I had never run so fast.

Eli and Alex shouted how they saw a ghost in front of them and ran in unison. I wish they just ran in the same direction; it would have made it easier for me to explain why I ran only behind Eli.

I have no explanation. I had witnessed his face turn from a glowing bubble of inquisitive energy to a hardened marble, cracking piece by piece.

It was hard for me to keep with him, considering how fast he ran. My spectacles were slipping thanks to the sweat and shoving them in my pocket gave Eli enough time to dissolve in the dark.

I stopped near a roundabout, and my eyes were about to clean the floor. The sweat dripped down and washed the dirt off the road. My mouth wasn't enough to take in all the air and my lungs stopped shaking hands with my heart, which was beating out of control.

Asthma and low haemoglobin were beating my head, reminding me how my lungs and blood sucked at being what they are.

He must be in the park, my mind ran faster than I could, as I headed towards the park near the Deli. I don't know why I felt he was there, but my mind was too tangled in this chaotic mess that I wanted to throw up (it could be the sushi too, I have no clue)

It was crazy how the lush green ambience that bloomed heaven in the day time was conjuring up creatures of creep at night in the park. The shining eyes of the tree, the insect humanity hasn't even named, the crickets chirping to the synth of dogs howling-

Okay, I agree, I am a tad bit scared. Not much, just a tad bit.

Anyway, the park was enormous and there were a gazillion places for him to hide or have a duel with the alleged ghost. I had no clue as to where to begin. The washroom? Maybe nature called him after to make sure he was alright? Or maybe he is digging his own grave?

Look, I don't fucking know. Why did that fucktard have to run away in the middle of the night when there are lethal ways to die that include homicide and extortion and kidnapping? I can't help if my brain chooses to crack a joke here and there to release—

Wait for a second, how can I forget this?

Like a spark in a tunnel full of darkness, it clicked to me instantly how predictable Eli is. It didn't even take me half a year's interaction to make out that he hates questions related to sports, how he secretly enjoys broccoli (he picks all the pieces from Alex) and of course, how could I forget this?

He is still a kid at heart.

I fired up the flashlight on my phone and tried to locate the map stand of the park. It was my sharpened luck that the map stand was near to where I was standing. Flashing the light, I tried to find the nearest children's playground.

With that information, I had to turn a blind eye to my already deafened senses, my lungs could hardly catch up with the pace and my heart was about bruise my ribcage.

With that, Eli was right there, swinging all by himself on the swing.

I don't know if I am colour blind or photosensitive but it seemed like Eli was pulling in all the darkness and light alike. I don't know if it was some sort of glow that he radiated but I realised why people are so nuts about blackholes looking ethereal. A mass of nothing sucking in everything, even the light that makes you see what's pulling it in. It was weird really, or maybe I am trippy. Everything around him, the darkness was just mingling with the glow, soft and pristine. Like darkness and light always danced hand in hand, one was never the absence of another; they make each other's presence realised.

I shook my head hard as if doing so would eliminate my foggy vision and even more fogged thoughts. I had never seen Eli in his most vulnerable; it was kind of bizarre and unnerving to find him this way.

I treaded steadily and found another swing beside him. Before I could take over the seat, Eli stood up and came after me with something that looked like a rod.

"Woah, woah, hold up boogieman," I threw my hands in my defence, it was a scary sight. Why the hell was he coming after me and where the hell did, he finds a rod?

"Oh," he said and dropped the rod down, "I thought it was some murderer or something." He had worn the hood of his sweatshirt and tied it up, shrinking himself and his voice. He sat down and before I could say anything, he started patting the swing beside him, gesturing me to occupy it.

"Where did you find the rod?"

"It's a hoe," he replied, "the gardener must have left it behind."

"Still afraid of the dark?" My legs were humongous for a swing meant for kids. I had to kick the trench of sand underneath it to make some room, hopefully, the sand didn't creep into my socks.

Eli tried to suppress his sniffs inside the sack he was trying to be, but fail terribly. He sniffed again, "No? Do I look scared?"

"Your acting is worse than Kristen Stewart and we both can swear by it." I laughed, clasping my hands together. Blood was drained out of his face, so much so that he could blend it well with the streetlight.

"Darkness is scary though; you never know who's using it as a disguise. I mean, I couldn't even recognise you. You stood there for so long, what were you doing?" He turned a little to face me, and his voice had relaxed a bit. I was relieved, but I wanted to duck the question.

"Me?" I rose my brows, "Nothing, I was just making sure it was you and not some man child waiting for his next pedo prey."

"Don't lie. You knew it was me. Why did you come to the children's area then?"

"You remember that I remember the incident?" It was shocking, I didn't expect him to recall this piece of detail.

"Of course, that night was the most embarrassing night of my life and I hate you with my entire existence."

"That' why you're pestering me so much, you wanna seek your revenge." I eyed at him, leaning him and nudging gently.

