Keditha's Destiny

Chapter Eighteen

"Hey Julian. I've noticed you haven't been eating alot." Louis says, sitting next to me. "You're really skinny, you should eat more."

"I don't want to take food from you. You can have whatever you want, I'll eat what's left." I mutter, wrapping my arms around my knees.

Louis doesn't reply. He only nudges his place towards me. "Eat." He tells me, his voice sounding stern.

I frown, still reluctantly taking the small sandwich from his place. "You're missing your parents, aren't you?" He asks me. "I can tell, that's how I looked when my parents died."

I look up at him. "How did your parents die?" I ask him.

"My mother had cancer and after she passed away, my father couldn't deal with it anymore. He started drinking and ended up dying in a car crash." Louis ruffles my hair. "Drunk driving, don't do it kid."

"Okay..." I mutter, taking a bite out of my sandwich. Sadness overwhelms me. I was far away from home, with two strange kids I just met and my parents were dead. I burst into tears.

Louis looks slightly stunned my sudden change in emotions. He wraps his arm around me, giving me a half hug. "Hey, it's going to be alright. It'll hurt alot at first but it'll get better."

"I just miss them! I want them back!" I sob.

"I know."

I pull back, not wanting to engaged in any more conversation with this stranger. I quickly finished my sandwich. Maybe I could gather up some things and then leave. But where would I go?

I pause my thoughts when I see Louis pull out a deck of cards and start playing with them. "What's that?" I ask him.

"You haven't seen cards before?" He questions.

I shake my head. "That's not what I meant." I say, look back down at my feet.

Louis smiles. "This is my lucky deck. I play a game whenever I feel stressed out." He places the cards in a line of seven.

"Can you teach me how to play?" I ask him.

"Well, they're just cards. Not that hard to learn but yeah, I can." He says ruffling my hair again.

"Why did you leave?" I ask him. "The orphanage that is."

Louis stiffens. "I- um, I think that's a story for when you're older..." He mumbles. "Alot of things happened, to me and Donnie. I had to get him out of there." He sighs, shaking his head. Louis then turns to me smiling.

He grabs my hand, turning it upward. He places the deck of cards in my hand. "Why don't I teach you how to play now."

I shuffle the deck of cards, considering starting a game like Louis always did. But I don't think I really wanted to do that now. It would feel too familiar.

"We need to do something about Hollister. He's been terrorizing us for weeks and now he's killed Louis." Donnie snaps.

"I don't think it was him Don. It was a male and female. Does Hollister work with females?" He questions.

"No, I think he's all of the ists." Donnie says. He laid on the loveseat, taking up both seats.

"All of the ists?" Athena asks.

"You know, Sexist, Racist, et cetera." Donnie tells her.

Kenny sighs, pacing back and forth. "Can we focus please? The first thing we need to figure out is what they wanted from Louis."

"Are you sure they wanted Louis?" Donnie questions. "I mean if you were just a witness, they could've just killed you but they kept you alive. Maybe they wanted information on something both you and Louis knew about."

Athena shrugs. "It's possible, I guess." She says, glancing at me.

"So do we think Hollister did it or not?" Ralph questions, looking around the room.

Kenny looks at me, shrugging. "What do you think Julian?"

I stand up, putting the cards in my pocket. "I think I'm going to my room. Make your decision without me." I move past all of them and head back into my room.

I haven't spent much time outside my room lately. No one has attempted to even talk to me about Louis.

I sit on the floor, leaning against my bed. This hurt so much worse than my parents. The only thing that got me through their deaths was Louis. Louis and his stupid cards.

He taught me how to play his game. Like he told me, it was just cards so it only took me a couple minutes to understand the game and it's rules.

My door creaks open slightly. "Julian?" Athena asks. "Are you okay?"

I look up at her. "Do you want the short answer or the long answer?" I mumble.

Athena slowly enters my room, sitting next to me. "I want you to be honest with me."

"Each answer is honest. It just depends on the length." I tell her. I pull the deck of cards out of my pocket. "Louis called these his lucky deck." I tell her randomly.

Athena smiles slightly. "It didn't take long to find out Louis liked playing cards."

"Yeah, he told me these used to belong to his dad. He grabbed them before he was taken to the orphanage." I sniff, fighting the tears that threatened to fall.

Athena places her hands over mine. "Julian, it's going to be okay."

I shake my head. "It's hard to believe that." I nod towards the end table standing next to us. "I've been reading my Bible lately. I don't know if I understand it but I've been reading it."

Athena smiles. "I can help you with if you want. In the morning, we can read it toget-"

I press my lips against hers, entangling my hand in her hair. I pull back after a short moment. "I've waited a long time to do that" I mumble.

Athena nods, biting her lip. "There's something about you Julian. I can't explain it. I feel like maybe we were supposed to get together.”

“Like fate?” I ask her.

“Maybe but…this is going to sound crazy but I’ve been having dreams about you. Like a past life.”

I lean back towards her. "That doesn't sound weird at all." I tell her before kissing her again.

She pushes me back, giving me look. "It doesn't? But-but this was before I even met you. And..." She hesitates slightly, I assume she didn't want to sound crazy.

I sigh. "Let me guess, you're a princess of a country called Astoan? And a prince from a country called Keditha?"

Athena looks up at me, her eyes widened. "Yes!" She smiles, raising an eyebrow. "You know?"

"Let's just say I've been experiencing something similar."

Athena smiles, leaning in to kiss me. But then someone clears their throat, causing her to pause. "Sorry to interrupt." Kenny starts. "But we're heading out to grab something for supper, did you guys want to come with us?"

Athena looks at me then back at Kenny. "I'll go. Are you going to come?" She asks me.

"No, I'll stay here." She nods, squeezing my shoulder as she stands up. "I'll talk to you later."

She leaves the room with Kenny. I smile, glancing down at the cards in my hands.

I remember my deal with Hollister. I'm not sure if I could get out of it without getting myself or someone else I care about killed.

Louis would know what to do. But he wasn't here, and I was on my own.