To Learn To Fall (Sequel to the Other Side)

Chapter Fifteen

Shit.

Careful not to wake Alexander, I slipped out of bed, away from him, and practically ran to the mirror. I had to get this off before the poison kicked in. I stared at the person that met me in the mirror, and I hardly recognized him.

I pried and pulled at it, but nothing worked. I searched through the papers scattered across my desk but couldn't find what I needed.

I took a deep breath to keep my head and slid over to the door, keeping my footfalls light and quiet. I tried to go through the doorway, but my body stopped as if it had hit something.

No. No, they aren't that cruel.

Or perhaps they were.

My fingers rested in midair where the force field was, preventing me from leaving the room. My breath caught in my throat, and I tried to push myself against the invisible barrier, but it held firm. My chest constricted, but it wasn't just due to the panic filling me. I couldn't breathe.

Like I really could not breathe.

My back fell against the force field, and I sunk to the ground. Darkness was pressing down on the edges of my vision, and I started to see spots of red dancing in front of me. I reached out, but my fingers brushed nothing. I was alone.

The poison, like a malicious entity itself, played with my body until I was suffocating from the inside. How long did I have left? It couldn't possibly be more than minutes. What a slow, awful way to day.

I wondered if this was what drowning was like. The soft blue light certainly looked enough like water, and a stupid, nonsensical smile rose to my face at the correlation. This was certainly a lot better than living as a Tenebrie. Maybe I should just...

No.

I heard a voice. Distant but recognizable, and this time, when I reached out my hand, I touched something. Something that went flying against my body and something that wrapped itself around me. Something I relaxed against, simply because the still functional part of my mind told me it was alright.

"Thomas," breathed the voice.

Light filled my body. A breathtaking, indescribable light. I held onto the Something until everything came flowing back to me down a gentle brook. "Alex?" I whispered.

"It's me," he said, not letting go of me. He absolutely refused. "I'm here."

I leaned against him. My eyes were pooling with tears, and there wasn't anything I could do any longer to keep them back. "Alexander, Alexander. I'm so so sorry," I managed to say between ragged gasps for air.

"It's okay," he said, and I felt his fingers against my back. "It's okay, Thomas."

The words I didn't have the bravery to speak trickled down in tears, becoming so thick I could hardly see. "I'm so sorry."

He let me cry. He let me cry and held me as I did so. I sobbed into his shoulder, and he murmured back reassurance. "It's going to be okay, Thomas. Everything will be okay."

Sentences and explanations that I had been planning for days suddenly fled in the wind, and there was nothing that dribbled out of my mouth except for "I'm sorry."

"Thomas," he said. The way he murmured my name made my heart flutter. It was so intimate, so alluring. I looked up at him, wiping away my tears with my sleeve. "Hey, it's alright." He moved away from me, so I could see the gentle look in his eyes. Alexander grabbed my hands in his. "It's okay, Thomas."

I nodded, covering my left eye with the end of my palm. "I know. I'm sorry." The words came out hoarse, as if they weren't from my own voice.

"There's nothing to be sorry for. Do you need anything?"