Soul not Included

Chapter 22

As the only person able to take me home the next morning without arising suspicion from Charlie, Theo borrowed a car and drove me. The driving was done in silence occasional classical music can be heard whispering through the stereo but more than that the lack of thought was the loudest. I haven't felt this way in a while

I thought last weekend was bad with the barrage of hate and self loathing. I hated the silence more. The fact that I'm alive and functioning but my mind felt so dead that all i hoped for was for my body to stay just as still... feeling these things again i really had hoped I'd never have to.

I rubbed my wrist. The lack of scar still bothering me more than it should have. 

Theo seemed equally dead behind the wheel of the car. He hasn't spoken after Grace and Oliver stopped screaming. We weren't allowed to see them. They would be dressed and taught to hunt on animals and even then it might take a year, two years, a decade for them to control themselves enough in front of humans.

I had tried to joke about it. About how now Jasper wouldn't be the weakest in control. How now if there's ever another attack we would have a better offensive team to work with. How 'study' night with Grace was killer... i couldn't mutter a single syllable.

They weren't funny anyway so it's not like anyone was missing out. 

Theo had accepted the situation with as much ease as he possibly could. He blamed himself for Grace and was relieved that at least she hadn't died permanently and he couldn't get mad at Oliver for choosing immortality over his humanity.

Theo shared with me that night that there was something otherworldly about Oliver when Oliver isn't playing the teen child his body currently was. There are moment in time when his age can be seen in the way he walked, talked and presented himself. Sometimes Theo would find Oliver sneering down at the other humans disgusted to be living among them. Other times Oliver would react joyously to horrible events. 

Oliver had lived many lives. He's experienced loss throughout. He's loved and been torn apart from that love many times. Theo thinks that his time when he lived as a faerie in his longest life effected him the most on how he truly is. The side of Oliver he tries to mask the most.

An unsure bubble of laughter had escaped Theo's lips. 'I'm just another lover in his life that he has taken. I'm sure he has stopped getting attached to anyone a long time ago.'

We both sat in the Volvo in front of my house now. Charlie wasn't home. He probably had to go back to work instead of fishing as he usually does. Theo had shut off the car and just sat there. I sat with him not sure if i should leave, invite him in, or stay. 

I haven't gotten a call from Charlie about the accident that Alice and the others made. So i had to make a call to Charlie that night to let him know Oliver hadn't answered and both haven't returned. That's probably what Charlie was dealing with right now. Finding them.

Theo hadn't gotten a call from home either. Grace and Theo had told their mother they would stay with Oliver. Which i knew would pose a problem in the long run of things. Lies are delicate that way. Find one hole in it and the whole thing unravels. I found the hole already.

I tried to focus on how i could possibly cover it if i had to. If anyone would call me out on it. If anyone would dare question it when we would have to hold a funeral for two friends and... a nana. 

I looked down to my hands and then his. I gently grab his. He flinches. 

"Come inside." 

He barely gave me a nod. I took his coat once we entered. He stood by the doorway before deciding to follow behind me to the kitchen.