Italics- thoughts/ flashbacks/ dreams

Bold- author talking

Underline- narrator talking, known as the main character

Normal- normal story

3582 words

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Bed is comfy. I will stay here forever.

I turn over and throw my arm over Death. He makes everything more comfy, and Pikachu.

Never forget Pikachu.

He's still asleep.

I think.

I quickly grab my phone because slow movement always makes the most noise for some damn reason. I turn it on and turn down all the brightness and turn off flash, all the good ol' stuff.

I took a picture of him sleeping. Yay!

I click on the picture in the corner but it's not there. Why is it not there? This isn't fair.

I frown before closing the app. I just want a damn picture. The home screen picture changed.

I freeze with absolute fear.

It is a picture of me. Taking the picture of sleeping death.

From the window.

Hell no.

I sit up and quickly look at the window which is across the room but there is nothing. I poke death over and over till he rolls onto his back and looks at me.

"What?"

I put the phone in his face. "Someone just took this picture of me."

He grins,"Looks like you got caught."

"But who is in the window?"

He looks at it. "I don't see anyone."

"But the picture- no, there has to be someone. I don't want people taking pictures of me like a stalker..."

An extremely strong fear of having a stalker comes into play. This is why mom always told me to have curtains all the time.

He sits up and pulls me against him as soon as my thoughts and worries become too much.

"I took the picture, relax." He runs his hand through my hair.

"...how? You never left..."

"Magic. No one from outside can see inside or take pictures of the house."

"Why'd you do that...?"

He shrugs.

"It isn't fair."

"What is not fair?"

"You can take these damn pictures of me from anywhere and yet I can't take any pictures of you. I want whatever invisible magic camera phone thing you have."

"If you convince me I'll get you 'whatever magic camera phone thing' I have."

I got excited and all previous fear left, even closed the door on its way out.

"We will be equal... equality is important."

He looks confused, "that's all?"

I think for 80 hours. "I will be happier and you will be happy that you made me happy and we will be happy together. I don't know."

"You lack skills in persuading."

"I do. But please, I'll pay you back even though it might take a while. I don't know how much it would cost."

"Magic doesn't cost money, dear."

Oh that makes me so happy. "I can still give you money."

"I don't want money, everything shouldn't revolve around money."

"Then do you want something?"

"Of course."

He hides his face on the side of my neck. I love when he does that, it just makes me feel so special for some reason.

"Then what do you want?"

"You."

"Me? But you already have me, I'm right here. You are currently holding me."

"I want all of you."

"Oh." I lean closer to him. "There, now you have all of me." I pat him on the back.

He sits up and drags his hands down his face.

"That isn't good for your skin."

"What?"

"Dragging your hands down your face isn't good for your skin."

He's confused again. "Why?"

"Because hands are crusty and the dirt will get in your skin and pulling your skin down like that will make more wrinkles and make you look older faster."

"I don't have those problems."

"Lucky."

He kisses my forehead. "You don't either, besides from turning older."

"Yay."

His smile is going to make me melt. Making someone smile is one of the best feelings ever.

The best is someone telling you that they'll live because of you.

Only happened once but that is enough to live happily.

"What color camera do you want?"

My eyes widened. "There's colors?!"

"Of course."

"What colors?"

"All of them."

"Blue silver."

"So then can I have all of you?"

"Well, what do you mean by that? I can't blindly say yes."

I want to. Want to do whatever the hell he says because I trust him but I gotta have boundaries.

Or at least find them. I think I know some.

He looks off to the distance for a moment. "I meant to say, can I take you somewhere?"

"Those are 2 completely different things."

"I know." He looks more comfuzzled bobbled than me. As if he somehow actually mixed up 2 questions.

Meh it happens.

"Will I die?"

"You shouldn't."

"Oki. Do I have to wear anything specific?"

"Anything that isn't a combination of that striped shirt and tie dye pants. Such a stupid combination of patterns."

I'm offended, "those clothes are so comfy."

"That's nice but looking like a fool there won't be appreciated."

"It's hillbilly, not fool."

He looks at me with absolute seriousness.

"Ok, I'll look nice." I get off the bed and he kisses the back of my hand before I get too far.

Aweee.

Weird ass wake up events.

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I have my purple shirt because it is my nicest shirt and black yoga pants.

My nicest clothes.

Damn that's pathetic.

"Wear shoes."

