I DO NOT OWN FALLEN!

Seven: Misguided

The dream wasn't what had woken me the night. It was the agonizing and defining scream that came from the living room.

"LUUUKE! LUUUKE!"

My name had echoed from all across the apartment building and rippled against my ear drums.

I immediately rose from my bed and Jack followed me not a millisecond later. The look in his eyes could only be described as pure terror and disbelief at the sheer screeching sound escaping my sisters delicate voice.

Without a seconds thought the bed sheets were off my body and my feet were hammering against the ice-cold smooth linoleum floor. The door frame to my room felt as if it were a mile away from my bed. No matter how quickly my feet skidded across the floor it always seemed as if I couldn't get to Lucie in time. When I finally reached the hallway, my head turned in all directions scanning the almost pitch black space. I never needed light to find her, it was a special connection we always shared. We would know if the other was right behind us or just a night terror away.

"PLEASE LUKE! MAKE THEM STOP! I CAN'T SEE I CAN'T SEE!"

I rounded the corner that gave a full view of the living room and its appliances and flipped the light switch on. Right there on the other the coffee table in front of the couch, was my sister in a shaking curled fetal position. Her long cascading black hair coiled all around her body and the ivory white cloth of her night gown that hung over her legs making her appear almost ghost like. Blood had slowly trickling down theft side of her temple and some crimson drops had dripped to the faded grey tiled floor.

"I'm burning Luke... I'm... I'm burning" There was such agony in her sobbing and choking voice that begged for comfort.

I slid across the floor on my knees and took her in to my arms. Her body was so cold it left the parts of my skin that touched her numb. I wrapped my legs around her small form as an effort to give and preserve more warmth for her, and also to help her feel secure as this would always calm her down in minutes.

"Shhshh, it's okay Lucie, I'm right here, I'm right here see, Lucie, please look at me" I gently whispered to her and brought my hands up to cradle her face bringing it in front of mine. My eyes were locked on to hers, but her eyes had wandered all about, not yet back to reality from her night terror. My hand had touched the cool wetness left from the blood on the left side of her face. I could feel my skin crawl with goosebumps at both the sight and touch of my own sister's blood.

Her cold-shaking clammy hands that were secured to her chest had left and tightly constricted around my waist. Her small body had nearly fused with my own by how close she was to me and I could feel how fast her hear was beating, as if it were trying to escape the night terror that followed her in the dark. As I began whispering words of comfort in her ear and stroking the top of her head, I could feel the shaking of her body begin to decease and the tempo of her trembled breathing slow down to one long solid breath in and out every few seconds.

It began shortly after our seventeenth birthday that these night terrors had preyed on Lucie in her sleep. Exactly how the mysterious but unexplainable dreams cradled me in my sleep. I always thought of it unfair that I was the one swept away by peaceful romantic dreams, and my Lucie was snatched by these horrid night terrors that I felt I could almost relive in the dying scrams in her voice.

My mother had taken her to a doctor to see what could have been the cause and they had said it could probably had been caused by a stressful life altering event. She told the doctor that our father passed away almost six years ago, but we all had healed from that event long ago. Lucie had even talked to one of the medical therapists and they had analyzed that it couldn't have been that, so they just recommended some medication and earlier sleeping arrangements.

But still, the night terrors would return.

It had never happened this bad before. Normally she would scream herself awake from a night terror and I'd be in her room in seconds, securing her shaking cold body in my arms as she'd slowly come back to reality. Now that she had wondered out of bed and hurt herself in the process, I couldn't imagine if this would continue on in the future for her.

She could fall and hit the edge of a table or the last step down a flight of stairs.

Feeling the numbing coldness of her skin still lingering I looked to the side of the hallway and saw Jack and my mother both with a look of horror in their eyes. My mothers face was wet with tears as she had both hands over the bottom half of her face.

"Mom, it's okay she's not hurt, not... not badly." Hearing my soft and calm words, she let her hands slowly leave her face with one trailing over her chest as she let out a loud sigh in relief.

I gently stroked the top of Lucie's soft wavy hair and then looked back to Jack as he still held his ground but the fear and worry in his eyes remained. I tried to control my trembling voice before I spoke to him next.

