Chapter

24: Scars

  Last night I had a hard time going to sleep. After what Yuna told me about Sheiba's childhood, how he was so horribly abused, really shook me up. I felt so bad for him. All this time he's been holding in deep scars. Scars that will never be able to heal. It's afternoon now and Jerimiah is outside with Sheiba digging post holes for a new fence. I watch him for a while then go outside to help. "Hey Jerimiah!" Yuna yells running up to him with two fishing poles in her hand and a tackle box. "I just had the perfect idea! Let's go to the lake and fish like we used to! We could catch up on alot of stuff!" She says. "I've got work to do." Jerimiah says. "Don't worry! I'll do your share!" I say. "It's all worked out now!" Yuna says and grabs Jerimiah's hand then they drive off in her car. "She seems really crazy about him." Sheiba says. "Ya...they used to spend all their spare time together...until she left, without warning." I say then add, "I wonder why she all of a sudden wanted to come back..."

  This reminds me of the old days. A fishing pole in my hand, feet hanging over the edge of the dock, sitting next to Jerimiah. "Why did you come back...?" Jerimiah asks, his back turned to me. "I already told you, I missed you!" I tell him. "That's not all....is it?" He asks. He knows I'm not telling him everything. It doesn't surprise me, he's the only person alive who has been able to read me. "No.....I want to tell you something, but I don't want you to get mad at me..." I tell him. "You're not married...are you?" He asks me, kinda worried. I half laugh. "No, but there never was anyone else...." I say. "Then why tell me that?" He asks. "....I can't tell you why..." I say slowly, quietly. "What? Isn't that what you're here for?" He asks me. His breath is raged and his teeth are gritted. He's starting to get angry. Then he stands and stares into my eyes. "Do you like toying with me like this!? Is this just some game to you!? 'Cuz a day has never gone by that I haven't thought about you or wished you were here! I can't stand being without you!!" He yells at my face. I feel the tears roll down my face and I throw myself onto him. "I'm sorry....but I never wanted to hurt you! I just can't tell you the reason why I had to!" I yell clinging to him. He pushes me off and walks off, leaving me again. This time to cry alone.

  "Can we go catch fireflies?" Rabbit asks Kiara, holding a jar. "You wanna catch firelies? It's pretty dark right now though." Kiara says. "But they only come out at night!" Jean insists. "Alright. Let me get a flashlight." Kiara says and runs to get one. "Better take a gun so Cujo won't get you!" Jerimiah says with a smirk as she comes back. "Cujo?" I ask. "He's a rabid dog in a horror film." Kiara tells me glaring at Jerimiah. "Take my rifle. Better safe than sorry." Jerimiah says. Kiara nods and runs to get his rifle then she leaves with the twins. "I haven't seen Yuna much today since you two left. Is she okay?" I ask. He looks down then leaves. She's been locked up in Kiara's room the whole day since she got back. Something's not right between them. I sit down in a chair on the porch and wait for Kiara to come back with the twins. After a while I hear rapid footsteps coming from the trees. Kiara bursts out panting really hard. I run over to her. "Why are you so worn out?" I ask and look around, "Wait....there's only one twin..." "Jean....lost......forest..." Kiara says trying to catch her breath. "Jean got lost in the forest? I'll go find her. Don't worry!" I say and run into the forest. It's not that surprising for Kiara to loose one of the twins in the forest, but still I need to find her fast. I run as fast as I can through the trees, which is pretty fast. Soon I see a faint yellowish glow and stop. I walk towards it to find Jean holding a jar full of fireflies. I walk up to her and she runs to me. "How in the world did you get lost Jean?" I ask her. "I saw a firefly when we was going back and went to get it and then everyone was gone!" She says clinging to my leg. That explains it. I should've gone with them in the first place, but at least Jean is okay. I pick her up and take her back to the house. Jerimiah is sitting on the porch, staring at the ground tensly. A sign that he's nervous and worried. "I found her. No need to worry!" I say setting Jean down on the porch. Jerimiah breaths a sigh of relief. "That's great and all, but Kiara went out after you and she hasn't shown up yet!" He says. I sigh. "I'll go find her..." I say letting out a breath and take off. "Now where could you have gone?" I wonder as I run through the woods. Out of the blue I hear a rifle shot echo off the cliff by the ocean. "That's Jerimiah's rifle...I know it is..." I say and head towards the cliff. I come to the edge and see Kiara with her back up against the cliff, the rifle pointed towards the trees. I look and see a big shady figure, low to the ground. It growls as it steps closer and closer to Kiara, then I realize it's a mountain lion! Foam is dripping out of it's mouth and it's eyes are bloodshot. Kiara struggles to reload the gun before it attacks again, but the bullet falls she quickly grabs it and aims then tries to fire, but the tip of her glove is too big to get to the trigger. The mountain lion growls then leaps into the air, it's target Kiara.

  Blood...there's blood dripping down Sheiba's arm. I'm not sure how it happened, but he jumped in front of the mountain lion to protect me and he got hurt. It gets up and leaps for him, then they go into a struggle. "Kiara! Shoot it!" He yells fighting it off. My fingers won't move, my body is trembling. This is exactly how my father died....protecting me from the beast and now Sheiba's doing the same thing. My mind goes back in time to when it happened, I feel a stream of tears down my cheeks. "Kiara!" I hear Sheiba yell, "Hurry up!" My mind snaps back to the present. I throw my gloves off, aim, then fire. BANG! The beast falls and Sheiba stands there with his back to me. My body is still trembl-ing. I look around fantically for my gloves, but I can't see them anywhere. He turns around and looks at me. "Now there's something wrong here..." He says as he steps closer to me. He noticed! He noticed the scars all over my hands from when the beast attacked me when I was little. Now he'll think I'm ugly and weird! I feel a fresh round of tears fall down my cheeks. "Kiara's not supposed to cry..." He says kneeling down in front of me with a little smile. "You didn't...see...?" I ask quietly. "See what?" He asks. I hold my hands up and look away. I feel his hands take mine. "It's okay... because your not the only one with scars like these..." He says softly. "I'm not...?" I ask as I look toward him. The smile fades from his face and he looks down at the ground. "No..." He says and unbuttons his shirt. "You're really lucky, y'know? Because the only thing my father ever gave me...was this." He say's and reveals a huge X shape scar on his chest. "But that's...that's terrible...!" I say. 'Terrible' is an understatement actually. I couldn't help myself, I had to touch it to see if it was real. Why didn't I see it when he first got here and we were stitching up the bullet wounds. It must've been all the blood. "But... why?" I ask, not really knowing what to say. "I dunno...I breathed or something..." He says. I remember what Yuna told me about Sheiba when he was a child and I just feel so bad for him that I feel more tears well up inside me. I throw my arms around him, not sure exactly why, but I just want him to know that I'm his friend. I reach into my pocket and pull out a necklace that has a deep red oval shape jewel clasped in a black chain and then a light blue oval shaped stone in a silver clasp. "You graduate...!" Is all I can say and put the red and black necklace around Sheiba's neck, then the blue and silver one on me. He picks up the red stone and looks at it then smiles slightly. I think that just now...we became closer and I think this is the closest he's ever been to anybody...