Tyler blinked at Skylar like a deer in headlights, completely lost. “I–” he started, mouth opening and closing as he tried to think of what to say. “I-I don’t know what happened. I’m so sorry,” he apologized, pushing himself off of his elbows and into a seated position. He moved to the edge of the bed, standing quickly before he took a step toward Skylar. “I didn’t mean to. Let me see it.”
Without thinking, Skylar took a step back, creating distance between the two of them. “Don’t,” he warned, throwing his hand out in front of him in an attempt to make his brother understand that he didn’t want him getting any closer. “Don’t…come near me. Just…stay back for a minute.”
Pain blossomed in Tyler’s chest. He’d fucked up. He knew it. His brain had been fuzzy – he hadn’t even realized what he was doing until it was already too late. “Sky, please?” he breathed, glowing eyes pleading with his brother to understand. “I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”
He knew he hadn’t meant to. Deep down, Skylar knew that. But his brain needed a minute to catch up and process everything that had happened in the last five minutes. “I know,” he ground out, waging a war inside of his own body. On the one hand, he knew this wasn’t Tyler’s fault, and he wanted to comfort him. But on the other hand, this had just crossed a major boundary – Tyler hadn’t listened again, and Skylar was the one paying the price for it. “I know you didn’t. I just need a minute, okay?”
As soon as Tyler mumbled the almost inaudible okay, Skylar turned toward the bathroom and walked through the door. He made sure to keep the door open so Tyler didn’t think he was shutting him out, or anything. The last thing he needed right now was to try to de-escalate another breakdown.
His fingers trembled as he flipped the light on, staring at his reflection in the mirror. Horror slammed into him when he tilted his head to the side and saw the bright red mark on his neck. There was a clear outline of teeth and the skin was already starting to bruise. Dammit – how the hell was he going to explain this?!
“Fuck,” he breathed, his eyes slipping closed as scenarios ran through his head. There was no way he could hide this from his friends. They changed in the locker rooms together. Plus, they knew he hadn’t been spending time at the dorms, or with Jessie, for the last few weeks. And his mother – she was one of the most observant people he knew. Of course, she would probably think that Skylar and Jessie had been fooling around, so there was an explanation for her.
And then there was Jessie. She was going to get the wrong idea. She was going to think there was someone else. It was going to break her heart. But it wasn’t like he could tell the truth! Definitely not! Tyler being back was bad enough. But Tyler being back and then leaving a bite mark on his neck? A fucking hickey. Who the hell was ever going to believe that wasn’t exactly what it looked like?
He needed to get out of here. He needed some space. He could feel Tyler’s eyes on him from the bedroom, and he was suffocating again. He needed to take a walk – needed some fresh air. Pushing himself away from the bathroom sink, Skylar headed back into the bedroom. “I need to get out of here for a while,” he muttered, grabbing a white tank top and pulling it over his head. “I’m not leaving. Okay? I’m not. I just…I need some space that these four walls can’t provide. I will be back. I promise.”
Instead of arguing, or making a big deal about this, Tyler merely nodded. His head was down, eyes plastered to a small spot on the floor. “Okay,” he mumbled in response, not even trying to stop Skylar. He’d done this. He could suffer through the consequences of his own actions for a while. Skylar was coming back – he promised.
Skylar didn’t allow himself to feel bad for Tyler. He couldn’t. Tyler had crossed the line. Of course, he knew the other man hadn’t meant to, but it didn’t change the facts. If Skylar didn’t get out of this cabin, he was going to lose his mind. Without another word, Skylar jogged down the steps, shoved his feet into his boots, and headed off into the woods.
It wasn’t long before he found himself at Tyler’s grave site. His eyes scanned the perimeter, searching for those glowing, bright green orbs. And it wasn’t long before he found them. “You and I need to talk,” he bit out, standing his ground as Venus emerged from the trees.
“Skylar Briggs,” Venus greeted, her lips curling into a smile as she circled around him. “I’m starting to see you a lot out here. Is my cabin not treating you well?” Her eyes landed on the large bruise on his neck, her smile widening before her eyes ticked up to meet Skylar’s. “Or, perhaps, it’s treating you too well?”
Immediately, Skylar’s hand shot up to cover the bite mark. “It’s not like that!” he hissed. “Tyler bit me. We were talking one minute, and the next minute he was in my lap with his hands all over me, and he bit me – he actually bit me! What the hell is happening to him?!” Anger bubbled inside him as he pointed at the woman, silencing her. “And don’t give me any of your cryptic bullshit. Tell it to me straight. I need to know what’s wrong with him.”
