The Scythe-Bearer

Chapter 8: Fool me once, Love me the next

The knife seared into my flesh, puncturing my cardiac muscle. Blood pooled from the opening onto the hilt of the knife, it spilled onto Sarah's hands and continued until it reached the hard wood floor underneath us. She froze hands shaking, I pulled the knife from my body and let it drop to the floor with a splatter of blood causing a pattern of outward streaks and droplets. Sarah pulled her hands to her chest causing the entirety of her body to shake uncontrollably.

"Oh my god! Oh my god!...Sy!"

She seemed to forget the argument we were having earlier and she started to sob profusely. Hearing her cries made the pain much worse, I held the wound with my left hand and weakly leaned against the wall causing my bloody hand prints to smear creating a sharp contrast between the vastly different colours .

"Ugh!...Well I guess it is still slightly better than the car crash...Heh."

Blood spilled from my mouth and it ran rivers down my chest. I couldn't stand up anymore I began to collapse when Sarah caught me by the shoulders.

"Sy! What the hell?!...Why did you do that?!"

Her words came out choked from her crying, she placed me against the wall sitting upright. Blood gushed out of the gaping hole but I could already feel it healing.

"How else are you going to believe me? By showing you this I..."

"By showing me what? All I see is blood everywhere, Sy!"

"I am already healing, I can't die, Sarah. I know you think I am a monster and I don’t blame you because I think the same thing sometimes but I can’t have you frightened by me. I don’t know why I feel this way but I…all I know is that it pains me."

She didn't say anything she just stared at me with those tears in her eyes, the fear was gone it was replaced by settling sadness. She knelt beside me slowly and placed a blood stained hand on my cheek. "Warm..."

"I am sorry, Sy...I was just so scared and confused about what that guy with wings said...I wanted to believe it was just dream but the more I thought about it the more scared I became. I thought I was going insane, I just couldn’t…I… "

I silenced her by grasping her hand, comforting her, and sighed with relief.

"I thought you hated me...but it is I who should be sorry for doing this. I should have never interfered, I was selfish..."

"Sy, don't fret over it. If you didn't interfere I would have been dead and I don't care about what that guy said. Thank you for saving me."

"But Sarah..."

Sarah rolled her eyes and pushed her lips gently against mine, the sensation silenced me, and it astounded me. My mind turned off and my body took the front seat, her hands were flush against my face and mine gently gripping her waist. My insides melted like a flower that just blossomed spreading colour and light into every inch of me. It was different to any sensation that I felt before, almost nervous but a good kind of nervousness perhaps excitement. We broke apart with silent breathing, our foreheads connected and eyes still closed, "Whoa..."

She moved first and rested her head on top of my shoulder; I felt her body shiver from the draft that entered the kitchen. Without hesitation I unknowingly wrapped my arms around her, she exhaled a tired sigh. She whispered so silently that I am sure she was speaking to herself rather than me.

“I am scared, Sy…I am so scared that I don’t think I can stop shivering, when that car came down that street I just couldn’t think anymore I just moved and then I froze once I knew I was the one in danger…I didn’t want to die but I just couldn’t move…I don’t know what will happen to me but all I know is that I like you more than what a friend would and I hate it when you get hurt because of something that I did so please don’t hurt yourself over this anymore…”

Her sincerity brought forth my hidden feelings and thoughts, the ones that I built walls against but they crashed into them and they crumbled like dry clay at impact. The ones that told me that I cared for Sarah more than I cared for myself; they told me that if I stayed with her I would bring her hell because I am a natural magnet for trouble but I am too selfish to let go. “I should tell her...but…”

I felt her dainty hands on my face, our eyes met. Hazel warmth burned in hers and I surrendered and relaxed in her grasp.

“Tell me, Sy…what is going through that head of yours? Don’t hold it in, please trust me with your feelings…”

I placed my hands over hers and a wave of strength washed over my body.

“Sarah, I am not a person of pretty words and I am not a person that understands feelings clearly. I am confused by the things I feel every time I am with you, when I am alone all I see is a world of black and white with numbed feelings but it’s like you open my eyes to something more and when I am with you I see every bright colourful world filled with wonder. I know how sappy that sounds but I can’t think of any other way to describe this feeling when I am with you. If that’s what you feel when you like someone then I really like you, Sarah.”

Sarah’s face brightened and became a tainted pink. She smiled.

“Now was that so hard?”

“No, but Sarah you do know that I can’t stay…”

“If you dare say that you can’t stay with me, I got another thing coming your way, Sy. You are not alone anymore, depend on me and trust me with your problems because you can’t get rid of me that easily not after all this.”

I didn’t argue with her because I knew I wouldn’t get anywhere. We finally got off the floor and Sarah took me the bathroom to allow me to change clothes. I removed my T-shirt when she came in with a pile of grey and black clothes.

“These were my older brother’s so they should fit and I made sure to get your favorite colours….”

She trailed off when she saw my back; a fire had burned my skin and left behind ugly scars that was gnarled into the full of my back, much like scarred wings. Suddenly self-conscious, I took the Bon Jovi branded T-shirt and covered the scarred tissue.

“What happened to your back? I have never seen something like that before.”

“It’s nothing; I mean I can’t really remember what happened. Everything is a blur.”

She nodded thoughtfully and walked out of the bathroom to give me some privacy. When I finished dressing I walked into living room to see Sarah sleeping on the couch. “Today has been rough on her, I really need to get my act together so that I can protect her else I will only cause her more harm….It is really weird about the way I am treating her now, it is like a switch flipped on and now my movements are no longer restrained…it almost scares me about how comfortable I am being right now.”

I walked to kitchen and noticed the smears of blood were still dominant on the floor; I whispered a spell of exchange which exchanges the blood with a different type of matter. This time the blood was transferred and a pile of dark soil took it’s place, I went back to the living room to where Sarah slept. I kissed her sleeping forehead and walked into the back yard.

A familiar hoot brought my attention to Saku hovering next to a portal and I slowly walked towards him. I could literally feel his red glare burning itself into my forehead.

“You’ve got a whole lot of explaining to do, Sy.”

I didn’t say anything, ducked my head and followed him into the portal, towards a whole lot of trouble… “I wonder what Lucas has in stall for me now…”