I'm Onto You (Peterick Fanfiction)

-26-

I wake up again in a black space. Nothing around me, the ground doesn't even feel like it's really there, I feel like I'm floating in a void of nothingness and I know I deserve this, but it can't end like this. I stand as best I can and scream at the darkness, I want to punch something, hurt something as much as I hurt right now. Tear it to pieces and watch it burn because I did this. I failed the one person who loved me unconditionally for hundreds of years. 

I fall to my knees and feel despair flood my veins and it weighs me down, sinking me into the void filling my ears with a numbing silence that will never end. I deserve to spend eternity like this for what I did.

.

.

.

.

That is until I hear a voice in the distance. It's quite at first, then louder and suddenly the blackness gains color, with noise and I find the ground shaking beneath my knees. I stand and find myself tumbling downwards, faster than I can think and as I look I am falling at a hundred miles per hour toward the concrete ground. I brace myself, close my eyes and tense up my muscles. I don't have wings here I am doomed. 

When I open my eyes again I suck in a quick breath and jump almost a foot in the air. With the smell of coffee and green tea filling my nose, the sounds of a busy city filling my ears I see Patrick sitting in front of me. 

He has on his thick black framed glasses and a dark blue cardigan. "You look like you've seen a ghost." He chuckles and I blink and gawk at him. He sips his tea and I watch him with wide eyes.

"Patrick?" I whisper in shock and he raises an eyebrow.

"Pete." He says leveling me with a quick flick of his eyes over my face. 

I have no memory of this ever happening. I reach behind me just to make sure the wings are there, they are but they are still tender from just being put back. Meaning that this didn't happen years and years ago. This is happening right now, but that is impossible. I look outside the window of the cafe we sit in and my mouth drops open yet again. 

The skyscrapers and tiny buildings are shifting moving like puzzle pieces trying to find their spot. The whole city is shifting, the cars changing shape, color, and kind. The people have no faces as they pass down the street only morphs of shapes, a half-finished thought of a face.

"Are you okay Pete?" I watch as some of the buildings flicker out of existence and then snap my attention back onto Patrick. 

"Patrick, where are we?" I whisper and Patrick chuckles.

"Getting coffee. Dude, are you okay?" He asks and I look at him. I really look at him and I can see the wall that he is putting up right now, there is a pain deep within there. A secret a thing to hide and to try and hold onto, until the very last straw.  It hits me that this must be Patrick's purgatory.

I thought it would be a lot more... Empty. Perhaps Patrick has found a trick around it, a way to fill the void. I look at him and he has a soft glow to him, just like he did that fateful night so long ago. Patrick smiles sheepishly.

"Patrick, will you come with me?" I ask and his smile turns to a frown. I have to remember that he has to get out of here. Maybe there is still a chance I can bring him back. 

"Pete we just got here, can't I sit and enjoy my tea?" I reach a hand over the table and take Patrick's hand. Despite him just holding a steaming hot cup of tea his hand is ice cold. 

"Please, just trust me when I say you need to come with me right now. We have to go." Patrick pouts and I feel the ground beneath us start to quake, and the lights flicker just so slightly. I look out the window to see some of the buildings crashing together. I gulp and look back to Patrick. He seems unphased by what just happened. This is some sort of illusion that he has built himself, that everything is fine and this is all perfect. 

I stand up and try to pull Patrick with me. "Pete seriously? Can't I just have this now? Please, just stop leaving, please I can't take it anymore." I can hear the pain in Patrick's voice and I look down to see his tear-glazed eyes. I crouch down and cup Patrick's face in my hands. 

"Patrick, this isn't real, this is purgatory and please let me try and get you out of here before you get stuck forever."

"Don't you think I know this isn't real! You are just as fake as everything here Pete! Every time I find you, a version of you in this city you run away or disappear. Please, just this once I need you to stay. I can't take this anymore without you." Tears slip off his cheeks and I try to wipe them away.

I pull him into a hug and he sniffles. "Why did you do this Pete, I love you so much and they ruined you."

"I know, I'm so sorry. I love you, I have all this time and will for the rest of my life." I kiss the top of his head and before he can complain shove an arm under his thighs and pick him up. He screeches as I walk out the door of the cafe. 

The ground shudders more and Patrick is yelling at me to stop, begging me to stop before it ruins everything. I just grip him tighter and unfold my wings. I take a deep breath, I don't know how well this will work with freshly attached wings but as soon as Patrick sees them the yelling stops.

"How do you..." He trails off. 

"Now do you believe me." I look down at him and he gazes up with wide blue eyes.

"Yeah."