Page 107 of Wandering in Darkness
“But…”
“I’m sorry, I should have said it in person first, shouldn’t I? I got excited and lost all sense, I guess.”
I don’t even know what to say to this! Who just… and he… without…
He pulls me around to face him. “I love you, Cal.”
Now what the fuck do I do with that? I didn’t mean it in the sense that he had to tell me in person! And now that funny feeling in my chest has strengthened by at least ten times.
Grayson hesitates, his smile crashing, and that just upsets me more. “Hey… I’m sorry. It’s too soon, right? Is that it? It’s okay, I’ve just… I’m pretty sure I’ve been in love with you for a very long time, and I just… blurted it out. I’m sorry.”
“You have?” I ask.
“Yeah… I was trying really hard not to fall in love with you back then. My future was so unstable, and I knew I didn’t want to leave the military. But then I spent more and more time with you, and I couldn’t get you out of my head. I haven’t gone a day since I transferred overseas without thinking about you.”
“But you love me?”
“Yes, Cal. I love you.”
Grayson examines my expression before pulling me in. “Have you not been told that you’re loved very often?”
I want to just joke it off, but his hold comforts me too much and I end up shaking my head. “No. I… ha… it’s stupid. Let’s go.”
“It’s not stupid. I will tell you I love you again and again. I promise to tell you multiple times a day, okay? And because I love you, I think you need to stay back here where it’s safe.”
“Well, that’s obviously not going to happen,” I say while those words bounce around in my head. How can words hold so much meaning? “Why don’tyoustay here if you think I should stay here?”
“Fine, we’ll both go,” he says as he pushes the door open to the outside an instant before the door is absolutely torn right off the face of the building.
Grayson grabs me and jerks me back, even though the threat is long gone after we stood there and watched it happen with slack jaws.
I look out through the doorless entry and watch while the door leaves us on a mighty journey where it’s somehow become attached to the front of a truck that isplowingthrough shit. People are screaming and scattering. The alien lover dives out ofthe way and face-plants in the ground right at my feet where I point a gun at his head. But I’m going to be real honest, it’s hard to watch my new prisoner when all of…thatis going on.
“Get in the fucking building or I’m gonna blow a hole in your asses,” Felix shouts, holding a hoe in one hand and a gun in the other. But what really is the cherry on top is the pig on his left and Copper on the right. He’s going to be able to ride the pig before too long, but he doesn’t care, he seems to have this strange impression that he looks badass as he stands there, snuffling pig by his side. But oddly enough, it must work because the people begin running toward the storage container we’d originally been locked up in.
It may or may not have something to do with Antonio revving the truck that is still wearing the front door and the blood of one or two enemies who appear to be huddling with the rest. I let the guy at my feet up and wave to him with my gun, so he scrambles after the rest, not a single complaint uttered.
“What… the fuck is happening?” Grayson asks.
“Welcome to life with Felix,” I say as Felix slams the door shut, locking the group inside the container. Then, for added safety, Antonio parks the truck in front of the door before tossing the keys. Apparently, no one is getting out of that building anytime soon.
Grayson tentatively takes a step out of the building we’re in, almost like he’s wary. “You know, if we were like… two seconds earlier, we’d be dead right now. Not killed by the bad guys, but by your friends.”
And I realize with horror that Grayson is quite right. “Ha… haha…” I trail off while awkwardly looking around as Felix struts up to me. For some reason he’s wearing sunglasses, even though I’m pretty sure he didn’t arrive with sunglasses. And then he seems to decide that it’s not cool enough forhimto wear them,so he slides them onto the pig who refuses to let Felix walk more than two feet from him.
I just… stare at them before realizing we’re missing someone.
“Did Lane find his way here?” I ask.
“He’s in the truck,” Felix says as the passenger door of the truck opens almost on cue. Lane oozes out and holds two shaky hands up. When he finds the truck bed, he hangs on to it for dear life, like he’s just stepped out into hell.
“Am I dead? I am dead. I have died…” Lane whispers. “Tell Felix I will find him in the afterlife.”
“You’re not dead, you just luckily got to experience Antonio’s driving,” I say.
Antonio’s head pops out of the truck in time to take offense at what I said. “I’m a phenomenal driver, thank you very much. I only lightly hit one person, and he still had a pep to his step when he hurried his way into there,” he says as he crawls out the passenger side since the driver’s door is pinned against the building. “You all worry too much.”
“What now?” Felix asks while he twirls his hoe… he must have lost the baseball bat at some point. The hoe is too long to twirl, and he immediately ends up dropping it and then kicks it to the side like that was his plan all along.
