Chapter 5: Cartoon Hearts

Rylee Vincent

A brittle pang assaulted Rylee's steel heart as Caleb's words soaked her in pain and slurred her to sleep. For a moment she thought she imagined it, but while laying down, she read it again. Over and over, until she memorized the words. Love? Did he mean to say that? If it's a mistake why hasn't he corrected yet. Just shoot off a text saying he was kidding...although that seemed pretty sincere.

Pacing again, Rylee got up from her bed and decided to go for a walk.

It didn't matter how dark it was.

The light in his words followed her everywhere.

Putting on her jacket, Rylee quickly ran down the stairs, desperate to get away from reality for a moment. She must be imagining that Caleb meant more than he did with those words. But then, why did her heart jump at that word coming from him especially?

No. She told herself.

There's no feelings there.

Just look how Dylan turned out.

Rylee shook her head while heading down the fifth flight of stairs. But, as she shook her head, her head lifted from watching to make sure her feet were in the right places. And... even though it was just a split second that shattered her, it felt like her whole world was slowing down as she flew down from the fifth floor to the ground floor.

Screams tore from her head as pain piled her world in a sky-high mess.

"Help," she yelled. Rylee was pretty sure something was broken, but then again there was a lot pain, so it could be anything.

But there was no answer to her calls.

After twenty minutes, she gave up and reached for her phone.

Tears blurred her emerald eyes as every inch of her skin rattled pain like a bad ringtone. Despite not being able to see because of her tears, Rylee's thumb finally found the call button and the phone trilled a hellish rhythm until finally someone answered.

"Hey," she said through tears. "I know this is weird, I don't know who you are. But...I hope that stairs in general get the instant elevator shaft to hell. Whoever heard of a 'stairway to heaven' obviously never got kicked out by gravity and sent to the ground floor of hell..."

Rylee winced in pain, and suddenly Caleb's voice worriedly churned through the line.

"Rylee! What happened? Where are you?"

It sounded like he was already picking up his keys.

Through emerald glass tears, Rylee surrendered to the pain mounting on her limbs. "I'm...in...my apartment building...I fell down the stairs and called out....but most people were...ahhhh....they were sleeping so I..."

"Already on my way, Rylee! Try not to move. I'm coming," he said, panic still riding over his words and weaving between his long pauses.

Rylee just rolled her eyes at him, "Like...I was going to...run...a...marathon. No offence...Caleb...but your advice sucks."

Caleb gave her a unexpected laugh. "Well, being a Heart Reaper will do that to you."

"Yeah...well...read some self...help books. Maybe they'll teach you how to grow some...sensitivity, or better yet...a heart."

Rylee winced again then the pain drowned her and darkness followed her down the rabbit hole. She had no idea how long it had been, all she knew was there was a thundering pain lighting all her bones in a scalding storm of shattered fables telling her she'd be okay.

Finally something lifted her head.

Rylee's eyes fluttered opened to see a worried Caleb.

The look in his eyes showed how he hurt for her.

"Hey...how are you, Rylee?"

Rylee's brows drew together in pain. "How do you...think...I'm doing?"

Caleb laughed again. "I called an ambulance. It should be on its way."

Rylee clutched Caleb's arm as pain writhed through her. " You said...love."

"Huh," he said confused. Quirking his brow, he eyed her with those midnight blues which split her soul in two.

"You said love," Rylee insisted.

Caleb nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think we could be great friends."

What? Love and friends don't mix. Was this his way of backing out of the love thing? Rylee gulped. This whole revenge thing wasn't going to work if Caleb and her were just friends...or maybe that was the perfect torture.

Rylee lit a pained smile on her lips like a scarlet sunset.

She clutched his arm one more time just to see his midnight blue eyes reflected in hers.

"Rhett was a great guy...but I don't think I could love him. I hope you understand."

Caleb smoothed his hand over her cheek. "I do."

"I don't want to move on anymore Caleb," she admitted to him and herself.

