“Rich asshole heroes?”
“Hardly.” I scoffed. “My family helped build the foundation of the Execution Battle. It’s my family who were responsible for the gruesome deaths of thousands and thousands of people.”
He realised what I was doing, what I was trying to do. “Your family killed Soulless. Not innocents.”
“Are you saying you’ve never met a Soulless who wasn’t an innocent person caught up in the system?”
Dig pressed his lips together. He couldn’t argue it. “Delphine,” he spoke my name as if he were trying to treasure it. “I’m not a good guy. I’m really… I’vekilledpeople.”
I looked over the blood on his arms and shirt. “You have?”
“Yeah, a bit. I’m a monster.”
“You're not a monster.”
“I am.”
Oceans of turmoil crashed inside of him. His large shoulders wilted. Lines creased on his forehead. I finally saw him as just a man. A man with a graveyard past. A man who had fought for his survival for seven years. A man who I think…just wanted to be loved.
He had suffered through endless storms, and now, he had become one.
I did not understand such heavy sadness, loss and hurt. To me, I brushed it off like lint on my shoulder. But on Dig, it had collected on him, year after year, until he wore his pain like heavy weights, dragging him down.
I wished that I could carry some of it for him.
I just did not know how.
“Um…” I rested my hand on his arm. “There, there. It will all be okay.”
Oh, how horrible I must sound. How ignorant. How strange. How unfeeling. It was I who was the monster, the one who could not feel, who could not comfort those in need.
I had a sudden urge to bury myself into him.
And so, I did.
I opened my arms, and I hugged him.
We fused together, like two metals. Him and I. Our arms wrapped around each other, and I held onto Dig Graves, offering him an embrace I had never enjoyed giving another before. A hug. Such a simple act. Yet, there wassomething so pretty about a hug. When our fronts pressed together, it was like our hearts were filling the empty space on the other side of our chests.
I didn’t feel so hollow now.
All I felt was him, his warmth, his arms that held me back.
This was nice.
This was perfect.
Was this what I needed? For someone to hold me, and for me not to pull away?
I leaned my head back and slowly lifted the red heart shaped sunglasses from his face and stared into Dig Graves’ eyes. I think this is whatheneeded.
For someone to look at him, and for them not to look away.
Cuddled into each other's arms and sharing our naked sights, I dwelled there with him. Two Soulless souls, one a serial killer, the other a girl who could not feel.
We had not been made for other people…but we had been made for each other, for just this moment, and maybe that was enough.
“Dig,” I said softly, lowering his sunglasses back onto his nose. “This entire time, I have been lying to myself. I’ve always thought of myself as a good person, but I’m not, Dig. I’m not a good person either. At the grocery store, sometimes, I don’t put the shopping cart back in the shopping cart bay.”
