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Evelyn.

I need to think. About everything. About Luke. About my father.

On our way back to YCKITA, I got a call from my mother hysterical that my father had returned, nearing a damn heart attack. I sighed, and Luke agreed to take me back and calm her down to the best of my abilities.

We were sat in the car, my eyes glued to the window to avoid making eye contact and starting a conversation with him. The last thing I wanted to do was weep to him about my father, or about the fact that I had been grabbed and tied up by men less than an hour ago. I felt weak, not being able to defend myself even at my level of training. My guard was down, and they had gotten the best of me.

Despite me knowing better, I glanced quickly at him.

It was as if I could not recognize Luke anymore.

His hair was no longer kept neatly, but instead falling in front of his face. The dark eye bags under his eyes signaled how little he had been sleeping; if I were to look in a mirror, I am sure mine would match his. His eyes darted in front of him and to the back mirror, a little concerned that maybe we were being followed.

His lips were pursed in a slight, permanent frown.

He caught my eye.

Fuck, I cursed to myself, closing my eyes really quickly in a harsh squint.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked softly, his eyes returned to the road in front of him. There was nothing in front of us but trees and windmills. Not a single other soul in sight.

I scoffed and turned my head back to the window, ignoring his attempt at conversation. There was no other sound than the slight wind passing by the car as he continued to drive.

Luke sighed, "I never meant to hurt you... But this is my life's work-"

"-And my job was mine," I cut in sharply, eliciting another sigh from the man next to me. I knew that he had more he wanted to say, but I could not bring myself to listen anymore. I shut my eyes and tried to sleep for the next hour of the road.

And, exactly as I wished, I slept.

There was not another word until we reached my mother's house.

I slammed the car door shut, reaching into my pocket and fishing out my key set. I kept switching through them until I found the rusty key I had not used in years. It used to be silver, although the edges no looking matched the color.

Inserting the key into the doorknob, I wiggled it twice because it turned open. I paused for a moment, not knowing if this was exactly what I wanted to do.

I stepped in, Luke following suit.

"Mom?" I called out into the house. It looked as though nothing had changed. The halls were still littered with family pictures, worn out furniture and a glass table in the center.

"In here," I determined her call to be from the bedroom, and I absentmindedly reached to my side, forgetting that Luke took my gun a long time ago.

I glanced back at him, my nose turned up in slight disgust to see him already looking at me. His blue eyes were soft and inviting. I quickly glanced away from him, not willing to deal with him.

When we reached the bedroom down the hall, the rustling in the room became more clear to us. I peered in to see my father hurriedly packing clothes in a bag, my mom sitting on the bed and folding some of the clothes.

My father glanced up at me, a look of guilt riddled through his face. He had betrayed me- the world becoming all the more clear in my mind. Betrayal is a conscious choice for cold indifference, to take a personal gain instead of a loss that would have saved the other. What I did was shatter into a million shards as I broke, all the while trying to hold onto him.

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