Soul Thought

Pretending

Pretending

 

“Tell me everything.” I wasn’t sure if I was ready to hear what Karter had to say, but I needed to know.

Karter took a deep breath, running a hand through his hair and looking into the distance, was he even in the present with me right now? Or was he back with her, reliving the moment she died over and over again?

Could I live with myself if that’s what I was putting him through making him live?

“I followed my connection to her to a little farm out west. She was from a lower class family with three brothers, when I saw her I thought she would be sweet and kind, but she was feisty. She wouldn’t believe me when I told her she was my soul-mate until I talked to her through her mind.” Karter took a ragged breath, and I put my hand on his knee, giving it a slight squeeze.

“I told her everything about me, even about you. Once I finished I didn’t think shed still want to come with me, but she got that defiant look in her eyes, packed her bags and jumped in the car. She told me about Winston, he’d been hanging around the town and some kids had gone missing – that’s why she hadn’t been in school when I stopped by. She said if you were going to meet him, you were as good as dead. I couldn’t accept that, she didn’t really understand why – but she agreed to come back here with me to find you.”

I looked down at the ground, trying not to let the dark thoughts consume my mind – I wondered if Karter blamed me for what happened to his soul-mate, at the moment, I did. I honestly wouldn’t blame him if he did either.

“A few miles down the road the car disappeared and the worst thoughts ran through my mind, I was sure you were dead, but that didn’t matter because Sarah knew Winston was chasing us. We ran all the way to the nearest town and he was on our tail the entire time. We hid in that town for almost a day before Sarah knew he was getting close – we ran into some girl who owned a little Wiccan store. She protected us for a few minutes, though I don’t honestly know how. Winston strolled into the store and I was sure we were dead, but one look at her and Sarah and I were forgotten. Winston got her, sending his poison into the room the girl dropped, I thought she was dead but Sarah said she would know if she was.”

A little Wiccan store, the idea reminded me of Celeste, and I wondered if the girl had gotten herself captured to save two lives, only for one to be lost anyways.   

“I didn’t bother to cover my mouth or nose from the poison since I knew I was immune either way, and Sarah taking her cue from me didn’t bother to cover up either, she just kept breathing in the green smoke. Winston made it out of the store and barely a minute later Sarah collapsed. She was twitching and her eyes rolled back into her head and I knew she was dying and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.”

Karter’s voice broke and I pulled him into my embrace, holding him close as tears flowed like a river. I could almost feel a remnant of what he was feeling, and it wasn’t something I could live with – I understood in that moment why Karter had done what he did.

“You can’t let them do this.” Karter whispered and I nodded my head, understanding what he was saying without forcing him to actually say the words out loud.

Karter wanted me to bench the groups of pairs we had, because even though they were stronger together and could probably do incredible things, the chance of losing one of them and making them deal with this sort of pain wasn’t worth it.

But I had to ask myself; was it worth the world?

I pushed Karter away slowly, making sure he was able to sit upright on his own before I stood up, pacing the ground in front of him.