Whispers In The Dark

Jessiah

Jessiah

I was mortified.

In a moment of utter honesty and blatant truth, once I had somewhat concluded that I wasn't in any way insane compared to other people in the world, I showed everyone the lighters and mostly empty matchbooks.

It only took a few seconds of silence for me to realize that I had made a mistake. I knelt on the ground and began piling them into my hands immediately. Anna fell to her knees beside me a moment later and followed suit.

"You don't have to," I murmured.

She didn't reply immediately. I thought that she hadn't heard me. Then, she answered, "It's okay."

We didn't speak again after that. It took a few minutes to retrieve all of the lighters and matchbooks and toss them back to the bottom of my bag.

I stood, thinking that we were finished, only to discover that Anna was holding one of the lighters silently. She was staring at it as if it was holding a spell over her mind and making it appear to be the most enchanting thing in the world.

"Anna?" I asked softly.

Her reaction was delayed. She remained crouching for a moment before standing slowly and extending the lighter towards me. She didn't say anything.

Robin and Reximus were still sitting on the bleachers, but I could see Victoria's pink hair moving farther away toward the late bus.

We mumbled goodbyes and I drove Anna home. We kissed, but it didn't feel the same. We didn't say goodbye.