The Illusion of Us

Chapter 26

Mina and Khalil had sat in silence for so long that the light rain had eventually trickled away and was replaced by nothing more than a gray clouded sky, the sun daring to peek out from behind the dark clouds like a flickering beacon of restored hope, but the wind was still blowing precariously around them.

"Come on." Khalil rose first, and Mina was thankful for the interruption, her butt beginning to turn sore from the hard rocky ground and Khalil's blazer barely keeping her warm anymore. She didn't want to be rude, but she was desperately ready to leave this creepy ground. Khalil extended both his hands in assistance and Mina grabbed onto him, pulling herself up from the damp cemetery grass with a loud heave and Khalil wrapped his hands tightly around her waist as she stood, his eyes boring into her with an emotion Mina couldn't recognize and she was sure her stomach had just done a somersault inside her.

"You gonna be ok?" She asked softly, her brows furrowed, eyes searching through his face as she swept a stray drop of water from his forehead. He followed her hand with his eyes, tensing at each place her fingers touched and she couldn't hold back a small smile.

A single touch and they could wash each other's pain away.

"I'm gonna be just fine." He gave her a curt smile in response.

"Good." She nodded. Satisfied with his reply, she wrapped her arm through his, interlacing their fingers once more as she began to turn back towards the concrete path and her car, but she didn't get very far before Khalil was pulling her back with a conniving smirk.

"Um - the car is this way, genius."

He shook his head, his smirk only growing dangerously larger. "We're not going to the car...genius." He mimicked. "I'm taking you somewhere." Mina eyes followed his lips, watching his tongue dart swiftly over them as he spoke and Mina prayed that she was being discreet in her observance.

"You know-" She pretended to ponder. "I think this is just about how every horror movie in existence starts off."

Khalil rolled his eyes with an intoxicating laugh.

"Just because you're cute doesn't mean I'm going to follow you to my death."

"Death?" Khalil scoffed mockingly, taken aback. "Why would I kill you when you finally broke up with Asher?"

So he had heard that too then.

Mina bit the inside of her cheeks in embarrassment, her eyes dancing toward the damp ground, but Khalil only seemed to find humor in her discomfort, taking her face into his hands so that she was forced to look up at him. "It's my turn now." He whispered, his thumb tracing small circles over her cheeks and her breathing hitched in his chest.

This was a dangerous game the both of them were playing at and, eventually, one of them was going to lose.

"And I suppose you're taking me into those woods?" Mina attempted to diffuse the thickness, eyeing the woods scattered at the very edge of the cemetery.

"Don't you trust me?" He teased, confirming her assumption.

She would probably follow this damaged boy anywhere, but she didn't say that, instead she nodded her head with a sigh and pulled her face away from his hands. "Don't make me regret it."

The woods were even scarier inside than they looked from the outside and, though it was the middle of the afternoon, the gray and clouded sky cast intimidating looking shadows onto the trunks of the trees and brush and Mina found her eyes roaming everywhere but straight ahead.

It seemed as if the entire forest had eyes fixed on her.

"How much further?" She whined, hoping Khalil could detect the anxiety in her voice.