Page 35 of Fallen Thorns
“Your own.” Not a question.
I nodded.
“Idiot. You fucking IDIOT!” Their scream reverberated through my core whilst their eyes glared deep inside my soul. Regardless of my height advantage, they still managed to make me feel so very small. My mouth grew dry.
“Why?” Their eyes searched mine, pleading to understand, I looked away.
I was lost for words. I truly had nothing left.
Mars started to pace again. “Arlo, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, I don’t know who let you think this was alright, but you are killing yourself.Killingyourself, do you hear? I gave you those bags tohelp. I wasn’t joking when I said you’d need us, and you know, for a time I thought you’d listen to me. Yeah, you had a rocky start, but we all do. I really believed you would learn to accept this new reality and do what needed to be done to help yourself. But you’re doing the opposite, Arlo. You cannot survive on your own blood. It’s not possible, not natural. I know you don’t want to admit it, I really do, but you are going to be dead in less than a week unless you STOP this nonsense. Let us help you. Please, Arlo. Please. I am begging you. Let. Us. Help.”
“But I’m already dead.” I wasn’t listening.
“No. Don’t you get it? Can’t you see, Arlo?” They stared at me head on now, eyes pools of pity. “Us, what we are, we’ve never been more alive.”
My brain shut down and I swallowed again. “I can’t see it that way.”
“Then learn.”
I crumbled, stumbling over to my desk chair and rubbing my hands over my face.
“Why do you care so much anyway? You barely know me.”
“Because I...” They didn’t let themself finish, instead they took a deep breath, composing themself. “You’ve felt it? The darkness taking over. The complete disregard for morality.”
No point in denying it now.
“I knew a girl once. Nice lass, kind. She was so much like you. So full of desire. She had the passion for success and always wanted more. More to life, to the world. A desperate seeker. She worked so hard to find that missing piece, but in the end, even she did not know what that was. She drove herself to the point of sheer exhaustion, yet she never gave up, not once. Not even when she could no longer think straight. She stopped sleeping, stopped going out, stopped speaking. I tried so hard to reach out to her, but it was no use. She’d already set herself out to do this one thing and I was completely helpless. There was nothing I nor anyone else could do to help her and then...”
Mars had tears in their eyes, tilting their head back to blink them away.
“I care about you, Arlo. I don’t know why, but I do. You are my responsibility, and I will not fail again. I know what to do now, and I refuse to stand by and watch.”
The walls were moving in, the air thinning around me.
They really do care.
All these weeks we’d spent getting to know each other, all the conversations and meetings…they really are my friend after all.How was I so blind?
“I’m sorry,” was all I could think to say.
“Don’t apologise.” They perched themself on the side of my desk, looking down to the floor. “Just take the bag. Drink it. Take your time. You’ll feel a lot better. You’re not weak; in fact, you’re quite the opposite. But stop telling yourself you can do this alone because you know, and I think you’ve always known, deep down, that you cannot keep this up. I want you to stick around. I don’t get to save people often, but I believe I found you for a reason, so live, Arlo. Live.”
They picked the packet off my bed and gently placed it on the edge of my desk then left without saying another word.
What a funny thing, friendship. The things you do for people. No matter how much you think you know them, you don’t.
If I had a heart, a real heart that is, I feel I’d have quite a lot of friends; people to look out for me, and I, in turn, them.
Watching this scene play out is a rather joyous venture, so complex that not even I, with all my sight, can see how it will ultimately end.
I believe I’ve earned my front seat view tonight.
My evening entertainment, it seems, has begun.
And this, oh… whoever would want to miss this?
I knewwhat I had to do. My mind still clawed away at itself; one side eating the other.Don’t listen to them. You’re fine. Listen to them. You’re going to die.