"Jack, she's ice cold, I need your help."

Without hesitation, he gracefully walked over to me and Lucie and knelt down to bring the both of us into his warm and soothing body using both of his large strong arms. Lucie's body immediately became less tense as Jack's warmth had seeped into her own, and slightly leaned into his with her arms still tightly wrapped around my waist.

I looked at the spot where her head had rested against my chest and saw a dark blotch on the old faded fabric of my shirt. From seeing that sight, I realized that needed to get her wound treated before it would keep bleeding and risk her getting an infection.

"Okay Lucie," I whispered gently in her ear, "I need to get your cut cleaned and treated so it won't get infected. Do you think you can stand and walk with me towards the bathroom?"

I heard a small mumble from her and her hands had tightened on the back of my shirt, leaving me with only one other option I would have to try to get her to the bathroom.

"It's okay Lucie," I reassured her and gently kissed the top of her head, smelling the faint Jasmine scent of her shampoo, "I'm going to have to carry you if it's too difficult to walk, do you think you can let go for a second so I can pick you up."

I felt her hands on the back of my shirt loosen their grip and her body pull slightly away. Jack had released his warm protective hold on the bot of us and allowed some room for me to pick up and carry Lucie. Shifting towards the right side of her body on the floor, I placed my left arm under both her knees and my right arm around her back and secured her cool body to mine as I slowly rose on my feet with her light body in my arms. I wasn't as big and strongly built like Jack and John but I still managed to maintain some shape with the P.E classes in my High School. As Lucie was within my grasp her right arm slung right over and behind my shoulder as a way to hang on and her other curled in towards my chest for warmth.

I began walking towards the hall from the living room where the bathroom was just beyond and passed by my mother who was still standing in the same place she was before. As I slowed down to enter the hall she slowly reached out her hand and stroked Lucie's arm that was tucked away in to my chest. The look of fear in my mother's eyes were gone for now but were replaced by a look of worry.

I heard Jack's slow but heavy steps as he followed my to the door frame of the bathroom, and upon reaching it I turned on the dimmer light from the switch on the edge of the wall and turned back to face him.

"Jack, could you hold her for just a minute, while I get some things from the drawers." He didn't need to answer. His arms were already reaching under mine to take Lucie from my hold and into his own. Lucie had accepted the shift and curled deeper into Jack's body as I'd knew that he possessed more body heat than I did. Her own body was so small compared to his. She looked like a weak and innocent child in his arms.

I knelt down on the cold tiled floor to reach the bottom drawer where we kept most of the medicine and bandages in the house. Searching across the small roes of pills and cough syrup I found the things I was looking for. A medium sized square bandage, two small butterfly stitches, and a small bag of table salt. We didn't really prefer using rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide as wounds would take longer to heal using those sterilizers.

I gestured with hand for Jack to rest on the counter of the sink as I treated Lucie's wounded temple. Grabbing a new hand towel from the rack behind the sink I ran it through warm water from the faucet for a few seconds, letting it absorb a fair amount and squeezed some of it out to avoid spillage.

I turned towards Lucie and the side of her wounded temple was faced to me while her eyes were slightly closed and drowsy with sleep. I slowly dabbed and rubbed away some of the new and dried blood from her temple and down towards the middle of her cheek. I went back to the facet and ran the towel through more water to rinse out my sisters blood. Squeezing out another small amount of warm water from the towel, I sprinkled a pinch of salt on a flat side to put over the still opened wound. I reached back over to Lucie and gently dabbed some of the salt on the towel in to her wound. I could see her eyes tightly shut from the stinging pain but slowly became more bearable for her as I could see the hazel in her eyes now.

Now that her wound was cleaned I took the two strips of butterfly stitches and pealed one off to apply. Putting one side of the stitch on unharmed skin I pulled it over to help close the small gaping cut and seal it. I repeated the process with the next stitch and carefully applied the squared bandage over the sealed wound and kissed it over the bandage.

