It's late at night, darkness smothers the city streets outside my apartment, the street lights only dimly illuminating the street, some are even weak and flickering.
It's almost eleven pm, and I have school tomorrow.
But I can't sleep.
Which sucks cause I know how tired I'll be tomorrow morning when I try to get ready, if I even make it out of bed.
I'm in my room sitting cross-legged on my bed, the comfy blanket warm underneath me.
Music blares into my ears from my earphones, I tap my pencil on the book in front of me along with the flowing rhythm, bobbing my head to the beat.
I've always loved music.
Just the idea of it, and the affects it has all over the world.
I guess it's just like I've always loved graffiti, the way that people are using their art, even if they are risking themselves and jail, they're using it to be heard.
They're shouting, screaming,
'I'm here! Hear me! see me!'
I've even started doing it myself.
There's an unspoken rule about it,
You never cover someone else's work.
If someone puts something up you can finish it, but never cover another artists words.
I look down at my algebra homework again and sigh, i am once again welcomed by silence as the next song loads.
Suddenly I hear a creak down the hall behind my door, pulling the earphones out I listen carefully.
Another one.
Closer this time.
I slowly slip off the bed, slipping my hand into the hidden compartment underneath pulling out my compound bow and arrows.
I reach further in and slide my trusty dagger into its belt against my hips.
It wouldn't be the first time I've killed.
And this is for my safety.
I move slowly to the door, listening out for more creaks and anything that could clue me in of what's happening behind my closed door.
I hear soft footsteps so faint even I had trouble catching them.
There's a low voice accompanying it.
My eyes widen when I realise what they're humming.
It's my song.
The song, the original song I was born with inside my head.
The one I'm not allowed to share.
The one only my soulmate would ever know apart from me.
I don't understand.
The door handle turns slowly, I move behind the door to get an advantage.
It pushes open slowly, I see the shadow of the intruder cover my carpet.
Am I crazy, or does that look like Link from that video game?
He's tall. Maybe just a little taller than me.
And there's something about his shadow that's unnerving.
But all at the same time his presence calms me.
Soothes me.
He takes two steps in and looks towards my empty bed,
"Blu..?" He whispers, "I know you're here somewhere." He turns his body completely to the bed, the surprise I'm not where he thought I'd be clear in his voice.
I jump out suddenly tackling him to the ground, we engage in a war of tug or war ending with me straddling his legs, and trapping his arms with my legs as well at the same time.
I'm holding my dagger to his throat.
He smiles wickedly.
"What's wrong?" He whispers, "don't have any nerve?" His voice taunts me, yanking on my strings.
"No." I growl, "tell me. How, you know that song?"
His eyes widen at my question for a brief moment before he goes back to seemingly hiding his emotions.
"You know it too?" He seems uncertain, saying it like a question and a statement.
"Wouldn't be asking if I didn't." I spit,
He smirks and goes to say something cocky but I stop him pressing the blade more against his skin.
"Careful boy, you're dancing with death here."
He smiles, "feisty, but last time i danced with death... I stepped on his toes."
I lean down, the blade still firmly in my grasp against his neck and I whisper in his ear,
"Good thing I know how to tango."
"And who says death is male?" I ask,
"Like every story about him. Ever."
I scoffed, He smirked, and looked at the silver blade.
"Why are you here? Why do you want to kill me?" I ask, his deathly eyes meet mine.
"I was hired."
"By who?"
"Sorry, client confidentiality."
"Seriously?"
"What? Just cause I kill people doesn't make me a bad person." He laughs,
"never killed before?" He asks at my hesitation.
"Oh, don't doubt me." I pause, "I have. And the way I did isn't something you want to survive." I speak smugly,
He looks at me amused, "not bad. I think I'm starting to like you."
I start laughing, not because what he said is all that funny, but the fact that I'm bantering with a guy I have under a blade, his life in my hands who oh, happens to be hired to kill me *and* my soulmate.
"You like this do you?" He comments,
"Not really no. I'd always imagined you...differently," I admit,
"As I did you," he confesses,
"Still want to kill me?" I ask,
"No."
"How do I know I can believe you?"
"What are you gonna do? Sit on me forever?"
I roll my eyes, "Well that wouldn't be pleasant for either of us."
"Hey, speak for yourself I think I could get used to this."
I smirk, this night had been definitely eventful, and confusing.
"If you're still getting paid, then why don't you want to kill me anymore? They say a dying man will say anything on his death bed to prevent the inevitable end." I state,
"I'm already dead." He smiles,
"And I have other ways to get money." He adds after a moment.
"I still don't understand why you wouldn't want to." I explain,
"Because, you're my soulmate." He says laughing emphasising the word 'soulmate.'
