Meet Me

Chapter 24 - I Know

 "No excuses." - Everybody

I lay next to Ash. Ash lay next to me. I couldn’t tell if he was asleep or not, but I was comforted by his steady breathing. Everything felt normal, relaxed even. After the traumatic experience five weeks ago, it seemed to be something it wasn’t - the atmosphere that was.

“Kate? I know what you meant.” He whispered in my ear. He then kissed it, which I ignored, and pulled me closer into him. I was cold, that was the downside of sleeping with somebody in the middle of an apocalypse, and he was warm. Our clothes were scattered somewhere nearby and we lay on the sofa, holding each other tight. Whether it was just the closeness, or just the fact that we had had sex, I didn’t care. I liked this feeling, it was nice. Nice is a lame word, I know, but there was no other way to describe what it felt like.

“What did I mean?” I asked. I looked up at him. My head had been resting on his chest, but now I wanted to stare in his intense eyes and remember that sight. They were strangely calm, but I didn’t believe the lie they showed.

“You don’t love me as in love, love.” He replied, only making me confused. I was confused because I didn’t know what love, love was? Did he mean what I actually meant, or was he guessing?

“No, I don’t, but how do you know?”

“You play with your hair when you’re lying.” He points out.

“But I wasn’t lying.”

“I know.” He simply replies.

“You’re crazy.”

“I know.”

“I love you.” I tell him.

“I wish I knew.” He sighs "You didn’t sleep with me because you loved me, did you? You did because you were lonely. That’s okay. I did it because of the same ideas.”

“Can we just forget about it? I don’t know why I did it. I guess I wasn’t thinking clearly.” I suggested.

“That makes two of us.” He said, bitterly. For once, I was nervous around him. I stayed in my area of the building and he stayed in his. It was that bad. Wherever I went and he was, we switched places. I hadn’t been in a relationship before, but I was guessing it would be a little like this after a break up?

Eventually, we accepted each other’s company again. It had been two days though. Ash suggested that we leave. I didn’t know whether we should or not. It was safe here, wasn’t it? I hoped so, anyway.

 After a considerable amount of time in the building, we both sat down and had an actual conversation. We decided that we should stop hiding and travel elsewhere. I didn’t know where our journey would take us. Leaving safety was something I had never had to do. I had always been in danger. I was in danger still. With Ash. With Kyle. With Connor.

Leaving the building, I had to step over the corpses.

Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen, Owen.

My heart beat faster than ever before. His eyes were sunken and his dead hand rest over his face. He looked as if he were sleeping. But, there were the obvious signs that he was both undead, then dead. His skin was sagging and his eyes were as red as the blood that pumped through my body. His mouth was slightly open, revealing sharpened teeth. My breath hitched, so did Ashes. I was guessing he was observing Katherine. I didn’t want to look any longer, so I returned to being my bitchy self.

“Let’s fucking go.”