Much like she always did when Skylar suggested there was something wrong with Tyler, Venus clammed up and became rigid. Slowly, she shook her head. “Skylar Briggs, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that there is nothing wrong with him,” she answered.
“He bit me!” Skylar reminded, emphasizing each word. “You can’t expect me to stand here and allow you to tell me this is normal! Tyler has never done this before! His lips haven’t been close enough to me to bite me since we were toddlers! So, there’s obviously something going on!”
Moving closer to Skylar, ceasing her circling for a moment, Venus explained, “Well, this is his new normal, now. Put yourself in his shoes for a minute, okay? You’ve become every thought he has. Every instinct. Every feeling. His whole world begins and ends with you.” Shrugging, Venus took a step back. “It’s only natural that he would want to consume you in some way, too.”
Well, Skylar hated that reference. Especially after spending the last few weeks watching The Walking Dead. Then again, that might have been easier than what was happening right now. “So, what, he’s just going to keep getting worse? He’s going to continue to cross boundaries? He’s going to consume me?! And then what?! What’s going to happen when there is nothing left of me to give?!”
A small frown came to Venus’ lips at Skylar’s question. “Do you have a breaking point?” she asked, her glowing green eyes boring holes into Skylar. “Is there actually something he could ask for that you’re not willing to give him?”
She could see the wheels turning in his head. But she wasn’t finished yet. “You got everything you wanted, Skylar,” she continued. “You wanted Tyler. And you didn’t care what the consequences were when you recited that incantation and brought him back. All you cared about was that you weren’t alone anymore. And now, you’re going to tell me that it’s not good enough for you? That he’s different – there’s something wrong with him – so you’re not satisfied anymore?”
Angrily, Venus stepped closer, standing on her tip-toes so they were nose-to-nose. “It doesn’t work like that, Skylar Briggs,” she hissed. “Now that Tyler needs something from you, suddenly you’re questioning the price? I am not giving you cryptic bullshit, as you called it. I am just explaining your new reality. The life you chose…has rules. And consequences.”
Venus stepped back once more, though her eyes never left Skylar’s face. “What happens when you have nothing left to give?” she repeated, her voice taunting as she scoffed. “Then you’ll discover whether love has a limit.”
Did it? Did his love for Tyler have a limit? Honestly, he wasn’t sure. So far, it hadn’t. He could see that Venus was starting to walk away, so he quickly reached for her. However, before he could grab her, he stopped himself. “Wait!” he pleaded. “It’s been getting worse,” he explained, realization sinking in. “You already knew it would, didn’t you?” Swallowing thickly, Skylar continued, “What does he want from me? What’s the end game?”
Slowly, Venus turned to meet Skylar’s gaze again, studying him. Honestly, for the first time in a long time, she felt sorry for one of the people who used her rituals. Usually, she only felt for the resurrected victims because she understood them. But she’d grown fond of Skylar. “He wants the same thing every resurrected soul wants.”
“Which is?” Skylar asked, trying to push for more information without being too harsh. If Venus left, he would never get the answers he wanted. And while she had been extremely vague in the past, she was actually speaking to him this time. He didn’t want to ruin that.
Her eyes left Skylar’s once more, staring at a spot on the ground. It was clear her mind was not here, but somewhere far away. Pain was obvious in her expression as she seemingly was trapped inside her own mind. “To stop hurting,” she answered, her voice filled with sadness.
It didn’t make any sense. Why was Tyler hurting? Wasn’t he ecstatic to be back?! No one wanted to die! And how the hell was any of this supposed to make Tyler stop hurting? “By biting me?” he asked, obviously confused. “He-He wants me to feel his pain, or something?”
A sad chuckle escaped Venus at Tyler’s words. He just wasn’t getting it. He was still thinking too literally. His mind was on the most recent event and not on everything that had happened leading up to it. “No,” she answered with a shake of her head. “By keeping you.”
Again, her eyes met Skylar’s. It seemed like something was clicking now, so she continued. “Every time you leave, he loses you all over again. Every time someone demands your attention, his mind interprets it as something being taken away.”
This was actually beginning to make sense. And it was even more terrifying than Skylar had originally thought. If these were the kinds of things kicking around inside her head, it was no wonder Venus was so vague all of the time. “So what happens?”
Her eyes slowly rolled up toward the sky, staring at the full moon. It was beautiful tonight – so round and big. It was inviting. “He’ll keep reaching,” she answered, her eyes never leaving the moon.
The explanation should have sounded insane. Instead, it fit far too well. Every strange thing Tyler had done over the last few weeks seemed to connect. “Reaching for what?” he asked, swallowing down the fear and panic he was feeling.
