Innocence (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Five

The room and surrounding hallways were eerily silent, making my heart rate increase with worry. As I opened the door, I couldn’t help but blanch at the site before me. Talmai sat on the bed, the lifeless body of the purple imp in his arms as he struggled to hold him up while tipping a glass of water against his lips.

Talmai looked up at me, his blue eyes dull and glazed-over, and smiled sheepishly. “Pili fell asleep,” he whispered hoarsely, not reacting when the water spilled from Pili’s unmoving mouth and onto his leg. I moved forward, slowly and cautiously, and sat on the mattress, watching as Talmai glanced at me with dead eyes.

“Talmai,” I murmured, touching his arm lightly and ignoring the fact that he flinched away from my touch. “We should take him to town and have his body cremated.”

“No!” he cried, snatching Pili’s body away. “He is sleeping! Talmai gave him the proper medicine.”

I leaned away. He was right. If Talmai had given him the dosages I had said, Pili should still be alive; but I knew a dead body when I saw one. My eyes left the two imps to look at the vials on the nightstand – both of which were empty.

There was no way I’d been gone long enough for Talmai to use up all of it.

“You gave him too much,” I realised, speaking my thoughts out loud as I grabbed the flasks and read the labels. My voice raised in anger as I glowered at Talmai. “It says right here to –”

I stopped myself, realising what I had done. How could I have been so stupid? Imps couldn’t read, so of course Talmai was just going to give him as much as he could if he thought Pili would be cured.

“I’m sorry,” I sighed as Talmai drew Pili against him and hunched over protectively. “I shouldn’t have yelled – it’s not your fault. But we need to get his body out of here before it rots.”

Talmai was silent, his head hanging down as his stared silently at Pili’s face. “Not Talmai’s fault?” he repeated, finally looking up at me, and I nodded. “Talmai gave Pili too much. Did Talmai kill Pili?”

“No,” I assured him quickly.

“Yes,” he whispered softly, though I wasn’t sure if he was agreeing with me or correcting me. “And now Anubis wants to take Pili just like Benji was taken.”