He rolled his eyes, his cheeks filling in with the lightest shades of red as he stretched them to accommodate a smile. "Yes, I plan to annoy you till your brain cells dilute."

"Let me tell you, you're doing a pretty good job at that."

It was the night before semi-finals of the National Science Exhibition. Eli and Alex were teamed up, selected from the round two while Leni and I got a direct entry to the semis (due to our astounding project, of course.) We were staying in Hotel Roosevelt in downtown LA. All the student dream of cracking the semis because, after that, the Trinity Science Community (our hosts) treat you like royalties. The rooms cost like a thousand bucks and I was planning to steal all the goodies we got in our hotel room. Leni had befriended Eli there and got to know he was afraid of the ghost. Who knew Eli's stars would cross paths in LA and we'd witness fireworks in Roosevelt, considering it is the most haunted hotel in LA.?

Leni had it planned entirely; FBI should hire her for all the sabotage plans. She does a better job at that. She found the old white linen sheets from the storage that had been abandoned for years, the time when staff isn't available on our side of the hotel and of course, our victim for disaster, Elikai. Involving everyone is this plan with her smoother than butter talking, we had an Elevator Game and a scared to death Eli. As soon as he saw Leni dressed up as a ghost and running behind him, he took the emergency staircase and ran all the way to the other side of the road. He might as well have run back to Long Island, but I guess he wanted to be at the competition's venue the next on time. It took us, a group of ten people, nearly two hours and bucks of Uber rides to finally find him. I didn't even care about him back in the day. I wanted to have cotton candy and a vending machine was next to a children's park. Then my shinigami eyes opened my chakra and I was able to locate a dreaded, crying, profusely sweating and petrified Eli swinging, using my peripheral vision.

I felt someone flicking my forehead and snapping me right out of my senses.

"Earth to Kal? looks like someone's in deep trans." My hands felt warm but I didn't bother finding out why.

"Do you still hate me?" I asked, out of the blue. I don't even know why, but I faced Eli which forced him to look at me too. He pursed his lips, then let words escape his constricted mouth, "It's the same answer as to the question if I am afraid of the dark or not?" He looked away in a jiffy, playing with the sand.

"Why is darkness something to be afraid of?"

He didn't look at me but started to answer, as if he expected the question from me, "We pity the darkness as the absence of light, but don't you think it feeds on our pity? It begs for some warmth. The more we sympathize, the more it steals our light. Then even if we're left with a shell, it looms us; hoping it'll suck the light out of people we hope would share their warmth."

"Are you tired of being the one who pities or the one who steals?" I whispered; my voice was hoarser than ever.

His eyes met mine, with a line that bent into a stapled smile, "Why not both? But recently I am trying to give someone all the light I have borrowed and stolen to someone, but seems like that someone is so alone, he thinks darkness is his companion."

I sighed. I had never expected to have this conversation with Eli; I was so unarmed that my head was throbbing, begging me to get out of this. My thoughts kneeled inside my head, and their scraped knees hurt my head.

"Maybe that someone doesn't know that life exists outside befriending darkness. We're all scared of darkness because it's unknown to us; maybe it has been with that someone for years. Maybe the light is unknown to that someone. Both darkness and light are blinding, you know? Maybe someone is happy with being with what they know."

"Of course," Eli sighs and then rolls his eyes, "Just because you—" he stops, takes a deep breath and talks to me with a stiffened look, "Just because the knife in your kitchen has been in there for years doesn't mean it'll not make you bleed. And as far as that someone's happiness is concerned, there's a difference between being happy and being distracted from sadness."

He shook his head in frustration and turned a cold shoulder to me. It's funny, how a few minutes ago he looked like a living ghost and now he was painted in all the colours of emotions he owned or could manifest.

"What's so funny?" he snapped, as he caught me giggling.

"I am just wondering whether you're good enough to distract me from the darkness."

"What?"

The crunching of leaves and stomps prevented me from saying any further.

"Are you two lovebirds planning your wedding by holding your hands?" It was Andrew that stood beside me, it took me a while to fully understand what he meant.

"I mean," Kassy added, "I don't know if having a date in the middle of the night in a children's park is creepy or romantic." She laughed, then looked at Andrew who was staring somewhere between Eli and I the whole time, "but who am I to judge?"

Just then, I felt something slip past my hand, but I don't remember grabbing anything. I looked down and saw Eli hiding his hands, flooding them and then backing away from others. It dawned upon me why my hands felt warm.

Not going to lie, I was indeed distracted from darkness for once.

~~~
Word count: 2120

A/N

I am changing the script a tad bit. Initially, writing 2k words felt tedious but today, I was so excited and pumped. I forgot I could write for once. I think it's a sign that I'll be on a writing spree, fingers crossed! Anywho, I def enjoyed writing this and wrote it real quick. Good things coming in the script. Hope to finish this before November(don't jinx it)

Thank you for sticking with this book.🧡💜💛💚💙❤🖤