by Keya Jay
Chapter twenty-six: Skylar Royce
“DON’T YOU THINK I FUCKIN KNOW THAT?!” she yelled as she belly crawled toward the couches in the living room.
“Skylar get up!” Ryder demanded as he began to approach her. Skylar could feel her vocal cords working overtime as she forced a scream past her dry-in-need-of-use lips.
“Bēlua!” his booming tone easily over shadowing her high pitch squeal of a voice. “GET. OFF. OF. THE. GROUND. NOW!” Skylar’s body actually contemplated the notion but her mind immediately kicked the suggestion to the curve. She continued her military crawl until every rub and graze of the rug singed the feeling out of her hands and left her knees badly scrapped and bruised. When she could no longer crawl—too afraid that her hands and knees would catch fire—she lay on her stomach panting as if she had just run some kind of marathon (seeing as though her living room isn’t at all small she guessed she kind of just did crawl a marathon).
Skylar could literally hear every step Ryder took as he got dangerously close. He knelt down beside her, a look of pity clouding his eyes.
Get out!” Skylar said not wanting him to see her so vulnerable. “Stop! Looking at me like that!” she demanded—or at least she tried to, it’s kind of hard to manage with her cheek pressed to the carpet.
“Looking at you how?” he asked as he sat down against the couch closest to where she lay sprawled out.
“Like you feel bad for me or like you’re sorry for me, I don’t want your pity.” The floor rumbled slightly as he laughed. “How much do you weigh?” she asked curiously annoyed.
“What? He asked as he stopped his mass load of laughter.
“How much do you weigh?” she asked slowly not because she didn’t think he understood her but because every movement her jaw made burned her cheek against the wool carpet.
“I thought that was what you said,” he said as he began laughing again. Hearing this sound coming from his mouth was so foreign yet in some odd way it belonged. “Why such a ridiculous question?” he asked.
“You make too much noise. I can feel and hear your footsteps and you laughter literally vibrates the floor I’m currently laying on.” Obviously her admission wasn’t funny seeing as though his laughter just died.
“You can feel that?” he asked confused.
“Yes I can feel it,” she said as if it were obviously apparent. He hadn’t said anything else so she risked a slight inclination of her neck so that she was able to see his face.
“What’s the matter?” she asked looking at the sullen look on his face while trying to mask the pain that the new position she was in had created.
“Nothing…you’re different,” he decided to answer after a short pause even though his answer left the door open for a helluva lot more questions she decided to just let it go—for now of course.
“What’s wrong with me?” she asked instead. She was highly aware of the convulsion that was currently going on in her body and though it hurt her raw and over sensitive skin, the need for release but not having one hurt her that much more.
“You’re a rogue,” he said as if it were the answer to all of her questions. She was just about to question him farther but the convulsion of her body was soon replace by a sensational cold sweat that broke out all threw her body. Now the involuntary jerking movements of her muscles were caused by something else entirely. She closed her eyes tightly wishing the cold away but it seemed to have reached places she hadn’t even known weren’t breached yet. Her body felt as though it had levitated from the ground causing her to squeeze her eyes tighter against the wish to look down. Having a grave fear of heights was in no way shape or form helpful at a time like this. Then she was developed in warmness though internally she was still cold but she shivered a lot less. The musky scent of earth and some kind of cologne hit her nose and caused her to open her eyes. Her eyes then met those of a mossy grass tint but they didn’t look so lifeless as she stared into them up close. “You’re a rogue,” Ryder repeated as he looked away from her and toward a vacant bleakness in the shadows of her living room. Though it felt incredibly warm in Ryder’s arms it didn’t feel right it was getting darker and she knew she would feel terrible if she didn’t get release soon she had no choice in the matter. “We all started off as rogues,” he continued. She began to squirm in his arms, now was not the time for stories, she thought frantically. “Aaron Fields was our owner,” he continued feeling in no way deterred as she squirmed. A memory of Ryder asking her who she worked for broke through the barricade the drought formed in her mind. “He helped train us and get control over the power that began to well up inside of us and because of that we were able to control our intense hunger for it.” Ryder began to squeeze her tighter to his body and all she wanted him to do was to just let her go, because he squeezed her so tight though it stopped her spasms and left her little to no room to wiggle out of his arms. “You have obviously been on your own once you realized that you were changing and no one was there to help you gain control over your power so now your power controls you. It’s like a drug, and right now you’re going through withdraw which may feel bad but it’s a good thing I promise you that,” he whispered when he realized she had stopped fighting. “If I ask you this question do you promise to answer it?” he asked as he looked down at her. She thought about it but couldn’t really find a reason why she shouldn’t so she nodded her head. “What triggered it, do you remember?” Skylar froze in his arms. She remembered the time, day and year it had all started but she didn’t want to talk about it. “You promised,” he whispered. Skylar sighed and then turned slightly in his arms so the back of her head lay on his shoulder as she stared out toward the other side of the room.
