Perised

Chapter 28

Before us I see a big dusty hall. Like that of an abandoned mansion. At the torn, old, wooden floor, there's a chandelier that's fallen from the ceiling and shattered in a million pieces. The hall and house in general look old, European, sort of art nouveau with long, squiggly, vine like details at the railings of the main stair. The walls are painted in an olive-green color with old, ripped up paintings barely hanging on to it. 'What is this place?' I wonder. Joe answers 'an old mansion, some rich people lived here once, but abandoned it during the war, I guess? There's a big hole in the ground outside where I guess a bomb dropped several years ago.' Luna asks, 'How come they didn't come back?' Zack looks around and says, 'They probably disappeared, or died sweetie...' He takes a small turn and stop when as he notices Mac is behind him 'What's up with you? You look all dreary.' Mac snaps back 'shut the fuck up, looser.' Joe halts and says strictly 'Stop it right there, Mac, he didn't do anything to you.' Mac kicks with his feet in the ground 'whatever man...' He takes a quick look at me and Luna again but turns his gaze as soon as he notices us staring at him. Luna clenches her teeth together, pace over to Joe and whispers harshly to him 'Just get rid of him. We can't even stay in the same room together without him being a sobby little shit.' Joe answers with closed eyes 'Luna, please, just leave it.' She bites her teeth, stares down but turn her gaze towards a double door. She pace angerly towards it and leaves the room.

Zack has moved his way over to me and leans into my ear as he whispers 'What's up with the vibe? I though you guys were, like, besties?' I answer, 'Something came up.' And follow Luna through the door into an old kitchen. Zack shrugs and informs Joe, 'I'll be upstairs, scouring for a soft, sweet bed, little brother.' He walks the stairs; I walk into the room after Luna as Joe pace over the room and starts talking aggressively to Mac. I can't hear everything at first, but I try to listen.

'Mac, you gotta man the fuck up. Face your actions and do your job.' Mac whispers aggressively 'Shut the fuck up, Joe, you didn't see the look on their faces when they figured out what had happened. They shunned me, hated me. It's not easy to look into their eyes and behave as I always have. Luna, she was ready to kill me right there, man, and other than you, she's my best friend' Joe spits back 'It's not like you don't deserve it. When I pulled you off that girl, I was ready to cut your fucking dick off, but I didn't. However, I won't stand up for you on this one, this is your own fault and nobody else's. So, stop being such a brat and go make amends.' Mac kicks his feet in the floor. He mumbles 'You fucking dick.' And moves towards me and Luna's direction. I jump away from the door and walk over to Luna who's in the next room. However, before I'm able to reach her, I notice the door behind me close and as I turn, I see Mac standing there. He stares at me for a moment, raise his hand behind his head, stares down into the ground, collecting his thoughts, until he finally utters 'Where's Luna?' I answer, 'She's in the other room...' He scratches his back head 'Could you go get her? I um, I wanna talk.' I answer 'sure' and walk into the other room. Behind me Mac bends his back a bit with his arms in cross over his belly. He exhales and stares down to the floor and prepares himself for what happens next. He seems nervous. In the other room Luna's found some old dusty books. I've entered a library with a big old fireplace in it and a couple of chairs in the middle of the room with a writing desk close to them. She turns to me with her nose still in her book and utters 'These books, they're in Spanish, they're diaries.' With my hands in my pockets, I mumble 'mmmhm, Luna, could you come over into the other room? Mac, I uh, I think he wants to apologize...' She slaps the book together 'fuck him!' I sigh, 'You know, you can't do this, we need to cooperate with him, and he's ready to stand for his actions.' She turns, locates another book and starts reading 'I don't fucking care, screw him.' Feeling agitated I say 'You know, it's my friend violently used, and I'm furious too, but I know we need him, so I'm biting the bullet here. And so can you.'

She's still furious and ignores me. However, I hear a door handle being turned and Mac enters the room nervously, he says 'I understand why you're furious Luna, but please, can we just stop this?' She grits her teeth 'It's not like you stopped when Melissa asked for it.' With his hands still in his pockets he blows some air and says 'wow, ok, that's brutal... Please, Luna, we've been friends for a long time, don't ruin this.' She closes her eyes, exhales and say 'I'll never forget or forgive what you've done, but I do understand the situation, I'm not an idiot... For now, I'll let it go, but if I ever hear something like this again, I won't ever see you again... And I'll cut your fucking dick off' His eyes fleet to the left and he says 'Yeah, I uuh, I get that...'