"Thank you Luke," I heard my sister's soft delicate but drowsy voice. I reached my arms out to her and wrapped them around her, feeling the warmth from Jack's chest behind her back from his hold on her.

"Of course Lucie. But... please be more careful if this happens again." I whispered softly into her ear. I then slowly took her from Jack's warm strong arms and she secured her arm over my shoulder again, happy to be back in my own presence. "Okay now, lets get you back to bed."

"Can I sleep with you?" she asked hesitantly and buried her face in my neck causing me to feel the rough texture of the bandage on her forehead.

"Of course you can Lucie," I assured her and rested my face in her long thick black hair as I began walking back towards my own room, with the sound of Jack's slow foot steps following me from behind.

My mother was still in the hallway and I paused my walking when I passed right by her. She whispered comforting and loving words to Lucie and kissed her goodnight on the forehead, then turned to give a hug to me and then Jack.

I turned the corner in the hall towards my room and saw that my light had been turned on, probably from Jack as he couldn't find his way in the dark of the house as i could. I balanced myself as I began to climb into the bed with Lucie still in my arms and gently set her in the middle where the bed sheets were thrown off, having the right side of her body resting on the bed to avoid her bandage coming off in her sleep. The bed itself was now cold to the touch, the warmth from Jack was entirely gone and now there was another person in need of its comfort.

Lucie had released her tight hold on my shoulder knowing that there was no need to hold on anymore but still reached over and gripped the left sleeve of my shirt with her smaller hand. Whenever she would sleep with me from a bad dream ever since we were kids she would always have that same hand gripped on the left sleeve of my shirt as a baby would with their own mothers hair seeking a sense of security.

Jack had climbed into bed right behind Lucie and slowly pulled the bed sheets over the both of us. It felt so nice having Jack secure both me and Lucie in his warmth, like he was wrapping a large wing over us.

"I'm sorry I woke the both of you up," Lucie said apologetically.

"It's alright Lucie, it's over for now," I assured her while wrapping my arm around her small form with her hand still clutched to my sleeve.

"Yeah, don't worry about it little Snow White," Jack said softly and then scooted his larger warm body closer to us, "you're safe now with big ol' Jack, I'll keep all those bad dreams away from hurting you." He shifted right behind Lucie and raised a long muscled arm and placed his much larger hand over hers. She nestled her back closer to his chest seeking the warmth I could feel radiating off of him even with Lucie between us.

"Thank you Jackie," she whispered, sounding a bit drowsy with sleep, "goodnight."

"Night little Snow White," He bent his head which was positioned over hers on the pillow and gently kissed the back of her head. I loved that Jack cared so much for Lucie the same way that I did, it just made him so much more of a kind and considerate person. It was one of many things that began to accumulate my new found love for him.

His forest green eyes had found mine and a weak smile appeared on his lips, "Night Lucian," he said, his eyes drooping with weariness and leaned over Lucie's head to kiss me softly on my lips.

"Goodnight Jack," I whispered back, already feeling the fading effects of sleep fall upon my eyes. Seeing that Lucie was now safe here in my arms along with Jack holding the two of us within his own, I allowed myself to fall back asleep, with comfort in knowing that she would still be here when I awoke in the morning. And that this night would just be one more scar the both of us would bear together.

I woke in the morning to the rays of light running its warm fingers over my eyelids from where the curtains hung on the other side of my bed. As soon as my surroundings were exposed to my sight I adjusted my arms so that I could hold Lucie closer to my body, but only reached for the empty space across the mattress. Lucie was gone from the bed and I noticed that I was turned in the opposite direction from how I was before I drifted off towards sleep. I looked up on to the night stand and saw that it was already ten-thirteen on Saturday morning.

I attempted to climb out of bed and go find Lucie to make sure she was alright when I felt a large muscular arm immediately wrap around over my body. My heart skipped a beat and my breathing stopped for a split second and I nearly flinched in surprise. I had thought that I was alone in bed because Lucie and Jack were both early risers and I was almost scared as to who could possibly be in bed with me.

As I regained my breath I could feel a bit of body heat radiating from the person behind me, not as much as Jack released but it was enough to calm my astonishment down and somewhat comfort me into thinking I wasn't in danger.

