Red String, Blue String

Chapter 3

* * *
    The paramedics rushed into our home, luckily I had been taught how to call 9-1-1 at preschool so I may have been the determining factor that saved my mother's life. She never even mentioned it, or the other times I had to call an ambulance for her. Later I realized that it had been her first major overdose, a couple more happened throughout the time that I lived with her.
    My mother and I never had a real relationship, I was always either taking care of her, as if I was the mother or I was resenting her, "why couldn't she love me?" Everyone else had great parents and then there was me, a needle in my own haystack.

* * *
    I leaned back into the doorway of the bathroom and shut my eyes, as if that will make Theo unhear what he had just mentioned.
    "Luna?"
    "That was nothing," I said as I tried to walk around him, he grabbed my shoulders, firmly but without hurting me, just enough to know that I couldn't move. My brain was circling at a hundred miles a minute, I couldn't even focus on his muscles, though I could definitely see them, and feel them against my arms.
    "I think it's a good time for you to explain everything," his tone was confusing to me. I initially expected a raging type of anger, but his voice was barely laced with hostility, you could only notice if you listened quietly to his frequency.
    "The couch?" I questioned and he provided a nod in response, he let go of my arms and suddenly I had felt a bit colder without him so close. He sat down on the couch and patted for me to sit down by him, I did and my knees were shaking so I pushed myself further back to prevent that.
    "Go ahead," the urgency began to appear.
    "Okay, this is going to be complicated.."
    "It isn't already?" He added with a faint chuckle.
    "I was on the phone with my boss just now, I work for a private security company," I began, he nodded for me to continue. "Well, you dated his wife.."
    "Who?" He looked confused.
    "Maria Luther," I stated.
    "Oh...what? She was married?" He seemed shocked.
    "Yeah...you didn't know?"
    "I'm offended, I know you've only known me a day but I'd never date a married woman," Theo told me, and I believed him, he was too good.
    "I guess he thought you knew, I'm not sure honestly."
    "That's why she randomly stopped replying...wait...hold on"
    "What?" I questioned.
    "How does this relate to my death?"
    "Oh, that. Well, lets just say my boss wasn't pleased, and well he suggested that something needed to be done," I hoped he would understand what I was saying.
    Theo leaned in and whispered to me, despite us being alone, "so you're telling me that your boss wants me dead?"
    "Well...yes," I stated.
    "Woah."
    "Yeah...sorry."
    "You didn't kill me, just broke into my house...that doesn't sound good either but better than murder," he mentioned.
    "Right...and now he's pestering me about proof of death," I told Theo and he did something that was almost shocking. He got up and just laid on the floor, on his maroon rug that had felt soft even under my sock covered feet.
    "Take a picture," he told me.
    "A picture...what?"
    "Proof of death, here I'm dead," he said as he stuck his tongue out. I tried to keep it in but within seconds I was bursting with laughter, "this isn't a joke.." he croaked out through his own increasing laughs. We stayed like that for a few minutes before he eventually pulled himself back on to the couch, we decided to just watch a show, I was so surprised with how okay he was with all of this, I was honestly a little bit concerned, "he's more than just your boss huh?" he asked after twenty minutes of silence.
    "What do you mean?"
    "Not that you're in love or anything, actually are you?" I shook my head vigorously in response. "Yeah, I thought so, but he's more than just your boss," he said to me.
    "How would you figure that?"
    "Do you really he think he'd ask just anyone to murder someone for him? Murder for Hire is a pretty bad felony," Theo said.
    "I guess but I'm just an employee."
    "Tell me when you're ready," he said, it seemed like he implied that we would remain in contact after the storm.
* * *
   
