Lincoln had a hard time staying awake. He insisted that he was fine, but his voice had tiredness, and his eyes started to droop shut.
               
"I need to spend every moment I have with you taking you in. I can't waste any of these moments."
               
"But you seem so tired."
               
"Just talk to me. I need to stay awake."
               
"Fine. If that's what you want." I leaned into him, feeling whole as I did.
               
"It is what I want. I can't lose any time I have with you. I need you. Sky? Are you listening to me? Sky?"
               
"I'm listening. I just... I don't understand why it's like this. I don't understand why there's a time limit for us."
               
"There wasn't at first," he sighed, "but we accidentally made problems. I guess we didn't make any problems apart from each other."
                
"How did we meet? It's been bugging me that I don't know that one. How?"
               
"We never really met. I mean, we always went to the same school, but outside of that, we never really talked. Not until we had a class project. I thought I was so cool because the boys had to pick a girl for their partner, and I was one of the first to go. There was a pretty girl in the class. A genius too. She studied for every test, and I'd seen her have meltdowns if, heaven forbid, she failed one. She was funny too. And she hated me. She thought I was an arrogant jerk, which I was.

"The look on her face, your face, when I said I wanted her to be my partner. Priceless. I love you, Sky. I don't remember when I started loving you exactly, but I know that I'll never stop."
               
I tried to picture it, and the words started to form a picture in my head. "Were you wearing a blue shirt that day?"
               
"I think. Why? Do you remember it?"
               
"I don't know. I could picture your story in my head."
               
"Like a memory or like reading a book?"
               
"Like a memory."
               
Lincoln smiled and held me closer as we sat on the floor of his cold little cell. He started to talk, telling stories that fueled images in my head. I would tell him minute details of it, and then he'd move on. His focus suddenly seemed on helping me remember everything. Not just him. All the memories had him in it, but he couldn't have told me a story that didn't have himself in it. He spent time talking about our dates, but a lot of it was memories of inside jokes with his friends. He didn't tell me anything bad, something I only noticed later.
               
The night wore on, quicker than it should have. Lincoln didn't have time to say enough as I heard footsteps coming again. The Devil was at the glass. Lincoln held me closer, and for a moment, I realized he was scared of losing me. I held on to him with one hand, and with the other, I slipped my hand into my pocket. I took the picture out and ripped it in half.
               
"Lincoln," I smiled, "take this."
               
I opened his fingers on one hand and put the half of the picture that had me on it in his grasp. He didn't look at it, but as I slipped my half, the half with him, in my pocket, he held me even closer.
               
The Devil looked down. "Ready to go, Skylar?"
               
Lincoln looked up. "Please don't take her from me again. I can't take that."
               
The Devil opened the door and stepped inside. "I didn't ask you, Soul. I asked Skylar. Now come along."
               
Suddenly the thought of going back without Lincoln was unbearable. The thought that I would keep stacking books up that he'd probably never get the chance to read was too much for me. I looked up at him, and I'm pretty sure that he saw it in my eyes that I wasn't leaving Lincoln willingly.
               
"I'll give your memories back if you come without any difficulties."
               
That was tempting.
               
"How do I know you're not lying?"
               
The Devil moved towards me, and I thought Lincoln was going to crack my ribs with how hard he squeezed. I felt fingers caress my forehead, and then I was lost to the world around me.