^^ art by fuckyourself_please ♥

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Skylar's POV

"So," I started. "That last metal disc is supposedly the only way left to open some underground vaults my mother mentioned."

It was somewhere past noon right now and the train station was almost brimming with people. I could see the dense crowd from the window beside me (both Caden and I were already seated inside the train). I had travelled to Philly before, to see Dad when he was in the hospital, but Mom still had been reluctant to let me go.

"You'll call me or your father the moment you think it's not safe there." She had said. "Am I clear?"

I couldn't have blamed her. But it still had taken me hours to actually persuade her.

"Yes." Caden glanced at me and I noticed the way he rolled back his stiff shoulders. Way too tensed than I was. "The red crystal is said to be in there somewhere."

I looked away from his face, settling my gaze at the window once again. "What if those vaults don't even exist anymore?" If they were centuries old, what guarantee did we have that they were even intact?

"They do exist," Caden murmured, tipping his head back against the seat. "Blake wouldn't be after them if they didn't."

The train was slowly filling up with the others.

"And Kevin," I added, lowering my voice. Caden seemed to tense even further at the mention of his name and I couldn't help but frown.

"You seem tensed." I pointed out.

I didn't know whether he was tense about this only, or the conversation he'd had with my mother last night. He had been acting like that since the start. But I hadn't pointed it out until now. It had already been awkward enough for me yesterday.

He took his time to respond to that, tilting his head upwards. "I think taking you along has been one of the most stupid decisions I've ever made."

"No offence to me." I said, then added, "None taken, by the way."

It left me a little surprised when he took my hand, pulling it closer towards him.

"I mean it, Sky. This is dangerous." He said. "Blake will be following us. And when he sees that metal disk, he'll do anything to get his hands on it."

The way he framed those words scared me a bit. But I already knew the risk.

"I'll be fine." I had a feeling that I was reassuring myself more than him. "Besides, you'll be there."

"You're relying on me too much."

He wasn't wrong. But then again, I couldn't remember even a single time these past few months when my life had been in danger and he hadn't saved my ass. I did trust him when it came to my life.

"I trust you." I simply shrugged. I saw his eyes widening a little, the green in them darkening. But he didn't break away from the gaze. Neither did I, not until the train started moving.

I looked away then, gazing out of the window.

"All right." I stretched out my legs in front of me. "Three more hours to go."

Time passed by in a not-so swift movement. When evening came by, I realized that there were still two hours left for us to reach the outskirts of Harrisburg. Two whole hours for my head to come up with even more questions and scenarios--all in which I somehow ended up getting killed.

What if I really get killed this time?

I glanced over at Caden, who was busy scrolling through his phone, a small furrow in between his brows. He was once again wearing all black. Though I was glad that his shirt at least was white.

"You should give me some sort of a weapon, you know," I spoke up slowly, making sure to lower down my voice. "Something I could use to defend myself with." I wasn't really a fan of weapons, or violence even, but it still made me a bit curious--the thought of actually handling them.

Caden looked up at me, narrowing his eyes ever so slightly. "Do you know how to use a gun?"

"Oh no, not a gun." My eyes widened a little as I shook my head. "I don't want to use a gun. Maybe something a bit...softer?"

A very small smile edged across his lips. "I don't think any sort of weapon is considered soft."

"What about a knife?"

"I'll teach you how to use a gun." He ignored me.

I felt a small kick at the back of my seat. That's, I guess, what I hated the most about trains. People loved kicking the back of your seats. Especially children.

"We'll have time for that?" I asked him, furrowing my brows. It wasn't that I hated guns, it was just something scary about them.

Caden nodded. "The rest of them will be right behind us if they see Blake or his men following."

"The rest of your gang?"

He nodded again. And knowing that made me feel a bit more relieved. I'll just hope for the best.

"Why a gun, though? I can do plenty with a knife." I crossed my arms and leaned back in my seat. It was a lie, however--especially since it hadn't really done well at all when I tried defending myself from Blake with a fucking butter knife. But Caden didn't know that, so I was all good.

"Shouldn't the gang leader's girl know how to use a gun?" He murmured, quite close towards my ear.

My eyes widened in response and my heart started beating a bit too wildly. Just like that, there came the tingly, nervous feeling in my stomach. The same feeling I got whenever Caden was a little too near me these days. It made me feel hot and bothered and a mess.

"Sure." I let out a breathy whisper, looking away from him and outside the window, and willing my face to just stop heating. Everything I felt around him was just too new and it was starting to slightly freak me out.

I spent the next hour looking out of the window. Even when the sky darkened up, I couldn't make myself look back at him. At least not until I started feeling tired.

Switching on my phone, I looked at the time and the few texts Mom had sent me. I couldn't even remember the last time Mom had sent me texts. She was being a bit too worried about me, and even though that warmed my heart, I wished she would stop. Because that just made me think more about this all and in situations like these, overthinking was never good.

I looked over at Caden and he was still busy on his phone. A yawn slipped past my lips as I stretched out my legs, glad that the annoying kid behind me had stopped kicking on the back of my seat.

