Legend of The Godkids [Published]

Chapter 29

Luke's eyes opened slowly as a nervous hand shook his body.

"Luke, wake up, I need to talk to you," the person whispered. Luke felt his body being rocked again, harder this time.

"What is it?" he grumbled.

"I can't sleep," the voice whispered again, this time barely audible.

Luke rubbed his eyes to see Cerce standing beside him. Even in the dark, Luke could tell that Cerce was a little embarrassed to be there, although he really didn't get why.

"Why can't you sleep?" Luke muttered sleepily.

"Curtis asked me out!" Cerce blurted without thinking.

Luke sat up. His voice seemed to tense up. "So what did you tell him?"

"He told me that I didn't have to answer him right away." Then Cerce sat down on Luke's giant bed and sighed. "He said that he is going to make me fall in love with him."

"Do you like him?"

Cerce looked away. "I don't know if I do. It is all just confusing now. I don't know who I really like," her voice suddenly became cold, "or if I should even be worrying about that stuff right now."

Luke did not speak. He knew what she was getting at.

A tear rolled down Cerce's cheek. "All this time, the one who killed my parents was right in front of me. She was right there! I spent so long looking for her and she was right there."

Luke quickly wrapped his arms around her and the tears began to flow. He knew that Cerce had been holding back tears all day long. He was glad that she could finally cry a little bit. He couldn't possibly imagine how difficult the past five years had been for her.

Soon after, Cerce was curled up in Luke's arms, slowly recovering from her tears.

"This is just like when we used to have sleep-overs back on Earth," Luke recalled, trying to draw away the conversation from painful memories.

Cerce sniffled and nodded. When she spoke, her voice seemed calmer, and less frantic. "Or when I used to climb through your window at night."

"And we would look through the skylight all night!" Luke said excitedly.

"We were looking for shooting stars!" Cerce remembered. "Although I don't think we ever found one."

They both laughed for a long time. Then Cerce nestled into him more so she was now on his lap.

"But I think I like this Luke a lot better than the Luke from five years ago," she said looking very comfortable.

"You have changed a lot too Cerce."

Cerce looked back at him. "How?"

Their faces were so close he could feel her light and steady breath. Luke blushed and looked away. "Well you know," he paused, trying to find the right words. "You look different."

"Like what?" Cerce said curiously.

Luke blushed hard and began to stumble on his words. Finally, he decided to just blurt it out.

"I think you look really pretty Cerce!" he said much louder than he needed to.

Cerce looked down so she could conceal her smile. He said she was pretty. He said she was pretty! Her heart was racing so fast, but she was absolutely overcome with joy.

Eventually, that excitement came to an end, and Cerce fell asleep in Luke's arms. When Luke determined that it was a safe time, he carefully picked her up and made his way to her room. As Luke walked down the hall, he noticed a girl searching frantically around for something. She looked around the halls, and quietly poked her head in each of the doors before moving on to a different hallway in a frantic sprint.

"Wasn't that Jasmine?" Luke wondered out loud.

Putting that strange event aside, Luke entered Cerce's room and gently placed her in her bed and pulling the covers over her. Just as he was about to leave, he noticed a picture, which had been folded and wrinkled many times over, on her nightstand. Luke immediately identified the young girl and boy in the picture as him and Cerce. It was a picture of Luke and Cerce holding hands in Christmas outfits. Cerce was beaming brightly while Luke's eyes were glued to the floor.

It was the day of Christmas when they were only five years old. As per tradition, the Sky family and the Temple family spent the day at Luke's house to celebrate the holiday. Even Santa Claus himself recognized this ritual as Cerce's presents were even at their house. There were a few years when Cerce's family actually stayed over for Christmas Eve and into Christmas.

It was after all the presents had been opened, and it came time to take a few photos. When Luke was younger, he was actually quite shy, and didn't like taking pictures. Cerce, however, was eager to take a picture with Luke.

Luke was able to hide in the closet just before his mother found the camera to take his picture. He carefully maneuvered his small body behind the clothes hanging down so he was completely camouflaged.

Luke's trick would have worked had it not been Cerce who had shown him the hiding spot in the first place.

"Hurry up Luke! I want to take a picture!" Cerce said with the brightest smile.

Holding hands with a girl was more than enough to embarrass Luke at that age, and with such a face, the picture was taken.

Luke sat down on the bed as he stared at the picture. It was so badly damaged, and Luke knew that Cerce had gone through so much over the past five years. Luke remembered the pain in her voice went she first told him what had happened to her. Cerce had entered Raí Academy so that she could join the police force and get back to Earth.

Luke gently combed Cerce's hair as she slept. How difficult were those years on her? She was suddenly transported to another world, had to watch her parent sacrifice themselves for her, and discovering strange and unknown abilities on her own. Cerce had to fight to survive. It is possible that the picture Luke held in his hand was once her only hope of ever returning home. Luke didn't know that Cerce had been carrying this picture, but it was clear that it was her treasure.

"I hope that one day this will all end and we can return to the way things used to be," Luke whispered to himself.