The Transtempus Penalty (ERERI//RIREN)

Chapter 5

I'm posting early this week because I'm about to fall the fuck asleep. 

Ta ta, motherfuckers.
Enjoy the chapter.

As I followed Levi down the road that led away from where the party was, the music began to quiet, and the lights began to dim, just a faint glow around the bend by the time we'd made it a little ways out. I knew I should have felt afraid of him, but there was a part of me that was telling me I shouldn't be afraid of him at the moment. I had no reason to fear him that night. He had helped me, and I felt much more gratitude than fear as we walked further from the gathering. I wasn't sure who would speak first, so I decided to wait it out, focusing on the sound of the loose asphalt crunching beneath our feet as we continued to descend the bluff.

"Thank you," Levi muttered after another minute or two of silence.

"For what?" I replied, certain he was just thanking me to be polite. I had not been much help in that fight, although I was sure that Zeke looked much worse than I did.

"Gettin' right in there. I know it means a lot to Petra. It's nice when people look out for you," Levi said, the moonlight lighting up his alabaster complexion so that his skin shone a brilliant shade of blue.

"I just did what anyone would do," I shrugged, feeling my shoulders ache when I moved them, from what I assumed was likely the reward I got for taking the slimy bastard down with my shoulder.

"Not anyone. Lotta people would have just watched and let it happen," Levi said, exhaling a short sigh before turning off of the road into the woods. I felt the fear gnawing my stomach when he motioned for me to follow him.

"Where are you going?" I called after him, staying where I was. I was not about to be killed in my first week of real work. "There's no trail off that way!"

"See if I give a shit. You coming, or not?" Levi snorted, continuing to walk into the woods, regardless of whether I did or not.

"Where are you going?" I asked again, walking to the edge of the tree line, looking in at the scraggly junipers and pinyon pines, stunted by a lack of water, but they had grown up enough to partially obscure my view of him as he made his way further into the woods.

"There's a little cliff ledge that's really quiet, and just about five hundred feet this way," he said, and I couldn't tell if he was luring me to my death, or just genuinely wanted to sit with me for a while.

"You're not gonna push me off, are you?" I asked, hoping that my joking tone was coming across strong enough.

"Why would I do that?" he asked flatly without turning back to look at me as he completely disappeared between the short, stubby trees. I let out a long sigh, and quickly composed myself before chasing him into the forest. I wasn't sure that he wasn't going to kill me, but was willing to take my chances. He snorted when I caught up with him. "Yeah, thought so," he scoffed at me when I began to walk in time with him, our bodies less than a foot apart as he led me further into the woods.

Finally after far too long of walking silently through the forest, the trees began to clear and, just like Levi had said, there was a cliff with several boulders and disruptions in the rock, more than enough to find somewhere to sit. I could see the valley that we were in, several little towns glittering in the distance, but there wasn't anything even close to comparable to the billions of glittering stars overhead. I had lived in cities and suburbs my whole life, and had yet to see a sky like the one that I was currently witnessing.

"This was longer than five hundred feet," I panted, tired from all the effort I had expended that night, with the fight and the deceiving hike.

"Eh," he shrugged. "I was guessing."