[302 hours, 4 minutes]
[Blake]
"Blake! There you are!"
I was immediately greeted by Malachi running over to me as I left the border of the woods. He stopped a few feet in front of him, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Where the hell were you?!" He exclaimed.
"Hey, relax, it's okay!" I said, trying to think of a reason I was gone so long on the spot. "I... went on a walk and got a little lost. It's fine."
"A little? Blake, you were gone for two hours."
"And now I'm back," I pointed out. "Everyone else is back at the houses, I guess?"
"Tyson came and helped me look for you," Malachi said. "He was checking the woods."
"Has he been gone long?"
"I mean, ten-ish minutes. I'm sure he'll come out soon."
"Here, I'll call him real quick," I said, taking out my phone.
Almost immediately I realized the problem with my plan. As I'd discovered earlier... there was no signal in the woods. The call went straight to voicemail.
I left him a voicemail, telling him I was alright and that he could come back. Hopefully it'll go through.
"I hope he doesn't get lost," Malachi exhaled. "Then we'd have to go find him."
I chuckled a little. "Yeah, that'd be a little ironic. But he knows his way around these woods. He goes hunting around here all the time. He'll be fine."
Malachi's sleep deprived brain took a minute to process that, before he nodded. "Yeah, yeah. You're right. He'll come back soon."
"Yeah. Come on."
-
[Tyson]
Blake, what the hell, where did you go-?
I stepped through the crowded undergrowth, careful not to trip over stray branches or stumps below my field of vision. The trees led off in every direction, looking like some kind of infinite maze, to most unnavigable. but I knew this place like the back of my hand, I wasn't too worried about getting lost here.
"Blake!" I called out. "Blake, you there?"
This wasn't like him. Going out into the woods? He spends ninety percent of his time in a workshop, whether at work or at home. Where the hell'd he get a bright idea like this? Just a walk, maybe? Why off a trail?
Maybe he's not even here. Maybe he's back at the houses, wondering where I am. That'd really make me look like an idiot, but at least Blake would be back there.
He has been acting kind of weird. He doesn't notice, but I've seen the stray glances he's been casting at the woods since we got here. It's really weird. I've been wanting to ask him what it's about, but he disappeared before I could. Maybe he's been seeing something and came out to investigate? What would he have seen? What could possibly be so interesting that Blake Loris decided to venture out into the wilderness unacknowledged to find it?
I worry about him sometimes. Now more than usual.
I perked up at the sound of talking to my right. I turned my head, exhaling a sigh of relief as I began to head that direction.
God, Blake, why are you so far out here?
I wasn't insanely far from home, but I was far enough out that, if you didn't know how to get back, you'd struggle finding something recognizable. I pushed my way through the bushes, and made it close to where the voices were coming from.
Voices. Plural. I realized there were two people talking, a deep, almost scary voice and a higher pitched voice that most certainly belonged to a younger being. My walking slowed, careful not to rustle too many leaves. Who the hell was wandering around the woods that we didn't know about? The voices were not ones I recognized, and neither belonged to Blake.
When the sources finally came into sight, my limbs froze. My heart skipped a beat as I immediately darted behind a tree, my breath caught in my throat.
...that was definitely not Blake.
"...look, you said to come get you if any of them started catching on or began acting suspicious, and suddenly I see Blake wandering around out here! I'm only doing what you said!"
The younger voice's mention of Blake made me pause in my current attempt to sneak away. Did these guys know something about Blake? Is he okay?
Something told me he may be in more danger than I ever would've thought.
I didn't dare move, but I listened closely to the conversation.
"And I appreciate you for being competent for once. But I'm walking around here, anyway. If I run into him, I'll make sure he doesn't leave."
"What if he's already left, though...? I mean, he's been gone for a while. Maybe he's back with the other humans."
"Just don't worry about it. He'll be taken care of if he needs to be. But we can't be going on a reckless killing spree because of a suspicion that he knows something."
"..."
"Good boy. Now, go back to the base. I expect you to be training the whole time."
"But-"
"Now."
The younger voice remained silent, and I heard leaves rustling as he left the area. I let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Then remembered he wasn't alone.
Something cold pressed against my neck from the other side of the tree, a curved crimson blade reaching around from a black staff on my right. A scythe? Is that what it's called? I'm not an expert on weapons. I froze, pressing myself flat against the tree trunk to get as far from the deadly blade as possible.
"It seems we've had someone spying on us, hm?"
The deeper voice spoke from the other end of the scythe's staff, sending a chill down my spine.
He remained silent for a moment before speaking again. "Oh, you were always a coward, Tyson. I may not have known you well in my time here, but I could tell that the moment you arrived."
I couldn't even process his words before he interrupted my racing mind with:
"Goodbye, now."
The scythe was removed from my neck, and for a split second I thought I was free.
Until a shock of agony wracked my torso for less than a second and my vision blacked out, the last thing fading from my eyes being the two bright red, slitted eyes that glowered down at me in my final seconds.