I looked down at the larger hand that rested atop of mine and saw that they wore rings. One was a metal engraved feather that coiled around the bottom half of the index finger, the one on the middle was a ring entirely made of small skulls stacked vertically across one another, and the last one on the ring finger was one of a demon's claw holding a blood-red brilliant cut gem.

Jack doesn't wear rings. I thought to myself. I could also smell that the person had the faint sent of body odor covered with a nice spiced scented deodorant. Jack always smells like mint and cinnamon or like a used book store, nothing like this.

I slowly turned my body over to face the person behind me and could feel my shoulder pressing against a thick muscled chest and felt more of the heat radiating from the body. That was when I saw the familiar pierced ears and a thin metal ring punctured on the left side of his lip, and the dark spikey hair that stuck in almost every direction of his head.

"John?!" I exclaimed in shock.

"Hey there cutie, I see ya slept pretty well." He wore that cocky smirk that I always found humorous. I could feel the warmth from his long legs in the bed sheets noting that he probably had shorts on and saw that he wore a plain loose black t-shirt aside from the tight V-necks he normally wore.

"Yeah, I guess I did," I laughed while rubbing my still tired eyes, "when did you get here, well, how exactly did you get in my apartment?"

"Jack let me in. He went down over to the gym for his morning workout so I decided to keep ya company. When I saw that you were still in bed I just couldn't help myself," He smiled widely causing his eyes to slant, "you just looked too cute and cuddly, so I snuck in bed to cuddle with ya." He wrapped his arm around me bringing me into a tight bear hug and buried his face in my hair.

Shortly after I met John my Freshman year in High School he began to act more like an older brother to me, seeing Jack treat me with love and care caused him to grow similar feelings towards me as well. Aside from Jack, John and I did share some similar physical appearances. We both had very pale skin and dark thick hair, but where my hair was wavy his was straight, and he had dark brown eyes aside from my hazel ones, also including that John was almost half a foot taller than me.

When I first had met him I had the impression that he was like many other punk rock and heavily pierced kids, but spending more time with him helped me realize that he wasn't really like other kids. He had a very broad and open mind, and liked people for who they were on the inside instead of what cloaked them on the outside. In truth he was a very good person and a loving friend who I could always depend on and go to for a warm bear hug every now and then.

"I guess all that time away with the band on tour was really lonely for you," I pulled away slightly as far away as he'd let me and ran my hand through his soft dark spikey hair.

"Of course it was," He gave an exaggerated pained expression while leaning in to my touch, "I missed my favorite little bro. Not having a nice hug from you or even the others can leave a big guy lonely once in a while. Jack and I already shared our welcome back, but Lucie wouldn't even stand three feet from me when I came here, saying that 'she refuses to hug any guy with the slightest bit of poor hygiene'. I mean, yeah I refuse to shower every day but I maintain a decent hygiene every now and then to deserve some ounce of love." His face made a small sad pout causing me to laugh at how cute it looked on him considering he gave off the appearance of a large and tough guy.

My eyes began to wander to the one place I always tried to avoid looking at whenever I was with John, the thin scar on his left eye brow that stretched almost to his temple. It was the first thing that stood out to me when I first met him and whenever I saw the others reach out to touch it, he'd stop them without really saying anything, and if they'd asked about it his answer would be 'it happened a long time ago'.

His body began to relax and his arm around my body loosened its grip as he slowly closed his dark brown eyes and brought himself closer to me. I knew I shouldn't have done it at that moment, but I slowly reached over his arm and gently placed my index and middle finger over the smooth flesh of his scar. I expected him to flinch at my touch and immediately pull away, but he just inhaled a deep breath and stayed perfectly still. I began to delicately caress his old wound and then saw his eyes open looking at me with a sad but distant look in them.

"You never let anyone touch it," my whispered voice sounded hoarse.

"Yeah, I don't..."

"So... why haven't you stopped me, or, pushed me away?"