“Whatever makes the ache stop,” Venus answered. She knew because she’d done the same thing. Her wife had been trying to pull away toward the end. Venus was desperate not to let her, but ultimately, that had been what led to her death. And she hadn’t been the first person it happened to. Venus just wished she’d been strong enough to help her wife – but she hadn’t been.
That’s what Skylar was afraid of. What if the ache never stopped? What if Tyler just kept reaching. “What’s the end game?” he repeated, desperate to know how this all played out. He knew what happened in her case – Venus had told him about her wife’s suicide. And he wasn’t about to let that happen to his brother.
Slowly, Venus peeled her eyes off the full moon. Bright, glowing green orbs locked on Skylar once more as a slow, sad smile spread across her lips. “There isn’t one,” she answered. Skylar just blinked at her as if he was waiting for the punch line that wasn’t going to come. “Love doesn’t stop because it gets what it wants,” she continued. “It simply finds something new to want.”
With that, Venus turned on her heels and disappeared once more into the forest, leaving Skylar alone to process what she had just revealed.
**~~**
“Dude, what the hell is that?!” Adam all but giggled as he stepped up behind Skylar and patted his shoulders in a comraderic way. “Did you and Jessie finally carve out some time for the two of you?” As he took a seat next to Skylar on the bench, he waggled his eyebrows. “Or do you have a little fling on the side?”
Anger threatened to boil over at the suggestion that he was cheating. “Please, I”m not you, you asshole,” he ground out, shoving his friend’s arms away from him. “I’ve never cheated on Jessie. And I won’t ever cheat on Jessie. She and I have mutual trust.”
Rolling his eyes, Adam mocked the mutual trust comment. “All I’m saying is Jessie bitches about never getting to see you, and then you show up with that hickey on your neck.” Shrugging, Adam added, “Seems a bit suspicious.”
Now, it was Skylar’s turn to roll his eyes. “Jealous, are we?” he teased, pushing himself off the benches. “I need to grab a shower. For your information, Jessie and I are fine. We’re seeing each other tonight.” He could feel the heat burning his cheeks as he headed off to the showers. He had no idea how he was going to explain this away when Jessie saw it.
An hour and a half later, Skylar was outside of Jessie’s dorm room, his fist hovering over the door. Quickly, he readjusted the hoodie he was wearing, making sure the mark was concealed. It was a hell of a lot easier to explain why he was wearing a hoodie in the middle of summer than it was to explain a bite mark, so he’d take it.
Sighing, he allowed his knuckles to rap against the door. He quickly glanced at his phone to make sure he hadn’t missed any messages. He hadn’t. And he wasn’t sure if that was a relief or if it was concerning as he stuffed the device back into his pocket. He’d worry about it later.
The door opened to reveal Jessie wearing nothing but skimpy lingerie and a seductive smile. “Hello, stranger,” she greeted, biting into her bottom lip as she twisted the curls in her hair. “I’ve missed you.”
Skylar’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw Jessie. “Jesus,” he breathed, allowing the woman to drag him into the dorm room by his hoodie and shove him onto the couch. For a minute, he was able to get lost in his girlfriend – the way her lips felt against his, how her hair brushed against his cheeks as they kissed, and how her body was so light on top of his lap.
He almost completely forgot about the bite mark on his neck as Jessie’s left hand slid up under his hoodie and tank top, fingernails gently scratching over his abs while her right hand cupped his jaw and jerked his head to the side.
Before his brain could register what was happening, Jessie gasped, her movements ceasing. Immediately, Skylar’s head started spinning. She saw it. Dammit, she saw it! He needed to think fast. He needed to do something! He couldn’t form words before Jessie asked what was on his neck. “It’s not what it looks like,” he assured her, quickly shaking his head as he gripped her arms to maintain contact.
But he was terrible at lying. He’d never lied to her about anything prior to Tyler coming back, and he knew that she could always tell when he was lying. It was obvious on her beautiful face. “Jessie, Tyler is–” he started, wanting – no, needing – to tell her the truth. “Something happened with Tyler.”
It wasn’t like he hadn’t told Jessie about the ritual. Of course, she hadn’t believed him, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t prepared her for this. Not this necessarily, because he hadn’t even been prepared for what was happening, but he had told her about Venus, and he had told her that he was going to bring Tyler back.
“Tyler?” Jessie whispered, her brows knit in confusion as she shook her head. “Skylar, Tyler has been dead for months.” Slowly, she crawled off of Skylar’s lap, running her hand through her hair. “Sky, you can’t keep doing this to yourself. You’ve been…distant. You barely talk to me anymore. I never see you. And now this?”
