Wet Eyes by Callie Catherine Brice (best books to read in life TXT) 📖

huge snake curled up. He was completely black with a grey stomach.
“Hey!” Kallina takes off her shoe and throws it at him. “GET UP!”
“Well, shit.” I say.
“He’s nice, don’t worry.” Charlie reinsures me.
The snake starts slowly unraveling itself and raises its head up, back facing us. The moment I saw his head I knew what type he was. A King Cobra.
“Well that sounds familiar.” A hissing with every word he says comes out. He faces us. “Ah, my love. You’ve come back.”
“Ha! You wish asshole. Get up and show this guy how pathetic you are.” Kallina crosses her arms.
“Without a proper introduction?” The snake twists its head and instantly turns into a man. He was tall with black black hair and a very tan body. “Hello.” He says looking at me. He raises his hand. “I’m Xandder.” I shake hands with him and introduce myself. “Nice to meet you. Now I hope you know that I’m not the one who is pathetic –“
“Yeah right.” Kallina says under her breath
“It’s Cash. I’m his warden. Come, I’ll show you what I’m talking about.”
I fallow him around into another carved room. This one is different. There were shining mirrors all around, sitting against the walls, or stacked on each other. Some reached the ceiling. They all are different shapes. Some round, diamond, square, even some that were a shape of a heart, or star. Then there were ones that had cracks in them forming a shape or picture. One was detailed with a man and a women standing next to each other.
“Hello.”
I turn quickly. A naked African American is standing in the entrance to the room. He had long hair and glasses with a black rim. He was standing tall with a straight spine. He is a little taller than me but not as tall as the wardens. He is carrying a bowl, that seemed to be made of mirrors. The bowl is filled with a mound of sand that he was holding with care.
“Do you like my mirrors?” He smiles and walks towards the stacks. He puts his bowl down on the ground. “Ah, Kallina. Nice to see you again.”
“Oh Cash! I’ve missed you so much!” She runs to him and gives him a long and close hug. Xandder rolls his eyes. “How have you been?”
“Good. I’m getting better.” Cash says with a large smile. Kallina looks at Xandder and he shakes his head.
“Cash, remember Charlie? This is her friend Ray.” Kallina says as she puts her hand on his shoulder. Cash looks at me and Charlie.
“Of course I remember you Charlie and Ray; it’s nice to meet you.” He turns from us and picks up a handful of sand from the bowl.
“Ray come here.” Charlie says. She walks through another door and Kallina fallows.
“Charlie, where did Nohrinn go?” We all stop and look around.
“He always is disappearing on us.” Kallina says, and then proceeds to walk. We enter another room, this one looking the same as the other. Filled with mirrors to the ceiling and lifeless sand all over the place.
“This is all he does Ray. People have wardens just so they won’t go crazy.” Charlie says to me.
“Why did he go crazy?” I ask
“Ray. When you are dead… you can’t die again. Trust me I’ve tried it. You are living in the afterlife forever and ever and ever. There is nothing that can take you away from it. Sometimes you run out of things to do, or you realize that you aren’t here for a reason. You live for a reason, you are on earth for a reason, but once you’re dead what do you have? Nothing. Some wardens fail-“
“At more than one thing.” Kallina murmurs.
“And their only punishment is that they have to deal with it. This can lead to insanity and hell.”
“You won’t have a problem then.” I say
“What?”
“You’re already insane.” I smile at her and she laughs at me.
“You’re not staying here.”
“I wouldn’t go crazy if I had you Charlie. I’m going crazy without you at home.”
“Stop it. You don’t even have a proper Warden.”
Eighteen

