Our Little Masquerade

--Michael/Mikey--

The car had started immediately and we were on our way back to safety, once again running for our lives. It was endless, this war was never going to end and I was stuck risking the life of someone I love all because of an ancient family feud.

I looked at Syrah, her eyes were closed as they always were when she was thinking about something, something important. "Hun? Are you okay?" I asked softly running my hand over her arm soothingly.

Her eyes opened slowly and she smiled at me, "I'm fine babe." Her words were comforting but, her voice was shaky. She wasn't telling me something and I could hear it in her voice. Everything I had tried to do for her was now becoming useless, I had tried to keep her safe and it blew up. I couldn't force her to keep living this life, I loved her but, she didn't deserve this life.

I fought to keep my own emotions from entering reality, I was staying strong for her and showing her that even I wasn't strong enough was certainly not okay.

My mind began to wonder what she was hiding from me, something incredibly serious? I was hoping it wasn't going to turn into an argument, we had been going strong the past few months with no arguments and no trouble but, I could just feel the tension growing stronger in the car.

Finally, my body just couldn't take the silence anymore so I pulled off the freeway. "Michael, where are you going?" Syrah asked looking out the windows at our new surroundings.

"I need a drink, so we're staying here tonight." My voice was rough and I needed something soothing.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" She asked hesitantly?

"I'm sure we could both use a drink." I said pulling up to a rather nice looking hotel.

Quickly, I opened Syrah's door and took our bags while handing the key to the valet. We both groggily walked inside and found the desk manager eyeing us suspiciously. It had to be early morning so I didn't blame him.

He didn't ask many questions, just the usual paperwork and quickly handed us our key. I wrapped my arm around Syrah's waist and soothingly rubbed her side as we made our way up to the room. She tensed up and wiggled my arm away from her and left me dumbfounded in the doorway of our hotel room. Something was clearly wrong and I wasn't going to act oblivious to it.

"Syrah, are you sure there isn't something you want to tell me?" I tried to sound calm but it was eating away at me, I hated not knowing what was wrong because then I couldn't fix it.

"Michael I'm fine." She said rather hastily. I went to respond but she had already taken her bags and scurried into the bathroom. I threw myself down onto the hotel bed and massaged my temples. Something was going on, I couldn't say it enough.

--Syrah/Safire--

I set the bag down onto the bathroom counter and locked eyes with myself in the mirror. I hated not telling him things, I hated keeping secrets. They tore away at me and made me break down.

Slowly, my hands unzipped the bag on the counter and revealed it's contents. My hands dug through some of the clothes until it hit the little white box.

"Syrah, are you alright you look a little more nervous than you should be?" Mr. Logelin's wife was tossing some of her clothes into a black bag that was lying open on her bed.

"Can I tell you something, you can't tell Mr. Logelin or Ryan though. It's serious." My palms were sweating and my whole body was shaking.

"Of course, what is it?" She asked sitting next to me on the bed.

"I think I'm, I think-" She cut me off by walking into the bathroom and grabbing two boxes from under the counter.

"Take these. Don't wait to find out, you need to find out now." She buried them in the bag underneath all the clothes and handed me the bag.

My body was completely numb and I couldn't imagine what the answers were going to be. I gave her a half smile and hugged her before making my way back down to the living room where the boys were still discussing plans for the drive.

My eyes were threatening to spill tears and I slowly opened the box revealing the one thing that would for tell my future.