HAUNTED
eighteen

18

“Who,” Lex asked as she grazed Jacobs arm accidentally when she walked to the frantic old man.

“Oh, sorry,” he seemed back to his senses, “I thought you had vanished… what are you doing in here?”

“I fixed it, so I called her over to see,” Jacob lied a little. She looked at him wondering why he felt to need to lie about nothing… something, stupid memories from a past she might have once lived making her feel… weird! She thought.

“He just needs to figure out how to get it working. I mean starting a car doesn’t mean it’s moving,” she pulled her eyes away from him. She had just spent the night in the bed of a boy she had met the day before yesterday. What was she thinking? She wasn’t thinking. Her mind wasn’t getting in the way. Which is concerning.

“Since the both of you are okay,” he looked at them both for one long moment, “I’m going down stairs for some breakfast. I have to go to work so don’t do anything stupid while I am gone.”

As soon as he was away from hearing distance, “what is happening to us?” she asked.

“Huh?”

“This,” she gestured the both of them. She took a seat on his bed, “why do I trust you?” she pulled her eyebrows together, betrayed by her blind heart.

“I don’t know,” he mumbled as he sat next to her and smiled.

“I barely know you but I have known you forever and I still don’t know you,” she sighed, “my brain’s fried.”

“Residual emotion,” he said out loud, “feelings and thoughts attached to memories. It’s hard to tell what’s now and what isn’t.”

She turned to face him and caught his gaze, “I need to leave. You don’t need my help, right?”

He stood up angry, “really Lex?!” there was no way out without his stopping her, “I thought by now you would have figured that we are stuck together.”

“For what,” she stood up, “I might have been… with you in another life but this is a different life. We can do things differently and stay out of stuff that gets us killed.” Like being near each other that always seemed to get them killed.

“I thought you wanted to die,” he looked at her not having an excuse for her to stay.

She sighed in thought, with you I have something to live for and it scares me to bits.

“We are supposed to fix something! We were made to do something. We are. The both of us,” she looked at him, “please, I have spent what has seemed like eternity without you. I can’t do that anymore. Life after life after life. I needed you then and I need you now,” she walked to him and wrapped her arms around him. He welcomed the hug and kissed the crown of her head, “stay.” I promise this life and the next I will never let you go, he thought. Her existence near him filled gaps in his mind and heart that he had been trying to make sense of for lives.

“Residual emotion,” she mumbled against his shirted chest. He smiled as she said it. He didn’t let her go. She could feel him take a breath that seemed to fill her lungs as much as his. She pulled terrified by his closeness. He was reluctant to let her go but did so anyways without her noticing his reluctance.

“Did you have a chance to check if I am immune,” moment gone.

“Not yet. Do you want to try to figure out the gismo?”

“Sure,” But he eventually did and so did she, comfort gone. She took the gismo and sat on his bed with her legs folded up in front of her. He took a seat by his desk.

Barely two seconds’ past. He turned to her. “Could you find somewhere else…?”

“Why,” she asked. The thought of her so close to him. He couldn’t think straight. Years he had been hanging on a note from the Latin book that read ’find Lex’ he found her. He originally thought it was a ‘him’ but it was her… it was her

“Why not,” he hid his thoughts.

She opened her mouth to speak, “I rather be close to you. I am scared of my mind when I am alone.” But didn’t. She silently frowned and got out of bed.

Just as she stepped out the door, “wait,” he didn’t want the alone feeling either. She turned back and froze by the door, “I need to get some more tools from my apartment.”

“So?”

He held out his right hand, “do you want to come with me?” He flashed a smile. “It would be better than staring at that thing for hours,” she walked towards his desk and dumped the gismo in a draw. John had left the keys to the draws on the desk before he got into the room. Jacob used them to lock the draw, “is that a yes?”

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