Chap 113: Karen

Night camping in the garden gave Miko and Zod the idea to enjoy Primus more by spending less time inside. Tee suggested they go to the windy fields past the large metal gate, and they agreed. It showed how desperate they both were to escape anything that reminded them of Snickers.

The extra moisture Miko put in her hair to combat the wind made it glisten. Tee was convinced she had poured an entire bottle of oil in it. A greasy waterfall ran down the back of Miko’s neck, but she kept her wide smile the whole time. Since her waist-length hair was fine, she was too.

Tee realized she had something against Miko caring so much about her hair. Her evil smile shrank when she remembered that their deep sleep healed hair too. The patch on Zod’s head after they teleported from the void was long gone, and she needed no more proof. There went ammo for Miko.

The five teens spent fifteen minutes in the wind before Miko asked, “Where is all this wind coming from? Is this some Vergant sorcery?”

Zod said, “There could be a sea nearby.” He pointed to the trees in the distance at the end of the field. “My guess is it’s coming from there.” By the time he shut his mouth, Miko was already gone.

She zipped across the field, passed the distant trees, and found herself running on sand. When she glimpsed the blue waters behind the spacious trees, she shrieked. She ran back with a handful of sand to show her friends.

“Guys, I found a beach!” she grinned, flashing her blinding white teeth.

One glimpse of the sand in her hand was all they needed before grabbing their stuff and heading to the trees. Saeda didn’t walk with much life, and Zod had to pull her by the arm so she wouldn’t lag.

They had already trained, and it was early evening. With no global curfew to worry about, they were in no rush to pack by six o’clock. They could stay through the night and under the moon if they wanted.

“See, Tee? Primus is way better than a Mid-Guard.” Zod unfolded the last chair to complete the circle around the unmade fire. “Which Mid-Guard do you know of that has a beach?”

“And no Xeno-victims,” Miko added as she unpacked the ingredients onto the table.

Kie dropped the cooler filled with ice onto the sand. He opened the lid and tossed Tee a beer. “And more importantly, all the free beer you can drink,” he added.

Tee frowned at the cold drink in her hand that wasn’t iced-coffee. Kie must have wiped the shelves clean at the shopping center. There were too many boxes of beer in the freezer room, yet he only got her three iced coffees. He didn’t care about her at all.

Kie moved his arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer. Thoughts of throwing the beer bottle into the sea left with a smile on her lips. When she looked at him, he tilted his head back and drank his beer in one go. She wasn’t impressed. Each gulp echoed in her ears, even with the howling wind.

Saeda sat on one of the chairs, facing the blue waters. The wind dried her watery red eyes that barely blinked.

Zod handed her her tablet. “Saeda, you should paint that gorgeous sea. Isn’t it beautiful?”

He stared at his reflection in her eyes, which weren’t focused on him. The wind blowing through her hair and the occasional blink were the only signs she wasn’t a statue. Zod thought being away from indoors might take Saeda’s mind off Snickers. It stabbed his heart to see her like that. What could he do to make her happy?

Miko set fire to the wood, and the glowing flames lit up her face. “Saeda, you should draw the Commander in a bikini. I bet it’ll be hotter than this flame.” The fire shimmered in her large brown eyes.

Tee, Zod, and Kie grimaced at the disturbing image Miko had conjured. Miko hung her head after seeing their reactions. She should have kept her mouth shut.

Kie pulled his arm from around Tee’s shoulder and held her hand. “Hey, what’s that?” he asked, pulling her along.

“What’s what?” she asked, moving her feet over the soft sand to follow him. She didn’t see anything but the trees and sand ahead.

“Saeda… wherever Snickers is, I know he’d want you to move on…”

Zod’s voice in Tee’s ears grew fainter the further Kie pulled her. He held her hand loosely, the wind blowing through the space between their fingers. Before his hand could slip away, she held it tighter and walked up to his side.

She tucked the hair blowing into her face behind her ear. With arms as muscular as his, how did her fingers almost slip from his grip? He kept his head straight, and the wind parted his bangs over his right eye so she couldn’t see it. She looked down his arms and back up, realizing the purple tattoo was gone. It had faded.

Kie stopped walking among the brown trees and turned to face the waters. The rattle of branches above mixed with the soft wisp of wind.

Tee squinted at the dying sun over the waters. “Is this why you brought me this far away—for the scenery?”

A soft pinch on the fabric at her neck made her shrug. She pulled both his hands from behind her and held them around her waist in front, stopping his annoying pinches.

“There. This is a romantic pose. You stay at the back, and I’ll lean on you while the wind blows against us,” she said.

“True, but that’s not why I brought you out here.”

“Huh?”

Kie spoke so low that Tee had to hold her breath to make out his voice through the wind and rattling leaves.

“I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone—except you. It’s quite disturbing, and I don’t know what you’ll think of me after, but it’s best I tell you. It’s also the reason I’m at the back—I can’t look you in the eye while I say it.”

Tee wondered if that was the moment she had spent so much time with that Xenogenist for. She held his arms tighter around her and said, “Try me. Go on, talk. I’m a hard person to crack.”

His deep voice came from behind her. “Are you a virgin?”

“You already know the answer to that. Yes. Are you?”

“No.”

