Monsters' Gift (Crude Hill High 2)

I paused in my reading and wondered if I wanted to leave. Growing up, all I envisioned was leaving town, getting out of here, but in truth, that was getting away from the lifestyle of everything we knew.

Tapping my fingers on the book, I glanced over at Caleb. He was writing something down.

“Did you ever think about leaving town?” I asked.

He looked up. “Why would I want to do that?” he asked.

“I don’t know. This isn’t exactly the best of towns.”

He chuckled. “It’s our home, Emily. Here, we don’t have to hide.” He put his pen down. “I have thought about it, though. Getting up. Leaving. Not looking back. I do think about it regularly.”

“What stops you?”

“I’m not one of these men who can pretend for shit,” he said. “I don’t want to rub shoulders with a society I don’t trust or believe in. To me, they’re the ones living a lie. Here, we’re the truth. It’s cold, fucking harsh, but it’s the truth.”

“Wow,” I said.

He got up from his seat and moved around the desk, coming straight to the sofa. A petty part of me wanted to scootch on over to stop him, but I restrained myself. I played the good girl role and watched him.

Caleb sighed as he sat down. “We’re all killers here, Emily. You know what we have to do. The deals we make. The risks to our lives every single day and we do it willingly. Out there, living a nine-to-five job, pretending I don’t know about this, I couldn’t do it. I was born and raised to be who I am today.” He reached out, stroking a curl back. “I thought you understood?”

“I do. Of course, I do. I don’t want you to change. I’d never want that. I just figured you’d want something else.”

I waited as he seemed to think about my answer.

“I guess I’m kind of boring. There’s nothing in this world I’ve ever wanted more than to have you.” He leaned in close and kissed my lips.

“Well, you’ve got me. Let’s hope you never, ever get bored.” I laughed, only partly joking.

“Marry me.”

This made me stop, and I stared at him as if he was completely crazy. “What?” There was no way I heard that correctly.

“Marry me, Emily. Make all of us happy men.”

“How does me marrying you make them happy men?”

“You want us, we want you. I’m the one who appears in charge. It always looks good on paper.”

“Do the others know that you’re asking me this right now?”

“Of course.”

I turned to see River entering the office. He held a knife in one hand and a half-eaten apple in the other.

Gael and Vadik were not too far behind him. They were also eating. Vadik handed Caleb a sandwich, while Gael gave one to me.

“Eat up. You’re going to need your strength.”

I stared down at the sandwich, not knowing if I had the appetite for it. Could I eat it?

Of course, I took a large bite. The largest one of all, chewing on the food, but I didn’t swallow. Just kept chewing.

“You can answer me whenever you like.”

“I didn’t think we were ever going to get married. There are way too many people at this party.”

At least Vadik laughed at my reasoning.

“It makes perfect sense to us. You’ll wear a ring of all of our choosing, but you’ll also be wearing something all of us pick out.” River reached into his jacket pocket, got up from the arm of the chair where he was perched, and handed me a long, rectangular box. At first, I looked at it as if it was going to hurt me, which was silly. There was no way anything could hurt me.

Opening the box, I saw a gold bracelet. There was a love heart on the end near the clasp.

“This is what I want you to wear. Caleb said he was going to ask you to marry him today. I wanted to be ready.”

“You thought about this?”

“We all did.” Gael came to me next, handing me a small square box. Inside lay a pair of pearl earrings. They were so beautiful. Tears filled my eyes.

Vadik was next. This was a thicker-shaped box and when I opened it, a pendant necklace waited for me. “We want you to wear all of these for us,” he said. “If you’d take us. Caleb will provide you with the ring, and well, you’ll have a part of each of us.”

The tears that had filled my eyes spilled over and down my cheeks.

“I thought a marriage proposal was supposed to make women happy?” Gael asked.

I burst out laughing. “I am happy, you idiot. I just … I’m a little speechless. I don’t know what to say.”

“A yes or no is a good thing,” Caleb said. “I’d at least like to add something to your collection.”