I stand up from lazily laying on my bed. "What shoes?"

He turns around to face me, sitting on the foot of the bed, "we will be outside."

"Is it nice wherever we're going?"

"19 degrees."

"Are we going to Antarctica? That's so cold."

"19 degrees is nice."

I think for a second. "Are you talking about Celsius degrees?"

"Yes."

"Then what is it in fahrenheit?"

"66.2."

"Oh that's not bad."

"I told you."

I put on my gym shoes which I haven't worn in forever.

I'm so tempted to lay down on the bed and sleep forever but I'm so curious about where we are going.

I walk in front of him. Heh, I'm taller.

"Where are we going?"

He looks distracted. "Somewhere."

"Where?"

"Not here."

"What kind of place?"

"The kind you stand on. The one that lets you breathe air."

"Why are you giving annoying answers?"

He doesn't respond. Why is he always in some trance? Is he telepathically talking to someone? He even looks a bit nervous.

The imaginary person better not be doing anything bad or I'll steal death's scythe again and wack 'em.

"You good?"

"That, my dear, will never be known." He mutters.

"Can I help?"

He stands up, slower than usual. "I'll be fine, you ready?"

"No, you're making me nervous. You never look nervous or whatever it is."

I'm so bad at naming emotions.

He makes it disappear like it never was there and grabs my hand.

"Now?"

"Don't hide your emotions."

He looks at me annoyed as hell. Like 'make up your damn mind or I'ma fight you, bitch'.

Now I'm more nervous but I might be annoying him. "Ok let's go."

He makes us appear at this giant field. I look around and see that we're on some mountain hill cliff thing. There's a lot of dirt and rocks. Some grass. There's houses in the distance.

Wherever the hell this is, it's beautiful.

"Where are we?"

He grabs my hand and I look up at him. He takes a second to respond. "Sparta, greece."

"Sparta is a place?"

"Now it's known as Laconia."

"It's so pretty here."

"It used to be better years ago."

"It's already so pretty now."

He starts walking and I follow cuz he's holding my hand and that's what I'm best at. We walk over to the edge and there are more houses. It's all so pretty.

It feels like there is an invisible force trying to make me go down again. But this time it's not the basement stairs and I might die. I take a step back so I don't die.

He wraps his arm around me before walking away from the ledge. The water was perfect.

We walk over to one of the very few trees here and he leans against it. He looks sad or like he's thinking of something sad.

I play with his hair with my free hand. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Liar."

Very little of the sadness leaves.

"Why are we here?"

"I'm showing you my home."

"That's sweet but why?"

"You showed me yours so I show you mine."

"You didn't have to."

"I did."

Oh my heart is taking a beating again. This is so sweet.

But there's a problem.

"There's nothing here."

"There is."

"Where?"

"My memories."

"Well, of course. Is there some way to access your memories?" I joke.

"Yes."

My heart stops, "what? Can you do that to me? Oh my god that's terrifying."

"I can't and it is not terrifying."

"How is that not terrifying? Are you sure you're alright?"

He sorta smiles before snapping his fingers. Everything changes to an old looking castle from forever ago. The sun is brighter and there is more grass. Nothing looks deserted.

"Where are we now?"

"Sparta."

"How? Did we time travel?"

"You wanted to see my memories. Here it is."

I gasp, "This is fucking crazy."

He grins before walking forward. I turn around and see the tree gone. It's a whole new world.

I turn back around and follow death. It's all white stone. There's people talking in the distance. Some walk by and they don't notice us. They have on really old looking clothes, like the 50 layers of fabric. The women are in the prettiest dresses. The men are dressed nicely and the kids look so cute.

"Why does no one see us?"

"It's a memory, It already happened and we weren't standing right here when it happened. Also no one looked at each other back then. You are gawking at every person that passes by."

"They're all so pretty though and the clothes."

"The privileges of being pretty."

"You are pretty."

"Now I am, not then."

"I'm sure you were pretty."

He points off to the distance. "Tell him that."

I look to where he's pointing and see a wall. "You are a very pretty wall."

"Not the wall." He repoints to somewhere else.

I look and see a little boy sort of standing behind a wall. He's looking at all the fancy people too.

He looks so sad and in awe. That sad face looks familiar.

He has brown hair and blue eyes. His clothes don't match the other kid's clothes. He looks poor and has dirt on him.

"He is adorable."

