A Little Death

XV

I get up and get out of bed, Skyler is already up. I can tell because I can already smell breakfast. 

I shower and enter the kitchen. She looks at me, takes out a plate, and places it on the counter. I sit at it and she serves me some pancakes. 

'We need to move, this house has already been attacked twice. We've hidden a lot of bodies too. I know this is sudden, but it's important if we don't want this happening again.'

'So where are we going?'

'Just like that? You don't have a problem with it?'

'I couldn't hate this place more. I was thinking of moving anyway.'

She keeps down the spatula and leans against the counter. 'Joshua, are you sure you want to be involved in all this?'

'Well, I'm unemployed and I love fighting. It's the reason I'm here. I finally feel that adrenaline. I don't plan on working 9 to 5. It's not my thing, even if you weren't a woman and it wasn't incredibly enjoyable to fuck you, I'd help you.'

'Still, I feel like I'm putting you in danger. As much as I'd love to bludgeon you to death with a blunt axe, I don't want anyone else stealing the opportunity of killing you from me.'

I mock gasp, 'You're too kind!' She gives me an annoyed look. 

'Joshua, please. Take this seriously. This isn't a game. In the end, it will be more than just getting to be active more. If you ever decide to stop helping me, the mafia is still gonna make your life hell. It's scary.'

'Skye, you think way too much. I know what I'm doing. And I'm not doing this because I want to help you, I'm doing this for myself, I think I can manage it.' She looks at me with those big gleaming hazel eyes, I can tell what she's thinking. She'd blame it on herself if anything happened to me even though she doesn't admit it. I try to avert my sight but I can't.

'Do whatever you want.' 

'Come onn, if you say it like that, then I'm not convinced anymore. Please, just let me do what I want. I won't get hurt or anything and I promise not to do anything too extreme.' She still doesn't look satisfied.

'Skyler, stop worrying. It's gonna be fine.' She frowns but then plasters a fake smile on her face. 

'I have a bunch of places I sat and listed out some ready-to-move-in places yesterday for us to rent. They're affordable, at the outskirts of the city like this apartment and they have a nice enough water and electricity system.'

'Well, what about this one?' I point to the second picture on the list.

'You don't wanna go see it first? It's a 1 BHK' 

'No, just rent it. We'll pay 50/50.'

'You don't wanna rent two separate apartments?'

'You barely go to your apartment in this building anyway, what's the point?'

'But-', she thinks about it for a while, 'fine.' 

She rents the place and calls the landlord. 'We can move in right now.'

'That quick?'

'Well, I threatened to burn the place down, so he wasn't too uncomfortable.' I snicker. 

'Well, I'll go pack up my stuff, you pack up yours. We'll leave at 12.' I nod at her and get to packing. I take off the posters from the wall, the clothes from my cupboard. Until it's time to hit the biggest problem of all. The store room. 

The entire room is coated with dust. I open it and turn the light on. I take all the boxes out into the hallway. I open a few of the boxes and get to packing. I find one box labelled 'Old House'. I open it and find pictures of my mom, some of my brother and a few family portraits. I go through the pictures and photo albums. I resist the memories, but I can't. There's a picture of me sitting on a kitchen counter with my lips covered in butter.

It's from when my mom had tried teaching me to bake but I had just sat and watched her, licking the butter off the spoon. She made the most delicious food. Until she stopped making it at all. When she discovered cigarettes, drugs and alcohol, she forgot all her other duties, her responsibilities. My brother had dug up a cookbook and made us food. We had to start working since we were 8, doing small chores and running lemonade stands in hot summers to earn money to buy groceries. We only had to do that for 2 years. Then, we had to move to a foster home and she had to go to a mental hospital.

My thoughts were interrupted by the door opening.

Skyler's POV

'It's almost tim-' He's sitting in the hallway, looking at photos. He's hanging his head down and going through an album. 'Joshua?' He looks up at me and I see his face, he looks miserable.

'Hey. I was just going through some pictures. I lost track of time.'

'You need help?'

'No, these are the last boxes.'

I sit down on the floor next to the stool he's sitting on.

'You don't need to wait for me. Go book a cab.' He puts away the album.

'What's in that?' 

'Nothing.' He starts going through the other boxes. Keeping the important things and throwing the rest into one big box. He picks up the box labelled, 'Old House'. He looks at it for a while and drops it in the box where he's putting the trash.

'You're not gonna keep that?' I ask him. He looks at it for a while and then picks it back up.

'Yeah. I don't know why I thought of throwing it.' He puts it back on the floor then looks at me for a while. He stares right into my eyes. 

'Why'd you think I should keep it?' He tilts his head and looks at me. 'I don't know.' I try not to bring up the sadness in his eyes as he almost threw it away.

He looks down at me and puts his hand on my head, and runs his fingers down my hair as he smiles a little. Not one of those flashy smiles that he gives to charm me. Not his flirting smirk. A different kind of smile. Together with his grey eyes, looking me right in mine, he looks like a fucking god of some sort. 

I keep a hand on his palm thats going through my hair and he pulls me up by the arm. He sits me on his thigh and starts going through the boxes again. I scoot to the side and he opens his legs, so I sit in the space between them. I enjoy him completely enveloping me, whenever he picks something up. 

We say nothing for a long time until he finally finishes his packing. I look at my watch. It's been a solid 2 hours since I entered the house. He motions at me to get up and so I do. He picks up the boxes and takes them outside the house. He picks up his suitcases on the way and I pick up mine, kept in the living room. 

--------------------------------------------------------

We walk down the stairs and outside, where the cab is no longer to be found. He books another one and I sit on the suitcases and wait, till it finally comes. I enter the car and sit next to the window. He puts our stuff inside the car and sits next to me. 

The driver turns on the car and we zip past the city. Somewhere, in that duration, I put my hand on the seat, in the space between me and him, instinctively, tired of keeping it on my purse. Somewhere, in that duration, he notices it and keeps his hand under mine and interlocks it with mine. I reciprocate him.

Somewhere, in that duration, I scoot closer to him, keeping our hands on my thigh and I keep my head on his shoulder. He wraps his hand around my head, and I drift to sleep. 

----------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Hello everyone. This is just a little reminder to vote if you like this story. It really helps small writers a lot, and thanks.

<3