    The hours passed by, faster than they had in the morning, Theo started making dinner by 7pm that evening, and at eight-thirty we were eating a really tasty pasta, I never expected him to be such a chef, It made my heart go a little too fast, I needed to start getting myself together, this wasn't supposed to be a long term thing.
    "The forecast is still pretty bad, you can move to the guest room tonight," Theo suggested as he grabbed our plates to wash them in the sink.
    "Oh no, I couldn't do that, actually the snow isn't as bad, I should just leave," I said as I stood up and pushed in the chair that I had just been sitting in. He looked surprised at my statement and made his way over to me, as he gently placed his hand over mine, "it's dangerous outside still, at least wait this out." He told me, he sounded very sincere. I nodded slowly, "okay, but the couch is fine."
    "Haha, no it's not, I had to sleep on it when I first moved in, I was miserable, it's okay Luna." Everytime he said my name, it made whatever he said more meaningful. I never loved my name but hearing him say it gave it a new life. He brought the blanket upstairs to the guest room, I placed my jacket on the chair in the room, carefully to avoid the gun hidden in the pocket, I didn't really want him to see that.
    We went back downstairs and ate some ice cream, luckily his generator saved all the food in his fridge. He put  a movie on the tv and we just relaxed, around eleven at night we decided to go upstairs to sleep.
    "Here, you can take a shower and put these on," Theo said as he handed me a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, I hadn't even noticed him standing at the doorway.
    "Thanks," I said as he handed me the clothes, he went and showed me where to shower and he handed me a large blue towel. The water took a while to heat up, and it wasn't until after I had the shower that I realized I didn't have a brush to use for my hair, and it would be weird to ask Theo for a comb. I just used my fingers and pulled it into a ponytail with a hair tie I found in my jacket.
    I laid down in his guest bed and pulled the comforter up to cover me, there was a chill present upstairs that wasn't downstairs as the heater upstairs didn't work as well. I closed my eyes and then heard some footsteps approach my room, I turned and saw him in a pair of flannel pajama pants.
    "Need anything?" He asked.
    "No, I'm good, thank you so much." I said with the most sincerity I could muster, I wanted him to truly know how thankful I was. "Seriously though, you didn't need to do any of this."
    He shook his head at my statement, "you don't know how much I needed this." For the first time Theo looked nervous as he said that, his eyes were directed down to his feet. Every other time I saw him speak, all I could see was his confidence and often his joking nature. But now I saw fear, I hadn't even seen him be scared when I said I was supposed to kill him. Theo slowly slinked out of the guest room and I whispered, "good night," hoping he had heard me.
I picked up my phone which I had been avoiding, I had no idea what my boss would do once Monday came around and he realized that the mission still wouldn't have been completed. I scrolled through messages from some of my coworkers who had asked how I was, with the storm, I didn't even respond as I didn't feel like fashioning up any lies, even if it was easy to do so. Since I was staying in Theo's house and enjoying it so much, I felt bad saying I was at home, it felt like a betrayal of Theo's generosity.
    I tossed and turned in the bed for a while since I was having a hard time falling asleep, my mind kept drifting between the past and the present. Theo's guest bed reminded me of the summer before tenth grade.

* * *
    The sun was beating down on me, it was a day in late July, which just so happened to be a Thursday. My mom had been going through a particularly angry phase, anything would tick her off, this day she had kicked me out of the house for staying out past my curfew. It was four in the morning and I was walking to my best friend's house, her name was Delia, she had been my best friend for two years and her mother had always been kind to me.
    Her mom opened the door in her light purple pajamas and welcomed me inside as she always had, I slept in their guest bedroom for almost a week before my mom came knocking. She made me come back home despite Delia and her mother's objections. I'll never forget what Delia's mom said that day, she had pulled me aside while her daughter was asking my mom to let me stay, "Luna, I know it's hard but you're strong enough." She gave me a hug and I took her sentiment to heart, even if I didn't fully believe it .

* * *
    I felt someone, who I then realized was Theo, shake me awake. I slowly rolled over to face him with my eyes beginning to open, "what time is it?" I mumbled, "seven thirty," he told me as he just continued looking down at me. I raised an eyebrow at him and slowly pulled myself up to a seated position before pushing the blanket towards the foot of the bed.
          "What do you want for breakfast?"
          "Anything is fine, how's the storm?"
          "Better than before, power is back everywhere now," Theo said as we made our way to the staircase.
          "Oh good, guess I can leave this afternoon," I said and Theo stopped dead in his tracks, we were about three quarters of the way down the steps. He opened his mouth as if he was about to speak but decided against it and just gestured for me to keep going. We reached the kitchen and he pulled some strawberries out of the fridge and handed me a container of yogurt.
        I opened a few drawers to find some spoons and I opened up the container he had handed me, he placed two bowls on the table and I poured in the yogurt. He took the bowls back to the island and sprinkled some cut pieces of strawberry and some raspberries. We sat down to eat and I realized how familiar the whole breakfast had been, we made it as if we had been doing so for years.
       We cleaned up the dishes and Theo got out the vacuum for the living room, I wiped down the surfaces in the kitchen. I guessed that Saturday was his cleaning day. After we finished up, Theo turned to face me, "we should talk." He sounded firm like he was laying down the law. We walked back over to his couch, our confession section.
      "What's up? I know I have to leave soon," I said as I played with the edge of the pillow on the couch.
      "Luna...no not that, you're not leaving."
      "Theo, I need to," I said despite how much I wanted to stay.
      "No, you're not leaving, you don't need to," he said as he squeezed my shoulder.
      "Okay Theo...well what is it you want to say?"
      "I know that you said you needed proof of death and I assume that your boss will find a way for me to die, and you'll be in trouble, so we need to do something about it."
     "Theo...no, I'll try everything I can to protect you and don't worry about me," I started to say.
     "We should move to New York."