The Book of Gemma VOL. 2

31: AM I STILL A TRICKSTER?

My chance of speaking to her is fleeting, now is my chance.

It's silent in the house as Aries leaves for Darus to get Edna and I look through the slat, Gemini sitting on the kitchen island and staring at the front door. She was going to summon Pollux to distract her and I needed her stop. I needed her to focus on me, the God who needs her now more than ever. Strengthening my powers from Olympus was like skipping to the end of a book and expecting to know the entire story. I knew I could do these things but.. I am lost and she was always my beacon.

"Gemini?" I say twice as she ignores the first, pulling her focus from the door. She shakes her head, still not looking up to me.

"You didn't lose me." I admit to her, missing her smile. She puts her face in her hands, "Please, don't." She begs but this time I ignore it, I need her to see me. To see I am not a monster, I'm just a hurt soul needing guidance to this hate that tries to cloud my mind.

"I should have stayed that night."

I should've, I should have come back through that front door and stopped fighting the urge to be with her. To be her partner of the stars, to be by her side despite the fear of losing her again... I can't-.. I won't lose her again.

"Stop." She begs again.

"I should have broken those boundaries we set for each other, we should have never drawn them in the first place... I was so scared of losing you again that I-.. made sure we didn't get that close again but Gemini.. I am drawn to you like a siren and I don't care for the danger that may follow in your depths.. I do not want to hurt your Zodiacs and I am trying my best to not let this hate cloud my judgment but I need your guidance.. I need you, Gemini."

I lay it all out on the table for her and begged her not to shatter the table I lay it on. She jumps off the kitchen island and paces back and forth, not removing her face from the palm of her hands. "He is tricking you, Gemini. Do not let him in." She repeats to herself and my heart sinks.

"I am not tricking you. Keep me in this room for years and I still just want you to look at me through the slat, to just talk to me, to be next to me."

She finally takes her face from her hands and looks up to me, my heart stopping at the beauty of her eyes that once turned my stomach. She didn't have the eyes of those pink demons on Veedu, she had the eyes of endless pink glittery pools of the galaxy. I had forgotten how they took the breath away from me so easily, even her dark one had made me appreciate the evil she destroyed with it.

I say to her without hesitation, "God's, you are beautiful... How did I ever get the time of day from you?"

I see her lip twitch as she fights a side smile, her cheeks pink as she blushes.

"You made me laugh." She replies to me and I want to collapse on the floor as she finally lets me peek through the window she has cracked for us to interact.

"I just wanted to see you smile that night and you graced me with a laugh."

She smiles at the ground, arms crossed behind her back as she takes a couple steps towards the bottom of the staircase. All of her friends have warned her that it was easy for me to sway her but how could I not say these things about her? My heart is in a blender when she shuts me out. It honestly turns me on when she gets this giddy about me flirting with her.

"I'm not letting you out." She sneers, making her way to the top and sitting beside the door.

"You don't have to.. Speaking to you is all I have wanted these past couple weeks."

She snorts a bit, laying her back against the door next to the slat.

"I thought you wanted to kill me." Her bold joke makes her nervous for my reaction but I chuckle a bit.

"I'm sorry I spoke to you that way, you didn't deserve that."

She grows silent for a moment, "Do you really mean it? That you should have come back that night I asked you to stay?"

I click my tongue, "I should have made you stay all week at my house on Darus that night you came to Cosmic Cocktails. Friends? Ha..ha.. What a lie we tried to make ourselves believe we could do."

I hear her whimper a bit and I turn back to the slat in worry I have upset her.

"Are you okay?" I ask, seeing the side of her face.

"If you are saying this to trick me into letting you out.. It is very cruel."

My face falls and I panic she will leave me alone again. I wasn't tricking her, I was begging for her presence.

"Gemini I am not tricking you... I'll prove it." I stand up from the door and pace to the back of the room and shout to her, "Come in!"

She scoffs at the slat, "Nice try."

I roll my eyes, "Gemini, you can kill me in less than ten minutes and I'm too far from the door to race to it. As soon as you come in, you can hit the lock button in here, Aries can let you out when he returns.. Please.. You have not lost me, trust me."

It's silent as she debates it, no Pollux or Aries to stop her.

I hear the door unlatch and pin my body to the back wall. She opens it a crack and slinks through. Her being this close and open before me sends a smile to my face to see her.

She closes the door and presses the button, locking us both in here. Last time this happened, she choked the life out of me until my neck snapped... Darus, was this a good idea?

She looks at me and tears brim my eyes at the sight of her.

"You trusted me." I cry to her and she slowly nods, "Do not make me regret it."

I cover my mouth and wipe my tears as it leaves my face and she smirks to me as I still pin myself to the wall.

She fiddles with her thumbs.

"Am I stupid for giving into you so easily?"

I clasp my hands behind my back, "No... I promise this is not a trick."

She scrunches her face in a cute nervous way, like a teenager running into her crush. "We can never be just friends can we?"

I knew she liked small physical gestures but I didn't want to scare her off. I slowly take a step to her, "Because we were meant to be so much more, no matter how our paths crossed.. You will always be the beacon.. the lighthouse I look for in the darkest of nights to steer me away from danger."

She tries to hide her cheesy smile by looking over to the wall beside her.

"I always fall for the way you describe me as poetry."

Her little giggle makes my heart flutter at the missed sound of it.

I sit beside her on the bed and walk on eggshells on how I speak to her, not wanting her to leave if I said the wrong thing. She understood me though, a sense of pride on her face as I told her I didn't want to feed into the dark thoughts. I tell her how yes, Scorpz did erase my mind for thousands of years but.. She led me to Gemini. She tried to do the right thing near the end. My fists ball up a bit as she asks me how I feel about Sage, "That is the one I am struggling with, how do you forgive someone who burned your entire planet?"

She bites her lip, chewing on how to explain how brainwashed the Zodiacs are to Vyx.

"Vyx makes Zodiacs feel.. Needed. As if what they are commanded to do, really is for the greater good of the galaxies. That the ones who refuse our help are damned souls and we should cleanse the planet they tread on. Your planet isn't like most, I'm utterly surprised Vyx would even send one of us to Olympus. I've heard stories of the marvelous things your father and uncles did for your planet, they should not have been cleansed from it... I don't think Sage knew exactly the evil he unleashed on your innocent planet. Greek God's are.. Powerful.. God's that Vyx could never control. Therefore Sage shouldn't have been there, the war he could have started between Starzithians and Greeks could damage Vyx's throne."

I grit my teeth as flashes of burning houses on Olympus flash through my mind. Gemini notices and places her hand on top of mine, "Sage has caused less deaths and massacre than me.. I know this was personal to you but look to the sun.. He risked his life to come here and be in our fight. He wants to be good, just like all of us."