Deception. Betrayal. Mistrust.
It seems the closer Rayne gets to the truth, the more she finds herself wanting to run away from it. It's complex and terrifying-more than she ever fathomed.
New family members, good and bad, pop out at her like a br...
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𝗔s the moon began its final ascend into the sky, and the star's luminescence beamed at her like a handful of warm smiles, Rayne felt an odd amount of joy inhabit her body. Almost as if the feeling was as foreign as an extraterrestrial. But with her toes dipped in sand, her ankles damp with lapping waves, and her hand sitting in her future husband's, the fictitiousness of it all sat peacefully on her shoulders.
Another day passed. Another moon cycle, another twenty-four hours, another checked-off calendar day, and nothing had changed. No new funerals to plan. No hospital visit. Every person she cared about fell asleep another night in their home. And it was something she took for granted until her friends were slowly picked off, one by one—it was a luxury.
"What's going on in that pretty head of yours?" Rueben asked, returning her to the beach.
Rayne tore her eyes away from the uneven feeling of warm and cool sand beneath her feet and bore up from under her curtain of auburn hair. She caught a glimpse of Rueben's sharp-cut emerald eyes, and life breathed into her. The more she looked, the more she fell down her rabbit hole. The more his dark eyelashes brushed the barrier of his nose, creating the dream-like path from it, to his perfectly full, beautiful cherry lips, the more she eased into him.
Hair as white as snow tickled her cheek as Rueben faked going in for a kiss, and instead used the momentum of his lean to bump their shoulders and push them apart. Her laugh fluttered through the wind as if it were energetic air itself as he spun her into his body.
His arm wrapped around her torso as her back molted itself into his chest, and locked her place. His chin found its resting place in the dip of her shoulder and the slope of her neck.
"Are you just going to leave me hanging?" he teased.
"Maybe," she smiled, biting on the edge of her lip.
Rayne tucked her chin into her neck, attempting and failing to drive Rueben's ticklish kisses and nibbles away from her sensitive skin. The warm breeze met her halfway as she giggled under the iridescent planet haloing above her, and hugged their bodies as if it were warm sweaters gifted amongst a sea of friends sitting before a decorated, green tree.
There was nowhere else she would rather be than here with her loved ones.
The sentiment was so monumental—so grasping—that she felt if she moved an inch, she'd die.
"I'm just thinking about how thankful I am that everyone is safe and happy," she blinked at the waves, at the stars twinkling in its reflection, "We lost a lot of people to get here, but there's still so many of us left, that I can't help but feel like it's a gift. That life itself is a gift we take for granted."
"Mm," Rueben hummed against her throat, slightly swaying their bodies, "You're so adorable."
