Caine woke with the early-dawn sun filling the bedroom. Growling under his breath, he struggled to disentangle himself from his sheets. He stalked over to the window and drew the curtains shut, plunging the room into murky darkness. Diana always insisted on opening them the night before.
He'd never figured her for the romantic, but the morning sun brought a smile to her lips. She'd changed a lot since Drake had nearly killed her several months ago, since Caine had nearly given himself to the Darkness. Quieter. Her dark eyes were softer. That didn't mean she couldn't bring him off his high horse with one sarcastic rebuke.
But today was the day.
"Caine?" Diana muttered, twisting around on the bed. "Caine, what's happening?" Even through the gloom, he could make out her sleepy expression, her rumpled hair, the lace of her white pajamas. When she woke up in the morning, she kept her shields down. The harsh façade that she word during the day had not yet materialized.
"Nothing." He could not resist the urge to add. "Happy birthday."
"Oh yeah," Diana buried her face into her pillow. "I forgot." She lied – there was no way she could have forgotten.
"I'm going to go get something to eat." Caine stalked out of bedroom.
They hadn't talked much about Diana's fifteenth birthday. Sometimes, Caine could pretend it was never going to happen. Their lives were busy; they'd settled into the industrialized routine of the Townies. Diana had refused to go back to Coates Academy, for good reason. The Darkness had survived Duck's attack. Weakened, yes, but it had survived. And it had sent an enraged Drake back to the world of the living. Powered by nuclear waste and hate, Drake ruled over the Coates Academy kids with an iron fist. And the only thing that kept him from death was his burning desire to destroy both Diana and Sam.
Caine didn't know if he could defeat Drake again. He sure as hell wasn't going to try.
He rummaged through the pantry, searching for food, any food. There still wasn't much food to be had in the FAYZ. Cans, packages were sparse. Nowadays, they lived on food they'd grown – and caught – themselves. But Caine had found the box of Cherios in this old, edge-of-town. The cereal would probably be stale, but Caine hadn't opened the box yet. He'd been saving them.
For this "Special" day.
Yeah, right.
He dug the box out of the far corner of the pantry and walked back to the bedroom, thinking. He didn't think Diana would chose to blink out. But if she did . . . he had entirely no control over it.
He handed the box to her. She took it, read the label, and laughed. "Trying to butter me over with freaking cereal?"
That was the Diana he knew.
Caine sat in the couch by the door and watched her much on the cereal. She ate quickly, at a lot. His stomach rumbled. It had been a long time since he'd had cereal.
He crossed the room and sat beside her. She gave him a glare and then pointedly ignored him. He shrugged and dug his hand into the box, chewed silently on his handful of cereal. Diana let him sleep beside her, but that was only because they both had nightmares. He knew it hurt her pride to admit it, but nightmares were better when there was someone else there.
Her beautiful hair was growing back. A few days ago, she'd arranged it into a spiky 'do, and it almost reached her jaw line. Impulsively, Caine reached out and touched it.
She shot him a sharp glance. "When I blink out, at least I won't have to deal with you any more."
He drew his hand away. "You're planning to blink out?"
She let go of the cereal box, turned away from him. "Whatever's beyond the tempter, it's gotta be better than this. Cereal is like a feast. I haven't turned on a light switch in months. On top of that, Drake's intent on torturing me to death." She shook her head.
He knew. He knew that this world wasn't easy. He knew that life here wasn't the life that Diana wanted. He knew that she hated the stares of the other Townies, the whispers. Haughty, proud Diana didn't like having to stoop to anyone's level.
On top of that, she probably hated him.
"Fine. Blink out. Goodbye." He checked his watch. According to Diana, there was exactly twelve minutes until . . .
"I wonder what form the monster will take," Diana's voice sounded dreamy. "I doubt it'll be anyone that I care about. I didn't really care about anyone. It'll probably be, like, a box of donuts." She laughed. Harshly.
It stung. "I don't really have anyone that I care about."
"Maybe it'll be your mom," Caine muttered under his breath.
She glared at him. "Why would it be her?"
"Because you miss her."
She didn't say anything for a moment.
"What makes you think that I miss her? She's dead, that's all there is to it."
"Because you lied about her death. You feel bad about it, don't you," Stupid, stupid, stupid. Lecturing, accusing her wasn't going to make her stay. But he couldn't help it. "You lied, and your father hated you, and you had no one left to care about you. At least, when your mother died, she still loved you."
SLAP!
The sound of her blow cracked through the room. Caine put his hand to his cheek. Felt the sting. Met her furious gaze.
"Don't talk to me like that," She snarled. "You don't know anything. You don't know anything at all." She started to climb out of bed.
"I know everything," Caine snapped back. "I know everything about you. I know every little detail. I know what a sly, conniving bitch you are. I know that no one loves you. I know that you don't care about anyone. A girl like you will blink out and no one'll care."
EXCEPT ME.
Diana started to run from the room. He jumped up and ran after her. She screamed as he grabbed her wrists and pressed her against the wall.
"Let go of me! What are you doing, you idiot!" She yelled.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his watch. Five minutes left.
"You're going to blink out. Well, goodbye. But I lied when I said no one loves you. I love you. So just one last time . . ."
He kissed her. Her lips felt soft and warm. He kissed her gently at first, then more demanding. After a few seconds, she kissed him back. He moved his hands from her wrists to her back, pressed her against him as they kissed.
Finally, he pulled away. She was still glaring at him. Their hearts pounded rapidly, in unison. For a moment, all they did was stare at each other.
And then the most incredible thing happened. Tears started to pour down Diana's cheeks. She tried to wipe them away, but she kept on sobbing. Their faces were very close.
"You," She said through her tears. "You don't even know the definition of love. Neither do I. We're both far too cruel to ever learn how to love, and when the monster takes me, I'm going to go to the pits of hell."
She spat in his face. He wiped it away slowly. She wriggled from his grasp, stood up straight, met him eye-to-eye.
"I've got twenty seconds left, Caine." She snarled. "So just one thing to say to you . . . goodbye."
"Diane, don't go." He said. "Don't go, Diana. Please don't leave me here, alone."
She shook her head defiantly.
Eight . . . seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one . . .
Diana's expression froze. Her whole body froze. And then . . .
A second later, she collapsed into Caine's arms.
He fell down, with her on top of him. She stared crying again in a most un-Diane-way, and then, to his shock, hugged him fiercely, sobbing, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Over and over again.
He sat up against the wall. "You stayed," He said.
She shook her head angrily. "Yeah, I guess I stayed."
"Why?"
"The form the monster took," She said in a dull voice.
"Why? What was it?"
"You, Caine. The tempter looked like you."
A/N:
Well, there it is! My second Gone oneshot! I'm on a roll! I hope I stayed mostly IC on this one; I lost my copy of Hunger and so I was relying on memory to write this. However, I think it turned out pretty well. If I feel like it, I will write a longer story stemming off this one. Please review. Point out any flaws you can see: I tend to write on the fly.