His larger hand came to rest on top of mine over his scar, and he looked at me with a reassuring look in his eyes now. "I could never push you away Luke, you're really like a brother to me, and I love you. And, when I felt you touch it," he brought a finger to the old wound, "it didn't feel like how the others touched it. When they would touch it, I could feel all the memories that it brought before, but when you touched it," he looked at me with a smile, "it felt like you healed it in some way, and all those memories that came with it too."

"How did you get it? I understand if you don't want to tell."

He still had an accepting smile on his face as he turned to face the ceiling and spoke to me. "I was eight years old," he closed his eyes, the memories probably coming back to him now, "my dad came home from drinking out, he had a very bad problem with alcohol, and my mom got into a fight with on how he dismissed both her and me and didn't care about being a part of our lives. She stormed into the kitchen with my uncle who was helping her manage the bills, and my dad just went to the living room and laid on the couch.

"I was more aware and observant of things than my parents thought and I hated the way my dad treated both of us. Then I came up to my dad, and just went off on him. Telling him that 'if you really don't care about us, just get out of our lives and fix your own damn problems'. His face turned red at me telling him that, and he sat up from the couch and punched me right in the face. The force from his fist caused me to lose balance and I fell across the living room, hitting my forehead on a large picture frame of the three of us -from when I was a baby- that was resting near the floor on the wall. I screamed as blood trickled down into my eye, my mom came at my feet crying with the phone in her hands calling the police, and my uncle knocked him out, hitting him over the head with one of his own empty beer bottles.

"A week after that, my dad went to jail for child abuse and endangerment. Mom got full custody of me, sold the house and we ended up moving here to Savannah. After my dad was scheduled to get out of jail, he never contacted us. Ever since then, I hated having this scar. It's always a constant reminder that I came from a someone like that. I just want to be a better man than he was, and never let the people I love think I don't care about them."

He brought his gaze back to me still having that grin on his face. I looked back at him with different eyes at this new discovery. Such a peaceful and beautiful soul came from someone so bitter and cold-hearted. Why did he have to be treated in such way that would probably hurt for the rest of his life?

John had seen the sadden look on my face and brought a hand up to ruffle through my hair. "Aww, common cutie," He pleaded with me light in his eyes, "please, don't feel so sad for me, this happened a long time ago it's all in the past now."

I saw the look on his face and could see that there was no pain or discomfort in his eyes. "Okay" I complied, and then I leaned up to him and placed my lips over his healed wound, feeling the warm-smoothness of the scarred skin.

"Hmph, now I don't know if it's even there anymore," he caressed a ringed finger to my face with an assuring smile.

I leaned in to him and nudged my face closer to his warm chest, inhaling his spiced sent. He placed his large arm over my body and brought me closer to him and then gently massaged the back of my head with his hand. It felt so nice to be this close with someone else like how I naturally was with Jack, giving me a sense of comfort that this particular feeling was not too difficult to come by. I lifted my free arm and wrapped it around his large frame and gripped the back of his shirt, also feeling the thick muscles in his back begin to relax under my touch.

I leaned back from his warm body and saw that his eyes were still open and fixed on me, along with subtle grin on his face. I reach with my arm that was around his frame to the top of his head to push back some unruly soft black spikes in a more settled position. Then I trailed my hand down his shoulder to the warm skin on his arm. I traced with my fingers around the large bulging bicep and saw it flex from where my fingers strayed, and then John raised his arm over his body and made the muscle bounce.

"Like what ya see?" His cocky grin only widening as his eyebrows furrowed at his comment.

"Shut up." I replied back, and slightly punched away his thick arm with a laugh. His arm came back around me and he rested his head higher on the same black pillow mine was on. He exhaled a long breath and fixed his eyes back to me and raised his hand to caress the side of my head where my hair was now shorter.

"You look so different with shorter hair now." He spoke softly.

"Yeah, I could say the same for you Sonic the Hedgehog," I replied, causing him to let out a laugh as he ruffled my hair again and brought me closer to him with his arm around my body.

"I missed you a lot cutie."

"I missed you too John," I leaned in to his warmth and place the side of my head against his chest, hearing the slow-steady beat of his heart and then felt his lips brush against my forehead. After lying with each other for a few more minutes I began to wonder how Lucie was doing and when Jack would be getting back. "Hey John, I think maybe we should get up now." I looked up to him.

