Red String of Fate - Thiam

Chapter 15 - Everything and nothing

December 8th

Liam P.O.V.

I pay attention to sounds inside my home. The silence is only broken by heartbeats and calm breathing. Theo in the next room must be sleeping peacefully since his heartbeat is the calmest.

However, I can't fall asleep. I don't understand why it's so easy to nap during the day when I'm talking to Theo, but so hard to fall asleep at night. My mind won't shut up and thoughts won't leave me alone.

Harper often says that two in the morning is the time for those who think too much, for those who look for an answer in silence and emptiness. She's right. It feels like I'm looking for an answer to a question I haven't even defined yet. Being awake at night is as if we are the only person alive in the world and that is as peaceful as it is terrifying.

I sit next to the window and watch the world outside, everything is peaceful. There are no cars, there are no people. The only sign of life is a black cat walking through the bushes.

The four walls of my room seem to start shrinking over time and it becomes difficult to breathe. I open the window and go to the small balcony, then I move my body over the sill and jump to the ground. My feet, just covered by socks, touch the floor and I leave the house, jumping over the gate.

"What are you doing?"

I jump at those words and turn towards the sound.

"What are you doing?" I ask with my heart still beating wildly. "You were in your room just now"

Theo looks at me without any expression on his face.

"I asked first."

I roll my eyes.

"I couldn't sleep. I thought I'd go for a walk."

"I heard you coming out of the room, I wanted to make sure you were okay and that you weren't going to run four miles away from Beacon Hills again." Theo is leaning against his truck and has his arms crossed. I approach him but still keep some distance.

"I don't think I'll do that again." I murmur.

"Do you want to go for a night drive?" Theo asks, unlocking the truck. "That's what I usually do when I can't sleep."

"Sure."

I get in the truck after Theo. He turns on the radio at a low volume, and rolls down the windows.

"Where are we going?"

"Wherever the road takes us."

Theo starts driving away and we stay silent. This silence doesn't bother me, it's comfortable. Theo seems to understand my silence and doesn't mind at all that I don't speak. I understand his silence too.

Theo stops the truck on a deserted dirt road surrounded by trees and opens the door.

"Come here."

I get out of the truck too and watch Theo take a blanket and a pillow from the back seat and throw everything into the open area in the back of the truck.

Theo lies down, taking complete possession of the only pillow. I lie down too but I use his belly as a pillow. He doesn't seem to bother. We look up at the night sky and watch the stars.

"Do you know anything about constellations?" I ask curiously.

"A little." His belly moves beneath me when he talks. "I know that's the North Star."

He points to a point in the sky and I follow his gaze..

"And there is Ursa Major. There's Leo, and there's Draco. The Leo constellation is easy to identify because of the curved star line, which represents the lion's mane."

I look for the constellations he indicates and feel my body relax.

"Do you know anything?" he asks.

"I only know the myths, I have no idea how to identify them in the sky."

"Tell me about them."

"Leo is also called the Lion, to the ancient Greeks, the constellation represented the Nemean lion. The lion was killed by Heracles during the first of his Twelve Labours. Heracles could not defeat the lion with arrows, so he trapped it in its cave, he fought with the beast and eventually defeated it. The lion was placed on the sky since he was known as the King of the Beasts. His brightest star, Regulus, marks its heart."

I glance at Theo who already has his gaze fixed on me. He looks... impressed.

"How do you know all this?" His voice is low.

"I love history and myths, I find them interesting and I like reading about them. My favorite is Lyra's. Lyra represents the lyre of Orpheus. Orpheus was the son of King Oeagrus and the muse Calliope. Apollo gave Orpheus a golden lyre and taught him to play, while his mother taught him to write verses. When Orpheus's wife Eurydice passed he went to the underworld to retrieve her. Once there, his song deeply moved Hades and his wife Persephone and they agreed to return Eurydice to the world of the living on one condition: Orpheus should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. Orpheus looked back too soon, causing Eurydice to vanish forever. When he passed Zeus sent an eagle or a vulture to get the lyre and placed them both among the stars." I stop talking when I realize that Theo probably isn't interested in this. "Am I talking too much?"

"Not at all, I like hearing you talk about the things you like. The sparkle in your eyes is priceless."

I smile and ask Theo to show me where the Lyra constellation is placed in the sky. We stayed there talking about everything and nothing, about stars and myths, about the moon and the universe. At that moment I felt like no one else in the world could understand me like Theo. My eyes start to feel heavy and I fall asleep feeling Theo's breathing beneath me.

I wake up when I feel movement around me and when I open my eyes slightly I realize that we are back at home and that Theo has gently placed me on my bed. Now comfortable, I quickly fall asleep again.

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Hi! 

Do you like greek mythology? If so, what is your favorite myth or story?

Megan x