-
[Blake]
I paced to and fro near the picnic table, occasionally stealing glances at my phone for the time, or a text, voicemail, anything.
Three hours. It's been three hours, and Tyson's still in the woods.
"I mean, I'm sure nothing bad happened, right?" Malachi tried to assure me. He was sitting on the picnic table - not on the bench, the actual table. I think he just felt even shorter than he already was in my presence. "There's no predators or bears in these woods, and they don't usually attack people, anyway, even if there were."
"Well, obviously something's wrong, or he'd be back by now!" I pointed out, my stress evident in my tone.
"Like you said, there's no way he could've gotten lost out there. He knows those woods like they're his backyard," Malachi said. "It's all gonna be fine."
"What's wrong?"
I turned, seeing Lionel approaching from his house. Milo had also left the house, glancing at us by the picnic table before running off to, presumably, find Noah.
"Tyson's been gone for a while now," Malachi sighed. "He went into the woods to find Blake, and hasn't come back yet."
Lionel exhaled, looking at me with sympathy. "Hey, mate, I'm sure he's fine. There's nothin' out there that could kill him, anyway."
My mind went back to Akik. I knew he wouldn't have killed Tyson, but what if... what if he'd lied about being the only one here? Or he just didn't know? If that was the case, I found myself more inclined to believe the latter. I'll be honest, I really liked the nephalem. I wanted to trust him.
"I'm going to go search for him," I determined, starting to walk in the direction I had gone originally.
"Blake, wait-!"
Malachi jumped down from the picnic table and walked over to me, grabbing my arm.
"Dude, you're just gonna get lost again," Malachi tried to convince him.
"Well, he could be in trouble, and staying here would do nothing for him!" I argued, jerking my arm from his slightly weaker grip and breaking into a run towards the woods.
"Blake!" Malachi called after me. But I wasn't listening. I didn't stop running until I was covered by trees.
I made sure to pay very close attention to my surroundings as I made my way through the woods again. This time, I wasn't gonna get lost.
"Tyson!" I called out. "Tyson!"
No answer but the birds in the trees.
"What's wrong?"
I nearly jumped out of my skin, whipping around to find the freakishly tall form of Akik standing behind me. His face was creased with concern.
I exhaled. "Holy crap, you scared the hell outta me-"
"Sorry."
"How do you keep showing up every time I come out here?"
"I... was worried. I heard your friend say that your other friend... I think Tyson was his name? He said he'd come into the woods. And I wanted to make sure he got out safely, but I haven't been able to find him, and, obviously, he hasn't come out, either."
I blinked. Part of me was thankful he was concerned, but the other part of me was still a little unsettled by the fact that he keeps following me everywhere. "Okay. So, you haven't seen him, either?"
Akik shook his head. "Unfortunately... no."
"Shoot. Where could he be?"
Akik put a hand on my shoulder. "Let's look for him. Come on, I'll help."
"...yeah."
We both searched the woods as far as we could go without getting too far from the houses, knowing he wouldn't have gone farther than he came out any other day. Nothing. He wasn't anywhere.
I was going to give up when suddenly I spotted something on the ground. I paused, slowly kneeling down and picking up the object from the dirt.
A grey hat, with the logo of a wrench on the front.
He must've lost this.
"Akik! I think we're close!" I spoke loudly to Akik over my shoulder. Akik, who was ten or so feet behind me, turned his head in my direction at the sound of my voice before coming closer, following me as I quickly speed walked through the forest.
There was a clearing quite close to where I'd found the hat. There was nothing particularly interesting or different about this clearing at first. Just a small opening in the tree covering larger than other openings in the leafy canopy that could pass for a tiny clearing in the woods. The area itself was innocent.
But as I looked around, a bright red hoodie made me freeze in place, and my heart suddenly dropped into my stomach.
Good news? We'd found Tyson.
Bad news?
...he wouldn't be coming back with us.
His green eyes, usually bright with a lighthearted, silly look, were still and faded. They stared at me from within a split of tree branches, where the limbs sprouted away from the trunk into sections. I couldn't see very well, but there was a dark stain covering most of his torso, and splatters of dark red on the bottom of his face. There was a bit around his mouth, too, as if he'd coughed up some of it.
My brain stopped. It felt like my body shut down for a few moments, nothing but the shocked, now steadily inclining pulse of my heart in my ears. I couldn't breathe. Something was compressing my lungs and stopping me from breathing because I could not possibly be seeing what I thought I was seeing.
No.
This can't be happening again.
This is a dream. This has to be a dream. I'm still asleep back at home, Tyson's not hanging in two pieces in a tree, and all of this never happened. But no matter how much I squeezed my eyes shut, willed myself to wake up, I still opened them to see those dead green eyes so full of life just five hours ago or sooner.
I vaguely heard Akik saying my name, but I couldn't properly make him out, or even take my eyes away from the scene. Eventually the nephalem managed to block him from my sight, his glowing eyes staring into mine with concern.
"Blake? Blake, hey, it's gonna be okay, alright?"
