Monsters

Chapter Seven

"I don't know," I mumbled, tossing her bag over the fence at her. I climbed over the fence, Luz offering me her hand until my shoe slipped and I fell forward. She caught me as we toppled over and landed in heap beside one another on the ground. I turned my head to look over at her, my hands going to my stomach as I laughed to myself. Luz slowly joined in herself as her walls fell once again.

That's been happening more often lately and it always makes me happy to see it. She's opening up more to me. I found myself smiling at the thought as I pushed myself up no longer getting pain in my side as my wound had finally healed over time. "I'm being serious though, Amity. If you could ask me any question that I had to answer, what would it be?" I sighed, rolling my eyes before getting up fully and offering her my hand.

I saw her hesitate for just a moment before she grabbed my offered hand and I pulled her up. Brushing myself off I bent down to pick up Luz's bat before continuing on our previous path heading for the road. "Why are you so adamant on this? I told you we can take our time opening up. We have a long trip ahead of us anyway so we'll have plenty of time to ask questions." As I said this my mind went to the destination I had in mind. It was my family's lodge near the coast we used to take trips to. I remember how fun it was to go there during summer breaks. How peaceful it had felt to get away; my siblings and me from school and my parents from work.

"I know. It's just that we've been traveling with each other for two weeks now and we barely scratched the surface of knowing each other." She explained while attempting to balance herself on the curb as we walked alongside the main road of the neighborhood. I watched her as she jumped off and went to walk beside me.

"How about this; I get to ask you a question only if you get to ask me one in return." I offered, placing my hands to grip both ends of the bat and moving it to lay against the back of my neck. My eyes wandered to the ground as I began to kick at the rocks scattered about on the road. Looking back up I watched as Luz went to stand in front of me, facing me while also walking backward. I raised a brow at her actions and scoffed at the goofy smile she gave me in return.

"Deal." She said this in a giddy tone and I took one of my hands from the bat to shove her shoulder before returning it to where it was formerly gripping the bat. "Do you want to go first or shall I?" She asked me before doing a spin and going back to face me.

"You're going to fall if you keep that up," I warned teasingly before thinking for a moment. "Well, I've got nothing coming to mind at the moment so you can ask first," I said before watching her stumble back almost tripping over a discarded bike. I laughed at her as she looked at me embarrassed before falling back to walk in line beside me. "Told you." I went on to tease her further and watched as she waved me off though I caught her trying to hide a smile.

"I've been meaning to ask you this for a while but I didn't know when the right time would be or if it was even my place to ask such." As she said this she refused to meet my eyes. "I didn't want to upset you or make you feel uncomfortable. So if you do end up feeling that way you don't have to answer okay?" Looking back at me she awaited my answer before she said anything else.

"Alright, now I'm really curious to know what you're going to ask." The sound of a growl caught my attention and I took the bat from behind me. Before I could do anything though Luz took the bat from me and took care of the monster herself. She waited, looking down at its lifeless body before coming back over to me and returning the bat to my awaiting hands. I had noticed a severe lack of monsters around this neighborhood and it made me curious.

Maybe it was because of the town having a lower population, or maybe survivors took out most of them explaining the number of lifeless monster bodies that littered most of the yards and took up some of the sidewalks. Either way, it was just something I wanted to keep note of that I had also mentioned to Luz. "So..." I began as my eyes found Luz once more. "...about that question?" I reminded her.