This is Emmorta

11 Love is a Bitch

Evander

The space is much tighter than I remember. Probably because I was a scrawny kid when I would visit here.

I spent more time here than clergy in a church.

Fact check me, bitches. I'm a damn god.

Hours. I'd spend hours watching this wall, without blinking, waiting for it to transform into a pitch black stage with nothing more than the girl on the other side. The only time my stomach was in knots was the possibility I would never see her again.

I just wanted to know her. Or stare, if she couldn't see me. Break through that barrier, and maybe pull her in or follow her. Maybe touch her fingers again.

Would she let me smell her hair? Or pinch her toes? I liked she wasn't wearing shoes.

For the first time, I felt something. It wasn't just a touch like all the rest—bland and sometimes uncomfortable. It emanated a feeling that thrummed from beneath my skin, through my blood, and into the marrow of my bones. Of all creatures, she could penetrate that godly flesh of mine.

I either wanted to kill her or touch her more and I couldn't figure out which until the tiny fibers of our skin met again.

The long cracks in the sparkling granite run along the wall in all different directions. They're scars from where I bashed my skull in multiple times trying to get to her.

Newsflash: it never worked. All I got was a lousy headache and the occasional dull vision in my left eye if I lean my head back too far.

I stared at the wall until my vision went spotty and my boyish heart, that thin string of innocence left in me, stopped when I thought it was her appearing on the other side.

She never showed. All I had was a name no one knew and a ribbon.

If I wasn't careful, they'd think I was crazy.

Her memory was nothing more than a taunt. Of course, I eventually gave in and told myself she wasn't real and I probably imagined her. It made sense. We never came across such a being like her wherever we went and whenever people brought up unique creatures, it was never Rune they spoke of. No one ever mentioned a girl with the creepy yet innocent demeanor who could wield power with her curiosity. Nor did they mention the etheric girl that could make a dead man blink twice.

Perhaps that would have been even more cruel. Find her while still young enough and growing, still capable of making better impressions on her. Growing up together as a family.

What would that look like?

The sister down the hall from me I'm not supposed to feel certain things over? Would they be mad if I brought her into my bed every night?

What if someone tried to kiss her in school?

Better yet, would she have shared my feelings if she knew? It's not like I missed the way people watched her.

Orion thinks she doesn't feel, but she does. She feels for me. Everything and everyone else? Not a chance.

But it's unfair all around.

After everything my parents have sacrificed for us, they got their little slice of happiness back. They don't deserve for their son to demoralize every last cell in her body.

Considering how quickly Pops reacted when I mentioned others would want a piece of Rune—that throaty vein protruding and murderous gleam in his eye—he doesn't want anyone coming near her and taking her away from him again. Knowing what's already been done to her, he's trying to protect her from however close she'll allow him.