Chapter 175: Chapter 175

I think she’s mad at me. Pulling myself out of the rubble, I get back up and look at Madison. “You okay?” I ask the book clutched tightly in my hand, wiping myself off with the other.

 

  She begins to speak. “Y-ye- IIAAAH!” Before she can finish, I toss her high up into the air where she can fly away to safety. If she stays down here, she’s going to get shredded. Raising my eyes towards the spot where we stood a second ago, I look and watch as the cloud of particulate and ash floats through the miasma. I watch as it slowly dissipates around the silhouette that is standing in the midst of the impact crater. Ah. Her eyes. They saw the purple. The hero-party doesn’t like the purple.

 

I look up at her rigid silhouette, as its head turns to face towards me, as the eyes shine out of the smokescreen. They shimmer brightly like stars falling down from the sky.

 

“YOU CAN’T!” she yells at me, stepping out of the nebulous particulate, swiping her hand down to the side. I’m not too sure what she means, I don’t feel like I’ve done anything, hones-

 

  I leap, dodging out of the way just in time as she charges towards me again, the ground beneath me shattering as I clutch tightly onto a wooden beam just above myself and pull myself up onto it, before she can grab my legs. She’s fast. Not as fast as the thief, but fast. If I didn’t have my vertical advantage, my guts would be a fine paste now. The beads rattle, clanking loudly as she swipes up for me, I pull my legs up the last bit and look down towards her. Yeah, she’s mad. Her fists clench.

 

  “After everything we said…” she looks down and away from me. Something shifts in her face. In the visage of the monk, who I have never seen do anything but laugh, do anything but smile. “Why…” she’s crying, her happiness taken from her. I took it. It was you and me, guy. We made the stars fall down from the apex of the world. I look around, searching for an escape route. I’m not strong enough to fight her, not in this body or in any I can remember ever having. “Why…” she sobs out again.

 

  “Why did you save me?!” The world crashes out in a barrage of thunder, as her fist strikes the post I stand atop of. Again, I leap, grabbing on to the edge of a slanted roof-top and pull myself up on top of it. “IF YOU WERE-!” she clenches her teeth, her throat making an odd wet nose, as it tenses up too much for her to finish her sentence. Nobody is really finishing any of their sentences today and I can’t help but feel like it’s my fault. I look up above me, Madison is floating high up in the distance watching us. I guess she can’t help me, she’s not much of a fighter. Actually, she’s probably hoping that I die so that I lose this body. At least I have you here, guy. I know you have my back, even if you’re a jerk. But I know your heart is in the right place.

 

I look down at them, at my hands. I have hands, you know? They look soft and weak. So I look down at them, guy. They’re shaking. The spear in my grip is shaking. I feel like I owe her an answer, but… it’s complicated, okay? What am I supposed to say in a situation like this? What can I even say?

 

She screams at me, her face contorted and hurt. “Why did you tell me that y- ?!“ LALALALALALA THIS ISN’T FOR YOUR EARS, GUY. LALALALALA!

 

  I don’t want you to get involved in this kind of stuff. It’s not for someone with a heart as delicate as yours. I look down at my memories, at the memories of this human body and with my shaking hands I touch the delicate bruises on the sides of my neck and look down at her crying eyes that shine among the hundred dead who also stare up at me, questioningly.

 

It’s complicated.

 

  I leap, scrambling off of the building just in time, latching onto the next roof as the entire structure collapses beneath me, the roof caving down into a fire that still rages inside from the carnage that happened here, technically not even a few hours ago. As the structure falls apart, falling into a pile of bones and ash, a plume of hot smoke shoots into the air, obscuring everything with smoldering soot and particulate.

 

As I fly, my robe billowing around me as I search for an escape, for a way out I look around for it. For it. For it. Can you see it? Can you feel it? Where is it, guy? Tell me. Tell me! It’s flowing, it’s here, it’s in the wate-

 

  Something smashes into my side and I am sent tumbling down onto the stone streets. Something cracks in my shoulder, as I roll down the way, tumbling over heaps of bodies until I come to a sudden stop. The large rock that hit me in mid-air, falls down to the street and she steps over it. I pull myself up onto shaking legs, not done yet. The stairs aren’t much further, if I can just get up another floor. If I can just make it a little further, climb a little higher. They’re all counting on me, they’re all watchin-

 

  A fist hits my gut for the fifth time today and I keel over forward, a second strike and I fall down onto my back, as she sits on top of me, one hand pinning my collar, the other raised into the air, ready to strike and to finish me. Ah. I guess this is it. Well, at least we got one floor out of it. Sorry guy, I tried my best. I did.

 

  Something hits my eyes. My vision blurs. It’s… wet. Cool. I look up to her contorted, shaking face that is sending tears splashing down onto mine. “Was it the water? What did it do to you? It was the water, right? It did this, right? Right?! What did it…” her throat clenches and she turns her head away as her stammers stop, as she is clenching her eyes tightly shut. I watch her, I watch the pale hand stroking the side of her face. I narrow my eyes, whose hand is that? Is that yours, guy? “I’m sorry, I should have done something. I should have…”

 

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She flinches, turning her head further back, but doesn’t push the hand away.

 

What should I do? I know. I ask her. “Look around you, what do you see?”

 

She’s full-fledged snot crying now. But I’ll spare you the details, I think I owe her that. Have some respect, guy, okay? You animal. “W-what?”

 

I brush her face again, my fingers running along her hard cheek just beside her ear as she squeezes her eyes shut. I don’t like that. I can’t see them. I can’t see her eyes. I can’t see them. I can’t touch them…

 

“Look around you, what do you see?” I ask her again, now somewhat more poignantly.

 

Clenching her fingers tighter around my robe, she lifts her head and looks around at the death that fills this place. But then looks back to me. Her eyes are open now. That's much better. I like her a lot more when she has open eyes.

 

“It’s the cultist’s hideout. What do you mean…?”

 

My hand grabs the scruff of her tight yellow top and I pull her crying face closer towards mine. “WHAT DO YOU SEE?!”

 

“I DON’T SEE ANYTHING!” she yells at me, her expression wild and confused. Tears and spit hit my cheeks. She doesn’t get it. I’m so sick of people not getting it!

 

“WHAT DO YOU SE-“ her fist smashes the stones next to my head, pulverizing them in an instant.

 

“THERE’S NOBODY HERE BUT US! WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO SEE?!”

 

  Her fist smashes into the ground again a second time, sending rocks flying all around us. “WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO SEE…?!” she falls forward, planting her head next to mine and cries. That hand from before finds its way to her back and strokes her, petting her as I hear a sound in the air. A vibration. A hum. It goes without any melody or tune as it leaves my throat, it goes Bmmmmmm- can you hear it? Can you feel it? I hum and I pet her with hands that aren’t mine, trying to console her.

 

  She doesn’t know. She can’t understand. Her eyes are still too clean. Too pure. She isn’t like us, guy. She doesn’t know that there’s something in the water. She doesn’t know that there’s nothing here but me. I’m not who she wants. That person isn’t real anymore. There’s nothing here but me. But me and you, guy. Just me and you.

 

The monk lets out the most wretched howl I’ve ever heard and I close my eyes as the hum continues.

 

It's complicated.

 

 

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