lifeline ⇾ kai parker

42┃warped sensibility

CHAPTER FORTY TWO

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

THERE WAS A SENSE OF resentment accompanying her visit to the Salvatore School this time. The wide hallway she was walking down might as well have been memory lane. She remembered parading around this very corridor with Kai right after it had been discovered that she was de-transitioning. Windows she had looked out gave her a precise view of the backyard, where they had their wedding. Even a dorm she had passed, locked shut and probably now filled with strangers' belongings, was recognized as the same room Mila and Kai had shared long ago when they were sleeping over.

Recalling fragments of the past only seemed to unstitch fresh wounds and cause the ache to return to the traceable scars along her ribcage, proof of the scathed attempts to claw out her heart. The muscle with its sputtering aorta and wailing chambers was still functioning but in a disastrous manner. The commotion of her heartbeat used to battle for peace; now it has waved its white flag and allowed itself to align with fate's detrimental, inescapable plans.

One thing was for sure: the only world where her and Kai could be together was the one forged of backfired magic from the devil himself. Where they were the only real thing but still enough to make the planet spin on its axis. Where they could live outside of the stakes of death. Left only to worry about the intensity of how much they loved each other — the most beautiful concern anyone could have.

An ajar door and recognizable voices lure Mila to a stop outside the twins' bedroom. She peers in, drawing herself out of thoughts that mirrored her depleted will. She's noticed immediately by devious light blue eyes.

"Mila. Glad you're here. Will you please tell my sister that she needs to drool over one loner werewolf at a time before I have to sew a scarlet letter on her?" Lizzie turns to look back over at her sister. "And, no, it won't be an A. It will be a R. For rabies. Which is exactly what shot you'll need to get if you don't get your priorities straight."

Josie knocks shoulders with her at the offensive observation while Mila steps further into the room. Any other time she probably would have already been smiling from the girls' banter, but she had clearly been struggling to find the optimism she had when she first came back. She hadn't even planned on stopping by to catch up with her nieces; she had only gathered the motivation to come here to update Hope, but Mila couldn't find her. Apparently, from what she's heard, Hope was off somewhere blowing off steam because of problems with her boyfriend. Mila could definitely relate to that.

"Lizzie," Josie scolds before reverting her attention back to Mila, who had joined them on Lizzie's bed. "Don't mind her. How are you feeling? Did... did everything go okay? With Kai? Hope told me you were going to talk to him."

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure Hope told you everything," Lizzie mocked. Josie huffed but decided to let the comment slide, waiting on an answer from
her aunt.

"Yeah... I did. A few days ago. I don't think he's working with the Necromancer, but he— it's not going to work. Him helping us out. He needs to be left alone for now," she explains, stammering a bit but getting her message across.

"He still doesn't remember you?"

"No, and he still doesn't want to, either. I can't convince him. I thought I could, I thought if I spent enough time with him, that'd he'd feel something good and be reminded of what it was like. Instead, I only managed to piss him off."