"What's your name?" I ask,
"BEN." He pauses, "wanna get off me yet? Or do you like this position?" He teases,
"If it'll keep me alive. For now I'll just have to put up with it won't I?"
I consider getting off of him, and giving him a chance but my mind keeps showing me all the things that could go wrong.
All ending with me dead.
"Are you scared?" He asks,
"No I just have this terrified look on my face cause I'm having so. Much. Fun."
He smirks at my response,
"Do you really think it's a smart idea to get off of me?" He smiles as I move a little,
"No."
"Good, I'd be worried if you did." He thinks over what he just said, "but. Nothing to worry about here, so off now, up you hop."
"Thought you said you liked this position?" I tease,
"I have to admit, the blade to my throat kind of turns me off the mood. Sorry to disappoint."
I laugh, and he laughs too.
I'll admit, this is not at all how I originally thought all this would go tonight.
I can tell he's enjoying this, although even though he claims to be already dead-he fears the knife.
I can see it hidden behind his eyes.
"You're dead?"
"Yes." He confirms,
"How?"
"I drowned. That's by they call me 'BEN drowned'."
"How can you still be here?"
"It's complicated."
"Why are you dressed like Link?"
"How do you know he's not dressed like me?"
I sigh, he's got more attitude then my old best friend.
"How'd you drown?" I ask curiously,
"Now isn't that personal?" He laughs before going serious again, "in a fountain."
"I haven't read a story about that on the news.." I think back,
"That's because I didn't drown in a 'real' fountain."
I look at him confused trying to gain my answers, he raises his eyes brows and looks at the blade again.
I sigh and slowly sit up taking the dagger away from his neck and sliding it back into its place on my belt.
I sit next to him on the carpeted floor of my bedroom.
He pulls himself up and sits cross-legged.
"What do you mean?" I pry,
"I played a game. And.. an old account on the system I used belonged to a missing kid. He'd been gone a really long time." He pauses, "I deleted his account, created my own. But it kept mucking up, greeting me with his name instead of my own."
I look at his eyes, he seems sad like a bunch of sad emotions are swirling around in his head.
"At first, all the glitches, everything. I thought it was nothing more than an old machine being...old." He breathes, "but I was wrong."
"And I drowned." He finished.
Everything seems to click in my brain, it wasn't the most information. But I can read between the lines.
"I'm not really alive either." I sigh, he looks at me the pain of eternity walking the earth, never being able to rest because he's already dead, and he's still here. It's all there, and he sees it in my eyes as well.
"How so?" He asks,
"Didn't you get a full folder on me or something when you were hired?" I laugh dryly,
"No. They give me a name, a photo. And I do the rest."
I look at the carpet, playing with a loose piece of thread in my fingers.
"I'm a witch. But I'm also part angel...I use black magic." I hesitate, "no one can explain me. I'm just a flaw in the system."
"You, are *not* a flaw." I look up when I hear his deep voice.
I smile softly,
"To them I was. I was born with human parents, but I wasn't human. Never was, never will be."
The clock ticks, the only sound in the now silent night other than our breathing. I continue.
"I'm always going to look like this. Always be this age in the eyes of others. And I can't tell them my real age, something bad would happen."
"I, trained myself to use weapons. Control my power. The ones I didn't even know I had until the near crash. There was a little girl on the road, it was icy out. I saved her from a truck, I'd shoved her out of the way and didn't have time to move myself to I held out my hands on instinct as if that would stop it. I never thought it actually would." I think for a moment, recalling the events in order.
"The front of the vehicle was enveloped in a purple shield of black magic. I ran from the town, moving to a place far away, leaving my family behind."
"I didn't die...until a little later."
"How?" He inquires,
"I was 'murdered.' Some guy..tried mugging me. Shot me when I resisted, I didn't have time to use my magic." I sigh, "I healed. But I had no heartbeat. I still breathe, eat, drink and function. But no beating of the heart...I killed that guy, I haven't aged since. And that was a really long time ago..."
I meet BEN's eyes again, he has eyes full of sympathy, but also relief.
"What the hell are you relieved about?" I ask squinting at him,
"Because now. If I ever were to get attached to you...I wouldn't have to worry about loosing you."
We look at eachother intently,
We may not be able to die, but we still feel pain.
We aren't invincible. Nothing ever is.
Heartbreak is a pain you never escape.
I have no words to answer his own, until a question rises in my throat.
"Wait. What are you going to do about the job?" I ask,
"Well I cant exactly kill you." He chuckles, "so I think that, one: these people need to check their information more, I'll have to kill them, it works better that way." He chuckles,
"And two?"
"I'll just have to love you instead."