Caleb took a deep breath, but ultimately he hesitantly let go of her head. And that was the worse pain she'd ever experienced. The stairs were nothing on him letting go of her. She winced again, but Caleb only moved farther away.

"You do have to move on," it looked like waves were crashing over him and taking him below the surface as Caleb spoke. Unsure, he continued, hesitation in his very breah. "And I do have the perfect guy for you...I'm just not sure..."

"Who?" Rylee bled the word out softly.

"My brother," he said slowly. "Caden."

Puzzlement filled every inch of Rylee's body. "Your brother?"

He nodded shortly. Rylee just shook her head. Caleb kept making her go back and forth from wanting to kiss him to kill him. Rylee decided finally she needed to skirt this subject all she could, but something pulled her into the flame to be burned.

"Is he a pain in the butt just like you?"

Caleb looked off dizzily into the distance. "A little."

"What does he do?" Rylee said, sincerely wondering now.

Caleb cast an overshadow onto her face as his head infinitely spun into darkness. "He...has a company called 'Blind Fate'. It's where you can choose for someone reputable to show up in place of your blind date if they don't show up on time."

"And he's the one for me," Rylee reiterated trying to give him a chance to say no.

He never did.

Caleb let the bricks of his words sit on her chest while she attempted to exhale.

He just kept nodding. "Yeah." Then he looked at his watch. "When are they going to get here with the ambulance? It's been thirty minutes."

Rylee laughed sourly as pain shot a hole through her body. "You know when they hear my address they stop listening. They'll probably only send a first aid kit. They don't like me very much."

"Really," Caleb cocked his head to the side studying her. "You've called that many times that it's come to that?"

Rylee nodded. "Yeah, well life happens."

Caleb shook his head. "Yes, life happens. But your life...God, did you touch a cursed rock or something because you're always doing something stupid and painful."

Rylee narrowed her glare at Caleb like he was a laser pointer and she was the cat, furiously she attempted to claw at him with just her emerald shard eyes. "Ahhhh...so the ever-sensitive Caleb is telling me I'm cursed. That's funny Reaper boy," she drawled out pointedly.

Answering, he joked reaching for his pockets, "sorry I'm out of money for post cards for the guilt trip you're trying to send me on."

After he stopped laughing at his own joke, he looked back at Rylee.

His eyes glinted at her for a moment in apology.

Then a knock at the door interrupted them. Caleb stepped away and of course came back with a first aid kit in hand. Making a splint for her arm, he softly tried to fix her. Pain wallowed beneath her sunken tears as she wished not feel the scorching flames of her broken body with her every single move.

Rylee's jade eyes questioned him.

Caleb looked up at her confused while bandaging her up. "What is this the Spanish Inquisition or something?"

Rylee shook her head.

"No...it's just...how did you know how to bandage me up."

Just as she said that, Caleb tore a piece of tape out and taped the splint together. Suddenly, it felt like Rylee was seeing Caleb through brand new eyes, and that frightened and excited her at the same time.

She had thought that there was only insensitivity and cruelty that he barked out like a dog with a duty. There wasn't supposed to be anything more to him. He wasn't supposed to be nice. Rylee winced again, but now for a completely different reason.

Caleb looked up at her worried with his midnight blue eyes blurring all her lines she'd drawn for herself. "Am I hurting you?"

"No. I just. You never answered my question. How do you know how to do that?"

Caleb shifted his glance. "I suppose if I answer that it was magic and pixie dust you'll just get more and more curious." Rylee nodded up and down slowly. Caleb sighed. "Well, if you must know, Goofy, I was in the army. I was a medic."

Rylee's brain scrambled two ways at his answer.

"Hold on...did you just call me Goofy, like as in Mickey Mouse's Goofy?"

Rylee studied him as his midnight blue eyes lit a strike of lightning all the way down to his loose smirk burning at his lips.

"Yeah. I think it suits you. You do a lot of stupid stuff and are clueless about how much pain it'll cause. It reminds me of that one episode or whatever where Goofy sleepwalks into dangerous situations...but you're awake when you do most of this stuff...so honestly, Goofy isn't a good name either."