Of course he wasn’t. That had to be why he was in no rush to sleep with her.

“Was it that horrible? How many times did you—I mean, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“Too many to count.”

She loosened her grip on his arms. “What did I say about using that phrase?”

“It happened too many times.” He leaned his head against hers, his voice so low and cracked that she knew there was no smile on his face.

“Her name was Karen. I was sixteen and she was a Mid-Guard official about twice my age, but she didn’t look it. She was cute and hot—and all I did was wink at her. 

“Later that night, there was a knock on my dorm room door, and there she was. I was shocked and didn’t realize she had stepped inside until the door slammed shut behind her. ‘Hey,’ was all she said before she started kissing me all over…”

He pulled one hand from Tee’s grip, brushed her hair back, and left it resting on her shoulder.

“Next thing I knew, I was leaning back on my bed with my belt unbuckled and pants unzipped. I was attracted to her… so it happened.”

Tee pursed her lips and lifted one hand from her waist to cover her mouth.

“I tried pushing her off me, but she said I was hurting her. ‘Stop whining, relax and enjoy it,’ she told me. When it was over, I felt violated—I didn’t want to see anyone. I thought it was my fault. But it wasn’t over…”

Tee’s heart began racing, and she didn’t realize she had been holding her breath for over a minute. The blue waves and sunset blurred through her eyes, but his voice was as clear as if she could hear it in her head.

“It happened the week after. She had a spare key to my dorm and wouldn’t leave until she got what she wanted. So, I let her do whatever she wanted with me. It happened at least once every week for the rest of the year. I could have counted the times on a calendar, but I didn’t want to know. Since I didn’t share a dorm, no one ever found out.”

Tee wanted to ask about the cameras, but she remembered those were always tampered with by MG offs. Worse—that was the Mid-Guard. They got away with anything there. Her ears twitched at a sound above them, and she knew it had to be Kie. She didn’t feel his other hand around her waist before she stopped both his hands from covering her ears. He was giving her a choice not to listen, but she needed to.

“She told me she loved me over and over, and it made me feel special. For someone with absolutely nothing, it got to me. Soon I started enjoying it and looked forward to her showing up at my door. In those dark nights, I told her things I told no one. What started as ten minutes stretched to thirty, even an hour. Then she died.”

The words “she died” made Tee blink. The burning sensation in her eyes told her she hadn’t done so for minutes. Kie’s grip on her upper arms tightened as he continued.

“She got blasted by a Priman soldier during a trade. Two measly blasts ended her. When I got the news, I was devastated. There came the pain again… pain I never get over.”

He sighed and released her arms. His next words carried through the whispering wind and rattling branches.

“I learned my lesson. Don’t get close to people who are going to die on you.”

Tee’s lips parted, but didn’t curl from the distaste. That was the lesson he got from all that? How about don’t wink at MG offs? She took a deep breath and turned to face his dark red eyes. He kept looking down at something, but she didn’t check what it was.

She brushed the side of his cheek gently and said, “Cooper, I’m humbled you shared that.”

His eyes flicked up to hers. “Wait.” His brows knitted, and he leaned back. “You mean you aren’t creeped out?” He tugged at the round collar below his neck, irritation flickering across his face.

“No. This is what we need—share the good, the bad, and the ugly.” She moved closer until their foreheads touched. “You and me forever, remember?”

He slid his arms around her back and whispered, “Where have you been all my life?”

She pulled his head to her neck and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. His hold tightened too, and the wind whipped around them as they stood in each other’s arms.

Kie felt the warmth of his mother’s hug—something he thought he’d never feel again. She was the only one who’d left him against their will. He’d clung to her lifeless hand until someone pried him away. When he called to her and she didn’t open her eyes, he thought he’d lost that warm, strong hold forever.

Their white and black strands of hair intertwined in the wind. When Tee heard only one heartbeat, she opened her eyes wide. Her heart raced out of sync until she realized Kie was still there.

Kie sensed her tension and pulled back to see her face. “Are you alright?” He wiped a tear from beneath her eye.

Tee looked at his hand as it lowered, frowning. Where did that tear come from? She turned away and wiped her wet eyes. “It’s all this wind,” she said.

“There’s sand on your shoes.” He bent down before she could reply. “I’ll clean it off.”

How unoriginal, she thought—then suddenly her feet lifted from the sand, and she found herself slung over Kie’s right shoulder. Her heart leapt into her throat as the world spun, sand blurring past her eyes, but she didn’t fall face-first into it.

Her hair whipped wildly as everything spun faster and faster. Kie’s laughter filled her ears, his strong arms steady at her back, keeping her from hitting the ground.

“Are you crazy!” she yelled, though her words were lost in the wind and hair blowing into her mouth.

He stopped spinning, but the world still seemed to move in circles. Her hair hung over one side of her face, her chest heaving with each heavy breath. She stared at the sand beneath Kie’s feet, feeling like a damp towel thrown over someone’s shoulder.

Why didn’t she see that coming? Her own terrified scream echoed in her head, and she smiled, realizing she’d overreacted. Why was she so dumb! She released the grip on Kie’s shirt and gave herself a light smack on the forehead.

Kie’s laughter rang loud. He nearly lost his balance in the sand.

“Cadets…”