Bring Me to Life

Chapter 6

Tears started to form in the corners of my eyes. Everything I'd said about being strong had been  completely thrown out the window.

“How is this a surprise?!” I choked out, completely horrified. “Look what they did to you! They hurt you!” It was no use holding back the tears any longer, and they steadily flowed down my cheeks.

“I don’t know... I thought you'd be happy. Now we're alike! Please, don’t cry Allia! Stop crying, it makes me feel bad,” he mumbled, voice cracking.

“They hurt you... They mutilated you... That’s why I’m crying. I’m shedding your tears because I know you won’t,” I whispered, wiping away the tears with the back of my palm. Jaymi slowly reached his hand out between the iron bars.

“Allia. Please don’t cry,” he murmured solemnly. I nodded and reached out my hand to his. He laced his fingers through mine, trying to comfort me.

With one last sniffle, I said, “Okay, I’ll stop." I forced a smile, and he mirrored me with a fake smile of his own.  “Oh! I just remembered, I have something for you.” I turned around and grabbed the potato, which was sadly, cold. “Here. I saved some for you.” I held out the potato, hoping he’d take it.

“It’s okay, you eat it. I’m not hungry,” he said, shaking his head.         

“Are you sure? You haven’t eaten anything since you were reborn. I saved it just for you!” He gently took my other hand and wrapped it around the potato, and then pat my hands.

“You keep it. You’ll need it more than me,” he said, giving me his silly half-smile. His words echoed in my head. They kept reeling through my mind, over and over. You’ll need it more than me. What did he mean?

“Allia? Are you okay? You look pale.” Both of us dropped our hands while he gave me a concerned look. Snapping me out of my deep thought, my vision went back to his face.

“Yes... I’m alright.” I must've be worrying about nothing. For the next few hours, no one came to conduct any experiments, and Jaymi and I talked and joked about random things that any sixteen-year-old would talk about; and became very, very close friends.

We joked about how long it would take to comb down Jaymi’s hair, how many washes it would take to shrink my cotton gown down to size, what we would do if we were invisible for a day. Whenever the doors did open, we shrunk into our cages, while they walked by and grab the other specimens. The specimens didn't come back.

Unfortunately, they took that beautiful girl with the bat wings. She gave me a terrified look, and held onto the bars. I reached out my hand for her, and her red eyes widened at my act of kindness. The girl held out her hand too, and waved, and actually smiled through her terrified tears as the doors shut. She didn't come back.

Maybe all she needed to know was that somebody cared.

Everytime someone left, and usually didn't come back, Jaymi lightened up the mood again; and we laughed at our new-found topic. We didn't care if those moments were our last, because we should've at least lived them out like there was no tomorrow. Which, there probably wasn't. We laughed knowing we may be the next ones pulled through the doors.

Until Jaymi arched forward and violently coughed over and over. When he was done, he looked ghostly pale. I looked down to his hand and saw a scarlet stain, which dripped down his wrist. He quickly turned his back to me and hid his hand.

“Jaymi... What was that?” I asked, very worried.

“What’s what?”

“On your hand! Was that blood?” I went into a frenzied panic.

“No, I’m fine, relax. Let’s get some sleep,” he reassured. I didn’t respond, but laid down. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the cold metal.

Eventually a week flew by; feeling like hours filled with jokes, starvation, and a worsening cough.

It had been a week since we were fed. They brought us dishes of water every few days, but no food. It’d been a week since anyone came through those doors, those gates of Hell. Everyday Jaymi’s cough got worse, and there was more blood that he was more desperate to hide.

He thought he was doing it to dispel my worries, but it just made it worse. As I silently sat with my knees pulled up to my chest, wondering what I could do, Jaymi launched into another brutal coughing fit.

This one was different. This one left him on the ground, heaving for breaths, with his arm splattered in his own blood. His eyes began to flutter shut, but he flicked them open every time they tried to close.

I slammed against the bars like they were nonexistent, and screamed, “Jaymi!” I violently thrashed against my restraints, slightly bending the bars. “Jaymi!”

“Allia...it’s okay. Don’t worry...” he said lazily. He tried to fight against the drowsiness and sat up.

“No Jaymi! Stay down and rest!”                                                                                           

“But... I feel fine. I don’t feel any of the pain I’ve felt for the past week...” he argued.

“Please...don’t talk. Save all your energy,” I urgently pleaded.

“Fine, I’ll stay down, but let me talk. Please... All you have to do is listen,” he moaned. Trying my best, I gulped down my worries.

“Allia... You are truly exceptional. You’ve always been so...caring. No, caring is an understatement... You are indescribable. That is what describes you. But that’s not exactly...what I want to say. What I want to say is that... Nobody lives forever." I opened my mouth to try and stop him, but his large eyes begged me to stay quiet. “Anyways... I have one more thing to say,” he said, shakily stretching his bloody arm out to me. His signature grin appeared on his face, and he said, “You need to know...that Allia...you are my--”

As soon as my fingertips brushed his, his grin slid off his face, and his bloody limp hand fell out of the air.