“Well here it is.” Kallina says as we drop our things. “We are at The Ring. Well under it I guess. Under one side of it.”
“Do I have to ask for an explanation?” I turn to Charlie.
“Okay, well. There is a game here called Hook.”
“Hook? That’s so uncreative.” I say.
“Ray. Shut up. I’m trying to tell you what this is if you don’t want to know then fine, suit yourself.” Charlie snaps at me.
“Sorry…”
“Hook involves both Wardens and their human. Wardens make a ball with their light and go into a state where they control the light without actually being in the game. It’s like they become the light. You can see their eyes in the ball, it’s creepy. You need massive power as a Warden to do this so the human is there to give it to them. They connect to each other. The human goes into a state and when they are both at the same level a light comes out of the humans mouth and connects to the wardens. It’s weird to see but so cool.”
“Charlie wanted to be a part of it but we need a lot of training before we even try.” Kallina says. “They train to gain more power, they train to build as much connection has they can get. The more the human and the warden connect the stronger the light is.”
“I wish I could do it.” Nohrinn says from behind us. We all jump.
“Shit Nohrinn! I hate it when you do that.” Charlie says with one hand over her heart.
“Sorry. I had business to attend to but I’m done for the night.” Nohrinn sits with his legs crossed, back straight, and hands together.
“Why can’t you Nohrinn?” I ask
“Because I don’t have a human.” He says. We all sit down with him in silence.
“Let’s get started.” Braedinn says. He pops himself to his feet.
“Wait; let me give him some pain meds before you start.” Sager says as he walks over to the bags.
“I’ll set up camp and get some food started.” Kallina says. Nohrinn joins her.
Sager hands me a small plant to chew and I force it down. Braedinn anxiously waiting. We walk away from camp but still under the enormous stands full of seats.
“First thing we gotta do is to teach you how to transform into your eternal form. Now, when you are in your eternal form you feel that certain thing you are. You are a Bengal tiger. You have to know the feeling to crave flesh, have the instinct to want to be aggressive. This will take some time. So we have to do some exercises before we actually get there. We can’t Rush it Ray. It will take weeks before we can get there, do you understand that?” He asks. I nod my head.

Nineteen

We have been here for over a month. Kallina and I go to Pierrce every 2 weeks to stock up. He is still as crazy as a bee on a flower, he also keeps asking about Ray and his scar but we always leave safe, thank god.
Ray has been training hard. For two weeks now Braedinn has made Ray walk on all fours to get used to the movements. He has made Ray stuff his face with meat every second so he can get strong and trust me… it’s working.
Every night me and Ray slept together. He would hold me in his arms tightly and kiss me until I dozed off. When I feel him against me I know he is there so it makes me feel safe, so I go to sleep without hesitation. Since he has gotten stronger I love grabbing his arms. It’s like holding a man who becomes really buff and powerful because he can turn into a werewolf. Although, Ray is much better. I love him and will never stop. Ray doesn’t say it that much, he thinks saying “I love you” too many times will get rid of the meaning, so when he does say it, my heart glows. I love being in his arms, it’s a feeling I can’t describe. It’s something I would never give up.
Today is a big day for Ray. It’s the first time he is going to try to transform. I’m worried; I know it will hurt him. Not as much as it would of before because he has been training but it won’t be pleasant for him.
Being under the Hook stadium actually comes in handy. There are constant practices and scrimmages between players. The season started when we arrived and the finals are tonight. For the past few weeks there have been two games a week. So when Ray does something difficult, or painful (which he does a lot, Braedinn says it builds him) we wait for a game so the crowd drains out the noise of him screaming. For me it’s hard to watch Ray go through that, so I’ve been following the games. I can’t show my face but I can see through the cracks of the stands. Tonight it’s down to six players. This is the last game to determine the winner.
“I’m excited to see the game tonight.” Kallina said to me as we got lunch ready for the boys.
“Yeah. Where did Nohrinn go?” I ask
“Who knows? Are you okay?” Kallina rubs two sticks together to start a fire. Once the fire was up I answered.
“I’m scared for him. I feel like he doesn’t want to do this or is scared or something. I don’t know.” I put a huge pot full of water over the fire. The wind has been picking up at night so we are making stew to warm up.
“I’m sure Ray will be fine, this is what he has been training for. If he really didn’t want to do it he would have said