What Lies Between ✔

Dark Tunnels

17

Kairos

"They've found me!" I squeaked.

"Who has?" Berit asked, leaning over to look past Ben.

"How do you know they're here?" Ben asked me, shutting Berit out.

"I-I just get this feeling. I feel their presence."

"Whose presence?" Adrian asked, looking worriedly at me through the rear-view mirror.

"The Seekers," I said, and added in a much smaller voice, "My friend, Lidia."

"Whoa! The ones you said hunt the Ghosts?" Berit's eyes were wide with excitement. "They're here?"

"That's not a good thing!" Ben growled at him before turning his attention back to me. "Listen Kairos, they haven't found you yet, they're just in close proximity. Can they feel your presence like you feel theirs?"

I shook my head. "They never did in Purgatory when I approached."

"But she didn't have energy then," Kanoa pointed out from the passenger seat, turned fully around so that her chin was resting on the headrest.

"And since I am part Demon..." My voice trailed off, thinking of the sick, gut-wrenching feeling a demonic presence caused.

"You don't throw off that feeling," Ben said, reading my mind. "We all would be scared shitless right now if you did. They have no way of finding you unless we're not careful."

"I promised Lidia that if she or Thorne found me, I would go without a fight," I remembered. But I didn't want to leave. I didn't want to ever go back to Purgatory. This realm was beautiful, this realm was alive. This realm had been my mother's. If it was difficult dwelling in Purgatory before, it would be infinitely more devastating now that I had known such vitality in the Living Realm. Being thrown once more back into banality would be the very worst kind of unbearable.

I looked around at the faces of the people I had befriended – well, maybe was growing closer to befriending. I wanted to bond more. I wanted to drink coffee and try every bit of food I could get my hands on. I wanted to listen to the boom of a thunder storm, watch the lightning streak the sky. To experience the feeling of being steadily pelted by rain. I wanted to feel the wind's coolness caress my skin. To listen to all genres of music. I wanted sunburns that brought peeling. I wanted hangnails, pimples, itches, sweat. I wanted to braid Kanoa's hair like they did in those stories about sleepovers and other friendly rituals. I wanted to hear Adrian's eccentric talk, Berit's matter-of-factly tone, Justice's heavy snoring. Even Zuri's antipathy towards me. But most of all, I wanted to bicker back and forth with Ben. To listen to his snarkiness and cursing. To see the scowl he naturally wore that made those rare moments when he let out a hint of a smile even more special. I wanted to see him really smile.

I wanted to live.

"Don't worry," Ben said.

"What?" I asked, pulling myself away from my thoughts.

"I won't let them take you," he said, looking more serious than I had ever seen him.

My stomach gave a weird, fluttery lurch. I stared back at him, trying to conjure something to say. He wanted me to stay, maybe if only to help him stay away from the Demons, but that was enough for me. I could not remember a time where I wasn't an unwelcome presence, so actually being needed meant the world to me, even rendered me speechless. In the end, I simply whispered, "Thank you."

"Me neither!" Kanoa said, breaking Ben's hold on my eyes.

I smiled at her, trying to control the mass of emotions swelling in my gut, threatening to flood out my eyes.