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“I promise,” Kayla said, nibbling the flesh that dangled from between his fingertips.
Then I was on the road again that led to Wasp Water, and I could see that Isidor and I had both lost weight during our time at the zoo, but Kayla hadn’t and I now understood why – I understood why she hadn’t been able to beat her cravings. But Luke had whispered something else to her on his visits to her cell. He had told her that she was beautiful and how those words felt like sweet music to her ears. For so many years she had been bullied at school, called ‘stickleback,’ so when someone as handsome as Luke told her how beautiful he thought she was, Kayla couldn’t help but lap those words up as quickly as she lapped up the red stuff he brought her each night. He truly was her saviour.
Then, one night Kayla said, “I love you, Luke. ”
“You love me?” he smiled back at her, taking her hands in his. ”Why?”
“You have been so kind to me,” she said, looking into his eyes.
“And I love you too, Kayla, but like a sister,” he told her.
“A sister?” she asked, sounding disappointed. “Don’t you love me more than that?”
“Perhaps,” he half-smiled. “But I can’t think about that now. If we ever manage to escape from here, then perhaps my feelings will become clearer. ”
“What about Kiera?” I heard her ask. “Don’t you love her?”
“I think she loves me,” Luke told her. “So you must never tell her about this conversation. I will tell her when the time is right. You wouldn’t want to hurt her, would you?”
“No,” Kayla whispered, shaking her head. “I could never hurt Kiera, she’s my friend. ”
“Good,” Luke smiled, leaning forward and kissing her gently on the mouth. And then he was gone.
Then, I was in The Hollows, in the cave with Coanda. Kayla was waiting alone by a nearby cave. I saw his hands sneak from the darkness and pull her inside. She shuddered in his grasp.
“Kayla, I need your help,” he told her. “I think Kiera is in great danger. ”
“How?” Kayla asked him.
“I need you to listen to what Coanda is saying to her,” Luke said.
“But that would be wrong, wouldn’t it?” she whispered. “You, know, to eavesdrop on somebody else’s private conversation. ”
Taking her gently by the shoulders, I watched him lean in close to her, and say, “We don’t really know this Coanda. He might be leading us into a trap. He might want to hurt Kiera. ”
Kayla looked up into his eyes and he could sense her unease about carrying out his request, so pulling her closer still, he kissed her. And this time it wasn’t a brotherly kiss, but that of a lover. He pulled away from her, and looking into her eyes, he said, “Please, Kayla, for me. ”
So, turning her head towards the cave I was in with Coanda, she relayed every word of our conversation to Luke.
But, someone saw Luke kiss Kayla and the sight of it disturbed him. Unseen by Luke or Kayla, Isidor had been watching them from nearby. I watched Isidor, wide-eyed and opened-mouthed as he saw Luke kiss his sister. Isidor slunk back into the shadows and I could feel his heart beating, like a child who had stumbled across a secret they wished they hadn’t seen. But not only could I feel his heart, I could see into it as he remembered stumbling across Luke and me naked together in the lake beneath the caves. I remembered the way his cheeks had flushed scarlet at finding us there. And that’s what caused his heart so much pain as he stood, hidden by shadows, watching Luke and his sister kiss, how would he ever tell me – wasn’t I in love with Luke?
Then, I heard Isidor’s voice whisper against my cheek as if he was standing beside me, but he wasn’t standing beside me, he was dying in my arms, blood streaming from his throat in thick, black streams, as Luke laid the crossbow between the gap in the rock then disappeared between it.
“I saw him kiss her at the resistance camp,” Isidor had gargled in my arms. When she was on her own, I asked her what was going on. ”
I looked away; I couldn’t bear to see Isidor die in my arms all over again, but then I saw him with Kayla, lying next to each other by the campfire halfway up the Weeping Peak.
“Please, Isidor, you mustn’t say anything,” Kayla whispered to her brother over the snapping and hissing of the fire.
“But what about Kiera?” he asked her. “I thought she and Luke were together?”
“She likes Potter,” Kayla told him.
“Then you should tell her about you and Luke,” Isidor insisted.
“No, not yet. ”
“Why not?”
“Luke said he will tell Kiera when this is all over,” Kayla told Isidor.
I watched from afar as Isidor, rolled onto his side and said, “I don’t like it, Kayla, not one little bit. ”
As I looked at him, all those flashbulbs flickered and flashed inside my head, and I understood why he had been so quiet on our journey across The Hollows. He wished he hadn’t seen Luke and Kayla; he didn’t want to be the one who would have to tell me about their betrayal – he didn’t want to see me get hurt. And in his heart, he was angry with the both of them.
