Page 60 of Repossess My Heart

The streets of the Below could never really be considered calm by any means. It’s far from it really, but even now the bustling has a panicked edge to it. An uncomfortable buzzing I can’t seem to stop listening to, can’t pull myself from. When Nine’s hand brushes my chin leaving my skin again mottled with goosebumps, it all goes silent.

“It’s time.” His voice is chipped, and I do my best not to take it seriously. I assume anyone would be a little short in a situation like this one. It has nothing to do with me in the end, right?

None of it does.

My eyes never changed. I never changed. Not a change that can be seen, not the one that counts. I wasted the only chance I had on my pride. I tucked my face away as my tears fell. I refuse to hate myself for not sharing that moment with him, but I couldn’t risk it. So many deserve the wrath that festers inside him… and so many don’t.

“Nathan-“

I stop short as he shakes his head, swallowing past the ever-growing lump in my throat. He’s not Nathan today, he’s Nine.

“Nine,” I correct, letting him roughly pull me to a stand. “What’s the plan?”

This time when he smirks, I don’t revel in it. There’s no tingling deep in my belly. “Your only job is to listen. If I give a command you obey, if I say stop you stop. If I say jump you say-“

“Enough asshole.”

My gasp tears from my throat as his hand captures my chin, tilting it up, searching my umber eyes. “Today is the most important day of my life. Don’t fuck it up for me.”

The tension in the air is thick, hard even to drag through my lungs when his com buzzes again. From where I’m not sure, I’d always assumed most of the tech was seated in his mask, but no… it's him. He’s more a Half than man. Whatever beeps, I’m grateful for it. He huffs as he releases me, not waiting up as he scales the half-broken wall, climbing up and out of the derelict building without a second glance. My heart is thudding painfully in my chest as his drone hovers close to me, waiting for me to move.

I don’t, my eyes sliding to the blood-stained bed again. Memorizing each puddle he left, remembering the way he felt inside me… holding me.

I want to remember everything. He may no longer be my enemy if he ever really was…

But me?

I’m about to become his.

18

A Flame

I’veneverbeenthishigh up, high enough to see what those Above- those Down? Who fucking knows who really decided what and when. Point is… I’d never seen what we get for a sky. I had no idea what I’d imagined it would’ve been, but nothing this… mechanical and ugly. My boots root to the metal staircase we’ve been climbing for what feels like eons now. My knees are shaky, and my chest pulls with every breath. I’d been so worried when I asked Nine where we were going, and he’d only pointed up. A few more flights and I’ll surely rethink my take on the tube. His boots continue forward and as much as the idea of being lost and alone on the rickety staircase on the outer shell of the giant dome shaped headquarters of our so-called leader, I can’t move. I can’t pull my eyes from the endless abyss of wires and upside-down machines. The strange grease that’s dropping from them almost makes me laugh.

I knew it wasn’t water.

“Reverie.”

When my eyes pull from the hideous underside of the Above, they fall towards the railing and then far past the hazy layer of fumes and the tops of ads. I stare down at everything below, trying to see the beauty in it… I can’t find any. Not a single drop of anything worth saving.

“If you jump, I can’t help you this time.”

I huff out a laugh, not a happy one, of course. One filled with all the knowledge that comes with the end of something you…loved. I’m not sure why I was ever a priority of his. I can’t shake the feeling it's so much more than my eyes, but this is greater than me. As selfish and nonsensical as it is… that hurts.

“Am I still your girlfriend?” The words slip through even though I didn’t mean for them to. The strong wind I understand even less whips my braid around, pulling strands loose. The energy from whatever pill his drone gave us slowly easing the aches now that I’ve caught my breath.

When his icy blue eyes jerk from mine, that odd expression on his face twists. I wonder what he’s hearing. What he sees. My pulse hiccups the longer my question goes ignored until that too settles behind my eyes, adding to the pressure there.

I don’t want the end to be like this.

I want you for as long as I can have you.

The corners of my lips pull up and for the life of me I’m not sure why, I don’t feel like smiling. I don’t wait for his response as I let my eyes find my boots and climb. This is bigger than us. It’s easier this way. CeCe, his mom and brother, God… my mom all died because this world isn’t a fair one. I don’t care about getting revenge, never felt the need strong enough, but I’ll do what I can to put it right. Make the world just a little fairer in the end. I’ll give all those below a chance we never had, if there’s anything left to evacuate to. If there’s a way out… I want it for them.

“Better Organs, better bodies a better you.” The sound echoes up from below us. Nine’s eyebrows are knotted so tightly together I wonder if they’ll fuse like that.

The stairs race by as quickly as my thoughts until his drone makes a bizarre garbled sound before giving way to a voice I’ve never heard come from it before, “I don't know what the fuck you're doing but I'm in, this whole murder for hire was fun but it's getting annoying.”

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