Ghost Towns

Eleven

"Do you believe in soulmates?" He blurted out unexpectedly.

"What?"

The sun was falling low in the sky, the clouds dusted with pink and orange. The woods were growing dark, the animals preparing for night. Even the birds had stopped their singing.

Jax trekked slightly ahead of her, picking a path between the trees.

He looked back over his shoulder. It was a quick glance, not more than a fleeting look, but in it Rye caught the intensity of his eyes.

"Do you believe in soulmates?" He asked again, though this time his voice was not so confident. The words ground together, mumbled.

Rye made a point of ignoring his embarrassment, not wanting to make it all the more uncomfortable for them both. "I- I don't know," she responded. And that was the truth.

He nodded without looking back at her, rather dejectedly. The back of his neck was flushed and Rye fought a smile at the sight.

"Why?" She asked, just as suddenly as his question had come.

He shrugged nonchalantly. But Rye could tell that he was tense, and she knew that it was feigned.

"No reason," he muttered.

"I see," she said, letting all her suspicion show in her voice.

Jax remained unprovoked. They wandered in silence towards a tiny, narrow stream, Rye stepping in Jax's boot prints, afraid of finding a loose spot in the mud. They unscrewed their water canteens and refilled then. Rye took a moment to scrub the mud off her hands.

So far, the trek was proving easy. Sure, they hadn't gone very far and had only been walking for a few hours, but Rye was hopeful that the rest of the way to Goldcrest would remain like this. The forest was older here, and the trees taller, which meant that the ground was soft with fallen pine needles and relatively clear of underbrush.

Strangely enough, it wasn't until the two of them sat down in the grass some ways from the banks of the stream for a rest that Rye realized she was blindly following Jax through the woods, trusting wholly his word that they were returning to her town. Though she fought with herself to feel some fear or even worry, Rye could not find it within her. There was no logical reasoning behind this tentative trust of him.

"Where did you live before that cabin in the forest?" Jax's questioning had made Rye bold, "there must have been a time before. You had to have grown up somewhere,"

He opened his eyes slowly, as if exasperated. He was lying in the long grass, hands beneath his head, legs folded atop each other. He hadn't been sleeping and she knew it.

There was a pause, and he hesitated, deciding whether he should answer. At last, he relented under her scrutinizing gaze, "Maria and Hugh," he sighed, "I lived with them almost all my life before,"

Involuntarily, Rye's eyebrows shot up. Maria and Hugh?

She thought back to the way they had seemed so at ease with him. How Hugh greeted him casually, with familiarity. It made sense.

Except that if that were the case and they were still around, Rye couldn't fathom why he'd let himself waste away in solitude. "Why'd you leave?" She asked, tracing over him with her gaze. He looked so comfortable, despite the fact that the grass was rough and scratchy. Despite the bugs and the dirt. The areas beneath his eyes were  discoloured, and his nose beneath the bandages and bits of splint was swollen. Even that could not take away from the utter beauty of his face.

He frowned slightly, those grey eyes growing dark by a shade, "it became dangerous for them to have me nearby," he said softly, "wherever I go, I draw the Onyx. Perhaps it's a curse," he laughed humourlessly, sitting up, untangling his legs, "all the more reason to get you to Goldcrest as soon as possible,"

Rye lightly grabbed his arm. It was stupid, but she did not want to break the tide of that moment. She didn't want him to get up and leave it behind. The smell of the grass and the pine. The sound of gently running water behind. His face in the fluttering, uneven, shade. Evening light in his grey eyes. Only a little more, she reasoned with herself. She only wanted a little more of this.

"We could probably spare a few more minutes," she said under her breath.

He looked first to her hand upon his arm.

She wondered whether he felt it too, the thing that happened when their skin touched. It was a thing that had always happened, even when they first met It had happened even when Rye pretended it didn't exist.

If she recalled it right, he had drawn his hand back from her as if it stung. In a way, it did. It was shocking. But it was strange in a way that begged for curiosity, for a second touch. The moment dragged out, but Rye did not let go.

He was impossibly warm, even though there was a breeze flowing over everything in the forest. The skin of her opposite arm began to prickle, the way it would before lightening struck the earth. Rye's awareness of the world bled away, until her only thoughts were consumed by him. It was surreal, sudden, and inexplicable. 

Jax's eyes met her own, and they were more silver than grey now. But oddly, Rye was not afraid this time, and she knew she would not be again. His gaze was heavy and laden with something wondrous and bittersweet.

Rye could barely help the collapse in her heart when he made to shake her hand off. Her breath caught in her throat, tears at the ready. To her surprise, however, when he moved his arm, it was only to catch her fingers in his palm.

"Do you believe in soulmates?" She whispered, knowing that despite the wind and the hooting of an owl and the first buzz of the crickets, he heard her.

Just as softly, with as much breath in his voice, he responded, "yes,"

She sighed, closing her eyes as the trees darkened. "I think that people are fated to meet. Like my parents. Father went to the city only once in his life, and there he met my Mother. I think some things are too grand for coincidence. Does that count?"

His thumb drew circles over her knuckles. His hands were rough, but his touch was light. "That counts," he whispered.

Rye smiled. When she opened her eyes, the first stars were visible against the indigo twilight. The sky seemed so distant. The world seemed such a separate thing from the two of them. It was as if they belonged in a separate universe.

"Then I guess that's your answer," she said, and watched as his lips curled into a smile too.

He stood finally, gently pulling Rye up behind him. Jax lit the tiny lantern that he had brought and handed it to her.

"Shouldn't you have it?" She asked. After all, he was the one leading the way.

He only shrugged, then winced when it jostled his nose. "I can see just fine without,"

"Alright," Rye replied, slightly confused, "and watch out for your nose."

Curiously, he looked back at her, amusement glittering in his eyes, "careful, Rye, or I might think you're worrying,"

She rolled her eyes, "I'm not going to fix it again if you move it, that's all."

Jax ducked his head to hide a grin, and grabbed her hand this time with no hesitation.

Rye struggled to hide her blush at his confidence. In the end, she gave in, hoping that it was too dark for him to notice the redness in her face.

Whatever coldness had overtaken him in the beginning had melted now. In the dim of the warm evening, they took the next steps into the forest, both pretending foolishly that the journey would never end with separation.

***

AN: double update go me :') 

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