Death Valley (Desert Children Series #2)

Heartbeats

Ghoul and I laid in bed together mostly naked. We didn't have sex. We just held each other close. I cried a little and rambled about how horrible I felt. Ghoul didn't mind stroking my hair and letting me cry into his chest. I had held in too many bad emotions for so long. I wanted to just be held by Ghoul without having to ever move. His warmth and heartbeat comforted me. We kissed softly for awhile, whispering 'I love you's. I ran my hands over his tattoos, taking in the colors. His breath caught when I ran my lips over the tattoos on his neck.

"That feels amazing." He whispered.

"Does it?" I whispered back.

"Mmm." He responded.

I could feel the vibrations against my lips from his voice. Ghoul's eyes closed, a slight smile on his face. I lovingly nuzzled into his neck and nipped his skin. He chuckled.

"I'm going to suck out your soul." I whispered.

"And then what?" He asked between laughter.

"Then I'm gonna sell it to Satan so we can pay for our wedding."

Ghoul laughed. In the silence after, I could feel my eyes slowly closing shut. Just as I was about to fall asleep, Ghoul asked me a question.

"Do you ever miss the city? It looks beautiful at night. You could almost forget how bad it is."

I thought about my time spent in the city. I didn't have enough money to live in the nice part of the city. I was put in a dirty apartment and lived with several other people. The ceiling leaked water even when it wasn't raining. Most of my neighbors were drug addicts or had sex every night, making it impossible for me to sleep. The annoying crash of prostitutes having fun upstairs made me want to die. Children played in the streets, the concrete littered with trash. You had to carry a knife everywhere you went incase there were thieves hiding in the shadows. When our daily pills were delivered by the pharmacists, you had to look both ways when opening the door. Sometimes there were quiet times where I could lay down and stare at the cracked ceiling without being disturbed by the lady in the next room asking for her husband. Soon enough she was slowly lulled to sleep by medication. I didn't know if I could possibly miss all of that.

I shook my head. "Not really. But I guess you're right. It is beautiful at night."

"Sometimes I miss the security of it all."

I was confused. "I thought you lived on the edge of the city?"

"I did. But my biological father fought in the war as well as I so I was given a nicer place, I guess." Ghoul shrugged.

I explained my living conditions to him. I waited for him to respond. I looked up and saw that he had fallen asleep. I laughed quietly before falling into a deep sleep.

Dracs with skinny arms grabbed my wrists, their nails long like claws. They didn't have masks. Blood leaked from the corners of their mouths. They dragged me along a cracked road, the cement rough against my back. I tried to yell out, but it only came as a whisper. Behind me, tall buildings reaching the clouds were burning. Smoke billowed out, spitting images of death.