Barely There

Chapter 27 - Skeletons

Two lovers bathed in the air of shame, the density of sin thick and heavy on the rapidly beating hearts. The silky sheets covering the tangled limbs weren't enough to keep warm from the ocean breeze and the two shivered, pressing together closer.

As the wind unwrapped its frosty grasp from the cabin, Leda drew imaginary figures and shapes on Grayson's bare chest, basking in the rare warmth that could only come from the intimate touch of another. She let the words tumble lazily from her mouth without thinking too much about them and stopped her invisible sketches. "Tell me about your tattoos." She entwined her arm around him as she awaited his response.

"Which ones?"

His voice was husky and she felt her heart flutter before guiltily pushing the racy thoughts out of her head. She attempted to hide her face as a rosy tint suffused her olive cheeks, turning her face violet in the luminous blue of the night. Her voice was muffled in her efforts.

"All of them."

He let go of the long lock of frizzy hair he had been playing with and untangled his arm from around her. He tried to move in a sitting position, stopping his weak attempts when he sensed her grumbling incoherent words. Smiling through words, he stretched out his arm and scanned the hand before settling his focus on the mini memorabilia on his ring finger.

"I got this one about four years ago while I was still in high school. You were actually the one who tattooed it." She rapidly lifted her head from its comfy spot, grabbing his left hand and inspecting the small tattoo closely. His face hardened, unable to read her, but he continued. "It was my first tattoo and I never admitted it then but it was painful as hell too. You gave it to me on the night my parents got divorced. Said it would be a good distraction."

"How... did I even tattoo it?" she questioned as her eyes searched for a trace of herself in the outline of the swan.

"You put a needle in the eraser of a green mechanical pencil, dipped it in some tattoo ink you bought from a guy somewhere you didn't even remember, then just went to work."

She didn't let go of his hand but started to softly touch the edges of the tattoo with the tip of her finger.

"Why a swan?"

He answered immediately, seeming to have already prepared an answer to her question."It used to be your favorite animal."

She turned his hand to look at the tattooed surface beneath his knuckles.

"And this?"

He breathed in deeply, his chest rising and falling with the action.

"It's a drawing of the twins in Gemini."

Furrowing her eyebrows, she waited for him to go on and when he didn't she inquired further.

"What's the story behind it?"

"The twin's birthday." He stared at her as he conjured his words carefully, settling his eyes on her confused face. "Castor and Clementine's birthday."

She sat up, forgetting about her exhaustion and sore limbs. The moonlight streamed in from behind her, casting a dark expression on her face. His body shuddered as the coldness swept in again.

With a voice laced with venom and eyes of black she spoke,"Elaborate."

Keeping his gaze trained on her, Grayson sat up as well, his fearful eyes level with her obsidian ones. The bedroom became colder than ice. His voice shook a little in between breaths.

"You were pregnant with twins. When I got to the hospital that night...the doctor told me Castor died shortly after birth. He was Clementine's brother." Grayson's eyes wandered back to his ink-stained skin. "I got this tattoo on the day of his funeral. It was impulsive and I wasn't in a good place, but I don't regret it."

A harsh wind swept into the room like a tidal wave, blowing Leda's hair wildly towards Grayson's naked chest. The strands of brown reached his smooth skin and cut at it with needle-like pricks. Her mouth was set in a firm line and the rest of her was just as cold as the room, even more so. Her eyes were unmoving and becoming red the longer she went without blinking. Her body didn't shiver with the cold and the absence of goosebumps seemed unnatural in the setting. Grayson cowered as he tried to discern her nothingness.

Her voice cut through the air, shattering the once eminent peace and tranquility of the room.

"So there were two?"

"Yes," he croaked.

She closed her eyes and breathed in before laying her head on his sheet-covered lap. She stared out of the window in silence as he automatically began to run his fingers through her hair. She didn't say anything else about the matter but communicated her desire to pretend that the moment never happened by her deliberately deep and slow breaths.

"It wasn't your fault."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Leda"

"Don't talk about it."

The wind blew to a raging roar, shaking the cabin roughly. The harsh gusts rushed towards the weak wood and through the large waves, carrying grains of sand and pieces of plastic off the beach before dumping them a short distance away. The wind blew harder than it ever had before. If Leda had not been consumed by her obstreperous thoughts, she might have squeaked in fear. But she was growing in them.

Out of their stormy bubble, the earth continued to rotate and the universe continued to exist in its infinity. The wind carried the time along, regulating the cycle of existence while maintaining the fragile stability of the scale of life. 

And so eventually the wind died down, the clouds uncovered the moon, the waves became smaller, and Grayson's heartbeat reverted to its normal rhythmic pace.

In that moment, normality consumed them and the cabin became just a cabin and the canvas just a canvas. There were no complications, no history, and every evidence of hopelessness was wiped away by the night as they became two senseless, stupid lovers and nothing more. Perhaps, that's the only way it could ever work between them.

She felt herself begin to breathe again, her lungs expanding joyfully...

before deflating as faceless images of her dead son began to haunt her.