“When I was 14,” she started and then had to clear her throat because she sounded like she was trying to gargle her spit, her voice sounded unused. “I was 14 years old,” she started again, “I was watching my dad not realizing that it would be last time, I was spoiled and immature and always through a fit when I didn’t get what I wanted. Well this time I wanted to help my dad and he wouldn’t let me, he kept saying that I would slow him down and then he didn’t get this done, so I pouted and stomped away and watched from window as he left for work. My mom was crying one day and I didn’t have to ask why, I had been watching the late night news while waiting for my dad to come home. I could hear my mother’s wailing cries all through the house but I didn’t want to cry with her, I didn’t want to cry at all so I slipped out of my window and began walking in the opposite direction away from my house, away from my mother’s pain and sorrow. I walked until I passed Mr. Wallace’s house but I didn’t stop I didn’t pay any kind of attention to anything and anyone. Four hours later it had gotten dark but I didn’t care there was nothing to get back home to but tears and I could do without those. On my way back home I noticed Mr. Wallace’s gat was left wide open and the god was nowhere to be seen. I had heard lots of stories about Mr. Wallace’s dog and so not seeing behind the gate safely away from me scared me. I began walking faster and the dog that was hiding on the side of Mr. Wallace’s house had spotted me and began moving toward me. When I noticed the dogs’ movements I began running in the opposite direction away from my house once again, and the dog began to pursue me in a head on chase. I didn’t know how long I had run for but every nerve ending in my body tingled with excitement, and I would have done anything—did do everything just to feel that way again. I looked behind me to see how close the dog was and saw that the dog was about six blocks behind me. I looked down at me feet and was surprised when I had yet to see them touch ground, it was almost like I was running on air or that my legs were somehow invisible. My body tingled and glowed a blue hue, and I loved it, every second. I was high on power I felt light on my toes, my hear no longer heart from the pain I was holding in concerning my father’s heroic death, my heart barely beat considering how fast I was running. I actually killed a hobo for no other reason than because I could. I searched out trouble, I wanted to
see if it was possible for my body to feel any better than it did and hence the addiction was born I guess. The power was addicting—still is; I couldn’t get enough of it and I loved how it made me feel.”
“6 years you lived with this addiction and every night you go out and do what your body needs from you. It needs for you to feel alive in some sense of the word, deep down inside though you died with your father.” Skylar cried silently at his revelation, in some part of her mind though she knew it was true. Ryder turned her around slightly in his arms until the side of her face was pressed against his chest, his legs were bent at the knees and she sat inside of them like a chair as her legs dangled off to the side of his. “I have to tell you something,” he said after a brief moment of silence. Skylar moved her head slightly so that she could see him but really all she could see was his chin and the way it moved up and down as he talked.
“What?” she asked after he didn’t say anything for the duration of the time. He cleared his through and looked away from her.
“I should have told you yesterday before all of this happened, it really doesn’t seem like the right time to bring it up,” he said looking back down at her lifting her chin just a bit so she was able to see him.
“There really won’t ever be a right time,” she said.
Ryder laughed mirthlessly before saying,” Yea, I guess you’re right,” before looking back across the room.
“So tell me,” she insisted.
Ryder sighed before saying, “My mom wants to meet you.” Skylar didn’t say anything for a minute but just continued to look at him while he continued to avoid her eyes.
“Why would she want to meet me?” she asked confused as she sat up a bit higher in his lap forcing him to look at her.
“I don’t know really, she just started crying and I couldn’t deny her.”
“But, how did I even come up in your conversation?”
“Please just come.”
“I never said I wouldn’t come I just want to know why I’m coming,” she said wondering what in the world he was keeping from her. “Why would your mother start crying?” she asked instead.
“Because she’s allowed to fuckin cry, because she has something to cry about,” he said defensively. Skylar said nothing for a while, waiting for him to calm down a bit.
Skylar placed her hand on his chest though it shook slightly before saying, “I’ll come but is there anything I should know before I do?” She wasn’t sure he’d answer but was surprised when he did—hesitantly of course.
“Please don’t stare at her, or constantly ask her if she’s ok because she’s not. It may…smell but you have to learn to not let it bother you. She’s sick really sick and I know she doesn’t care about what others think of her but I do so please…please just do what the hell I say and don’t make it difficult,” he said as he looked back down at her. She knew there was clear understanding in her eyes and that he could see that, what he didn’t know was that her mother was the same way, though her mother just ignored everyone and didn’t smile or laugh or even cry she just laid there still with her eyes closed, he was lucky that his mother was still full of such emotion.
“Ok,” she said giving a subtle nod of her head before laying her head back down.
“This is important to her,” he said as he ran his hands over her head and down her arms absent mindedly before bringing them back and starting all over again. “She seems to think you make me happy.”
“If only she knew,” Skylar whispered against his chest. She could feel his body rumbled beneath hers as he laughed.
“Yes, if only she knew,” he whispered as he continued to rub his hands down the side of her body over and over and over again.
My Dearest Aaron