Was I crying? I felt warm tears on my face as I began to recollect where I was and what was happening. I wiped them away with my sleeve, almost embarrassed that I was crying like this. But honestly, most of me didn't care.
I tried to say something, but all that came out was incoherent words that didn't make much sense together. So much was suddenly bouncing in my head, overwhelming my senses. Was I even standing right now? No, I was leaning against something. Akik. He was trying to comfort me, I think. He had me wrapped in a hug, trying to get me to stop crying. I didn't really fully process that until I had finally stopped, my legs wobbly and my head still swimming in my almost drunken despair.
"There. Are you alright?" I finally heard Akik's words clearly. He put me at arm's length and knelt down to eye level. Somehow his warm gaze calmed me a little, made me forget for a few seconds what was happening.
I shook my head no. I refused to look back at Tyson's body in the tree.
"That's fair, that's okay," Akik said, hugging me close again. "Don't worry. I've been through this, too. I understand. Be as upset as you want."
I didn't complain about the hug. I wrapped my arms around him in return and stayed there, him wrapping his wings around both of us like a big teddy bear of a cocoon. It took a few minutes, but I'd finally calmed down. For the most part. Tyson's dead eyes were still burned into my retinas.
Akik let me go, and I wiped my tear-streaked face with my hoodie sleeve.
"Better?"
"A... little."
"Okay," Akik sighed. He smiled to try and cheer me up, but he also seemed a little shaky. "You think you can walk back to the others?"
Tremulous, I hesitantly nodded.
"Okay. Here, I'll help you."
I walked next to him in silence. He kept one hand on my shoulder, bringing me back to the path with his wing if I started drifting off the path. My legs didn't quite want to go where I was going, so it happened quite frequently.
Eventually my head cleared enough to form a comprehensible sentence.
"...he's dead... isn't he?"
I already knew the answer, but I was still in a good deal of denial.
Akik sighed. "...yeah. I'm sorry, Blake. I know you said you two were close."
"Y-yeah..."
I was silent again.
"...y-you can heal things, right?"
Akik glanced down at me. "Yeah. Why?"
"C-can you... heal him?"
Akik breathed a sad sigh. "Generally... I can raise the dead. Sometimes. But... not this. I can't restore blood loss, or entire limbs cut off. Or... well, torsos cut in half."
My eyes fell back to the ground, that one spark of hope getting dumped by a bucket of water.
"H-how are you so calm about this? I asked him.
"I've had my fair share of gruesome deaths in the past," Akik sighed. "War is... harsh. Especially the stuff that's going on at home. I may not have been a soldier, but I saw the aftermath. And... the fact that I never knew Tyson probably contributes as well, but it upsets me that you lost someone so close to you."
"Oh." I shut up after that, not wanting to make him bring back bad memories. I felt really bad for him. Maybe I can help him eventually. But... not now. Now I just wanted to flop on my bed and stay there for a month.
We made it to the edge of the forest, and we parted ways. My eyes lingered on him for a moment as he disappeared into the undergrowth. Something told me I wouldn't truly get rid of him for a while. Not that I wanted to particularly, really, so I was kind of glad for that.
I stepped out of the woods and walked around until I found Malachi. He was sitting on the picnic table again, head in his hands, which were propped on his knees by his elbow. Lionel was sitting on the bench on the other side of the table, reading a book. When Malachi saw me approaching, he stood up on the bench, jumped down, and hopefully ran over to me.
"Did you find him?" Malachi asked. He then took a moment to process my startled and probably depressed-looking expression, and frowned. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
I just shook my head no.
"What happened?"
I tried to find my words again, but somehow admitting it to him was harder than admitting it to myself. My words caught in my throat for a moment before I managed to bring a sentence out.
"Tyson's... Tyson's dead."
Malachi seemed shocked by this answer. "What? What do you mean he's dead?"
"He's dead. That's what I mean."
"But- but how?!" Malachi exclaimed. "What happened to him?"
"I-I don't know, he was..." I took a moment to swallow the tears that were welling up in my eyes again. "He was... in a tree, and... he was just..."
Seeing that I was struggling a little, Lionel walked over and put a hand on my shoulder.
"Hey. Take a deep breath, mate. I know you'se were close. I'm sorry."
"What happened?"
Dilla casually materialized behind us like the secretly magical being we all suspected her to be. I was given (another) heart attack, but I was really too distraught to be embarrassed about it.
Lionel sighed. "Tyson's dead."
"Oh," Dilla said simply. She sounded quite indifferent, though we all knew she simply preferred to keep her emotions to herself. She was a friend of Tyson's, too, so I knew deep down she was sad as well.
I suddenly felt a bit crowded between all of them. "I... I need some space."
I broke away from Malachi, Lionel, and Dilla, walking to my house. I felt another tear escape my eye and drop down my cheek.
I simply wiped it away as I stepped into my house and shut the door.
-
3169 words
Last chapter: Look at these two sillies, they're so gay and they don't even know it <3
This chapter: ...so someone di-