Slay My Soul

Chapter 6 Luka

I shake the cigarette pack at Eve and raise a brow. She nods and my heart leaps with joy. We sit on the stairs out back with Eve sitting between my legs, leaning back on me. I light hers first, then my own, as we puff away in silence. Her line of sight is glued to the mound of dirt in the distance, with its white headstone glowing in the light of the moon. I attempt to distract her.

“So, I take it you saw Marcus?” I ask, my lips curving into a smile as she snorts.

“Yeah, what’s left of him. Sirus was slapping his face with his own arm when I walked in,” She chuckles.

Sirus had removed Marcus’s arms and legs last week, cauterizing the wounds so he didn’t bleed out. He liked to use the now decaying body parts to torment the broken man. It was creative but sick as fuck. At least he had something to focus his inner darkness on.

“Your father has issues.” I shake my head laughing.

“Fuck, don’t we all?” Eve groans. “I think I should put Marcus out of his misery. He’s been punished more than enough don’t you think?” I nod in agreement.

“Will you sleep with us tonight Eve? We miss you,” I tell her, kissing the top of her head. She sighs.

“Yes, but can we just throw some mattresses down in the lounge? I can’t go back to that bed without him in it. It’s just not right.”

“I’m sure we can do that,” I tell her, wrapping my arm around her front and cuddling her to me. “How did today go for you?”

“It went,” she shrugs. “Part of me keeps waiting for him to walk through the door and yell out ‘jokes!’ Part of me hopes this is a bad dream. But inside my soul is shredded and bleeding, as it screams for him. It hurts Luka, it hurts so much. It’s hard to just keep breathing, to function in any capacity. I want him back. I just miss him you know?” Her voice wavers as she tries to suppress her emotions. She takes a deep shuddering breath, trying to ground herself.

“I know Amor,” I say, holding her tight. I know how much she hurts, we all do. We felt her pain as it rippled through us when her grief exploded that day. We saw her crawl through her pain to get to him, while Darius's own pain held him immobile. Her strength and love were beyond anything I had ever seen. That inner strength of hers is what is going to keep her going, and the love we have for her will help her find a way through it.

I wait for her to flick her cigarette butt away before leading her back inside.

“Would you guys be keen on a slumber party type of deal tonight down here?” She asks. The guys grin and immediately start moving furniture back, while others head off to drag mattresses down from upstairs. Before long the beds are sorted and we are all piled on, drinks in hand as Eve grabs the remote and puts on Netflix.

“What are we watching sweet cheeks?” Dev asks.

“Space! The final frontier,” Eve says.

“These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise,” Dev's eyes light up as he continues the speech.

“It's continuing mission, to explore strange new worlds,” Darius laughs, squeezing her to him.

“To seek out new life and new civilizations,” Garret calls out dramatically.

"To boldly go where no one has gone before!" We all yell, clinking our glasses and cracking up, while Carino looks at us like we have lost the plot.