The Games We Play | ✓

11. WE'RE NOT LOVERS, JUST STRANGERS

11.
[WE'RE NOT LOVERS, JUST STRANGERS]

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THEIR QUARRELS STACKED like bodies, one on top of the other.

They fought and screamed at each other, often drawing blood. It was a constant struggle for power and domination and neither of them wanted to back down.

Yet despite their constant arguments, they remained together. She toured with him, murderers hiding in plain sight as they left the rest of the world in shambles. 

Reed pampered her with priceless gold and diamonds. He showered her with gifts, hoping to buy her loyalty, perhaps her affection, and sometimes even her forgiveness for when their fights escaladed too far.

Money could buy everything, right?

But all the gold in the world was not enough for Charlotte. To her, jewels and riches were nothing more than chains in a material world.

"Emerald earrings for you, milady," he smiled boyishly, presenting her with his latest gift.

She accepted it silently, her smile as empty as his gesture.

He noticed her lack of appreciation and sighed in dejection, "You don't like it?"

Charlotte looked away, "Reed, you know how I feel about your presents."

"Yeah, but I'm not going to stop. I'd buy you anything you want. All the sapphires and diamonds in the world for you," he said.

"They're worthless to me."

He clenched his jaw and stepped away. "What do you want from me, Charlotte? Besides this wretched game, what's not 'worthless' to you?" 

"I want answers," she said. They had fought each other till they bled over the subject, but she was done with his bullshit. "Why do you hate when I play characters?"

When he didn't respond, she threw her hands up in frustration, "You're a fucking actor! You play doctors and detectives in your stupid movies and yet you hate when I take on different names? It doesn't make sense to me."

Reed simply blinked. His eyes were unreadable, as they always were. He was a master of deception and reservation.

He could hide the truth as well as she could twist it.

"You're a hypocrite," she accused.

He sighed as he looked at her through distant eyes. "Charlotte," he whispered her name like it was a secret. "Aren't bloodied diamonds enough for you?"

She was sick of the way he always divagated away from her questions. Sick of the way he treated her like delicate treasure. She wasn't his little pet to control.

Shoving his present back in his hand, she turned her back and began to walk away. If he couldn't cooperate, she hardly saw why she had to. She was too tired to fight him over this again.

She made her way down the hallway, hugging herself close as she slowly let the shadows swallow her.

"Because I feel like I don't know you," he finally said, his voice echoing throughout the empty hallway.

She paused in her tracks, leaning against the wall as she turned to face him once again. His figure hid in the darkness like a crying shadow. 

"You take on so many names and personas, it's like I'm watching a television show unfold right in front of me," he said, his eyes drifting away from her. "Yes, I'm an actor, which is how I know that characters are nothing but drawn-out lies. I hate it because it's like you're hiding behind every character, every fake friend you create. But you don't have to hide from me. We've been together for a year now." His voice was so small it was like he was fading away. "And yet you're still a stranger. Sometimes I fear you're a figment of my imagination."

"I'm not," was all she said, her voice strangely quiet.

"Then who are you, really?" he asked softly. He had sung for her. He had killed for her. He had fallen for her, and yet he didn't know her.

For once, her snappy mouth had nothing to say. She had asked for an answer she wasn't ready to hear.

Reed sighed and looked out the window. "It's been a year, Charlotte. You know I'd do much more than just kill for you."

He was a poet in the shadows. Behind his tainted gold, Reed Monaro was a lonely soul, reaching his hand out desperately for a true companion.

"I would burn cities down for you."