Chapter 200\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tristan\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll figure it out,\u201d I said, but the words felt hollow in my mouth. \u2018All of us together. We won\u2019t let anything happen to you or anyone else.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Athena stared at me with those brown eyes that had always been my anchor, and now they looked lost. \u201cWhat if there isn\u2019t a solution? What if this is\u00a0<\/p>\n
just who I am now?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The question hit me square in the chest, but I forced myself to stay steady. \u201cThen we\u2019ll learn to live with it. Whatever that means.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Even if I can never touch you again without hurting you?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I wanted to lie. I wanted to tell her it didn\u2019t matter, that we\u2019d find a way around it. But sitting there, looking at her gloved hands resting carefully on\u00a0<\/p>\n
her lap, I could picture our future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No more casual touches. No more holding hands while we walked. No more skin against skin when we kissed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Everything would have barriers between us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEven then,\u201d I said, and I meant it, even though it felt like swallowing a needle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She smiled, but it was wrong. All crooked and broken. \u201cI love you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
70\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I love you too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
We stood up and headed for the door. Athena kept her hands at her sides like they were loaded weapons. She moved differently now, like she was afraid\u00a0<\/p>\n
of her own shadow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Voices drifted up from downstairs. Sarah and Orion were talking in the kitchen, their words too quiet to make out. The conversation stopped when they\u00a0<\/p>\n
heard our footsteps on the stairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGood morning,\u201d Sarah said when we walked in. She looked relieved to see Athena on her feet, but worry lines creased her forehead. \u201cHow are you\u00a0<\/p>\n
feeling, sweetheart?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBetter,\u2018 Athena said. The lie came out smooth as silk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Sleep well?\u2018 Orion asked his sister.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Athena nodded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sarah had made breakfast. Scrambled eggs and toast sat steaming on the counter, It smelled good, and I realized I hadn\u2019t eaten a real meal in two days. But my stomach felt like it was tied in knots.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We sat around the kitchen table and pretended this was normal. Athena kept her distance from everyone, like we all had some disease she might catch. She pushed her eggs around her plate but barely ate anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Graze wants to see you today,\u201d Sarah told Athena. \u2018Just to make sure you\u2019re healing properly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Athena nodded without looking up from her untouched breakfast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
15:28 Sat, Jan 10 G MR\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 200\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018He doesn\u2019t know about\u2026 Orion started, then caught himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
About what I can do, Athena finished. \u201cI know. What did you tell him?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That you had a rough shift,\u201d I said. \u201cThat it took more out of you than usual,\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not really lying,\u201d she said quietly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After breakfast, Orion suggested we get some fresh air. \u201cMaybe sit on the back porch for a bit. The weather\u2019s nice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Athena shook her head hard. \u201cI don\u2019t want to go outside. What if someone sees me? What if I can\u2019t control it?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
370\u00a0<\/p>\n
off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will,\u201d Orion said, but his voice lacked conviction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018You don\u2019t know that,\u201d Athena snapped. \u201cNone of us know that. We don\u2019t know anything about what\u2019s happening to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The silence that followed felt heavy and uncomfortable. Sarah started clearing dishes just to have something to do. I offered to help, but she waved me\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy don\u2019t you two go watch TV or something,\u201d she suggested. \u201cTry to take your minds off things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Athena and I went to the living room. She sat on one end of the couch, I sat on the other. There was enough space between us for another person. She turned on some morning talk show, but neither of us watched it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I keep seeing their faces,\u201d she said out of nowhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I knew exactly who she meant\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAthena, don\u2019t do this to yourself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I can\u2019t stop thinking about how they looked afterward. Like empty shells. Like I sucked out everything that made them people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were going to kill you, they were going to kill all of us,\u201d I reminded her. \u201cYou saved our lives. You saved yourself Ath.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018By becoming something horrible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018You\u2019re not horrible.\u2018\u00a0<\/p>\n
She turned to face me, and I saw something broken in her eyes. \u201cThen what am I, Tristan? What do you call someone who kills people just by touching them?\u2018\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t have an answer. I wanted to have one, but I didn\u2019t know what she was becoming or how to stop it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 200 Chapter 200\u00a0 Tristan\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ll figure it out,\u201d I said, but the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-second-gear-of-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}