I feel compelled to walk closer so I do. I hear death follow me. The sounds in the memory are blurred so it's easy to tell the difference.

Once I get by the boy I notice he is almost as tall as me.

And there is a cut down his arm. Looks fresh too.

"Is he ok? Why is he hurt?"

"He was whipped."

That hurts to hear. "Why? He looks so innocent..."

"He didn't listen."

"He's just a child though."

"It doesn't matter. He didn't follow the rules."

"What rule did he not follow?"

"Didn't do the required amount of work for the day. It is a rule that you must meet that amount no matter what."

"How old is he?"

"9."

"What the hell? Why is a 9 year old being treated like this?"

"He's poor."

"That isn't fair."

"Tell that to his master."

Before I can express my confusion I hear a muted yell of a name. The boy looks at something before running to the direction.

"Where is he going?"

"To his parents, follow him."

I walk the direction he disappeared to because there is no way I'll be able to keep up.

"He's so fucking fast." I turn around to death once the boy is gone, "where is he?"

He points to the left and I look at the left. It's a few trees and an open area with some very basic looking houses or rooms, I can't tell.

I follow the talking noise that isn't in English. I see the boy again but this time with a lady kneeled in front of him.

She is so beautiful and concerned. She looks a lot like him. Almost identical.

And like death.

"Who is she?"

Death looks sad as hell. Like the boy. Oh that's why the boy looked familiar.

Oh poor death.

"Mamá."

"She's beautiful."

"She is."

I feel so bad for them.

She looks over little death and they're talking and stuff. She takes his arm and her face is full of worry.

"What are they saying?"

"She's asking what happened. He, I, explained that he- I- we fell asleep during the day so we didn't meet the requirement."

He then gets that dazed look in his eyes and his talking matches up to his younger self almost perfectly. It even has the tone of a traumatized, hurt little kid.

"Master said he was disappointed and expected better of me. He was disappointed in my lack of work for today but since I'm the youngest worker he won't be too harsh."

The little boy points to his arm. "See mamá, it was only one time, it wasn't that bad, mamá. Don't cry..."

His mom is balling. I'd be balling too if some 'master' hurt my kid for no reason.

She hugs him but he just stands there, a twitch from probably pain.

"Why didn't you hug her back?"

"After enough time of pain a hug won't help. I wish I took it when I had the chance."

I hold his hand with both of mine and hold it on my chest. "I'm sure she loved you."

"She did."

Once I looked at the scenery again, the memory disappeared.

"What happened?"

"I don't remember anything after that."

I wrap my arms around him. "I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"Having you live through that again."

He puts his hand under my ear. "It's alright, I'm the one that showed you."

"But why?"

"I wanted an answer to a question."

"Did you get it?"

He nods.

"Is it good?"

"It's fantastic." He looks happy.

"Good." Him acting happy makes me act happy.

"Why did you fall asleep during the work day?"

He half heartedly laughs, more sad than anything. "Sleep wasn't the best option that night."

"Oh, that's sad."

"Not really, things happen."

"I guess. What did you find out?"

He sits against the same tree as seen before and has me sit between his legs, my back to his chest. I love this, but not the lingering feelings from the faded memory in the air.

I felt just a little bit of disappointment during it. Such a short memory, but aren't they all?

"I'll tell you later, or never."

"Ok."

I look up at the sky with many questions on my mind. Something internally tells me not to ask for simple, unknown reasons. It is either that my feelings want to be protected or I want his feelings to be protected. Could be a slippery slope too.

I might ask them one day, if I remember, or they will answer themselves with time. If I would pay attention better I could find out.

Memories lead on to more memories, mainly sad ones, all of them leading to the day before, and the day before that till one makes me start laughing. Laughing with tears in my eyes. He turns me to look at my laughing self.

"You look so confused." He looks scared too. His face says, 'you good?'.

"I just remembered when I stole your scythe for no reason and thought I was gonna die and you were impressed for some reason."

A smile grows on his face as he remembers, a genuine one. I succeeded.

"I was impressed because you were so determined for some reason. Why did you do that?"

"I have no idea, it just seemed fun and then I got scared I was gonna get in trouble."

"I won't ever get mad at you unless you act stupid."

"That was stupid."

"No my crippled butterfly, that was playful."

"Then what do you classify as stupid?"

"Breaking the house rules."

"Oh that's easy, I won't break those."

"I hope not."

"It's not that hard to follow rules, especially when there are only 3."

