I said…and it felt like bile as I said it.
I mean what a terrible thing to say to him… God!
Johnathan laughed.
“Oh shit! That is rough,” he said as he continued to laugh about it.
“It is so not funny,” I said.
Johnathan covered his mouth and shook his head.
He kept giggling, and I had to intervene.
“Not funny,” I reiterated.
He shook his head yes.
“Well, Theo is ummm… well he ah,” I started to say.
Lizzy stepped up and smiled.
“Theo is doing Jonah,” she said.
Johnathan looked at me and grinned.
“Wow, okay,” he said.
I nodded and looked at Lizzy.
“Ummm, well Theo kinda bonded with Jonah and gave him memory, so then we all started feeling sick,” I said.
Johnathan looked at me and tilted his head.
“K...? Ummm.”
I decided to get off the subject.
“No… I just, I gotta go and say I’m sorry,” I said, as I started to move towards the door.
Johnathan moved to me quicker than I would have expected a half-dead person would. He touched my arm and looked at me.
“Rue, please. Josh is a big boy… let him put his big boy pants on and settle on the fact that you care about me too,” he said.
I looked at him and crinkled my eyebrows.
“Johnathan, I do love you. I do… but Josh is a… well, he is umm.”
I couldn’t find any words that would explain the fact that Josh and I had done things, you know… stuff. Johnathan tilted his head at me and let go of my arm.
“What the hell did he do to you?” he asked me.
I shook my head at him and nervously grinned. I guess that telling Johnathan that Josh and I had done things, the same things that I once wanted so badly to do with him… was harder to say than I thought it would be.
“Nothing… other than piss me off… I just, I love him ya know?” I said.
Lizzy rolled her eyes and tapped Johnathan on the side.
“They did it,” she said.
I looked at her and did the biggest ‘I am disgusted’ look that I could.
“No...! Oh god, no... Why would you even say something like that...? I mean, no… absolutely not,” I said, sounding like such a freakin’ liar… you know like the liar that I am right now.
Johnathan looked at me and crossed his arms.
“Uh huh,” he said to me.
I raised my hands in the air and pulled out my old standby… you know the one. The one that we all use when a parent has you trapped and you have to go all drama to get out of it super quick.
“I am so pissed that you would think that… I mean, what kind of person do you think I am?” I asked him, feeling like a d bag.
Johnathan lowered his arms and looked at me, a little taken back that I had flipped the argument so quickly.
“Rue… I am sorry, I never meant to imply… I mean, she said it! Not me!” he said, as he pointed at Lizzy.
I looked at Lizzy, and she wasn’t buying it at all. I HATE the fact that she is psychic. She rolled her eyes and walked to the window and looked out.
“Whatever,” she said, as she stared out the window into the forest.
She turned back to me and grinned.
“I don’t judge; I just call it as I see it,” she said.
I looked at her and just hoped that she wasn’t going to tell Johnathan that she could see everything… She remained silent, thank god. She probably felt my nervousness and in fact could hear my entire crazy conversation in my head.
We all heard noises downstairs and I looked at the two of them.
“Kai is playing video games downstairs… He should be with Sam, but no… he is here with me,” I said to both of them.
“I knew he was here,” Lizzy said.
Johnathan rubbed his neck and looked at her.
“How long do we have this time?” he asked her.
Lizzy walked over to the two of us and shook her head.
“Not long… we gotta find someone soon,” she said to Johnathan, completely leaving me out of the loop.
“Who are we looking for?” I asked her.
Johnathan shook his head and touched my arm.
“It’s no biggie. We gotta go, but I will be back… hopefully tomorrow, okay?” he said to me.
I looked at him, and yes normally I would have fought him on this… I mean, it is so vague, but to tell you the truth, I was just glad that Lizzy didn’t make a point of pushing the last subject. Although, I shouldn’t be embarrassed, but for some reason, I don’t want to tell Johnathan about the ‘you know’ situation with Josh. I just don’t… and yes I did feel like an ass. Now I have an “I’m sorry I said that terrible thing to you” owed to Josh, and an “I am a liar” owed to Johnathan… but Johnathan is dead, or half dead… or ‘living challenged’… oh, for crap sake.
God… Suck equals me.
***
Josh sat in the tent with his head in his hands. The massive headache he did have was fading, and his stomach was starting to calm down. He looked up when Theo walked in looking all dramatic with a cold pack on his head and his hair a mess. Josh shook his head at him and wat
ched him walk to the mirror and lean in, inspecting his face like he was dying.
“Ummm,” Josh said.
Theo turned to him and sighed.
“I would remind you that whatever you have been experiencing is nothing compared to the hell I am enduring to this moment,” Theo said, as theatrically as he could.
“Oh, really?” Josh asked him, as he stood up and balanced himself with one hand on the corner of the bed.
“Really,” Theo said, as he made his way over in a crooked walk and dropped down on the bed and leaned back, making a noise that resembled a girl in distress.
Josh looked down at him and shook his head.
“You have no idea the mess I have right now,” Josh said to him.
He picked up Theo’s legs and swung them onto the bed roughly.
Theo ‘oh’d’ and looked at him.
“What mess are you referring to?” Theo asked.
“Oh, okay… let me catch you up to speed. You do the cannibal freak and then decide to bond and give him memory, great heads up by the way! Then we all go into psycho mode. Rue picks a fight with me. I have no way of not fighting back because I am just as crazy as her, and she leaves… taking Kai with her. Oh, but not until after she lets me know that she wishes that I had been buried instead of Johnathan.”
Theo sat up and shook his head, as he drew in his breath and covered his mouth.
Josh looked at him and shook his head ‘yes’.
“No,” Theo said.
Josh rolled his eyes and raised his hands up in the air.
“Oh, yes… and it gets better. Evidently the palm reader… is dead.”
“Oh my god!” Theo said, as he sat up straight in the bed.
“Who killed her?” he asked.
Josh shook his head at him.
“She hasn’t been alive for a long time, since 1920 or some shit, but of course only Rue saw her, and I don’t even know what she said to her because we were on our way to see you when you jacked everything up.”
“Oh dear,” Theo said, as he pushed himself up.
Josh looked at him and waited for something more than “oh dear” to come out of his mouth.
Theo stopped and placed his hand on his head.
“Okay, listen to me. Find out what you can about this palm reader. Tell Samantha to track down Rue and Kai and get them back here, and please, if it isn’t too much to ask… brew some tea. I simply have the worst pain in my head. Feels like Rome all over again. Ahhh… the parties! They were unbelievable.”
