the game

kally

I'm walking back to the dorm when I bump into Luke. And when I say bump into him, I literally do. I don't know if he's the one that's lost or me. We simply look at each other, and I was about to be mad about it but then I see something in his eyes. A splintering sadness.

"Hey Luke," I smile.

He looks to me absently, giving me a grunt in response. My brows furrow.

"What's wrong?" He blinks at me as if he's never considered me someone who cared. I clench my fists. A ball of regret has been living in the pit of my stomach. Maybe I didn't know Luke as well as I thought I did. Or maybe, I never let myself think he was the same kind of creature I was. I've always been above him. So why? Why do I feel so small now?

"Luke," I continue because he still hasn't responded. He looks at me again. He looks like Kassie last year, last year before she sold her soul to her mother's dreams. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. Kassie has worked her whole life to be her mother's puppet, why would she stop now? I was a puppet until the end of last year too, I guess it's to be expected. But not Luke, never before has he worn such a helpless expression.

"Let's go find a place to talk," I slowly reach out and place my right hand against his sinuous cool back. His body leans into the warmth of my hand and then when his eyes find mine he pulls away, as if he's just realizing we're touching. I shove my hands in my pockets. Since he has a thin form I never noticed how muscular he was. His frame hunches forward from his guitar playing, and just like always he has his hair wrapped in a messy bun at the back of his head. He's beautiful where Ken was hot. His dimenor is calmed, even in his anxiety. His anger always lathered in a film of justice.

He pulls me into his room and shuts the door. For some reason the distance between us feels too small. I'm sure he can feel me burning.

"I can absorb power Kally," his voice sounds distant, distraught.

"And? I thought everyone could do that?" I sit down on his bed, spreading the distance between us like butter. He sits down next to me as if we're tied together. My heart is uncomfortable, and my skin feels warmer than usual. Is this room hot?

He sighs and pulls his hair out of the hair tie. Golden red brown falls down shimmering to his chest. He pushes his hair away from his face and behind his right ear.

"Only a few of us can, especially healers. One of the last ones is the reason why a power depleter exists," and he lays back across the bed. I lay down next to him. His eye lashes border his eyes like a fence guiding attention to his eyes.

"Oh," I don't get it, what's he upset about?

"I can't kill people," he mutters to the ceiling. I trace the line from the top of his part to the bend of his nose to the bend of his upper lip. To the dip of his chin and the frame of his jaw.

I look up at the ceiling then.

"Me either," I bend my elbows so my hands rest behind my head. I feel the cool of his skin against my elbow. I gulp and don't move.

"I've seen you kill all the time, I mean, isn't that what Ken and you were made for?" He asks stunned. He projects himself up onto his elbow to look at me and his hair like a waterfall falls in front of his shoulder. He's like sunshine, ocean sand, leaves rustling in the wind. Calm.

"I mean killing someone so they don't regenerate," I smile. Maybe I am the ocean, maybe he was the sand all this time. And the thought makes me chuckle. The thought that I told him I would never love him.

He falls back to laying next to me.

"So what do we do now?" He asks the ceiling.

I gulp in the sea.

"I don't know, but at least we know we're on the same side."