Page 75 of Repossess My Heart

Selfish cunt to the very end.

A lot of people got a heavy dose of radiation, most of them with the help of the suppression meds are living normal lives. Albeit they move a bit slower, they can hold out another year or two before things really go downhill. By then, they’ll have a cure for pretty much anything that could ail them. They can hold out and so could I, but she can’t.

My sweetling and her fucked up heart started us, and it’ll be the end of us too.

The waves finally reach her, swirling around her shoulders, turning her bright red dress a darker shade of crimson. Like blood. My lips pull up when I think of the way she blushed, telling me she’d picked it out because it reminded her of me.

Seems fitting.

Better than a giant t-shirt with the wordassholepainted across the front. I call her so many things, a freak still occasionally because she is one, sweetling, sun, baby… all I get is asshole and Nathan but that’s fine by me. She can call me the worst words under the sun as long as it’s me she’s calling. That same off-putting feeling of being watched slithers over my skin. Years of being a trained killer doesn’t just go away, so I’ve come to find out. It's ingrained in my DNA. I send out a silent command to the drone to check it out, but it won’t find anything.

Never does.

I guess skipping doses wasn’t my best plan. I just couldn’t stand to see her suffering while I felt… fine. It was wrong, unfair. When she coughs again, the sight of blood speckling her full lips pulls me closer. My hand jutting out to stop hers before she can wipe it away.

“All of you is mine, even this.” My voice is low, but her smile emboldens me. I wipe my thumb over her plush soft lips, clearing them of blood before I wipe it across the tattoo on my forehead. Reverie is so quiet, and I can see the exhaustion in her eyes before as they fall closed. The quiet hum of the drone approaching is the only sound apart from the waves. As expected, nothing in the vicinity.

When it comes to my side depositing two needles into my hand, she’s watching me again, a small sad smile on her lips, “We can do it another way. No needles baby.”

She just shakes her head as I lay down beside her in the sand, letting the chilled water lap at my skin. “I-… I’m not so scared anymore.”

When my vision of her blurs I turn away, the last thing she needs are my tears, but it doesn’t stop me from shedding a few. They aren’t all sad either. I’m certainly not thrilled, but more content than I’ve ever been before.

“This was always the plan, Nathan. You and me.”

“You and me.” I repeat, reverently. The morphine filled needles feel like bricks in my hand.

When I lean in capturing her full lips with mine, I pour everything I am, everything I could’ve been, everythingwecould’ve been into that kiss. The sweet honey taste of her mixed with the saltiness of the sea is exquisite. We don’t part until the tide laps at our faces. My lack of smooth movement in my mechanical arm makes it a pain in the dick to uncap the syringes, but I manage.

“Once upon a time, there was a beautiful garden just outside the ugly forest. Filled with the most precious flowers, but above all else, there were the prettiest pink peonies right in the center.” I begin and fuck my voice for breaking, “The whole garden loved the peonies because even in the darkness they stood the tallest, every morning when the sun shined down on those pink peonies they felt grateful for its warmth.”

I pause, pulling her onto me, her umber eyes spilling over with tears as she props herself up on her elbows, looking at me in a way that shatters my heart. It’s so much more love than I deserve. “Don’t stop.”

“And when the rains came, the pink peonies knew better than to miss the sun. That it would come back again to dry their leaves and warm their petals.” Her skin is so soft, even dotted with sand and water as I run my hand underneath her dress, exposing her thigh. She doesn’t flinch when the tip of the needle prods her skin, or when I sink it into the muscle. Using my other hand to do the same to myself.

“The strong little flowers reminded the garden of their strength, they told stories about the warmth of the sun when it didn’t shine,” she continues, my arms band around her, holding her tightly to me, “The entire garden stood a little taller for it.”

I kiss her deeply again, when she trailed off, her eyes drooping. “Even in the darkness.”

“Goodnight Nathan.”

My head swims as the warmth of the morphine takes effect, the sound of it falling back into the tide hits me before the sensation of the water.

“Goodnight sweetling.”

24

A New Life

Awarenesshitsmelikea baton to the skull instant, punishing and my head is throbbing like it’s got a fucking heart wedged inside it. My hands twitch, reaching out in search for her, the first thing they always do. When I’m met with plush carpet, some kind of wrenching unease fills my gut, like I shouldn’t be feeling this… not here.

Here?

My mind pieces itself back together slowly and despite my heart pounding painfully fast in my chest, my body won't respond to me in any real way.Where is she?

“Rev- Reverie?” I mumble, my brows pulling together at my raspy, slurred words. I try to force my eyes open, but they’re tied down with led weights. I reach out with my mind, searching for my drone-

No, not mine, my brother’s.

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