"Aww, why now?" He pouted in complain, "I've barely had ten minutes with you to myself and now you're ready to put me aside?" He gave an almost sad puppy dog face that I couldn't help but adore.

"John," I tried to comply, "I've been in bed almost all morning and I'd really like to check on Lucie, plus I don't think Jack will be too fond of seeing me in bed with another guy."

"Ooh, alright" John gave in and threw the covers off the both of us and began getting out of bed.

"Hey, maybe just the two of us could do something later, i could go with you to your place and you could tell me more about how the tour was or show me some new songs you wrote?"

He looked back at me with a more assuring grin. "Yeah, I'd like that."

I shifted out of bed and walked out the door into the hallway with John following behind me. He brushed his warm hand against mine as he passed by me in the living room and walked towards the kitchen isle and sat on one of the stools. He looked back at me with a casual wink and then began to fiddle with his phone.

I saw Lucie sitting on the couch peacefully reading a book in her thin lilac colored robe, with her thick black wavy hair covering almost the whole top half of her body like a blanket. She looked up from her book and saw where I was standing just outside the hall, and tried to give me her brightest morning smile while trying to ignore the fact that there was a bandage on the left side of her forehead.

"Morning Luke."

"Good morning Lucie." She set the book down on the arm rest of the couch and I could see the book title, Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult. I smiled at seeing it, knowing that Lucie probably took it from my bookshelf because it was the only one there that she still had not yet read.

She sat up from the couch and walked right over to me and into my outstretched arms. Her body was still cool to the touch but not as ice cold as it was last night. I held her for a while longer and stroked the soft long thick layers of her long hair.

"Did you sleep better last night?"

"Yeah, thanks to you being there," She pulled away from me and I could see the brightness in her hazel eyes. Her eyes had more light green pigment in them while mine had more shades and tints of brown. She did look a lot more well now, the light inside her eyes and bright warm smile showed almost no indication of what had happened last night.

"If you want, we could, you know, talk about last night later," I spoke silently to her, trying not to let John hear.

The light in her eyes slightly dimmed and her smile began to fade. "Oh um, okay."

I brought my hand towards her face and tucked a long loose section of hair behind her ear. "I'm just so glad that you're alright."

She looked back at me more warmly at my reassurance. "I had a very nice dream when I slept with you and Jack." Her warm smile began to look slightly sad as her eyes drifted towards the floor, causing me to feel concerned.

"Then why do you look a little sad?"

"It was about dad..."

I felt my heart pause for a brief moment at her answer. Even after our father died, I hardly ever had dreams about him. There were only a few times when I did and when they came, he would be standing a far distance from me. I would try to run to him but each step I took towards him increased the distance between us, and then his from would slowly fade to black and then I would wake up.

Just like that, as if he was never there.

"Lucie-" I began, but she silently cut me off

"It's okay Luke, we can talk about it later. Alone." She made a quick glance at John, who was still fiddling with his phone.

"Alright. I'm going to go for a walk in the park, want to come with me?" I tried to change the subject.

"Oh, well, I'm still a little tired from last night," She said hesitantly, "so, I think I'll just lie down and take a nap." I didn't really notice the faint darkness under her eyes, so I complied at her answer.

"Okay, but call or text me if anything comes up." I spoke to her in more protective tone.

"Alright, alright, I will," she exaggerated. After one more quick hug and kiss on her forehead, she picked up the book on the couch and walked down the hall to her room and closed the door. Once I saw that she was safe and sound in her room, I drew my attention back to John who put his phone down and fixed his dark brown eyes on me.

"Heard ya going for a stroll in the park," His wide smirk returned and he leaned a flexed muscled arm over the island table while the other rested on his hip.

"Yeah, just want to clear some things out of my head. Want to come with?"

He sighed in what I could hear was disappointment. "Can't, mom needs some help down at the bakery."

I smiled at his mentioning of it. John and his mom lived a little farther ways down town in a residence that was just above the bakery where his mom worked full time, with him helping her out every now and then with running errands and fixing ingredients. All of the things there were entirely home made and tasted even better than they looked from the glass panels.

