Chasing Freedom (Book 2)

Chapter Twenty: Diana (Skylar)

Chapter Twenty: Diana (SKYLAR)

"Why'd you do it?" I ask Cole.

I have no idea where we're going, but judging by the way Cole walks a few steps ahead of me, his face etched in concentration, I imagine he's trying to get us to a place that he's only ever heard about from someone else.

"Do what?" he responds, his voice soft, like he wasn't really paying any attention.

"Follow me all the way out here," I reply, my words rushed and loud. I notice his hesitation and am quick to explain, "I mean, you have a pretty great life in The City of Lost Souls. You have no worries, girls love you, Grayson's a good guy and an even better friend. Kyla pretty much worships at your alter, and you're far enough away from your past that you don't ever have to think about it again if you don't want to. It just doesn't make sense that you'd go out of your way to do all this for me when you don't have to or possibly, even want to."

"You could never take from The City of Lost Souls as much as The City of Lost Souls could take from you," he says with a quirked brow and then sombers up when I shoot him a look.

"My life, along with everything else in The City of Lost Souls, is an illusion," Cole starts. "I do the same thing every day; wake up in the same house, surrounded by the one thing that reminds me most of my past, go outside and see the dark clouds, meet up with friends, go to parties, and try not to get killed. It's exhilarating, it's not dangerous or thrilling; there's nothing to it. At least coming with you adds some danger to something so dull and boring."

I stare at him blankly for a moment before bursting into laughter. "What?" he asks, staring back at me with a grin, like something as simple as my laughter brought him the easy kind of happiness I suspect he never had before.

"You're following me, all the way out here and risking getting killed by Axel or worse because you're bored with your life?" I laugh as I shake my head, once again being reminded of how different our lives are.

Sure, we'd both come from broken families, but his lifestyle was so different from mine that it was almost the same.

Cole shrugs with a smile, but I can see the lie forming on his tongue, just like I saw it when he first started speaking. There's no doubt that I trust him, because I do, but there was something about his story that just wasn't adding up. "I'm a restless guy; what can I say?"

"But there's so much that you left behind," I blurt unintentionally. "And I don't mean the people, because certainly a bunch of desperate bimbos have no significance to you. But The City of Lost Souls was home for you, and your house, even more. It's everything that you've ever known. You didn't get to stop by and take some things, hell Cole, you didn't even get the chance to look around the place before you left it behind forever."

He chuckles a little before clearing his throat, the whole act of it intriguing me, "what?" I ask a little defensively.

"Nothing," he shrugs with another chuckle, "it's just such a mundane thing to say."

I roll my eyes in annoyance.

He raises his eyebrow at me, "weren't you the one that told me that home isn't a place, but a feeling?" I remain silent and he bumps his shoulder into mine playfully, "there isn't anything in that house that's of any significance to me anyways. It's all easily replaceable, and besides, I already have everything I need right here."

I blush slightly, not entirely understanding why Cole felt like we were so much more than we actually were; which was simply two people that had met in an unfortunate chain of events and didn't exactly know what to do without each other after that.