Figment of Dreams
Chapter 11: All my friends are heathens

Never take anything for granted. The lesson I had learned at a young age when my mom died. The same lesson I had learned again when Jax left me and broke my heart in two. Now I’m learning a whole new dimension to this statement.

I was sitting in that gigantic bedroom again, staring out my window at the strange trees. The bizarre birds still flapped around carelessly, as if they had no care in the world besides being pretty. I hadn’t left this room in a week. I didn’t even know how time was measured here or how much time had passed.

But from the Rainer lessons I’ve had at school, I knew they had a very similar system for time as earth. A week was a week.

Then how come it had felt like a year?

I had been crying for days on end for my dad, for Malin, for all those innocent people. For saving me. Why me?

Now I just felt numb. I was on a different planet. I could never go home again. I felt so alone I could die from the thought alone. They apparently have brought me to Terra, the continent on Caros where Maddox had a residence and had grown up in.

Avital was keeping me company most days. Just silently sitting there next to me. I was grateful for that. I couldn’t stand the sight of Kai and Jax, even though they had saved my life, I still felt betrayed.

I could have given my seat to someone else. Someone who deserved it more than me.

Our next-door neighbors had small children. We could have perhaps saved more people. The pod had been big enough for one more person.

‘You need to eat my lady…’ Avital tried again, snapping me out of my thoughts. Shoving a plate full of fruit toward me again.

‘It’s Lux… please call me Lux.’ She smiled up at me with those big black eyes. ‘Please, Sir Skylar is going to be really mad at me if..-’ I interrupted her.

’Tell me whenever he is angry at you, I will gladly kill him for you.’ Avital shrunk back.

‘No.. no.. we can’t talk bad about the Paramores like that miss!’

I huffed. ‘And what’s that…-’ my bedroom door slammed open with a loud bang.

‘Speaking of the devil.’ I sighed as Jax strutted in. Dark jeans and dark Henley on again, with his sleeves rolled up.

‘My ears were beeping, were you talking about me?’ he drawled in his playful voice. Avital was horrified.

‘Never sir! Please forgive us!’

‘Avital relax.’ He said as he saw her scared expression. I relaxed a bit as well.

‘You are dismissed.’ He added. She ran out of the room as if it was on fire.

I gave him my darkest scowl and stared back out the window. He sat down next to me and just watched me for a while. I felt his eyes burn a hole in me.

‘WHAT?’ I yelled at him, exasperated. After all those years he still knew how to get under my skin.

He chuckled darkly and threw a grape at my head. Surprised I gave him my widest eyes.

‘The whole world burned down and you just threw a grape at me?’ I screeched angrily. Grabbed the watermelon and with a loud splat slapped it in his handsome face.

He just stared at me with those intense baby blues as the watermelon dripped down his chiseled jaw. I found that so funny I started giggling. Instantly feeling bad about it. Always the one upper, he grabbed the entire plate. Mushed it all up in his palms and came for me.

I squealed in fake fear and ran for the door. He followed me, hands and face full of fruit. I sprinted towards the bathroom trying to lock him out. He was on me too quickly and I sprinted for the hot tub. I jumped in, still in my pajama’s and the bastard strutted in with his hands full of fruit and a smirk on his face.

‘You will pay for that…’ he said darkly.

I was all the way back, nearly touching the waterfall. He was on me in two seconds, grabbed my face, and smeared the fruit all over it. For the second time, he was fully clothed in my bath, with his goddamn shoes still on. Freaking heathen.

‘Got you….’ He winked.

I splashed him in retaliation.

He ducked, slid forward, and pulled my legs from under me. I spit water as I came back up. ‘Asshole!’ with one last fake angry splash I made my way out of the tub, wading away through the strange current in the water, which was holding me back.

Until his hands found my waist and pulled me against his naked torso.

When did his shirt go? Or his pants? He was only wearing his black boxer shorts now and his shoes.

‘I’m sorry Lux…. I’m sorry that you are hurt.’ It was the first apology I had gotten from him in four years. I had waited for those words since forever and I couldn’t fully register them being uttered to me now from between those traitorous lips of my former best friend. The love of my life. Nope. The former love of my life. Definitely former.

I blinked away tears. ’I can’t do this Jax.’ Meaning I can’t have another thing to worry about, like dropping my guard around him and having him destroy me all over again when he was done playing. He kissed my temple softly.

’You and I will face this, we will get revenge. Together.’ I blinked at him. I hadn’t even thought about that. I simply said ‘How? How do we replace them Jax?’ Meaning the Fae. They were responsible for bombing earth.

The Rainers had been battling the Fae for centuries. Jax had told me a few stories over the years. That the century-old war was the one that started the infertility curse the Rainers had. That they all suspected some kind of Fae Bio weapon had caused it.

Now they had killed all the humans who could reproduce easily by nuking earth. The only other species the Rainers could reproduce with. It was as if they were killing the Rainers slowly, but effectively. Without offspring, even with their prolonged lives, they would eventually die out. The Rainer race would simply seize to exist.

The ultimate genocide.

‘We have to fix it, Jax.’ I let out a shuddering breath. The moment of reprieve was over. All the hurt crept back in and I stepped away from him like he was dead himself.

His brows creased. I held up my hands to stop him from advancing. The chasing each other with food from just a few moments ago, was so like the old us, that it cut me like a knife to the heart.

‘We will face this Jax. But not-’ I took a deep breath. ’Never again… together.’

I was better than this. I deserved better than a half-assed apology, for all that damage. I was stronger than I had ever been because of all of it and I had clarity about that ever since my heart had opened for Kai.

Jax Skylark and I would never be friends again. We simply couldn’t.