She once told me that baking helped take her mind off of things that she would rather forget, and it also helped bring her happiness and comfort because she loved making things that made other people happy when eating them.

"Oh, okay. Tell her I said hi, and to save me a cheesecake brownie and a slice of apple spice cake."

"Will do cutie," he gave me a thumbs up with a smile. "Shall I walk you out?" He got up from the stool and gestured toward the door.

I nodded in response and went back to my room to put on a thin sweat shirt to keep me warm in the still August weather. I locked the apartment door behind us with my key and walked down the hallway with him in the lead to the elevator. Before it began to descend the three floors I felt his large warm hand slowly slip in mine. I looked up at him to my right side and saw that he was still looking at the doors with a small smirk on his face. A warm smile crossed my own face and I returned his gesture, holding his hand back in my own.

When the doors opened to the lobby of the apartment he released my hand from his and walked out the elevator doors into the lounge area.

I would have thought it to be a bit strange seeing myself holding hands with someone who wasn't Jack, but the way John held it was different. He held my hand holding my fingers between his and his thumb, in a friendly matter. When Jack held mine he would interlock our fingers and my heart would begin to beat faster at his touch. Although, I couldn't help but wonder if John's gesture meant something else. Maybe something that meant a little more.

No one was out in the lounge area of the building as we walked to the front sliding glass doors. It was still morning and most of the residence were probably asleep or out in town getting a late breakfast.

As we exited the building a cool rush of autumn air passed us by that caused me to clutch my shoulders to retain heat. It was slightly colder than it was yesterday and I began to regret not bringing something thicker to wear. The shivers rising up in my body slowly faded away at the warmth from John's large arm wrapping around my as we walked closer to the sidewalk from the parking lot of the apartment building.

"Really wish I could stay with ya cutie, someone's gotta keep ya warm when Jack's not around," He urged me closer to his warm body and I gladly leaned more into him. It still astonished me at how he was so warm with wearing just a T-shirt and shorts.

I looked up at the side of his smirked face and saw that there was a fair amount of stubble on his cheek and chin. Both Jack and John pretty much had the capability of growing 'man beards', however my own face remained smooth and nearly flawless given that I was around the same age as them. "Thanks John, but, I think this is good for now," I wrapped my free arm around his thick waist and relished in his warmth. Once we were just a street away from the park John released his warm hold and stood right in front of me.

"Well I'm afraid this is where we depart. I parked my car not too far from here cause the lot was full. Don't ya forget about our date later today cutie," John ended with a wink at me and wrapped both of his arms around me in another one of his tight warm bear hugs. It felt a little weird at John calling our hang out later today a date, but knowing him I knew it was probably just another of his usual jokes. "See ya later then." He ruffled my hair and began walking the other direction to his faded black Honda. As he began driving on the road he turned his car around so that he could wave back at me before he drove off into the distance.

After seeing that the dark vehicle was out of sight, I walked across the empty street walkway and into the downtown park of Savannah.

Forsyth Park itself today seem very ominous and quiet. Very few people were out in the streets of the town, and I was the only one walking on the path, much less the only one in the whole park. The sky wasn't very cloudy today. There were small grey clouds followed by larger ones that looked faded and misty in the distance but still allowed a good amount of morning light in that peeked through the large crevices.

I looked up at the Spanish Moss trees that formed that familiar grand hallway of branches above the wide path and saw that some of the mossy branches were moistened with droplets of water. The Weeping Willow trees farther out had their branches gently swaying in the light breeze that slithered through the park.

The faint lavender sent was more apparent and I inhaled deeply at its aroma, the cold air stinging my nostrils in the process.

My mind slowly began to clear of the worries I had about Lucie and her night terrors. She was safe and not seriously hurt from her minor injury. Hopefully talking to her about those things tonight could put me more at ease, that way I'll understand completely how she feels and maybe even help her release all the fears and worries she has as well.

