Parallel Lines- *RAYOR*

Chapter 5

Where's the kid who used to slide down the banisters, singing songs?

He's gone.

Nicco seems to have let it go, but I'm not going to take any chances.

He didn't forgive for a very long time, but once he did he forgot. Well, that was what Levy says.

Zack says it's okay too, so I guess that means something.

He just looks tired the next day. I feel the same. My wings seem twice as heavy and it's hard to look straight. But I think it's just because I've been so stressed out. Blake isn't talking to me that much, but when she gets over last year she will, I think. It doesn't mean that I forgive myself for it. I'm so mad at how I acted. The way she took it was justifiable. But I still feel a pang of annoyance when she hangs out with Aster instead of me.

When I wake up, the next room is empty. It's not even five A.M. but I know she likes to go for early swims in the morning to keep her head clear. I have never seen how physically exerting yourself can give you pleasure, even if it's a game or something. I just read, or sit by a lake. Or talk to Zack. He's basically my subconscious therapist.

When the time comes, it comes, says Zack. He speaks in a voice a lot like Kyle's. Soft and a little deeper than mine. I never really knew Kyle, but I like his voice. It's the sort that could send a person to sleep.

I don't answer Zack. Sometimes I'm too tired to, or scared that someone will hear. I cannot wake up for real though so I fill a basin with ice water and dunk my head in.

"D-" I splutter, cursing. It's like an electric shock. But I'm definitely awake now. I change my clothes, which are altered to fit my wings. Then I look out over the garden, briefly taking in the running water and the sun cresting the tip of the horizon, staining it rosy pink. The pomegranates hang from the tree like droplets of blood.

I go out and walk for a bit, frequently stopping to rest myself. My wings drag against the floor, and my shoulder blades hurt. I used to have painkillers, some sort of medication for them when I was younger because it hurt so much. When I got older they stopped. People assumed I didn't feel it anymore.

I creep downstairs and see Arielle coming out of a guest room. "I didn't know you were here," she says.

"I live here," I say. "Why are you here?"

"Blake invited me."

"Did something happen?" I ask.

"No, I just feel lonely." It's clear she wants someone to vent to. But I'm not that person.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I say, then quickly walk away. She doesn't say anything but I hear the door close.

I spend maybe two hours by the riverbank, then I pick off a pomegranate and eat half, instinctively stopping to save it for Blake. This is good, because it kills time. Then I wrap it up in a leaf and put it on a table in one of our living rooms. If she finds it, she finds it.

With still a little time left, I brush my teeth again, and sweep back my hair, which is getting in my eyes. I feel tired again, my limbs like lead- lethargic, sluggish, useless. But I can't go to sleep. Even if I could I wouldn't have time.

I arrive at Levy and Nicco's house a few minutes early. It's a pleasant, sickeningly quaint place. This is the only house in miles which still has flowers growing in the flowerboxes, though they haven't been tended to and there are a lot of dead leaves in there. I wonder why their mother didn't clear it up, because she's a tidy sort of person. Then I remember that she has a lot of deaths assigned to her.

A few months ago, Death changed the system, giving us each a designated area to reap in so we wouldn't exhaust ourselves with the travel. It's been working well but some reapers get so many people, and others too little. Sometimes we help each other.

But I suppose Aster's mother got more people. She's already gone. I can tell because her bedroom curtains have been drawn out and she's not here.

Nicco and Levy come out, and we walk to the barrier. I brace myself to step into it, and a stabbing pain jerks me forwards. I fall into the portal, through nothingness, and try to pull myself together. I grit my teeth and clutch the scythe that I know my morals will never allow me to use, thinking of the place where I need to go. And black out.

It was Nicco who saved me from drowning in the Atlantic Ocean. He'd grabbed my hand and used his strength to teleport both of us to safety.

When I open my eyes, everything is blurry and pale, way too pale. Am I going blind? Something rips through my body- an animal instinct, a need to survive- and I sit up, shielding my face. I'm dripping wet, cold fingers of some icy creature wrapped around me. I'm shivering. I taste salt on my lips and start to shake. What just happened?

"Gabriel! No, sit down!" says Nicco, annoyed. His form sparkles, even in the paleness of it all, and I know he's wet as well.

"I can't see you," I say. I almost shout. "I can't see you!" I repeat, and for some reason I'm shaking. My wings are hurting my back, and I think I nicked them on something in the fall.

"It's just shock!" says Nicco. There's a clatter and I flinch back.

"It's just Levy," says Nicco.

"What happened?" says Levy.

"I don't know," I say. I reach out blindly, trying to grip onto something to bring me to my feet, and find a ledge of rock.

"He fell into the Atlantic. I saved him," says Nicco proudly. I can bet that he'll inform Blake of this. At this thought, my heart sinks. What will she say? Will Nicco tell Blake that I haven't been reaping? I don't think he will, but I'm still apprehensive.

My vision slowly clears, but it's still like I'm watching something through a frosted window. Something happened to my retinas. "I still- everything's still blurry," I say in panic. I can see where Levy and Nicco's faces are, but not their features, not their expressions.

"It will clear in a few minutes," says Levy but his tone is doubtful. I can tell they're worried. Are they exchanging glances? I think so but I can't... see.

I shake on my feet, gripping onto the ledge of rock.

"Do you need some time to-" starts Levy.

"No," I say, realising only after how brusque my tone was. My vision is clearing- slowly, slowly, so slow I can't stop holding my breath. And everything is still so worryingly pale.

So we go into the hospital from yesterday. Levy does my reapings. Nicco isn't angry anymore. In fact, between him cooling off and how unsteady I am on my feet he is positively amicable towards me. I'm glad.

When I go home, Blake's there, early. "Why are you here?" I ask.

"Aster told me that the twins said you were ill," says Blake.

"I'm not ill," I say. "Just tired."

"You shouldn't wake up so early," Blake admonishes. I feel a twinge of annoyance.

"That's hypocritical. You wake up at the crack of dawn to go 'swimming'." My fingers sketch quotation marks around the last word. Her face refuses to go hard, though.

"You need to sleep."

"I'm not tired."

"You just said you were," says Blake, and I bite down on my tongue to stop myself scowling. It doesn't work.

"I mean- fine, I don't feel well. I almost drowned in the Atlantic. Happy?" My clothes have dried long before but I shudder as I remember the chill, the icy water. The saltiness on my lips.

"I'm not. How come you're so tired?" Blake surveys my face with a look of worry. It's been so long since I've looked at her full-on. Her eyes are stormy. Her hair still brushes past her collarbone where it used to stop sharply. Her sharp gaze gave her a fox-like quality of slinking predators and treacherous snow-capped mountains. She has grown up in these past few years. I hadn't noticed.

"Where's the kid who used to slide down the banisters, singing songs?"

"He's gone." I spit out. I have only a few seconds of satisfaction seeing the look on her face, then turn and stalk up the stairs.