Flashfire

Ch20

When Caleb opened his eyes, sunlight poured over his face. Grunting, he turned over, ready to go back to sleep. However, he changed his mind when he found Liam sitting there.

"You spoke your peace last night, now let me speak mine," Liam said quietly, with a flat voice.

Caleb sat up, looking nervous.

"I think you're under the assumption that if I find out what happened to me, I'd get some sort of closure." Liam turned his head and looked directly at Caleb. "You don't get it. I don't remember my death. Would you want to? It's icky, Caleb. It's morbid. What would I gain from this?"

"Knowing that you've helped put your husband's mind at ease," Caleb said, immediately angry. "Don't you care?"

"Of course I do," Liam spat right back. "Sometimes it's not up to you to control a situation." Liam scoffed then and crossed his arms. "Unfortunately here you are though."

"Look, if it bothers you so much then just ignore my summon! Jesus."

"I can't."

Caleb whipped his head around. "What do you mean you can't?"

"I can't," Liam snarled. Then, in a way that sounded almost embarrassed, Liam looked away and finished. "It hurts if I don't come back."

Caleb was horrified. "It—hurts? Liam, I never meant to hurt you—"

"Yeah well, actions have fucking consequences, Caleb!" Liam shouted then and got to his feet. "You don't get it, do you? You don't understand what it is, exactly, you're doing. You don't understand the severity of these necromancy games you've been playing—"

"They're not games!" Caleb shouted.

"We're soul mates!" Liam screamed.

Caleb was too stunned to say anything.

Liam threw his hands into the air.. "Why the fuck do you think you can pull this off, at all?"

Panic and the sick taste of bile rose in Caleb. "But I—I can summon birds, and squirrels, and rats—"

Liam stuck his face directly into Caleb's. "But they always come out wrong, Caleb. That bird couldn't fly straight. I saw a few rats—they couldn't walk without flopping over, couldn't run without tripping, and you had to kill them because they started eating themselves!"

Caleb's voice was shaking."I —I—"

Liam walked forward and took Caleb's hands. "We're literally soul mates, Caleb. I thought you'd understand that by now. I didn't think I'd have to spell it out for you."

"I never meant to hurt you," Caleb replied, near tears.

"If I don't come, it hurts."

Silence. Caleb swallowed thickly, not blinking, not allowing the tears to spill.

"Now what?"

"I don't know," Liam responded honestly, still clasping Caleb's hands. "It's up to you now."

There was a long stretch of silence, the dust motes that came through the window the only thing that was moving. Liam looked up at him with questioning eyes, the golden glow that touched them made them both look how Liam had as a spirit. Caleb looked down at Liam's hands, very much there, then looked back into his eyes. He could not let go, not yet.

"We have to try, don't we?" Liam said, near whisper.

Caleb was shocked that the words which were right on the cusp of his mind came out of Liam's mouth, but for the first time, Caleb wondered why. Why it was worth it, putting Liam through this. Why he was taking this so far when Liam would inevitably get hurt? His eyes fell between them to the floor. Liam took his face, surprising him again.

Liam raised his brows. "Yes, we have to do this," he said again.

Determination took over Liam's face. It was a look that Caleb rarely saw from him. It melted all of the heaviness from before.

"Or?" Caleb asked. He wondered where this sudden shift came.

"Or you will never be at peace," Liam said. "Caleb, I didn't realize what this means to you, but this is life or death, isn't it?"

Caleb opened his mouth to speak.

Liam continued. "I can't stand that you would go on haunted by this for the rest of your life. I will do-" he held in a shudder, "Whatever I have to, to see this through, Caleb, and to get you, us, through it."

Caleb looked at his face, searching his eyes. "You said...that it was up to me."

"Caleb, I know, but I can see how not knowing hurts you more than it will ever cause me pain." Liam dropped his eyes, then smiled regretfully. "If I left you like this, I couldn't live with myself."

"You couldn't live-" Caleb uttered softly. He clasped a hand over his mouth.

Liam laughed sardonically.

Caleb wrenched away from his arms and pointed. "That was really funny, Liam!" he exclaimed. "I'll go get those salts."

"Wait, Caleb!"

Caleb brightened. "Do what I say, Liam, and stay right here. Don't pull a trick and fly through the walls."

"Wh-how could I even do that like this!" Liam pointed out. He gestured toward his body, very obviously corporeal.

Liam blinked, wide-eyed. "Caleb, are you al-"

Caleb let out a short laugh "Haho, okay! You better not." He pointed at Liam, peering at him as he opened the door. Bright sunlight shone through their living room curtains, disappearing slowly with his finger in the doorway as it closed. Caleb's lips appeared in the crack of the door. "You better not," he whispered. Liam stood there, rocking his heels back and forth, his thoughts vaguely perceptible through the wall as their connection vanished, the door finally shut.

Caleb stood against it on the other side. He covered his face again, then dropped it. The light coated him in golden orange and yellow, but the motes in the window stirred when he breathed. His wrist touched his forehead. Caleb broke into a grin, then his shoulders shook with a laugh. Tears streamed down his face.