A Year of Fragile Hearts

Chapter 6 | Hurricanes

Chapter 6 | Hurricanes

  "It's stranger than every strangeness

And the dreams of all the poets

And the thoughts of all the philosophers,

That things are really what they seem to be

And there's nothing to understand." 

- Alberto Caeiro, from The Keeper of Sheep

Listen to All of the Pieces by Reigan

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The sky is filled with faint colors. It looks like a fading colorful soul; peaceful and slow and steady and beautiful, all at once. I feel a smile tugging at my lips, the corners of my mouth lifting up in the slightest bit ever, my brain to engrossed in the scene before me to master up the energy for me to smile completely.

The sea breeze tickles my bare neck, planting soft salty kisses into my skin. I shudder at the delicate contact, feeling as if my heart just split into a tiny million pieces of joy.

"If I had to give you a book, what would it be about?"

I tear my eyes away from the sky and look at Caspian, who has his legs spread and his hands are digging into the sand for support as he balances himself on the beach. I can see his fingers moving kindly in the sand, trying to capture the largest amount of sand between them but failing slightly each time.

He's looking at me intently, eyes shining a dark shimmer and poring into my own ever so deeply. I sense myself falling into the grey abyss that is the color of his eyes. They have the color of an angry whirling wind on the highest snowy mountains. A rush of blood floods into my cheeks as I realize the smirk growing onto his face as he watches me unconsciously staring at him, so I turn my head back to the sky with my hands reaching my hair to hide my face with them.

"Butterflies." I reply, thinking of the very fine lines of their wings and the combination of colors looking like sheen smooth glass. I notice Caspian tilting his head quizzically by my side, his eyebrows forming the smallest frown as he silently asks me for more elaboration. I clear my throat and tuck my hair behind my ear as I stare at the sand between my thighs being played by the soft wind. "There's something ver eerie about them. I just don't think anything can be so beautiful and peaceful at the same time. Nothing and no one can be so harmless. Everyone has evil in their blood. They can't just be so benign; it's impossible." I say, shrugging nonchalantly at the end of the last line.

"What about you?"

My eyes snap in Caspian's direction, eyebrows furrowing deeply at his words. "What about me?" I ask, raising an eyebrow expectantly. "You're both beautiful and peaceful. So why can't butterflies be like you, too?" he says, a smile of masked amusement hovering above his mouth like a ghost. "I am not either of those things." I say, my cheeks tinging with pink.

"You just don't see yourself the way I see you."

And with that, he gets up and softly claps his ands together to get the sand off of them, then reaches his hand to help me get up. After a few seconds of silence, I take his offer and lift myself up, patting my clothes so that the sand would fall off my own clothes. "Where to now?" I ask him once we start walking. I notice the edginess of his jaw and the way he keeps clenching and unclenching it as he thinks over his answer, then he looks at me with a smile and says the most dangerously lovely thing. "Wherever the city takes us."