Walking along the light concrete pathway I felt the light vibrations of my phone inside my pocket. I pulled it out and saw that jack was calling me revealing his photo ID with the two of us on the screen. It was one we took on the last day of school, his long light brown hair was slicked back and my black wavy hair was swept to the left side of my face. My heart skipped a beat at seeing his call and I held a quick nervous breath before answering.

"Hey."

"Hey babe," I could hear from his voice that he was probably smiling as wide as I was now, "I uh, just left the gym a few minutes ago and wanted to tell you I'm having lunch with my mom and her new boyfriend Mike, so it'll be a little later until I see you again."

"Oh, uh, okay," I said, trying to hide the disappointment behind my voice. I barely noticed how much I really liked being with him a lot more, now that we're together, " I'm just taking a short walk through the park now, and I kind of slept through breakfast so I'll just get something to eat a little bit later."

"Okay Luke, don't get too cold," he warned, making my laugh at his comment.

"Oh and uh, later today I promised John that I'd hang out with him, so, try to enjoy your time with me."

"Oh, I intend to," he teased.

"So I'll see you later then?"

"Definitely."

"Okay.

"Love you."

I bit my bottom lip trying to restrain my wide grin, "Love you too."

"Bye,"

"Bye."

I ended the call and place my phone back in my side pocket as I continued to walk down the path. Turning away from the main path I walked on to one that was cut from the dark green grass and littered with dirt. This smaller path was thinner and didn't have any benches on the edge of it, someone could easily walk to the end of it and sit on the cool grass, if they prefer the cold like I did.

I was just about to cross the next intersection on the smaller path when I heard a very lovely tune from a guitar. The notes themselves were mid-tone and began with three eighth notes followed by two more quarter notes and repeated. The plucking on the strings was gentle but could still be heard from where I was standing.

I examined my surroundings and tried to figure out where the music was coming from. My wandering eyes stopped at a figure sitting behind a tree on the far edge of the next path. I couldn't make out who the person was or what they looked like because the tree blocked my full view, but I saw black and white converse shoes attached to long thick legs wearing black jeans, indicating that the person was pretty tall. The neck of the guitar was held in their right hand that wore dark fingerless gloves and occasionally shifter lower on the neck playing higher chords in the same delicate pattern.

I didn't want to step on the grass which was covered with dried leaves to cause them to hear me and stop playing their very nice and soothing music, so I stayed on the far edge of the path to still enjoy the music they played.

There was a brief pause, and the hand moved much lower on the neck of the guitar and began playing higher notes that gave off a very saddened tune in the song. Just before the chord was going to repeat, the musician began to sing, with their soft but deep voice.

And I've lost who I am, and I can't understand
Why my heart is so broken, rejecting your love
Without love gone wrong; lifeless words carry on
But all I know, all I know, is that the end's beginning

There was such longing and sadness in their calm and warm singing. I knew that I heard this soft and deep voice before. Once the next verse began their voice began to rise, singing the same chords louder but with different words.

Who I am, from the start
Take me home, to my heart
Let me go and I will run
I will not be silent
All this time, spent in vain
Wasted years, wasted gain
All is lost, but hope remains
And this war's not over

They began bringing their voice down, singing the very last verse in a calmer but more sorrow tone.

There's a light, there's a sun
Taking all shattered ones
To the place we belong
And this love will conquer all

They trembled the last note in the same deep tone that they sang in when they first began, showing that their sorrow was no different from where it began and where it ended.

The way that they had sang was a tone that I recognized. Singing about someone who was not physically with them, but presenting the song in their singing as if they were. It was exactly like the way he sang yesterday at the Juice Bar.

He must have known I was standing a distance behind him, because the ending of his song felt a little too sudden, as if there was more to be told. I stepped onto the grass and heard the faint crunched noises of the dried leaves. I walked to the side of the tree to see his full image. He wore a similarly dark leather vest as he did yesterday, along with a bright red scarf that looked a little out of place given his noticeable taste in clothing.

I knew at the sound and tone of his singing, and even before gazing at his bright golden wavy hair that fell in gentle waves just above his dark but clear violet eyes, that it was Daniel Grigori.

Song used: Shattered by Trading Yesterday.