"Don't even think about touching that door, Morris," How did he even freaking know? I had barely even registered the fact that my feet had been creeping towards the door, my toes digging into the sticky carpet as I forced myself to stop moving.
The door was soft, old wood. Despite it being locked I could probably knock it down off the hinges or even split it down the middle if I tried hard enough, and even if that didn't work I'm sure someone would complain about the noise.
"Tell me, how exactly do you think it would go for you? That I would just let you casually walk out of here, no shoes, no weapons, not a penny to your name, and not a clue where you are? You aren't stupid, Amira," I spun around, my cheeks burning as my attention snapped to him.
"You don't know me," He didn't. Maybe he knew the old me, but she was dead.
"Don't I though? I made you who you are–"
"You ruined me!" Alba was barely listening to our conversation, heavily invested in whatever cartoon movie the big box T.V. was playing, I aspired to be on her level of reality separation, though her muscles did tense as our voices grew louder.
"I ruined you?" His laugh was bitter, the way his jaw clenched being the only real evidence of how much that got underneath his skin. "The only people responsible for what's happened to you are Cara, and that mutt who played on your vulnerability. I have done nothing to hurt you, not without reason," his words were low and I quickly shook my head, roughly pushing my hair back from my face with trembling fingers.
Everything was so cold, and my body felt like fire in comparison. Like the feeling when you touch ice after an eternity in the sun.
"You shouldn't have done anything to hurt me. You can't even tell me the truth Eon, the only information that you have even given me is twisted, messed-up lies. Sometimes it's– I think that you are trying to convince yourself of something that isn't true," I was breathless, and still apparently not in the shape to be arguing because my head pounded painfully when I sucked in a breath.
The back of my legs hit the second bed in the room and I sunk into it, sighing when Eon crouched down in front of me.
"Don't tell me that you don't see what being away from me has done to you. You flinch every time I touch you–"
"Eon," I cut him off, meeting his eyes for the first time and truly looking. For once they weren't empty slates. They were deep, melancholy, a molten pool of what I could only describe as real and genuine pain.
He was delusional. But the words stopped before I could speak them, so all I could do was stare at him, wishing they were honey and that the space between us was lit up with comfort and not pain.
"You think I'm the only one who has lied to you, Amira? I'm not. But least I had reasons beyond selfish ones," his hands caught mine as I pushed against his chest.
"Shut up."
"Axle lied to you. Cara lied to you. They've all lied to you, and for what?"
"Stop, Eon," I didn't want to hear this. Obviously, closing my eyes did nothing to stop his words, but I did it anyway.
"He's not human Amira, none of them are," I jerked my hands away from him and pushed up off of the bed, pacing away to sit beside Alba who just gave me a kind smile and offered a sour gummy worm up.
"You do nothing but lie–"
"I never lied to you about what I was," His lips brushed against the shell of my ear with a whisper so Alba wouldn't hear.
"You never told me what you were," And that much is true, Eon actually smiled at that, a pained one that made my stomach twist.
"No, I didn't but I didn't lie to you about what I wasn't. You've always known I wasn't human, even when you didn't," I dropped my head down to rest in the palms of my hands, cradling my forehead and sucking on the sour candy in my mouth that seemed to be doing its job of grounding me.
"What are you?"
"Something that shouldn't exist," He laughed bitterly and his eyes landed on the bag sitting on the floor, the one that held the jar. "You know that I can't lose you, you know what I have to do. That mutt.. he is trying to take something that doesn't belong to him."
"Axle is a good man–"
"He isn't!" At Eon's sharp reply Alba jumped, cautiously looking between the two of us only seeming to lose the slight tension in her body when Eon took a gummy worm from her and popped it into his mouth. When she looked away he took in a steady breath, slowly curling and uncurling his fists as his jaw ticked.
"How did you know Reggie Lemont," Eon stilled.
"Amira..."
"No, answer me for once, Eon. How did you know him?" Eon's jaw ticked, and the seconds before his answer turned into minutes.
"He helped raise me," He leaned back against the wall, the far-away look in his eyes telling me to get comfortable, that this might be a long story. "What all did Leaflet tell you?"
"Not much of anything. Just that she had theories as to who you were, she mentioned a group that worshiped a cast out God," a few months ago I had been desperate to connect Axle to a cult, when in reality I was trying to draw that connection with the wrong man in my life.
"Tuskraysa, we worshipped the God With No Name. I don't want them to take all of the credit, but Reggie and the others are part of the reason I am like I am," Alba tossed him another gummy worm. "Before it all fell apart, I made a deal, things were promised to me and I signed my name in blood. Mortals, they.. they don't understand that certain things are written in the stars centuries before they are even born, but I've always known."
RIght. So Eon is still absolutely nuts then.
He shook his head, snapping back to reality and popping the rest of Alba's gummy worm into his mouth as he pushed off of the wall.