Blinking back my drooping eyelids, I found myself swaying sideways before I wrapped my hand around his arm, and placed my head on his shoulder.

It took me just seconds to doze off.

•••••

"Did we reach the museum already?" I asked, looking around the giant buildings. Harrisburg was a crowded city. More westernized, especially under the dark night sky.

Caden didn't answer me, though. He just kept walking and walking towards an alleyway this time.

"Am I supposed to follow you?" I called after him since he really wasn't replying to any question of mine. It was getting a tad bit irritating.

This time, however, he stopped and turned around, eyeing me with a frown. "I'm starting to really think that I shouldn't have brought you along."

I stifled the urge to grin. "Careful, mister. You were about to hurt my feelings there." Then I started walking again. He rolled his eyes and turned around, choosing to not say anything once again. I couldn't help but notice the completely isolated alleyway as we went deeper into it.

I was not liking the sight of it.

"Whoops!" The word left my lips as I stumbled forwards, my feet tangling up with a thorny vine on the ground. Caden turned around just as quick, reaching out to probably stop me from falling, but failed. And I fell down on the ground.

That's when I heard a snicker.

Groaning at the hard ground beneath me, I looked up and saw that Caden wasn't alone anymore. The other guys had joined us as well. And it was Jesse--no surprise there--who was busy snickering at me.

My cheeks heated up but I kept the frown on my face.

If they all were here, did that mean--

"There is no point in laughing." I glared at Jesse. That just made the others snicker, and I still made no move to get up.

"The stuff is inside." Shane looked over at Caden, gesturing behind him. I didn't know what inside was anymore. Were we going underground now?

With one last glance at me, Caden followed him somewhere, disappearing from my sight. I scowled at his disappearing form.

"He is so-not a gentleman," I spoke up miserably. What kind of a guy was he even? Still snickering, Seth and Adrian each gave me a hand and pulled me up from the ground.

It was when I had stood up and was wiping my jeans, that I realized Jesse had been recording it all, including my embarrassing fall a few seconds ago, on his phone.

I glared at him just as he stopped aiming his phone at me. "Now that was some video." He laughed.

"Oh my God. Don't you fucking dare." I whispered in horror. Jesse just grinned before striding off to where Caden and Shane had gone.

"Jesse!" I ran after him only to find myself inside a room. More like a small shed. Before I could've started throwing daggers at Jesse--metaphorically speaking--who was busy on his phone, Caden came up behind me.

"Here." He said, holding out a shiny, black gun towards me.

I looked at it with wide eyes, not so sure if I even wanted to be anywhere near it. "Wait--" Before I could've backed off though, he took my hand and placed it over my palm. It felt a bit too cold and heavy, and I think I had a gun phobia.

If that was even a thing.

"I'll teach her how to use this. You guys go ahead and search for a hotel to stay in tonight, okay?" He looked at the others.

I had this strange urge to just drop that gun. But before I could've done any such thing, Caden grabbed my other free hand and dragged me out of that shed, back under the open sky.

We kept on walking and I kept on looking at that gun still in my hand. It made me feel a bit nauseous, especially since it looked a lot familiar to the one I had seen in Alex's car.

When Caden stopped, I stopped too and looked up from the gun, realising that we were probably behind the alley now. It was all empty, with all three sides of me surrounded by solid concrete walls. There were no houses within the distance.

"Why can't I have a knife?" I found myself complaining just as Caden turned towards me.

His dark, intimidating gaze flew down to the gun in my hand before slowly trailing up to my own eyes. "Don't tell me you're afraid of a gun?" And I had a feeling that he wouldn't even care if I did indeed have that fear--the slight tease in his voice was an answer enough.

But then again, there wasn't even a point to tease me. I really was afraid. "Can't you see my hands shaking?" I spread out my hands in front of me. "They're shaking out of fear."

Sadly, they weren't.

He ignored my pathetic excuses and turned me around by my shoulders so that I was facing a specific wall. A wall covered with lots of graffiti, looking old enough. It seemed like I might not be the only one who had ever thought of shooting bullets through that wall.

"Come on now. Place your hand like this." He spoke up from behind me, taking hold of my hand in his warmer one, and placing it below my other hand which was holding the pistol.

I was definitely hyperventilating.

"Try not to think of the other things happening around you." He said, his chest barely in contact with my back. Was he serious, telling me to not think about anything other than that gun when he was standing so close? "Just focus on your target, and this part too."

I bit the inside of my cheek anxiously.

"Concentrate on that point right there." I couldn't help but tense up when I felt his lips just an inch away from my ear. I didn't even know what point he was talking about. "And pull on the trigger."

Without even thinking twice, I pulled on the trigger and a loud firing sound overtook the silence around us. It left me frozen at my spot, quite literally.

A shudder escaped my lips and my hands fell by my sides, my heart pounding against my chest for more than just one reason.

"Great going, Anderson." Caden sounded impressed. And slowly, as I looked at the bullet that had embedded its way into the wall, I realized that this feeling of exhilaration...it felt good.

But not good enough to change my mind about guns in general.

I turned around and faced him. "I don't think I'd like to do that again."

