Through Her Eyes (JenLisa)

Sparkles in the Shadows

"Kai?"

The name formed on Lisa's lips without thought. It was a name that had been lingering there for too long, poking at her curiosities and aggravating her worries.

The question hung in the air and the man's eyes snapped to Lisa. It wasn't a look of recognition on his face.

"Kai," Lisa repeated uncertainly. "Your name. Is your name Kai?"

A muscle in the guy's jaw jumped, his hands stiff at his sides. He looked to Jennie, gaze too intense, and Lisa shifted over so she was shielding Jennie again, even though the man in front of them was bigger and probably stronger than Lisa.

Jennie was strangely silent. Lisa could hear her breathing against her neck, Jennie's hand fluttering in Lisa's. Jennie was usually so animated, always finding something to say. Now she was quiet and still. It wasn't an encouraging sign.

Jennie could talk about a discarded tin can for hours, but when she saw her brother – nothing.

"I'm not involved," Jennie's brother finally said. His voice sounded harsh, rasping and odd, and Lisa held her ground in front of Jennie. "I don't know what is going on, but if you've come here for money, or—"

"We didn't," Lisa interrupted immediately. "We're here for... for..."

"Answers," Jennie spoke up, moving so she was at Lisa's side instead of protected behind her. Lisa didn't like the change. She felt safer with Jennie behind her. "For Lisa."

Answers for Lisa. Lisa winced at the soft words.

They stood in a house where Jennie may have once lived, in front of a member of her family. Not because Jennie wanted to, not because Jennie was ready, but because Lisa wanted it.

To satisfy Lisa's curiosity, all of this.

Jennie's brother shook his head stiffly. "I won't have anything to do with that. Don't bring that here."

"So you're not..." Lisa trailed off. "Kai. You're not him."

This got Lisa a hard frown. "Ben Kim. I had no relation to Kai. Whoever told you that, is mistaken."

"The dead guy Ben?" Lisa asked stupidly. Ben, who was clearly not dead, looked confused.

"Ben," Jennie repeated, her tone distant and thoughtful. Lisa's attention was immediately drawn to her. Jennie looked warm and familiar in the foreign situation and Lisa squeezed her hand tighter. "I talk to Ben in the grass. He tells me about all the stars..." Jennie shook his head, blinking hard. "You. You tell me about the stars."

Ben swallowed thickly, taking a step back into the door frame. "This is unbelievable," he breathed out.

Lisa had to agree.

"How are you here?" Ben asked, shaking his head. "How are you possibly... I thought you were gone. You were gone, Jennie."

Ben's voice trailed off and the room was silent. Lisa expected Jennie to say something insightful, even if it only made sense to her. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Instead, Jennie said nothing.

Jennie looked small. As lively as Jennie usually was, her presence electrifying the air around her, she looked tiny and fragile here, like something Lisa should take very careful care of or it might shatter in her awkward hands, in Ben's hands.

Jennie didn't look particularly comfortable with this man. Her brother.

Ben, who was not a body beneath the earth, not a gravestone, not the grass and the moss Jennie talked to. Ben, who lived in a house not far from Lisa's, with pictures of Jennie on the wall.