Two Truths and a Liar

XXVI • The Skeplar

Jenna

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"You're not… dead?"

Leon Halloway. The boy who died twice, but never died at all. He stumbled, taking a step back but not breaking eye contact with Elijah  Corbin, ex teammate and mediocre midfielder of the Deadwood Wolves.

Of course I knew his name, I knew everyone's name. Everyone in a ten mile radius, at least. Matías kept every family line charted in a book, a musted, aged book filled with faded pages and papers creased with folds. Countless lines of surnames, some long gone, some new. Every family that found their way into the town he charted down, every stranger had a name. "It's just an old method of weeding out those who don't belong," He had said, wiping the quill ink from his choppy salt-and-pepper beard.

"What if someone isn't in the book, but isn't a threat?"

"You'll know," He almost smiled. "You'll know."

Elijah was definitely not a threat. 

From his limply hanging tennis shoe laces threatening to unravel on the floor, to the dumbfounded expression rubbed across his slack features. Hands unconsciously rubbing a bathroom towel between his palms reaching up to scratch the back of his neck as he gaped at us, first Leon, then to me and then Harley. But always flicking back to Leon.

"Look, I can explain-" he said, outstretching his hands towards Elijah, a panicked expression flooding his face. Elijah's heavy brows were first raised, now knit. A sudden change as he seemed to realize what his teammate's sudden appearance meant. My....my girlfriend is dead," he held a shaking finger, voice gagging in his throat. "But you're not?"

"Elijah-"

"Why aren't you dead?"

Time was running from us, and here we were talking to an oblivious football player still in shock with his own loss. Wondering why his friend had come back a ghost, and wondering why the girl he loved hadn't come back too.

I looked to Harley, who lingered in the back, lip curled. It was apparent he wasn't on good terms either.

"Hey,"

In a quick motion I reached forward, pulling Leon's arm hard enough to break him from his spluttering standoff. "We've gotta go,"

The other boy, though tentatively, took a step forward. It was as if he'd only just noticed the other two in the group, frozen in the hallway.

"Wait, who are they? Whose this chick… uh…" Back and forth. Back and forth from me to him. Me to him. The curtain was falling. His knees bent, only slightly, as if he were about to fall to the ground. 

"Leon? Where- where the hell have you been, man?"

"Dude, this stuff is kind of crazy okay? You won't get it-" Leon loosened his arm from my now slipping grasp, and checking the hall behind us I took hold of my bag strap and sighed. 'We don't have time for this…' 

"You-"

"Please don't tell anyone you saw us, I've gotta go okay?"

"Hey, no!" 

Something changed. Elijah was coming closer and a bead of sweat was running down Leon's forehead. 

Time was passing. Time was passing.

"Where have you been? My friend just disappears without a trace and everyone expects me to accept he's dead, then comes back like it's nothing? You don't expect me to want an answer?"