Fragile

Lucan sat patiently while Sophia tried to make sense of what had just happened. He could see the cogs of her mind churning in overdrive, chaotic thoughts fighting against each other for some semblance of order. Her lips parted at regular intervals as if speaking unpronounced words. He placed his hands over her trembling ones and reminded himself to be gentle. The human mind was a fragile thing, a fracture in the wrong place, at the wrong time could shatter even the strongest of souls.

“You know, you really should have a bite of that cake. The sugar will help with the shock” he suggested, almost a whisper.

Sophia's eyes darted up and finally locked onto his, her lips parted again but this time she managed a monosyllable.

“Cake?!” she blurted out with difficulty.

She pulled her hands away from his and stood up, only to pace back and forth.

“He wants me to eat cake!” she scoffed to herself, “I've just been stitched up, shot at, there's a dead man on the floor and another one unconscious, and he thinks cake is the answer”. Sophia threw her arms up in the air and shook her head, incredulous, before pointing at Lucan, “you eat cake! I'm calling the cops” she decided resolute.

She went to reach the phone but Lucan's words stopped her.

“Cops? Really?” he grimaced, “with your track record? How do you think that's going to go?”.

Sophia turned back slowly to face him. She was gritting her teeth now, memories of past transgressions coming back to haunt her. Having grown up in the system, a teenage rap sheet had been inevitable. Dealing with authority was not her strong suit, hence why she chose to live and work in the middle of a vast nowhere. But even here, trouble had managed to catch up with her, like the proverbial Hell Hound snapping at her heels. She sat herself back down and buried her head in her hands not knowing what to do.

Lucan went over to her, crouched down and tenderly caressed the back of her head, moving his hands to under her chin and tilting it back up to his level. The uniform motion immediately calmed her down and she regained her composure within the dark swirls of Lucan's intense gaze.

“Do you trust me?” he asked then.

Sophia faintly nodded her head but he could see she was conflicted about it.

“I do” she confirmed, “I just don't know why”.

She paused briefly, “and I'm not sure that I should” she frowned.

Lucan sat back on his heels and gave a half nod, “that's fair” he conceded, “heads and hearts don't always get along”. With that said, he stood to his full height, rolled up his sleeves and took stock of the two unwelcome bodies splayed on the floor, one dead, one half way there.

“Got a shovel handy?” he asked casually.

Lucan put steel to soil as he dug a hole at least 6 feet deep. Sophia watched him from above as piles of soil created mounds around her. She felt an eerie calm inside of her, one she had never felt before.

“You don't have to watch this, you know?” Lucan informed her between shovels.

Sophia gave a wry smile, “you saved my life in there. The least I can do is keep you company whilst you get rid of the evidence” she said matter-of-fact.

A few moments of silence passed before her subconscious voiced itself, “do you feel any remorse?” she asked softly.

“Remorse for what?” he responded.

“For killing someone”.

Lucan stopped his sweat breaking task for a moment and looked up at her, “I didn't kill anyone”. He shook his head and started digging again as he explained, “The consequences of their actions did”. He pulled the one body down into the hole with him.

“He chose to try and rob you tonight. He chose to point a gun at your head, and he chose to pull the trigger. I merely diverted a bullet that should never have been meant for you in the first place. So, make no mistake, this man's own actions killed him, not me” he stated in full confidence.

Sophia tilted her head back as a genuine laugh escaped her lips for the first time that night, “I'm not sure that defence would hold up in court” she informed him.

“Well, it's a good job we're not getting the law involved then, isn't it?” he chirped, “everything is about perspective Sophia, and there is a vast array of those to choose from. But it's not about choosing right from wrong, it's about choosing what fits with your soul” he concluded.

Sophia pondered over his words before pointing to the other half-way-to-dead guy, “And him?”.

Lucan shrugged, “he's got a broken neck and I think he's slipped into a deep coma. At this point, it's kinder to put an animal down than to continue its suffering”.

Lucan pulled the second body into the ditch and took his bone-carved knife out from his pocket. He turned his back to Sophia, blocking her view and traced an upside down cross on the man's forehead, “go back to where you belong” he whispered before bestowing him with a quick death, and returning the displaced soil back to its original state.

Sophia found herself amazed that not a single blade of grass looked out of place and the thought crossed her mind that he had done this many times before. Although this did not deter her from following him back inside, against all logic she felt safe with him.

“I would never hurt you Sophia” he commented as if reading her mind.

They walked back inside the diner where Sophia worked, her boss would be here in a couple of hours to open up and to her relief the place looked like it always did. There was no trace of the violent events that had occurred.

There was, on the other hand, a parcel neatly wrapped in brown paper sitting on top of the serving counter. She looked at it suspiciously, “that wasn't there before” she pointed as she approached the package with a feeling of panic growing in her heart.

The doors were locked, no-one else was here. What if someone saw them? What if they were on their way to the police right now? Thoughts and scenarios swirled through her mind, her entire future being changed by this one moment in time. Only when she felt Lucan's hand on the small of her back did she regain some focus and did her inner turmoil start to subside.

Lucan approached the package first, also intrigued by the fact it seemed to appear out of thin air. More so because this box had never presented itself in any of the thousands of times he had relived this moment before. It was new and unexpected, which to him meant one of two things. It either came from Above, or it came from Below. Neither option brought him comfort.

Sophia watched with anticipation as Lucas unwrapped the package with caution. Her eyes widened as he pulled out what looked to be some kind of large jewellery box. It was hand carved with letters of an alphabet she did not recognise; a language long lost to the human world. Encrusted gemstones scintillated in each carved groove and despite herself, Sophia's hand was enticed to touch it.

“Sophia, no!” a desperate plea left Lucas's lips as he tried to pull the box away from her grasp, but it was too late. A flash of pure white light filled the room, then disappeared, taking Sophia with it.

Lucas looked around at a loss. A gaping dark abyss threatened to swallow him whole as he came to the painful realisation that his own mind was now on the verge of fracture; highlighting a fragility he never knew his soul had.