Blissful oblivion

Chapter 8

   "You promised not to hurt anyone!"
   "What were you expecting me to do, just let him beat the shit out of you?" I answer coolly, my voice betraying little to no emotion. "I can do that next time." My eyes can't help but narrow. If this is going to be his reaction to my aid I will certainly stay out of his affairs in the future.
   "You promised!" He snaps. "I can never trust you again after this."
   "Oh please," I groan. "Stop with the childish antics. I only did what you were too afraid to do." The boy flinches at my words, his face going a ghastly pals that almost made me worry that he would faint. He remains silent for a moment, staring at me blankly and slowly breathing as if trying to collect all of his thoughts and emotions in the matter of a few seconds.
   "That doesn't matter and how did you do it anyways?" Yugi inquires from his perch on the edge of his bed, his thin legs dangling over the side. His small shadow spanning across the wooden floor before coming and melting within my own.
   "I wish I knew." I answer emotionlessly. "Your guess is as good as mine."
   "I'm sure you do wish you know how you did it." Yugi mumbles bitterly.
   "Meaning what?" I ask with a dangerously low voice, my very words dripping with challenge. I don't rather care for the implications he is placing on my words. Ungrateful child.
   "I'm sure you would love to be able to take control of my body again. You can do whatever you want with it and no one can stop you."
   "Careful," I whisper menacingly. "It almost sounds like you're offering."
   "You would be overjoyed if I were."
   "Perhaps, perhaps not." I murmur. "You'll never know."
"Nor will you, because it will never happen again." Yugi snaps in response.
"Then I hope that you and Ushio can become best friends again." I glare at him meaningfully. "I'm sure that brute really misses his precious little pooch Yugi."
Yugi's face glows a bright red. Whether it be from embarrassment or indignation is unclear, but his pride is hurt. His eyes are gleaming with tears but he quickly stifles them and stares at me emotionlessly. I can't help but flinch at the sight of his blank expression. He looks like his soul has left his body entirely, leaving him an empty husk of a human being.
"Maybe that's what my life was meant to be." He says softly. "Someone to be trod upon by others. The strong need someone to walk over, right?"
"Depends on how you define strength."
"Ushio is right." He murmurs almost as if he hadn't even heard me speak. My words had simply passed right by him without sinking in to his mind. "I'm a worthless human being who will die just like a stray dog...alone and unwanted." His glazed over eyes show no emotion whatsoever and it sends chills down my spine.
"Snap out of it will you? You're freaking me out."
Yugi remains silent as he rises to his feet and walks over to the window. He doesn't even turn to acknowledge me when I call out his name. His eyes stare blankly out at the world. Those bright purple eyes are open but they don't see a single thing that is in front them. It is almost as if Yugi has completely shut himself off from the rest of the world. From life itself.
"Yugi, everything will be alright."I say in a sloppy attempt at being consoling. It didn't come out the way that I had wanted it to, but that is to be expected after so long of having no one but myself to talk to. At least I'm trying here!
"No it won't." Yugi murmurs. "Everyone says that, but deep down they know that it won't." A small pale hand comes to rest on the banister of the window. Fading, orange sunlight shines like a halo around his form as he continues to stare blankly out of the window. "Everyone is just glad that it's happening to me instead of them... It's only natural that they would feel that way. Survival of the fittest I suppose."
"The fit don't always survive."
"Nature gives them a higher advantage which allows for them to trample any and all in their path to get what they need. It's what defines life."
"Advantage." I scoff. My laugh sounding harsh and painful as it leaves my throat. "I wouldn't put too much faith in having an advantage to survive."
"Advantages separate the weak from the strong."
"Or it simply tears the strong apart until there is no longer a difference between the two." My heart pounds in my chest and my palms grow slick with sweat. Memories flash before my eyes. Blood splattering, bones cracking, ear piercing shrieks filling the air, and desperate eyes staring up at me pleading with me for salvation from their suffering. I blink and I see Yugi staring directly at me with a confused expression on his face.
A small fragment of life has returned to his eyes as he meets my gaze. A soft sigh slips past my lips as I bow my head for a fraction of a second, steeling myself before speaking again. "These advantages you speak of don't always have the happy outcome you imagine. They sometimes leave you in a worse condition than when they found you."
"I want to ask what you mean by that." I grimace at his words silently dreading the question that I know is coming. "But I won't." My eyes go wide with surprise and I feel my jaw go slack. Yugi smiles at me softly, all signs of life have now fully returned to him. "This is something that you will have to talk to me about when you are ready."
"Yugi you-"
"I know I'm letting you get away with not answering my questions and that's pathetic to you... Believe me I get it." He meets my eyes with a soft expression. "But I can't force you to tell me something that you aren't ready to share." For the first time in my existence I am speechless. His words have stunned me into silence and his eyes have paralyzed me. I am held frozen before him and ,strangely enough, there is no where else I would rather wish to be.