For a moment, she let the bite mark slide – she didn’t forget about it, but she dropped it in lieu of the other problem in the room. “Sky, I understand that grief can come in stages,” she explained. “And it’s debilitating. But…you have to let him go. That’s what he would want.”
Skylar couldn’t help the snort that escaped him when Jessie assumed what Tyler wanted. She couldn’t possibly wrap her head around what the ritual had done to Tyler. Hell, she wasn’t even willing to believe it was true. And it wasn’t like he could blame her! If their roles had been reversed, he’d have probably said the same damn thing!
As if on cue, Skylar’s phone started vibrating in his pocket. The vibration startled him, causing him to jump before he reached into his pocket and yanked the phone out. It was Tyler. “I have to take this,” he explained.
“Sky, please don’t,” Jessie begged, shaking her head. “We need to talk about this. I’m worried about you!”
But it was too late. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, shaking Jessie’s hands off of him. “I have to.” With that, he strode out of the room, his thumb sliding across the screen to answer the call. He ignored Jessie as she called after him, instead focusing on his brother on the other line. “Ty, are you okay?” he asked, his pace just shy of a jog as he headed to his JEEP.
It was obvious that Tyler was in pain, but he was trying to hold it back. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I know you’re busy, but I just…I needed to talk to you. I-I need–” The sentence broke off with a whimper that sliced through Skylar’s heart.
Thankfully, the drive to the cabin wasn’t too long. “I’m coming,” he assured the other man. “I’m in the car right now, okay? I’ll be there soon.” He pressed his foot on the gas pedal a little harder than necessary, forcing the JEEP to accelerate.
Tyler nodded, though he knew his brother couldn’t see it. “Okay,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you. I’m sorry.” Warmth spread through him when Skylar assured him that he wasn’t bothering him. “Okay, when are you going to be here?” He accepted the answer soon when Skylar promised, and allowed his brother to hang up the phone.
He smiled at the woman sitting across from him, his glowing blue eyes meeting matching greens. “He’s on his way back.” His eyes ticked to the clock, seeing that it was nearly 2pm. “I knew he’d be back by 2pm. Jessie isn’t going to keep him from me. He’ll always choose me.”
Matching Tyler’s smile, Venus leaned in closer. “Of course he chose you,” she assured him. “Even after you seemingly crossed a line.” She knew that game well. “There are still people asking for pieces of him, though. And he’s allowing them to just take. Why is that?”
“Because he’s too nice,” Tyler answered immediately. “And Jessie preys on it. And she uses his kindness to her advantage while she tries to rip him away from me. It’s exhausting.” Sighing, Tyler leaned back into the chair, resting his hand over his chest. “Why do I feel like this when he leaves?” he asked suddenly, staring at the ceiling. “Like if he doesn’t come right back, I might just die all over again?”
The smile that had been on Venus’ lips faded, turning to a frown. “You love him,” she explained softly. “He is the reason you’re alive. He is the reason you came back. When he leaves, your mind doesn’t experience distance – it experiences loss. To you, those are the same thing.”
Now, it was Tyler’s turn to frown. “Why, though?” he asked. “I never felt like this before. Skylar and I were separated all day for most of the school year, and I was fine. But now…even being away from him for ten minutes while he’s showering feels like a lifetime. And when it happens…I just…I feel…alone, I guess.”
Slowly, Venus shook her head. “No, Tyler,” she argued, covering the hand over his heart with her own. “You don’t fear being alone. You fear surviving his absence.” Tyler’s eyes met hers once more. “When you were dead, you were alone. But Skylar brought you back. He chose you. And when something else takes his attention, you feel like you’re losing him. And the thought is unbearable. Because without Skylar, you wouldn’t be here. Some truths are learned by the mind. Others are carved into the soul.”
Again, Venus smiled at Tyler before she stood. “Skylar just hasn’t realized it yet,” she continued after a beat before she flashed him another sad smile. She then turned to head toward the door, wanting to be gone before Skylar got back.
“Wait!” Tyler begged. “What can I do to make him realize it? I’m trying so hard to make him happy. And to not push him to do things he isn’t ready for. But…sometimes I can’t control myself. How do I make him realize that it’s not my fault? That I don’t want to keep messing up?”
Venus paused with her hand on the doorknob, but did not turn around. “You don’t make him understand,” she answered quietly. “If he has to be convinced, he isn’t ready to understand.” Finally, she turned around. “Don’t force it. Let him come to you. Remember, the tighter you hold someone, the more they struggle to breathe.”
With that, Venus walked out the door, leaving Tyler alone with his thoughts. She would be back before too long. Skylar and Tyler always seemed to find a way to come back to her. She wondered if this time would finally be different.