Preface:
No one really knows when
babies start to understand concepts but this young boy did at barely the age of
two, he may not of complete comprehended it but he knew love when he felt it.
The little boy born with the jet black hair and bright blue eyes loved his
parents deeply.
No one knew how his parents died. All they knew was the neighbor heard the
screams of the mother and father and he found them crumbled on the floor with
the dark hair baby pushed far away from them. The neighbor picked up the baby
and the dark haired, bright eyed little thing cried at the sight of his
unmoving parents and the neighbor felt for the child and took him in as his
own, with the help of his wife he hoped to raise the boy as his own along with
his own boy. Several months later, once the baby was settled, the adoptive
parents and adoptive brother died the same as the boy’s parents had. The baby
went into foster care and wherever the baby went death followed. Soon no one
wanted the baby because the rumors also followed him around. At age 13 the boy
was placed in an all-boys home where the other boys picked on him. All the boys
there, and the adults picked on him and no one showed kindness toward dark
haired blue eyed boy. But the house mother did. She took care of him, cleaned
his wounds when he was hurt, made sure he always had food when the other boys
took his and loved him as if he were hers for she too was once an outcast and
she felt for the boy. She treated him just like a mother would and in his eyes
she was like a mother, not long after finally seeing her in that way and not
like a nice woman doing her job, she died, just like all the others. It was
this that made him understand, whenever he felt something akin to love if not
love itself, people died. Whenever he loved someone they would die soon after
he felt it. Finally knowing what his curse was the boy made the decision to
withdraw from society. He would not speak unless spoken too, he would not
interact more than demanded, and he would by any means necessary for as long as
he was in the system he would stay away from families that wanted to foster or
adopt him. This promise to himself and to those dead was short lived: a family,
a wife and a husband, both scientist wanted to foster and then one day adopt
the boy for they were curious about the rumors that followed him. But the boy
promised himself not to get attached or love them because he could not handle
killing anyone else. The boy retreated to books, it was his only escape, he
especially loved comic books because there he would find people like him trying
to cope and understand what they were going through, but whatever he got he
marked out the author’s name because he was unsure how his curse worked and he
didn’t want them to die because he liked the way they wrote. At 14 and still
with the scientist, they decided it was time to put him in school because the
rumors were starting to sound like they were just rumors and they wanted to
test it, to test him. The boy put up a long fight but by Monday morning he was
attending his first day of school. He made up stories in his head about the
teachers, he made them all have bad backgrounds and tried to make them as mean
as possible, and he couldn’t afford to even like anyone. He never spoke a word,
not when greeted, not when called on, not ever at school. The children all
thought that he thought he was too good for them and that he was stuck up and
snobby so they bullied him and teachers pitied him for that.
This went on till he was
15. He foolishly believed his curse was over, that he forced himself to forget
love. But no one can forget it forever. One day they got a new student, a tall,
red headed, freckle faced girl that had her green eyes on a tall dark headed
blue eyed boy who foolishly let her. She sat with him during every class and
every lunch for three weeks. She heard the rumors and the stories the kids told
but she didn’t care, she wanted a friend and he seemed like the friendliest
person at school. On the four week she talked to him but he didn’t speak to
her. She thought maybe he was mute or just really shy and that was okay. This
went on for months and slowly he learned everything about her and she broke
down his walls and he felt himself falling in love with her. He pushed that as
far away as he could, as deep down as he could. One day they were at the park,
like they do every day after school. They sat on a pile of rocks and she talked
about everything and nothing and anything in between.
“Lila,” He whispered on that day. It was the first time she heard his voice. She
stared wide eyed at him, thinking her ears played tricks on her.
“Drake?” She whispered back, tears welling up in her eyes. His voice was smooth
and rich for a 15 year old.
“We need to stop. We need to stop this, us. It’s too dangerous for you.” He whispered,
not looking into her eyes.
“I heard the rumors, and I don’t care. I don’t think those people died because
of you. I really really like you, and I know it’s weird because I shouldn’t
feel like I know you because you never talk, but I do, I do know you, I’ve
talked to your foster parents and I know everything about you just like you
know everything about me because we friends and friend’s should know this
stuff. So it’s okay, this is okay, we are okay.” She rushed on, words falling
over each other, she didn’t want to lose him, he saw that and it brought tears
to his eyes as well.
“You don’t know everything.” Was the only thing he could think of to say at the
time.
“Then tell me. Tell me so we can be okay, Drake, please, let us be okay.” If
anyone had overheard the conversation they would have thought these two were
much older than what they are because what she feels and what he denies is more
than what most feel in a lifetime.
“They aren’t rumors,” He looked into her eyes and she watched tears streak down
his face. “If I feel love or affection that person I feel it towards, dies.”
Lila reached for his hand but he pulled back.
“Lila, we aren’t okay. If I let this go on, you will die, and I could never live with myself if you died because of me, because of my feelings for you.”
“I don’t care.” She whispered.
“You should, Lila, because this is real, I could kill you but I don’t want to.”
“We are real, what we have, this connection is real, Drake, nothing can stop
it, don’t you see that?” She took his hand in hers and he didn’t pull back.
“That’s what I’m afraid of. And you should be too.”
“Drake, for the past few months, I have fallen in love with you, nothing can
change that no matter how scared we might be. And I won’t leave without a
fight, okay?” She placed her hand on his cheek and he leans into, feeling in
more pain than ever before. He couldn’t love her. He couldn’t kill her. He
wouldn’t, he would try everything in his power to keep the curse away from her.
“Lila, I’m so scared. But I have to be alone, it’s my curse to be alone. I
can’t kill you, I can’t lose you like that. I have to be alone from now on.” He
closed his eyes and let his pain wash over him like a wave, drowning his love
for her. She wanted him as badly as he wanted her and it made it ten times
harder.
“Let’s be alone together then.” Her voice was so hopeful it caused a sob to
rise up in his throat.
“That didn’t work out last time.” He croaked out.
“Those were the worst three weeks in my life, Drake. If I’m going to die at
least I’m not alone and I got to feel like this,” she placed her hand on his
chest, over his heart. “I got to fall in love with a wonderful person and maybe
we don’t get to have a long life together but we can this one moment, together…
before it all ends.” He opened his eyes to see her looking more determined than
ever before.
“Drake, I want to hear you say it. Say it and finally feel it for me.” Drake
shook his head.
“It’s okay,” She pulled herself right into his lap and he held her tightly.
“I’m ready to die if that means we get to have us for even just this moment.”
Lila leaned up and pressed her lips to his and he pulled her even closer to him
and deepened the kiss, and on her lips he said, “I love you.” His feeling
opened like a dam bursting and all the love he had forced down came rushing
back up and melted into the kiss. He wrapped his arms around, her hands went
into his hair, pulling themselves even closer. They pulled back and she started
to fight for breath and she held in a scream of pain but her eyes never lost
that love she held for him, she was truly ready to die for them. Tears rolled
down even faster as he pressed his forehead to hers. She reached up and put her
hand on his cheek. She tried to kiss him again but the action took too much effort,
caused too much pain so she just lied there, in his arms, trying with all her
might to speak to him one last time. With her last breath she managed a quiet,
“I love you, Drake.” When all she wanted was to scream it to the heavens, but
she couldn’t. Her breath slowed, her eyes dimmed and her body went limp in his
arms. He pulled back staring at her darkened eyes. No, no, please. His thoughts cried.
“Please don’t go. I need you.” He begged as hugged her to his chest. All the
love he felt got washed away with loss and hurt. He held her lifeless body and
cried with so much pain that it turned into screams until he had nothing left
to yell. Nothing left to cry. Nothing left to be.
