Third Reason

They drove a truck across the country. It's four wheels pulling back against the thick flat highways of America. Marcus was driving with Aria in shotgun. In the back sat Damon and Luna, both their faces staring out the windows, toward the bright scenic treelines, crossed by soft squirts of sunlight.

"Marcus do you have any stories?" asked Aria, as she sat steadily on the wheel.

Marcus sat up, flipping through folders of paperwork, trying to get everything sorted before their arrival.

"I'll tell you all a story about when I worked inside the Immortal Horses HQ."

Damon fell asleep in the back as Luna leaned forward, listening in.

"I worked in the Immortal Horses Communications Office. I worked in this glass huge room filled with hundreds of computers. Our job was to basically control the world. We would reroute government requests to certain offices and such. And when I first joined I thought it would be just a normal job, but everything changed when I met my boss. The third leader in the organization. Her name was Pegasus."

"Pegasus? Like the horse with wings?" asked Luna.

"Yes, she's the second oldest Immortal alive, and essentially co-created the Immortal Horses. I was told by my coworkers that she was a beautiful, nice, reliable woman. And I believed them. All until she killed my best friend."

"She killed your best friend?!"

"I'm not going to get into it, but that is why I left the Immortal Horses and am now trying to work my way back up."

"Damn..."

Aria turned slightly to Marcus, "is this story about Josh?"

"Yes... But I don't want to talk about it..."

---

Thirty minutes later.

Luna was fast asleep. Aria was stuck on the wheel, while Marcus stared off into the sun.

Damon woke up. His sleepy face looking off at the sun, his tongue sticking out, touching the heated glass.

Marcus turned around in his seat, "Damon, do you fall asleep easily?"

"Huh...?" He looked up at Marcus's face. "No, I just get bored easily. All this world looks the same. I've done it all before. Everything possible. I've basically run out of things to do. I can't even stay awake when I'm walking. It's all so plain. I guess the only thing nowadays that keeps me up is alcohol and death."

"Jeez, dark," said Marcus as he quickly turned back around in his seat.

Damon looked at Aria. He remembered his car ride with her. His conversations with her. His back and forth talking.

"But I..."

He couldn't say it out loud... But there was a third reason... A third reason for his living.

Maybe he didn't know it at the time, or maybe he just wanted to keep it hidden, but it was there. There with every waking moment. His third reason... Right in front of him.

"Have I..."

He looked at his hand. He looked at Luna next to him. Her sleeping face. Her blonde hair that flowed around her features. Her dry bloody green tracksuit. He tapped her on the shoulder.

She woke up in a sudden spring.

"Who! Wha..." She turned to Damon, "oh... Hi..."

She smiled at him.

He asked a question, "what's your story? Where did you come from? Why do you want to join the Immortal Horses?"

She looked at him confused. Wondering why he had taken so much interest in her after his lazy, laidback, sleepy attitude when they first met. But she also had no reason not to tell him, cause she felt like she could trust him, it was just a gut feeling, like he was honest, like he had no reason to lie, like he was like her...

"I ran from my family to show them that I was stronger... They saw me as weak. Not able to use my powers. They hated me, ostracized me, pushed me away..."

"That's tough," replied Damon as he slowly drifted in and out of sleep.

"What about you?" she asked back.

"Me...?" He started to wake up, more and more, feeling that rhythm again, "I don't know? To rebuild the hole in my chest. To fill that space with determination. I always feel lost out there. Like there's nowhere left for me to go, except... Death... But not even death is so simple. It takes time. So much time."

Luna looked into Damon's blue eyes, his blonde hair, like hers, they were the same.

The passing trees. The paper towns.

"I understand how you feel, sort of... But I can't relate to the dying thing," she said.

Damon looked up with a soft smile, "yeah, not many people can... But thanks."

"Thanks for what?"

"For telling me your story. Now I can't wait to see the end... So in seventy years from now can you write a book for me?" he asked.

"A book? Seventy years? Uh... Sure..." she replied trying to be polite.

"Thanks... Uhhhhh... Ok... I'll..."

He turned back to the window.

"Thanks..."

Aria turned around annoyed, "can you shut up Damon!"

He fell asleep.

---

In a diner.

"So this is the town? There are still people here?" questioned Aria as she looked out the massive window looking through the bustling town filled with strange individuals in odd outfits and walking around with odd mannerisms.

The group of four sat in a small booth off to the side of the rest of the diner.

The red-leathered seats and cold AC shaking and rattling above them. They watched as the waiters and waitresses slowly paced back and forth, their stares as they eyeing everyone up, watching their movements.

Marcus looked at Luna's bloody tracksuit.

"Luna you should take off that tracksuit, I think it's scaring away the waiters," suggested Marcus as she leaned on the window watching the crowds go by.

"I can not take off my tracksuit. It is a memory of my past. It makes me stronger!"

"Well, it's dirty," said Aria as she placed a napkin on her lap.

Damon leaned forward, his chin resting on the cold table, "I don't know. I like it. It looks good on her."

Luna blushed, "you think I look good?"

"No," he said back plainly.

"Oh... But you think I look good in my tracksuit? You like it?"

Damon rolled his head over, his left ear against the cold table, "I take back everything I said."

"Ah come on. You just don't want to admit that you like it," chatted Luna in a happy, smirky attitude.

"Are we ordering anything here? And Marcus why are you still here?" questioned Aria as she pulled up the menu.

Marcus had his face against the window. Aria sitting across from him. He stared at her and at the outside, the two reflections crossing in the evening sun.

"Something feels off here..." he said seriously. "There shouldn't be so many people in this town... Unless I got the location wrong...? But they should know I'm trustworthy? I've never done anything... Unless... No... But they wouldn't..."

Marcus mumbled to himself, a thousand words a second. Aria placed the menu in front of Damon's lazy chin, his face pressed against the table. He eyed up everything on the menu, all the options, all the foods. He had tried everything there, every single food, every new item, every old item, every unique item. He had tried everything from everywhere.

But there was one thing he wanted... Only one thing...

"I want burger!"

Luna snatched the menu from Damon, "I want a burger too!"

Aria took the menu from her, "sure-sure. But your paying. I'm not paying for you."

"Wha..."

She looked into her pockets. There was nothing, nothing at all.