Then, something brushed my face and it was the leaves of the weeping willows as I made my way through them. I could hear sobbing and I moved towards the sound. Kayla was by the tree, and as I peered through the leaves, I could see myself watching her from the other side of the clearing. But from my new hiding place, I could see who Kayla was talking to.
“I love you,” she whispered, and Luke smiled at her, that smile that made his face look radiant.
“You have to keep us a secret until Kiera has made her choice,” he said softly.
“I know what I have to do,” Kayla murmured. “I know the decision that Kiera has to make. I know I have to be strong until the end. ”
“Good,” he smiled again.
“Then can we be together?” Kayla asked him, tears on her cheeks.
“Come to me tonight, Kayla,” Luke whispered. “When we camp, come to me and we can be together tonight. ” Then, hearing me coming through the willows, he slipped back in amongst the trees, dropping a cigarette end as he went.
“I love you,” she said again and I watched her bury her face in her hands.
The bright lights flashed again, sending pinpricks of light dancing across the inside of my eyelids. The spots of lights formed shapes, images that I didn’t want to see.
Kayla was there, I could see her standing in the dark. She was waiting for him. Her wait wasn’t a long one, as Luke came to her out of the darkness. She ran to him, and he took her in his arms, kissing her face and neck.
“Do you really think I’m beautiful?” she whispered in his ear, and I could feel the insecurities in her heart. How could Luke love her? She was the stickleback, right? The girl who had been ridiculed and mocked by her peers because she was different. She didn’t deserve to be loved by someone like Luke – this only happened in books, in movies.
“You are beautiful,” he whispered back, pulling her close and unbuttoning her overalls. He pulled them down over her shoulders and she made a murmuring sound.
“Luke, maybe we should stop,” she protested gently.
“But you are so beautiful, Kayla,” he said, as her clothes fluttered to the ground.
I wanted to scream at her – to tell her to run and never stop. But I was a passive observer, myself held prisoner in Luke’s embrace as I was forced to watch how he had betrayed us, how he had murdered Kayla.
And although she felt embarrassed and uncomfortable, she couldn’t help but feel overjoyed that at last someone thought she was beautiful. So, looping her arms about his neck, she let him kiss her face, her chest and his kisses were so gentle.
Then, she was pushing him away and folding her arms over her breasts in embarrassment. “Someone is coming,” she whispered, reaching for her clothes.
“No…” L
uke started.
“I can hear them,” she said. “It’s the same person who followed us up the mountain. ”
“It’s just your imagination,” he said, pulling her close again, but keeping one eye on the woods behind her, as if he were expecting someone.
“Please, Luke, stop…” she gasped as she tried to push him away, I could tell by her racing heart that she knew that something wasn’t quite right.
But before she could break herself free of him, Luke sunk his fangs into her chest and bit her heart. Kayla shuddered in his arms, then, went rigid. My mother appeared from the woods, a rucksack over her back. And as Kayla twitched in Luke’s arms, she came forward and placed a hand over Kayla’s mouth to stifle any dying sounds she might make.
Between them, Luke and my mother laid Kayla upon the ground. Leaning over her, as if kissing her one last time, Luke removed Kayla’s ears with one quick swipe of his claws.
“Wasn’t eating her heart enough?” my mother asked. But she didn’t sound revolted, just curious.
“I want to send that fool, Coanda a message,” Luke said, placing one of Kayla’s ears in each of her hands. “I want to tell him that I know he was taking her to the Light House to listen. ”
“What about these?” my mother whispered, pulling an identical set of clothes from the rucksack.
“Help me put them on her,” Luke ordered, lifting Kayla’s feet and removing her boots.
“Why?” mother asked him.
“The kid, Isidor will smell me on her,” Luke said. “He can’t know that we have been together. If I ever thought he had found out, I would have to kill him. ”
“Kill him anyway,” my mother said.
“I just might,” he told her, smiling.
And as they redressed Kayla, I knew why Potter had seen Isidor sniffing his sister’s body as he laid her to rest. But Isidor’s sense of smell had been stronger than Luke had known, because even though Luke had gone to great lengths to hide his tracks, he had left a trace of his scent behind. In her hair, perhaps? On her flesh? I couldn’t be sure but Isidor had smelt Luke. And as those dreadful images of Kayla flashed before me, I heard Isidor whisper in my ear again, “As I laid her in her grave, I could smell him on her. I don’t know if he was the one who killed her, but they had definitely been together. ”