"Alba, will you.. will you go down to the car for a few minutes. I'll come get you in a little while," I gave Alba a reassuring smile despite the dread settling deep into my bones.
This would hurt, this would end badly, and this would rip me away from Axle and the connection that I wasn't able to fully understand.
I knew that they weren't human, I had always sort of known, but none of them had ever made the effort to tell me for sure. Not Axle, not Emma, not Doc, and Cara, well I don't even know where to begin with her... I wasn't sure if Leaflet counted, but once she performed magic in front of me that sort of gave away her non-human standing.
"Ten minutes?"
"Fifteen," Eon ruffled her hair and handed her the keys to the car. "Scream if you need anything kiddo."
I had no doubt in my mind that Eon was someone that you should avoid at all costs, it was something that I should have done when I first met him. But I was naive, broken, and I needed him. It made an acid feeling swish around within my stomach when it occurred to me that we were bound together as well, maybe not in the same mystical way as Axle and I, but we were bound. Through experience, and through this stupid little necklace wrapped around my neck like a collar.
"Lay down," the command echoed around my head, crimson eyes locking with mine as my body mindlessly moved to obey. Everything felt fuzzy as I did, my head rolling to the side.
My eyes watched dazedly as Eon moved to the bag, pulling out the jar and a bunch of other things that my sight was too fuzzy to see.
"What are you going to do?" He sat next to me, gazing down with as tender of an expression that I'm sure he could muster and grabbed my hand.
"Do you remember? What we did together?" I blinked the stars from my eyes, momentarily distracted by the light tickle of his fingertips tracing the lines on the palms of my hands.
"Unity of the Souls, Neuam," I mumbled in response and Eon gave a curt nod.
"We broke them. I..." He looked deep into my eyes. "I shouldn't exist, Amira. Everyone else gets happy endings, souls tethered together and I should've gotten nothing. I get hate, and so much.. rage. So much rage that it eats me from the inside out," His eyes were glossy.
"What- what are you talking about?"
"You're the only thing, the only thing that has ever made it stop. I knew from the moment I met you that I wouldn't be able to cheat fate, that you were fated for something else– someone better. But, I couldn't.. can't... I won't let that mutt, have you. I won't let Them take the only thing that has ever been mine, so I made good on the promises I made as a child with He who created me," His hand tightened around mine, but the pain was dulled, only felt in the back of my mind where alarm bells were ringing.
"I'm not yours," He shook his head roughly, sweat sticking hair to the sides of his face.
"It's going to hurt," He began, standing up and grabbing at the things he had gathered. The things meant to break bonds.
"You're going to kill me," I sobbed, unable to move my limbs as his face came back over mine.
"I've never hurt you without reason, Morris. I have to break the bond," Tears ran down into my hair as I turned my head away from his, barely able to whimper out my protests as the pressure in my head grew stronger.
"Sleep," I fought the command as much as humanly possible.
"I can't..."
"Sleep, Amira," He lightly brushed the hair away from my face, rubbing my lower lip as the world faded out around me. It must've been my imagination, but the last thing I heard was the whisper of an apology against my cheek.
Dreams are funny things, even more peculiar when you know that you are dreaming. The world has a light blue tint, it smells like the air before the rain and unsmoked cigarettes.
I would recognize the silhouette sitting on the ground in front of me anywhere, overlooking the most beautiful array of trees and autumn you would find anywhere.
"I'm so close to you," he didn't turn around, nor did he even turn my way as I sat on the ground beside him.
"I wish you were," I yearned for him, but when I reached to touch his arm, my hand swiped through cold air.
"I am, so close, just a little longer," a tear stung my cheek bitterly.
"I can't stop him Axle, I can't do anything-"
"Just a little longer, but you need to wake up."
"What?"
"Wake up darling, by the Gods I'm almost there," The world flashed white, and it felt like I was falling, or maybe flying, regardless I soared through the air with a sick sweeping feeling in my chest before I slammed hard into what felt like a brick wall.
My eyes snapped open with a pained gasp, streaks of heat sweeping through all of the cells of my body. Eon was crouching over me, his own eyes wide in shock as I gaped up at him. He had been chanting, but the words were caught in his throat. The pain crawling through me was nearly indescribable, and it all seemed to be coming from my chest where my heart beat like a caged bird desperate for freedom.
Freedom.
The necklace burned, and Eon tried to speak to me but I couldn't, wouldn't hear him. All I could do was shove him back and with my free hand that was bloody from a cut, I ripped the metal chain from its place. It snapped free with a pained screech that barely couldn't be described as a noise that a human could make, and it wasn't.
Eon fell off of me, clutching his head and slumping back against the wall with shuddered cries just as the hotel door splintered into a million little pieces. Soft wood.
Everything was weak, my head was throbbing, and the jar Eon had been holding was lying shattered on the ground.
We are nearing a sort of end folks.
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