The Flames that Engulfed Us

Chapter 9: This is Why Internal Monologues Are Internal

It seemed suspicious that we could just lounge around on the couches all day, but that's what we did. We found a shelf with board games, so we ended up spending all our time just sitting there, playing checkers.

"King me," I beamed across the table.

"I don't have any pieces left to king you with," he moaned, his head in his hands.

"Then use one of your pieces," I giggled, flinging a black piece across the table.

His hand sprang up and caught it perfectly. Despite my superhuman ability, I still couldn't do that. My reflexes weren't one of the things that got upgraded. I got kinged with a huge exaggerated flourish, and then it was his turn. He triple-jumped me, but it didn't matter. I had three kings.

"Nice move."

I looked up and there was the devil himself. Mr. Suit Man. He was complimenting my boyfriends move in checkers. This was bonkers.

"Mr. Devil," I addressed him, "what's up?"

Lincoln looked stiff as a board. His eyes were trained on me, waiting to see what I would do. I thought we'd been together long enough for him to acknowledge that that was not the appropriate thing to do in most situations, but I guess that didn't qualify as most situations.

"At our last meeting, I forgot to inform you that you can gain or lose abilities based on your behavior."

"Cool."

"And I thought since you were wondering, that I might inform you of the exact classification both of you would fit into here."

"I never said that."

"But you thought it. Firstly, neither of you are human. Lincoln would be considered a soul, or the essence of who he was. What you see is the last thing he thought of himself as.

"Sklyar is trickier. She is not human, but her altered state of being disqualifies her from being a soul."

"Mr. Devil, I don't think I actually want to know."

He looked at me like I'd said something incomprehensively stupid. That's a great feeling, let me tell you.

"All I was going to say is that the best description for you at this point would be an angel. Do you have an issue with something?"

"Well... um... I guess I'm just getting used to the whole being a dead person thing."

"You don't need to be afraid that that being different from Lincoln will make you any less in his eyes."

Lincoln was looking at me. "Sky-"

"Get out of my head," I growled, looking at Suit Man.

"I am physically unable to do that, Skylar. I can stop addressing your thoughts. Is that what you would like?"

"Yes."

"Noted. Now since you and Lincoln are both here, I feel I should give you a warning. Since you deviated from the planned course, things might get a little unpredictable. You didn't commit any offense, but the punishments will be different. Souls have described it as harsher."

Had I made a mistake in telling Lincoln to run? Yes, I had. I had screwed us both over.

And now I had to live with it.

Lincoln looked up at Suit Man. "Sky will still be safe, right?"

"Yes. She will be unharmed."

He nodded. I met his eyes, and there was a look of resolution in them. A look that honestly scared me. A look that proclaimed to the world that he didn't care what happened to himself, but had all of his eggs in my basket.

The last time I saw that look, we both died. The time before that  was when he'd found me crying in a bathroom because of a stupid prank some boys had played. The next day, he'd weakly tried to hide his bloody knuckles from me. I saw them, and I didn't ask what happened. I didn't need to. I only squeaked out some question about how far he'd taken it. He said he'd taken it only as far as it needed to go. I didn't push any harder.

That look in his eyes always got him into trouble. And in hell, I didn't know what it would do. And that terrified me.

The man looked down at me. He was in my head, and that wasn't a place that I even wanted to be right then.

"You're scared," he stated dumbly.

Lincoln was staring back at me again.

"I'll protect you. I swear with whatever sort of life this is right now, I won't let anything touch you."

"That's exactly what I'm scared of. Lincoln, I'll always be there for you, but I don't know how to be there for you when you're off fighting for me."

Suit man looked between us. "She's scared that she's going to lose you because you'll do something brash and reckless for her."

Lincoln abruptly stood up and knelt by my chair. He put his hands around my hands, so it was kind of just a romantic ball of hands and started speaking low and clear.

"You won't lose me. I won't lose you. We're together. I'm not going to let anything change that."

I opened my mouth when Suit Man rudely interrupted me and my moment.

"There appears to be a police car outside. The officer is coming in now."

I was instantly on my feet. If there was anything I'd learned, it was that everything was more malicious than it seemed. Footsteps echoed up the stairs. Lincoln was next to me, ready to spring at whatever the threat was going to be.

The officer didn't even appear to be human. His face was blank. Just like an ashen grey head oval. His hands were the same color. Everything else was in a crisp police uniform.

"Lincoln Carver," it echoed in my head, "come with me."

Suit Man wasn't there when I turned my head to see where he was. Some help he was.

The gray dude kept walking forwards. I gripped Lincoln's arm. The gray thing was right next to us. It was my instinct to run, but when I tried to pull us away, Lincoln didn't seem in possession of his own self.

The thing grabbed him, and he suddenly trembled, fighting against the grasp, but it must have been strong. So strong that Lincoln couldn't pull away. He was tired and sore, but just then he was fueled by desperation, and I imagined if he punched someone right then, they would have a visit from the tooth fairy who'd be complaining that that wasn't just reason for money.

"Skylar Flemings, release him."

I didn't let go, and his hand touched mine to try to pry me off.

His hand felt like ice and sent a tingling up my whole body, but it felt weak to me. I was stronger, but that didn't change how it felt like a child pawing at my hand. The only advantage he had was how the icy cold spread through me, making me feel numb. Then it faded away and was gone.

I stared into its faceless face hole. Nothing was going to separate me and Lincoln. I would bet my death on it.