"What if I add 66 more?"

"That's a lot."

"It is; would you follow them?"

"I sure as hell will try."

He leans me against him again and puts his nose in my hair. "I won't make 66 rules."

"Yay," I quietly say to myself. He smiles against my hair.

We sit in silence for a moment, sometimes the silence is nice but sometimes nice scenery requires nice compliments. Especially in unbalanced times.

"Younger you were pretty, actually adorable."

He stops functioning for a second. "I had a cut down my arm."

"That doesn't mean anything."

"I lived in dirt."

"One's environment doesn't determine his beauty."

"I was scrawny."

"That doesn't matter."

"No money."

I shrug.

"No house."

"That wasn't your fault."

"I was a slave till I died."

I tilt my head back and look at him the best I can. "That makes you more important."

"Why?"

"You helped their lazy asses. You were a good person, even if it wasn't your choice."

"You don't know that, I could have killed 4 people."

"That was the past. Let your younger self take the damn compliment."

He smiles poorly. "Fine."

"Good."

I lean back against him. I still got stuff to do today.

Whatever. This is important.

"What was it like back then?"

"Quiet and peaceful with hectic moments."

"Why hectic?"

"The Battle of Leuctra was going on."

I have no fucking idea what that is. "The what?"

"Battle between Spartans and Thebans for power and peace, control. Basically like every other war in history."

"Who won?"

"Thebans."

"Were you sad?"

" I was 9, I didn't know what was going on or how it was going to affect me."

"Did it affect you?"

"Yes."

"That's sad."

"It is."

"Has it left?" I'm so fucking bad at wording what I think.

But somehow people still understand me.

"No."

"Has it gotten easier?"

"No."

"Can I help make whatever happened easier?"

"You do."

"How? I don't even know what happened."

"You don't need to know."

"So then how the hell am I helping?"

"You existing is comforting."

"Oh, that's an easy way to help. I'll always be here."

"You live in Greece now? Such a sudden announcement," he jokes.

"What? Hell no!" I gasp. "Wait- I didn't mean to offend the people that live here or want to live here- no offense to anyone. Oh my god, I offended people."

He pokes my nose, "relax my butterfly, no one cares or even knows."

How the hell does he even know where my nose is if he's behind me?

I look around and see an Aegean cat in the distance and point at it. "They know all of it."

He takes my hand from the air and holds it in his. "Not even the cat knows."

"The cat has to know. They know everything."

"Let's see."

"How? Do cats talk now?"

"They always have."

Before I can bombard him with more questions he whistles and the cat stops eating grass to look in our direction.

"έλα εδώ, γατούλα," he tells the cat.

"Is its name elizo?"

"I don't know her name."

I watch the cat walk over in the way unsure animals do. Eventually it gets close enough to see more detail.

"It's so pretty."

"She is."

He holds his hand down low, as far as he can reach. The kitty sniffs his fingers. I do the same thing.

After a second of her looking back and forth at both of us she walks right between me and death's leg. He pets her ear and she smiles.

This is so fucking cute.

"Did I offend you?" I ask her.

She doesn't respond, too consumed by his affection. Same girl, I know the struggle.

"Did you hear anything...?"

No response. Damn.

I look at him with confusion "Why is she not responding? Are cats less responsive than dogs?"

"No, they're very responsive."

"Does she hate me?"

"Of course not." He picks up the cat, "δεν τη μισείς, ε;?"

The cat meows. "Έτσι νόμιζα."

He takes my arm and puts her in it. I hold her and she rubs the side of her face on my chest.

"She simply doesn't understand you."

"Oh." I pet her. "I love her, can we keep her?"

"She has an owner."

"How do you know?"

"She's wearing a collar."

I look down, she is. "How did I not notice?"

He shrugs. My vision is broken.

The cat jumps out of my arms and I watch her run away.

"Why'd she leave?"

He points to a direction and I see a person by the far away house standing outside, watching her.

Awwwww.

He drags his hands up and down my sides and the quiet comes back. I look to the left, at the cliff hill thing, and see the water fade into the sky.

This is only supposed to happen in the movies. I'm living in a movie.

And it has to be cut short because I have a best friend to talk to, then I gotta go to the store.

He wraps his arms around me and pulls me closer. "Thank you."

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My friend wanted there to be a cat, said it had to happen,

*pauses for dramatic effect*

So I made the cat.

:)