Perfect Enemy

...Eleventh Part: Dark...

Miraculously, most of the critical bones healed. Niwa was still unconscious, as far as I knew, so I got up and went to find Krad. It was pouring rain, now, and I could just picture him, falling to pieces and drenched and cold and angry, curled up in a corner somewhere, trying to wait out the storms.

"Krad?" I called softly, spitting some blood from my mouth out onto the sidewalk. "Krad! Listen to me! That wasn't me, back there. I would never..."

I wandered through half the town, and my leg was beginning to fail me. I guessed there was another broken bone in there somewhere. I tried to ignore it, continuing my search, but it stopped cooperating with me altogether, and I tripped over my own feet, earning myself a face-full of mud.

Tears of frustration melded with the rain as I began to crawl away from the mud puddle I'd fallen in. I was bleeding everywhere and couldn't figure out which spot was the worst. My hands were all scraped up, now, from trying to catch myself, and I had twisted my stupid leg, but I heaved myself up again, balancing on my good leg with the aid of a wall for a while before limping away stubbornly. I was going to find Krad and explain if it cost me my life.

"Krad!" I called for him again. "Krad, where are you!? I need to talk to you! Come on..." I sighed, nearly defeated.

And then there he was, just like that. He'd come out of virtually nowhere at all, and was standing in front of me. I was about to say his name again; reach out to him, but with the coldest, most stoic look on his face, he smacked me across the face, sending me off balance and toppling over into another puddle.

I resisted rubbing my stinging cheek and tried to stand again, but he just proceeded to shove me back down with his foot, keeping it pressed down on my chest, pinning me to the ground.

"Let me explain," I said quietly, smearing some mud off of his shoe absently.

Krad shook his head. "Too late..." he paused for a long moment, like he couldn't manage to get my name dislodged from his throat. "I don't want to hear it anymore."

I suddenly was able to look past the fact that it was him, the perfectly beautiful man, and I began to notice all the damage. His hair was a tangled, drenched mess, he had a bruise that crept over almost half of his face, and his hand looked mangled, to name just a few things. I watched the still-flowing blood drip to the ground or seep into his white clothes, and it pulled at my heart, prodding my chest with little knives.

"You're not even sorry, are you?" he whispered. There was a slight change in his face as his eyebrows drew together a little. "Was all of it a lie?"

"No!" I objected. How could he think that? "Krad –"

He looked to the side for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut and letting his face twist up in pain for just a moment before forcing the features smooth again. He looked back down at me, and I wished that he could see my tears. I wanted to prove to him that Niwa had hurt me as well.

"I still –"

"Don't," he interrupted me. "Maybe they were right," he mumbled. "We just can't..."

I shoved his foot off of me and tried to get up, reaching out for him, but he backed away from my touch, almost like he was afraid of me. I raked my hands through my wet hair once and looked at him disbelievingly. "No –"

"I don't want to get hurt anymore," he murmured, his eyes unnaturally blank. "I don't think I can..."

"It wasn't –"

"That's it..." he refused to say my name again. It was like a dagger to him. He glared at me suddenly, straightening up with a slight wince. "We're enemies," he growled. "Just like they said we were meant to be. I hope you're happy."

I shook my head – it was all I could do. I was too stunned to speak. Just hear me out! I wanted to make him listen; pull him into my arms and keep him in my embrace until he could see reason. I wanted to touch his hair, his body, his lips. Please don't let it be over. We can't be enemies. We can't. We can't!

And then he was gone.

It was a good hour or so before I could move again. At that point, I was as confused and pissed off and depressed as I'd never been. It was such a magnified emotion that I had trouble figuring out how to express it. Nothing would be enough.

"DAMNIT, KRAD!" I screamed.

Fine. If you want it that way, then that's how it'll be. You'll only get hurt worse. And stop blaming me. It's your own damn fault, now.

Not mine.

Not even Niwa's.

... Maybe I hate you.