Anger puffed a billowing smoke through her as her cheeks became rosy under the pale florescent light of the ground floor hall.

Crossing her arms, she cussed him out again. "I hope you start a jigsaw puzzle but are missing the one piece to finish the puzzle."

Caleb laughed heartily at this. "Goofy, you crack me up."

Rylee's jade green eyes darted at him, challenging him to call her that once more.

Finally, Caleb got the message when he stopped laughing and his beautiful face drooped back to a serious frown.

"Yeah. I was in the army, Rylee. That's where this misguided boy scout code of honor and protecting comes from. You know I hate my job..." he paused, his midnight eyes glistening. "but it pays the bills."

That frown on his face, it was ugly.

Rylee neither cared for it nor wished to be the cause of it.

But, she just couldn't help herself.

Smirking she replied, "so if you get to nickname me, I'm going to give one to you. Its only fair. How do you feel about 'Popeye the Sailor man'?"

Caleb looked stunned for a moment, but he finally found a laugh bubbling at his mouth as Rylee visibly saw him lose some of that darkness he carried around him everywhere. "But I wasn't in the marines, Rylee. I was in the United States Army. In the infantry. I was nowhere near the water."

Rylee looked at him with a serious face. "What's the matter, Popeye? Don't like your nickname?"

Caleb lifted his head back laughing. "It's interesting, Goof, just like you." He booped her nose and suddenly, with an inhale of his cologne, Rylee fell deeper and deeper into his hypnotizing glare. Both of them dared each other to step away, but they both got closer.

Soon, Rylee was close enough to make out all the lines in his face.

His midnight blue eyes stared at her as if they were waiting for her to stop him. No, not in a million years, she thought to herself. A moment passed between them like an electric charge without a spark to define it. But Rylee knew what it was. She was falling for him.

Shaking her head, she pulled herself out of her visible daze.

Looking at him with her murky jade eyes, she deafened the silence like she was shooting a gun with a pillow to muffle the sound.

"So...Caden, your brother, is he available this Sunday."

Caleb shook off his daydream, knowing better too.

If they started this, Rylee knew they couldn't finish it.

She couldn't give her heart to someone else.

Especially a Heart Reaper who thought love was a fairytale that he had to destroy for others. Getting a grip of himself, Caleb grabbed her phone and put in Caden's number quickly, scratching forehead nervously while he did.

"You'll have to ask him," he replied clearly defeated.

Lifting her in his arms, Caleb brought Rylee back up to her room with no problem. While Rylee thought he'd just leave her at the couch or something, Caleb obviously had different thoughts. Caleb tucked her into bed like she was a little kid.

Kissing her forehead, he echoed those words which haunted her before.

"And I do love you, Rylee." He paused knowing he was saying the wrong thing. "No that didn't come out right...I meant...I love you...but as a friend...you know like you love cake or cookies, not your significant other. I'm just going to leave before I say anything more stupid," he pointed to the exit.

Scratching his head nervously again, Caleb tried to escape the awkwardness he had from showing her he was more than an insensitive jerk, but Rylee just thought it was so cute.

"See ya Popeye," she yelled out to him.

"You too, Goofy. Don't go sleep walking while I'm gone or go down any stairs."

Caleb pulled away and was swallowed into the darkness of the night. His midnight blue eyes dissipated into the indigo shore of her memories, ever-fading. And that was when Rylee knew that she'd have to step up her game with Caden to make Caleb jealous.

Because, Rylee, like it or not, was going to break Caleb's cartoon heart and stomp on it. It didn't matter what he did to try to fix it, Rylee would still remember how it felt to be reaped by him. He hurt her more than Rylee ever thought she could feel. So...she had to enact phase two to show Caleb exactly what he'd done to her. She wouldn't let him get away with it this time, she'd make sure of it.

And that meant, Caleb needed to see her kissing Caden.

-------------End of Chapter 5------------

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