Rise [Bruno Mars]

Chapter twenty-seven

Chapter twenty-seven

I stood in a glass shelter, between rows of deeply green flora. The sky was ultimately blue, hovering over an expanse of desert land. 

“Do you see who I am?”

I whirled around, but the source of the voice wasn't there. It seemed to be coming from everywhere, echoing inside me.

“Do you see what I've become?”

My surroundings changed, morphed, into a room I knew so well. The ceiling clear, a twelve-pointed star inked into the middle of the stone floor, directly in front of the two thrones sitting upon the dais. Joseph's favorite place. And once, his destiny. 

He appeared in the middle of the star, head tilted toward the moon. He looked ethereal. Otherworldly. Inhuman. He looked like the Incurses.

“Joseph,” I called carefully, my heart beating fast with unknown fear. “What are you doing?”

“I cannot even bear to be an inch from you,” he said. “Here, I am not in need of your proximity.”

Panic raced up my spine. I needed to get back to Bruno. I needed to finish what I'd left unfinished. “We can't fix this by running.”

“Running.” He tilted his head toward me, eyes fluttering open. “That is what you did to me. You ran from me. When I called out to you, you ran.”

“I had no choice.”

“To stop your singer from leaving once more?”

His words made something in me constrict. “This was different.” And it had been. Bruno had been terrified of himself, then. Of what he'd become. “We can't stay here forever, Joseph.”

“Forever.” He paused. “I would like a forever with you.”

“You have one.” 

Surprise and confusion flitted across his face. I went forward, my desperation strangely the calm, rolling waves of an azure sea. “Look around you. I'm sure you can feel it here.” Once I reached him I touched my fingers to his forehead, making his eyes close. “We have our forever,” I whispered. “Please, let this go.”

And he did. He vanished along with Grim, and my vision focused on a once beautiful living room. Years of it being unkept had left it dull and smelling like two hundred years old. I stood from the couch I was lying on, having no headache or dizziness unlike the first time Joseph took us to Grim all that time ago. The living room opened into the kitchen, where Ryan leaned against the counter, holding a can of frozen peaches to a swollen right eye. His forehead wrinkled when he saw me. “Looking for a new hell to rise?”

“Where's Bruno?”

“He's nowhere.”

“This isn't a game, Ryan. Where is he?”

“He doesn't want to be found by you.”

My heart plummeted. “Please, just tell me where he is.”

“I'm not telling you anything,” he mocked. “But I'll be happy to tell miss peach here all the details.” He lifted the can suggestively.

“Is that what you want? Details about this connection Joseph and I have?”