KEEPSAKE

chapter twentynine

29 CARRY ON

     THE AIR IS TOO TIGHT,  HER LUNGS ARE TRYING TO ESCAPE IN SEARCH OF REFUGE. BREATHING HAS BECOME AN OBSTACLE IMPOSSIBLE TO COMPLETE.

Zeus found them. They're going to die.

Before Artemis can say a word or so much as utter a defeated sigh, Zeus backs up out of the room, slams the door and peaks up through the small cloudy window on the door.

"What's going on? What's he doing?" Artemis asks, clutching Adonis' hand.

Adonis' breath wavers, "I-I don't know. He's probably just going to lock us up in here until the executions."

"Oh...oh." She feels like she's hyperventilating. Only then remembering that this is real life. That the end is here. That it's over. That they don't have enough time to spend together. To commit. Nothing. They have absolutely nothing.

She turns her head to Adonis, "You trust me?" She asks in a hasty tone.

He nods his head instantly. "Yeah. Yes, obviously."

She purses her lips, tilts her head to his and presses a kiss to both cheeks. Offers him a smile and says, "We'll get out of this. Both of us. We're going to go down to Earth. To the humans..together."

His lips part, stutter for the right words but when nothing comes out, he decides to just pick her up from the floor and twirl her around like a dance.

She forces a laugh in his arms, a laugh that is strained by cries.

He's staring at her now. Her feet still have not found the ground and his arms only tighten around her waist. "It'll be good." He promises and kisses her nose as if that's normal.

Which it entirely is not normal. She's not remotely used to the feeling of his skin against his. And when their lips connect and press and touch, it's a whole other story. It's an entirely different genre. It's otherworldly. Breathtaking and heart wrenching and mystical.

Someone pounds on the door and they instinctively detach from each other. Artemis expects to find Zeus at the door when she turns.

But he's not there. It's a guard who has his face pressed against the window and his knuckles wrapping the steel.

"Something's wrong."

Its the last thing Artemis hears before her senses start to fade. At first, it's her touch. Everything is numb. Her arms, her neck, her legs. It's like she's dying eternally. Her body feels boneless and flimsy. She collapses in a heap to the floor.

A glance around the room shows Adonis' body curled up beside her, his eyelids closing. Closing so slowly. His fingers flinch, reaching out to her. And she tries to move hers as well. Just as her pointer skims his middle, she finally feels her heart catching up to her skin.

It's all numb now.

—

It's coming back, she thinks.

Something is rattling inside of her. It's a shattering feeling. A glass sharding it's way into a million pieces all at once, and every tiny part flies in different directions through her body. The pieces act as an activator. Resetting everything, slowly. Slowly, so slowly it hurts. Because it's a mocking feeling.