Chapter 3
A/N: Going to be the same warning & credits for the users as I said in the last 2 chapters. Thanks for my friends for helping me!
Melchior was running away from where he saw Wendla. Crying along the way. He realized what he had done. What did I just do? What was I thinking? I hurt her. I feel like an absolute monster. What the hell happened? I'm tired, but I have to keep on going. My legs won't let me stop. My heart is palpitating 100 beats per second. I feel disgusted with myself. I feel like a rabid beast that got out of the cage, and I couldn't control my anger. God. He kept on running to who knows where. He didn't care where he was going, all he wanted to know was to get away from Wendla, the Oak tree, and the entire place where he hurt her. He never looked back, only looking forward. With his eyes flooding tears, it was hard for him to see.
It was unfortunate that he accidentally tackled someone while he was running. "Oh," Melchior stopped and said, "I'm sorry." He wiped away his tears and breathed to calm his speaking. The person stood up and said with his back turned at Melchior, "I'm sorry. I didn't know where I was going and I should've just moved away from you." He turned to see the person's face and there, Melchior recognized the man. Moritz. "Moritz? What are you doing here? You have to come back to the house." Moritz sighed and walked to a near tree. His head was touching it and just slid down and said, "Melchi, I can't. Not after what happened. I can't forget it." Melchior really surprised just told his friend, "Moritz, it was just a moment. I mean, I didn't feel a thing, did you?"
Moritz was looking at Melchior, now with some sort of disgust and depression. He looked down at the grass and felt the wind. He had this anger inside him, making him wanting to hit Melchior because he thought he was making fun of him. Another is when everything depressed has happened, he needed a person to be a punching bag for his feelings. Moritz looked up, with anger in his eyes. His hands clenched with a fist. Then, his facial expression expressed anger and frustration. He sprinted toward Melchior, trying to tackle him down. He screamed while he was about to tackle him and then boom! Melchior was on the ground while Moritz was on top of him, saying swears and hitting him in his face and his upper chest. Punch after Punch, Moritz kept on going and Melchior felt the pain. He screamed every time he got hit. That's when, with one punch at his jaw, Melchior was unconscious. Moritz stopped and said, "Melchi?" Shocked to see what happened. It didn't seem real. It felt like Moritz blacked out when he was beating him. "Oh, my God. Please, god no." He checked his heart and his nose to see if he was breathing. Nothing. Now, Moritz was the one that was sobbing. He dragged Melchior to the tree, laid him down with his head on the tree, and went to the lake to get some water. A few minutes passed and Moritz came with his drenched socks with water inside them, he sprinted back to where the unconscious Melchior was and washed his face to get the blood off. Oh, no. God, please no. I hurt my friend. Possibly murdered him. I'm a murderer! What happened to me? Did I black out? All I know was Melchi said something and I looked at the grass. Then I can't seem to remember anything! Please, Melchi, be alive! Moritz was thinking this and sobbed. He laid his head on Melchior's chest, sobbing his eyes out. Then a few minutes later, ba-boom, ba-boom. A heartbeat. Moritz heard this, checked under his nose to confirm he's alive. He was. Now, tears of joy came into his eyes. Then Melchior's eyes opened and just said softly, "Moritz?" Then, with a smile, was Moritz, still wiping the blood off Melchior's face. Then with tears coming from both of them, they hugged and cried. Both of them were feeling guilt and sadness. "I'm sorry, Melchi. I didn't mean to hurt you…" Moritz tried to speak. "It's fine, Moritz old pal. I'm going to be fine."
They were walking back to Melchior's home. Moritz was helping Melchior walking, by grabbing his shoulder. Melchior felt dizzy when he was unconscious. He fell down a couple times, but Moritz helped him get up and start walking again. Along the way, they were talking, but Melchior didn't want to talk about him beating and hurting Wendla. Moritz was apologetic saying sorry every 10 minutes. "Moritz, its fine. I'm alive, aren't I? If you're asking me, then I should be the one apologizing to you. I'm sorry if I offended you for anything." Moritz feeling okay said, "that's fine." But Melchior tried to remember what happened before he got hurt. He tried to go on and continue the conversation but then stopped thinking that his friend actually felt something going on. Then he realized he broke his heart and remembered that Moritz was a fragile person and he didn't like it when his feelings get hurt. "Moritz, I'm sorry if I offended you or anything in particular." Moritz, trying to forget what happened, didn't look at Melchior and looked forward instead said a soft, "It's fine." Now, he was dizzy, but he knew that his friend didn't really say that from his heart. From past experiences, Melchior knew that every word that he said, wrote, or drew, came from his heart. "Moritz, look at me," he grabbed his cheekbones and made his head turn. "If you're going to say it, then say it to my face," Melchior said talking to him. Moritz let go of his shoulder, and just walked ahead of his friend. He didn't want to see him cry, but every time he looks at his face, he can see where the bruises are going to come in a few hours from now. He felt that if he looked at him, he was a murderer. He walked ahead of him. Melchior stopped and said, "You've changed, Moritz. What the fuck happened that made you this goddamn hateful and depressed?"
