In the Mind

Chapter 9: One Chance

"Same hoodie? Really?" Natsuki asked skipping into the house.

"Why? Is that wrong?" Elijah asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well it's just you wore it yesterday. Shouldn't you at least wash it?" Natsuki asked walking closer to Elijah.

"What's the point? It's comfy and it's not like anyone's gonna actually care about what I look like." Elijah said cracking a bit of a smile. Natsuki gave him an irritated look.

"Oh well. Let's go so we're not late." Natsuki said opening the front door and stepping outside. Her pigtails waving back and fourth with every step she took. Elijah soon followed her out. Elijah through up his hood of his hoodie and walked along side of Natsuki. She looked up at Elijah and caught a glimpse of his eyes under the sunlight, which were dark and looked tired.

"You look exhausted." Natsuki said to Elijah. He shrugged at her which made her frown.

"A shrug? Really? Did you get any sleep last night?" Natsuki asked continuing to look up at Elijah.

"Yeah somewhat." Elijah replied. He heard her voice, but he wasn't paying too much attention. His mind was in a completely different world that his mind had created. One where his life was back together. He lived in this world for the majority of the time Natsuki was talking. "Oh shit she's talking." Elijah thought to himself and he snapped out of his fake reality. He looked over at Natsuki who looked confused.

"Were you spacing out? 'Cause I said your name like five times and you were just staring into oblivion." Natsuki said crossing her arms.

"Yeah I was spacing out. I'm sorry. Now I'm not spacing out and I can listen to whatever you were saying." Elijah said looking in front of him.

"Did you see that thing last night?" Natsuki asked which made Elijah become paranoid. His heart began to race and thoughts ran through his head like he was listening to an audio book.

"Oh shit. Did she see it last night? Did it come to her? If it came to her then it's planning on hurting her. And it'll be my fault.....just like Noah said."

"....Just like Noah said..." Elijah said aloud. He was unaware that he said it aloud.

"What do you mean by 'Just like Noah said'?" Natsuki asked. Elijah looked at Natsuki and sighed.

"Last night I got a dream where I talked to him. It seemed real and like I was actually talking to him, but he was different. Noah's always been happy and bouncy and he hated things that were sad. And when I talked to him he was dark and cold. He told me that he was suffering and he killed himself because he couldn't take the extra pain of knowing that creature existed. He said how his whole life he was concealing his own pain for me, and I was selfish because I put all of my shit on top of his own and he couldn't take it." Elijah clenched his eyes shut and Natsuki let out a sigh.

"You're doing this to yourself. Like you said, it was just a dream. You're mind was probably blaming you for that because you feel guilty that you weren't there for him. But it's just a dream and I'm sure that Noah wasn't like that." Natsuki said looking at Elijah who was still looking at the ground.