SOAR - Book One: DEAD HEROES

CHAPTER 14: REUNITED

14

reunited

“Odd…” Locke said as he tugged at his metal sleeves. He had taken off his jacket, waistcoat, and glasses and slipped out of his leather shoes and was lying on the bed to the left of Iris.

“What’s wrong?” Iris asked, tilting her head to the left to see what Locke was doing. She was still dressed in her pink and green shirt with red skinny jeans and purple socks from the morning and had only removed the sneakers due to the fact that she was getting ready to sleep.

“My sleeves… They aren’t coming off…” Locke muttered in frustration as he tugged furiously at his sleeves.

“What? Are they supposed to?’ Iris asked, sitting up and leaning against the headboard.

Locke looked up from his tugging and gave her a dull stare. “Obviously.” He said sarcastically and then returned to his seemingly futile attempt at pulling off the sleeves.

Iris rolled her eyes, “I didn’t know.”

She was about to lie back down onto the bed when Locke begged, “I’m sorry, can you please help? I can’t sleep with these on, they’re extremely uncomfortable.”

Iris silently smiled to herself while she was turned away from Locke, congratulating herself on having Locke apologize to her. She then dropped her face to a serious state and turned to Locke, “Of course, children can’t bear to be uncomfortable.” She threw the bed sheet to the side and went to sit down next to Locke. She reached down to Locke extended arm and was proven wrong when she expected it to easily slip off and that Locke was just being a whining baby.

“Wow. That is really stuck on there.” Iris said as her brows began to wrinkle in frustration. She tried to slip her fingers underneath the sleeve but found that it was stuck tight. “Is it normally like this?” Iris asked, running her fingers over the metal sleeves to see small and intricate purple floral patterns on it.

“You mean the pattern? Yeah, but it’s only purple when the flames are activated and it tightens so that the sleeve won’t fall off.” Locke explained as he gently pulled his arm away from Iris and restarted his attempt to pull the sleeve off.

“But it’s purple right now.” Iris said, pointing at the sleeve she was just holding.

Locke looked at her oddly and then turned his gaze towards the sleeve. He looked at it closely and picked up his glasses from the bed-side table. “Is there something wrong with your eyes newbie? The pattern is gray which means that it’s not activated.”

Iris pulled her head back in surprise, “I think you’re the one who should get your eyes checked.” She roughly pulled Locke’s arm towards her face – extracting an amusing yelp which he attempted to cover up as a cough – and examined the sleeve. She knocked on it with her forefinger and looked at Locke, “See! Purple!”

“Nope, it’s gray!” Locke raised his voice as he pointed at the intricate designs.

Iris glared at him. “Then explain to me why it tightened.”

Locke’s face fell as he attempted to think of a reason. “I – I don’t know but… Why can you see the lit up designs and I can’t?” 

Iris pondered Locke’s question and dropped his hand. She felt as if the metaphorical cogs in her brain we beginning to turn and she was finding the answer to the question. Iris felt the answer on the tip of her tongue when Locke suddenly waved his hand in front of her and shouted, “IRIS?!”

Iris was shaken from her thoughts and slightly angry when she forgot the answer she was just about to reach. “What?!” She asked grouchily. Locke looked at her with troubled eyes and Iris calmed down. “What is it?” She looked at Locke worriedly. “What’s wrong?”