chapter 5: The second slayer
866 Words
Chapter 5: The Second Layer
Kaeynna hadn’t responded to Calix’s last message.
Not because she didn’t want to—but because she didn’t know how.
What was she supposed to say to Maybe that’s because you are?
Thank you? I don’t believe you? I’m terrified?
Instead, she did what she always did when life got too loud: she retreated. Buried herself in work, filled her schedule to the brim, stopped checking her phone every hour like a girl with a crush.
But the truth pulsed beneath her skin like a bruise: she did have a crush.
Not the light, fleeting kind that fluttered and vanished. No, this was deeper. Heavier. Like something she’d been fighting off for years had quietly made its home in her chest.
And Calix—damn him—seemed to know.
---
On Thursday, she got a package.
No note. No return address.
Just a small black box, tied with twine.
Inside was a photograph.
Another one.
This time, not of her—but of a woman in a crowded street, turning slightly toward the camera, caught mid-laugh. The kind of photo you could only take if you knew your subject. If you saw her through layers no one else did.
On the back, one sentence was scribbled in clean, deliberate handwriting:
“Everyone has a second layer. Yours is worth waiting for.” —C.
She stared at it for a long time.
Second layer.
Was he saying he saw through her? Or just past her walls?
Worse—was he saying he cared?
---
That night, she found herself walking without really knowing where she was going. Her feet led her to the same park bench from that rainy Saturday morning. The one where he’d taken her photo. The one she now couldn’t walk past without remembering the sound of his voice in her ear.
The city lights shimmered behind the trees, casting golden pools on the pavement. It was quiet. Peaceful. For once, her thoughts didn’t feel like enemies.
Then—footsteps.
She didn’t turn. She didn’t need to.
“I had a feeling you’d come,” Calix said, sitting beside her.
“I didn’t plan to.”
“I know.”
She looked at him, silhouetted in the soft light. “Why do you keep sending me things?”
He shrugged. “I like the way you see the world. Even when you’re hiding from it.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“You don’t make sense.”
She almost smiled.
He looked down at his hands. “Can I ask you something?”
“No promises.”
“Why are you afraid to let someone in?”
Kaeynna flinched. “You’re getting too close.”
“I know.”
He waited.
Finally, she exhaled. “Because every time I did, they left.”
He nodded slowly. “And you think I will.”
She didn’t answer.
“You’re not wrong to be cautious,” he said softly. “But maybe it’s not about who leaves. Maybe it’s about who chooses to stay even when you try to push them away.”
She stared at him. “You think you’re that person?”
“No,” he said. “I hope I am.”
There it was again. Hope. The most dangerous word in the language.
She turned away. “You don’t know what you’re hoping for.”
“I’m starting to,” he said. “And I think you do, too.”
---
Days passed. They didn’t make plans. They didn’t define what they were.
But they found each other.
Cafés. Parks. Late-night texts. Long walks. Silences that said more than words.
Kaeynna didn’t notice the shift until it was already happening.
The first time she laughed—really laughed—in front of him.
The first time she told him about her brother, Elias, who hadn’t spoken to her in five years.
The first time he touched her hand, and she didn’t pull away.
They were moments.
Small, slow, terrifying moments.
But they were theirs.
---
One night, they were walking along the bridge over the river. The city was lit up behind them, a galaxy of lives neither of them were part of.
Calix stopped suddenly. Turned to her.
“I don’t want to take pictures of you anymore,” he said.
Her heart dropped. “What?”
He smiled, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “I don’t want to capture you. I want to experience you. Without a lens in the way.”
She swallowed. “That sounds like a line.”
“It’s not. It’s a risk.”
She looked at him—really looked at him. The boy who hid behind a camera. The man who was slowly putting it down.
“What if I break your heart?” she asked.
Calix’s smile faded, but he didn’t look away. “Then it was still worth holding it for a while.”
She blinked, emotion rising in her throat.
That’s when she realized:
He wasn’t asking for forever.
He was asking for now.
And for the first time in a very long time—
Kaeynna wanted to say yes.
- Writer