Then Moritz stopped abruptly and turned and still looked down on the grass, approaching Melchior, and tried to stand up for himself. "You want to know why? I'll tell you!" You can tell that both of them were angry. Melchior for Moritz not changing himself to be optimistic and turn his life for the better and Moritz, being tired around of being the victim of everything that was wrong. "Every day, I hear the same shit I hear from everyone. My father yelling at me, calling me a failure and beating me. School, when people think I'm a weirdo, then when I go home, feeling alone and all." Then, Moritz's tone of voice changed. He went on, "Unlike you. You're the best in everything. I hear from everyone, 'Melchior is great, Melchior did better, Moritz, why can't you be like Melchior and do something smart for a change!'" He yelled his last sentence. Melchior was looking shocked, eyes opened, his jaw opened even though his mouth was closed. "Everything in my life is all around you. You can clearly see that they want to know more about you than they want to know about me. You're like a statue, waiting to be carved and I'm just a rock in a stray path. Just…" Moritz was on the brink of tears. "Just, why do you have to be so great in everything? I'm nothing unless you're there." Moritz was still looking down, and Melchior approached him and grabbed his jaw saying, "If you got all that to say, then why won't you look me," Moritz was eye-to-eye to Melchior, "when you're saying this?" Then Melchior saw Moritz's face. His face looked like he was scared and fearful. "What's wrong?" Melchior asked sincerely, "what's happened?" Moritz's eyes were filled with tears. He was sobbing again. Melchior realized what had happened. Moritz felt like every time he would see his face, it would be like seeing a corpse of a best friend and he killed that person. He knew was Moritz was feeling. Melchior snapped out of his dizziness and let go of Moritz.
He cried and ran, going away from the Gabor house. "Moritz!" Melchior yelled. He tried chasing him to get him back home. Moritz was tired, still crying, and really fatigued. He stopped his running and tried to breath. His vision really was blurry. Then he blacked out and fainted on the grass road. Melchior, who was trying to get him, noticed the now, unconscious Moritz. He ran toward him and tried to wake his friend up. He sat down trying to get him to open his eyes. "Moritz. Oh, god. Moritz. Wake up," he was slapping his friend cheeks to see if he was awake. Shit. What happened? I made my friend hate me. First Wendla, now this? This can't be happening. Melchior was panicking, since he tried everything to wake him up. As a last effort, Melchior carried Moritz's body all the way to his house to have a doctor check on him. He gripped his arms and his legs and lifted him. Moritz was light, compared to Melchior. It was nearly a close mile to his house, so he carried him, trying to wake him up or talking to him. "Moritz, wake up." Or a, "we're close. Hold on." Then Melchior said to Moritz while he was still unconscious, "Moritz, please wake up. You're a great friend and you're a great listener. We've been through a lot of tough times, but I knew that you had my back and you had mine. Since we were 5, it seemed like it was destined for us to be friends. I don't know what I would do if something bad happened." He looked at him while saying this, crying. He did this to get easily distracted and so he would walk faster and get home quicker.
After about 10 minutes, he was out of the forest and shouted, "Mama!" Mrs. Gabor quickly reacted and came out the door as fast as possible. She noticed Melchior's bruised face and Moritz unconscious. "What happened? Oh, my lord, Moritz! We have to get him inside." Melchior carried him until he entered the house and laid him on a sofa. Mrs. Gabor went to a neighbor's house, whose husband was a doctor and told him that one of his son's friends, fainted and is unconscious. At the house, Melchior was tired, but stayed with Moritz. "Don't worry, Moritz. The doctor is going to come with my mama anytime." He was rubbing his friend's arm, crying like it was his fault. Mrs. Gabor and the doctor came in. "Melchior!" He looked back and saw his mother and the doctor. "My god," the doctor said approaching Moritz. He was examining Moritz, "Malnutrition, scars, newly formed bruises, a fever. Sweat all over his body." Melchior was hearing this from the doctor. His eyes wide open, he was about to cry again. Thinking that Moritz had died by a fever. "Go into the kitchen, Melchior. Clean yourself off. Me and the doctor will tell you what's happening with Moritz." Melchior wanted to stay in the living room. "But, mama. Moritz is my fri-" Mrs. Gabor, being a parent and all said, "go to the kitchen now. We'll take care of things now. Now go." Even though he didn't want to go to the kitchen, he went. He went inside and sat on a chair by the table, head down, and cried. Moritz Stiefel. Died of a fever. No, this can't be. He can't die. God, this is my fault. I felt like a monster before with Wendla, now I am a scary beast. No one can stop me. God please, don't let my best friend die. He can't. He's got his life ahead of him. Foolish father. I feel like I've been more of family to him than anyone in the Stiefel family. What did I do to make everything that happened today, happen? Wendla with the switch, Moritz dying in my arms. He went toward the sink and washed himself off. Then, he noticed a knife. Sharp, shiny, and pointy. Definitely strong enough to kill somebody. He wanted to do it. He felt like there was nothing he can do to change what happened today. He grabbed the handle of the knife. He wanted to do it but then suddenly he stopped before he stabbed himself. He dropped the knife and went into some sort of fetal position. He just broke down emotionally. Then he put it back in the sink. Melchior realized what he had done and he washed himself off. Almost, killing himself for what has happened in 1 day. He swore that it would be the last time he would do that. He went to a corner, put his head on the wall and cried his eyes out. His mother came in and said, "Melchior?" He turned back hearing the voice. He ran toward his mother asking, "Mama. Is he okay? Did the doctor say he's going to be alive?" You can hear the panic in his voice. His mother was talking about Moritz and you can see the sadness in Melchior's face.
A/N: I'm done for now. Cliffhanger!