Remi-niscent

Chapter 23:

The surprise makes me freeze like a startled rabbit caught in headlights, before I am able to slowly regain the movement of my muscles and spin around to face the owner of the voice, "You can tell me what love is?" I say disbelievingly.

"Love and the way it's projected is different for everyone. For example, I myself crave the natural connection where my soul is able to recognise the feeling of home in another. To me, love is knowing wholeheartedly and without a single doubt in my mind that my soulmate will always be there for me. Through not only the good times but the bad times as well and that in return she knows that I will always be there for her. I'll know I'm in love by the way my hearts skips every time that I see her, even if it was only the shortest time ago. Love gives you the chance to be able to experience that feeling of being inexplicably happy from just being in their mere presence. It's the fire that burns deep within your soul, that makes you crave to be near them at all times; Your body aching with the unquenchable need to touch their skin and to be close to them. But at the same time it also gives you the knowledge that you could be separated by a vast ocean and she will love you just the same." The shadowy figure pauses briefly and chuckles wryly, "Now this doesn't mean that I will always agree with her about everything all the time. No quite the opposite actually and I know that saying 'that even if we don't share the same opinion we can talk it out without someone getting hurt' is unrealistic. That's sadly never going to happen. And that's life. But when we're yelling at each other in an argument and each and every word makes my throat burn like I've just downed five shots. I know it's real. That's true love for me, being able to take all the ups and downs of this messed up world and conquer them. Together. Side by side. As one."

Pondering over the weight of his words, I'm admittedly still sceptical that this kind of feeling exists in real life and therefore question him, "And have you found this love? This person you think so highly of?"

The figure shrugs complacently, "Not yet, but I'd like to think that I am well on the way."

Bingo. There we have it, I knew it couldn't all add up, it all just sounded too good to be true. "So you're telling me about all this lovey dovey stuff and can't even say you've found it yourself?" I scoff, "That really doesn't help your case buddy."

"So you're saying you don't believe in love then?" The voice asks, sounding almost as if he's questioning my sanity.

Thinking about it more and more, I realise that while I've never actually vocalised the thought out loud, it really hits home so I slowly nod my head, "Something along the lines of that I guess."

A low sarcastic chuckle resounds from his chest, "So what happened? Who hurt you that badly that made you give up on love?"

The thick arrogance in his voice makes me narrow my eyes at him, "I don't really see how that's any of your business."

"Oh but I think it is." he says as he finally stepping out of the shadows and reveals himself.

Cynically I look up at him, "I thought you said you were done?"

Ty sighs in frustration at my obvious unwillingness to cooperate, "God dammit Remi, just let me in for once in your life and listen to me!"

Miming the action of locking my lips and throwing away the key, I gesture for him to talk.

"I didn't want to go back to face the others, not in the state I was in because I know that would have raised too many questions. So I headed back into the forest, no plan in my head but just aimlessly wandering around. Yet somehow, after everything I still find myself gravitating back here, but then I see that someone has already taken my place. To make things worse I find that it's one of my own best friends. Jase. Naturally I wanted to know what you two were talking about so instead of turning around and leaving like I should have, I stayed." He chuckles drily, "Then can you imagine my surprise when I find out that when I left everyone at the campfire earlier, the person who followed me didn't even come on her own accord. No actually she didn't even want to. But apparently my best friend can be very persuasive and convincing. But you know, it's cool." His face contorts into a grimace, "Then to top it all off, I find out that the one girl that I am falling in love with, doesn't even believe in the concept."