starry eyes ✮ slashers.

chapter 037.

thirty seven. human nature.

Her skin is blotchy and searing to the touch, her eyes remain closed but he can see her eyeballs rolling back into her skull every few moments. From within her sleep, she whimpers and rolls over, arms outstretched with a small cry.

"Bo?" Tom winces physically at her reaching for a man that's not him in her time of need. He wonders if Bo could have anything to do with her strange fate. He had once considered the fact she and him were soulmates—unable to believe someone so sweet would ever love a killer if it wasn't written in the stars. And then Brahms came along, then the two ghost boys. And Bo and the others in the town.

It's too much of a coincidence to ignore, no one just stumbles upon killer after killer, it's like she unknowingly seeks them. Which would be fine as long as she wasn't in a supernaturally enduced coma—type situation. They had no clue what caused it and nothing to help them beside Tom's harrowing mind.

Then Tom considers that she might be soulmates with multiple people, himself, Brahms, Bo for example—and while his blood boils and his frustration rises, there's something there. There's a little voice in his mind that's screaming at him that he's onto something here. He ignores his jealousy for the sake of the beautiful girl unconscious and writhing on the bed.

He wonders why she hadn't gotten sick like this in absence of him while she was with the sinclair's—perhaps her new soulmate Bo had distracted her from the pain. But he couldn't help her now, he's have to retrieve Bo, he grumbles in dismay.

Pleading with anyone above listening that this is the answer and he isn't wasting his and Lyra's precious time, he grabs the keys on the bedside table and kisses her forehead gently, frowning when she hadn't burnt him like she'd burnt brahms. He smiles and squeezes her hand, leaving the room with determination set on his features.

He walks out to the table with Brahms, Edward and Carrie all hunched around it, discussing ways to help their friend. They look up expectantly at Tom when he enters.

"One of you watch over her while i'm gone. I'll be about five hours if this runs smoothly. I've gotta find the asshole that fucked my wife when we were separated and bring him here. I think they're soulmates—like me and her. Like you guys." He gestured to Carrie and Edward. "And Lyra's having a bad reaction to being separated from him."

Carrie and Edward squeeze each others hand, their hearts soaring at being told they're soulmates. They knew it but hearing it from Tom who they both look up to was a brilliant experience.

"I watch her." Brahms chirps, nodding at Tom in goodbye as he goes over to her room. Brahm's heart aches and his throat threatens to stop allowing air into his lungs. Why can't he be Lyra's soulmate? Why did Tom not say he was? That must mean Lyra doesn't want him. He shakes his head and sits beside the unconscious girl, his eyes glued to her face.

Maybe someday they'll be soulmates, but not today, Brahms concludes, happy with himself enough to wait for the painful hurt feeling to pass over.

Tom had been dreading his return to Ambrose every road he turned onto, every bend he whizzed around, every location he remembered passing with Lyra, but didn't get the fortune of being with her most the time she spent there. No matter how he drills Bo or Lyra herself, Tom will never know entirely what she did on those few days they were apart.