Immortals | ✓

04 | art

━━ αθάνατοι ━━

WE had absolutely nothing figured out. It has been almost three days since we began our little hideout and we knew just one thing - we hadn't been found and that maybe, just maybe, they had moved past La Conner in their search for us. 

But no matter what I thought of, no matter what reasoning I came up with, it came with a dead end. As if all my thoughts and dead ends were a package deal at this point. 

Aethera and I had been so desperate, so petrified at that moment to leave that we never realized what we would do once we made it out of there. I couldn't blame either of us. With everything going on, we couldn't deny the fact that we wanted to get out of there. That feeling, that sudden compulsion to escape was fueling us until we stepped into this house. 

After that, it stopped; leaving like a traitor in the middle of a heist. 

That night when we had arrived, none of us had questioned the other. We had taken our bags and stashed them in a cabinet in the kitchen and soon, Aethera muttered a curt goodnight to my 'see you in the morning' and left to take the bedroom upstairs while I checked the ground floor and chose a small bedroom next to the study.  The next morning, none of us conversed on anything more than titbits here and there and the day died down within what seemed like mere moments. I think we both were too overwhelmed to sit down and talk about it. This wasn't a piece of gossip you heard in school, this wasn't anything like a topic you could pick up and talk hours about with a friend. This was our life, crumbling in front of our eyes, with no explanation or justification whatsoever. 

How does one get through that? I thought, day and night, tirelessly until tonight, until this very moment. 

Ever since I had woken up this morning, I felt this sudden urge to stop whatever it is we were doing. To stop with this ordeal, to stop pretending as if we were on this silent, sublime vacation. This wasn't a vacation, we weren't supposed to be having relaxed mornings, tranquil afternoons, and hushed dinners and retiring to our rooms without a word. One of us, be it me, had to face it and own up, call our bullshit and accept the defeat. 

We had no answers. 

Fuck that, we didn't even know after all these days where to start and what exactly were we looking for. So, as I sat at the dinner table, playing with my food rather than eating it, I finally looked at her, in preparation to speak. She was so submerged in her own thoughts, her eyes focused on the wall behind me, twinkling in the darkness in the same mystical manner that had amazed me nights ago, that it felt almost cruel of me to distract her. 

But as much as I wanted to stay anchored to that moment, I knew I couldn't. Not anymore. 

We were wasting time that we didn't have. 

"Aethera," I called out, and promptly her eyes found mine, her shoulders bringing her back with a slight jerk. 

"Yeah?" She mumbled, looking back at her cold food while finally paying attention to me. 

"We need to talk about it, you know that, right?" I questioned, with just enough caution. 

"I know," she nodded with surety that wasn't resonating in my voice. "It's inevitable at this point, isn't it?" She didn't wait for my response as she continued. "Have you thought of something? Anything?" 

"I tried to but every time I think of it...about it, it just seems so terribly funny. And I don't know whether I should think, or read, or search and if I search, what am I even looking for?" I muttered, shaking my head.