THE DEAF BOY HEARD IT ALL (BOYXBOY)

SOUNDS TOUCHING (15)

I was tired, I couldn't understand why. My eyes were so heavy yet I still managed to pry them open. There was a familiar pattern on the ceiling. The same one that I've looked at all my life. I was in my room surrounded by my things. My eyes drifted closed again before snapping back open.

The room was dark but I could hear whispers all around me. Shadows played against my wall and I was surrounded. These weren't the living that gathered in my room but those who should have already passed into the next life. They touched my hair, held onto my legs, whispered to each other as they watched me.

I closed my eyes yet again squeezing them as tightly as I could. I wanted to will them away. I wanted all of this to have just been some huge nightmare. Maybe it was all just a drug induced dream and when I woke up I would be just coming out of my surgery. Only I wasn't that lucky whatever was happening was actually happening.

Go away. Go away. Go away.

Slowly, much slower than last time I peeled my eyes open. A sigh passed through my lips when the room was slightly brighter. The light of predawn shining in through my window. I rolled over feeling another body in my bed. Every muscle inside of me tensed. My stomach twisted as I wondered who or what was in my bed with me.

Emrys? I wished that it was my longtime friend and not something else. Something darker like the red-eyed ghost from before. My throat felt too dry my palms to sweaty. My was about to say something but I couldn't get my mouth to work. Cleaning my throat for a moment I tried for comedy.

"You could have went to your own room, Emrys." I muttered hoping that by saying Emrys name I was willing it into existed. The body beside me shifted until fingers pushed into my hair. This wasn't Emrys. I knew my friend, know his touch, his smell. This wasn't my friend. I jumped up my heart racing as I picture the worse.

Calming myself I tried to focus on the person beside me. The one who was touching me at the moment. Black hair fell over a handsome face. I watched Soren's chest rise and fall with slow even breaths. I could see his tattoo exposed completely for the first time since we've met. The design flowed down his neck and gover his shoulder. It was a tribal tattoo with lots of thick black swirling lines and dots between.

Reaching for him in the same motion he had done me I pushed the face from his face. Another first had occurred then when Soren wasn't wearing his eyepatch. His lips pulled into a smile but my eyes were locked with his.

I was frozen, my brain wasn't working. My heart slammed against my ribcage. So hard that any moment I felt as if it would break through. My throat was dry and my palms were sweaty. All the blood drain from my body and I felt cold.

Soren seemed confused for a moment. His expression changing from joy to shock. Then he slapped his hand over his eye hiding it from me. Only after his hand covered the eye did air rush into my lungs again. Whatever hold it had on me seemed to break and I stumbled backwards. Falling out of my bed when my legs failed me.

"Gunner," Soren jumped off of the bed coming around to my side. I backed up farther until my back was against the wall. He paused holding his hands out in front of himself in the universal sign of surrender. "It's just me, Gunner." Soren spoke in that luring voice of his.

Lately the monsters in my life has been pretending to be Soren. Was this the real Soren or just another monster pretending to be him. Or maybe there was a deeper meaning that I kept overlooking. Was Soren the monster? None of this crazy shit started to happen to me until he came.

"Your eye . . ." I could hardly get the words out. My voice shook and I wrapped my arms around myself. I felt as if someone or something was stealing the heat from my body. I watched Soren hang his head his hand still in place over his eye as he did his best to hide it from me. Behind him something shifted and moved.