"It's just a gun, Sky." He gazed back at me, his lips curving up at the corners. "It won't hurt you if you're the one pulling the trigger."

"It'll hurt somebody else." I pointed out.

He raised his brows at that and I saw the disbelief in his eyes. "I thought that was the whole point of self-defence?"

I bit my lower lip before looking down at the gun in my hand. How was I supposed to even walk around knowing that I had a gun in my pocket?

I shouldn't really make a big deal out of it.

I felt his hand linger at the side of my face before gently nudging me to look up at him.

"You really shouldn't make a big deal out of it." He said, picking the words right out of my head. It left me stunned. Not just that, but the look in his eyes too. The green in his eyes clouding over with flecks of black and gold as they trailed down to my lips.

I wasn't really surprised when my heart started racing once again. But then my stomach started twisting itself into knots. Familiar knots. And all of a sudden, I pulled back and away from him.

Caden blinked and looked back into my eyes, his brows furrowing in confusion.

"That's the hundredth time you've pulled away from me." He pointed out with somewhat irritation in his voice. I crossed my arms, mainly to hide my nervousness.

God, what was wrong with me?

"That's not true," I mumbled, not really looking at him. He was just exaggerating; it wasn't really the hundredth time. Suddenly, the gun in my hand seemed a bit more interesting to look at.

"You don't want me to start naming all of those times, do you?" He asked.

I really did not. Because he was right. I was acting weird--weirder than usual.

"Are you planning on telling me what's wrong?" I could feel his stare on me and that made me swallow hard.

I counted down the seconds passing by before finally deciding to say something.

"I just...get nervous, okay?" I looked up at him and the look of utter disbelief didn't leave his face.

"You get nervous every time I try to kiss you?"

Why did he have to make it sound so obvious?

"I feel strange," I whispered slowly. "You make me feel strange."

"And why is that?"

I raised my hands up in the air, in clear exasperation. "How am I supposed to answer that?"

The slight, curious tilt of his head made me want to step closer towards him, maybe even kiss him. But my legs were frozen at that spot. My brain and my heart weren't cooperating on one specific thing. He leaned closer and I tried my hardest to ignore the funny feeling in my stomach this time.

"You're scared because you've never felt this way." He stated and I realized that that was exactly what I had wanted to say, except that I hadn't known how.

"I've never been close with a guy before," I spoke up in a low whisper. And I wasn't even lying. I had never thought that I could ever end up here. Liking someone. Loving him. "Unlike you. You can't blame me."

A flash of amusement passed over his eyes. "Unlike me?"

I nodded a little meekly.

"Well, I don't really kiss the same girls more than twice." He added. "Neither did I ever tell a girl I like her. Or love her."

I felt my eyes widening in surprise, a lot taken aback to even feel the nervousness within me.

"What?" I whispered.

His eyes shined brightly when he stared back at me. And something tugged in my gut when I looked back at him, at the way his face glowed under the moonlight.

"I love you." He said.

I blinked and my lips parted in astonishment.

"You must be kidding." The words left my mouth way before I could've stopped them. He couldn't blame me, though. Something about this all felt like a dream to me.

A small laugh of disbelief escaped his lips, his eyes drifting up towards the sky as if questioning his fate. "God, Anderson."

Before I could've said anything, he cupped my face in his hands and pulled me closer, and I could only see his eyes at that moment.

"I do love you, okay?" He said, taking a slight pause between every word, almost as if he wanted to imprint them deep in my head. "You've officially fucked me up from the inside, and I can guarantee you that no one has ever managed to do that."

I didn't think it was possible for my eyes to widen anymore.

"You're in my head every goddamn second, Anderson! Every single time I see you, I just want to kiss you, or touch you, or just be close." He seemed like he couldn't believe that he was saying this all, but his surprise went away just as quick. "Yes, it fucking scares me too. Because I never wanted to feel this way. I'm supposed to be the guy who doesn't give a shit to anything or anyone. I'm supposed to be that heartless bastard."

His thumb softly caressed my cheek and I found myself feeling lost and a little too surprised and a little too speechless.

"But I can't." He whispered this time, and for the first time since I got to see him, I finally managed to see the clear emotions in his eyes. They were too many, as if he didn't know how to keep them all at bay, and it felt hard to breathe. "You annoy the crap out of me and I still fucking love you. I can't not love you, Anderson."

I stared at him in silence and he still had his hands on either side of my face, and my insides felt so warm, and the gun--that freaking thing wasn't even what I cared about right now.

It was just my heartbeat pounding in my ears.

"Oh." A small whisper escaped my lips. He blinked in surprise, probably at my lack of response. But unlike him, I didn't know how to say anything. I didn't even know how to form coherent words at that moment.

So I just leaned closer and pressed my lips against his, almost a soft peck. And then I felt a smile forming on my lips, and my insides felt so giddy, and I was kissing him like he was an addiction of mine, a drug.

My only drug.

He kissed me back. And I had never in my life felt more complete than this.

Caden Miller definitely knew how to steal hearts.

I just really, really hoped that he wouldn't break mine. Because that would really hurt like a bitch.

________

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Xoxo,
Crystal 🌿