...16th Part: Dark...
The meaning of time vanished, and I was getting tired of it – the endless walking. Apparently, Krad was too, because one day, he collapsed. He fell to his knees and we had been so distant with each other that I only noticed because I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye.
"I can't do this anymore, Dark," he sighed.
I scowled at him, gripping his arm to try to pull him up. He wouldn't budge. "Oh, come on!" I complained. "You're the one who dragged me into this mess! You can't do this to me, now! What about that thing we're looking for?"
He shook his head. The corners of his mouth tugged upward for a brief second. "What are we looking for, Dark?" he asked.
I think I slapped him, but I wasn't sure. It was an impulse. His head was turned to the side a moment later. "No!" I said fiercely. "Get up."
He turned back to me with hurt and some anger portrayed in his eyes, but he also looked like he had just given up completely.
"Get up!" I insisted again. "You can't give up on me! That's not how it works!" I didn't know how it did work, but Krad was always the one who told me: 'We'll find it,' 'We'll find it eventually'.
I let go a growl of frustration and knelt down in front of him, wrapping my arms around him, towing him back up with me.
"Fine," I mumbled. "Be that way." And I adjusted, turning to his side to scoop his knees up and carry him. Looking down disdainfully at him, I noticed the side of his face was red from where I had slapped him. Sighing, I told him, "I'm sorry."
"No," he answered, resting his head against my shoulder and laying his hand over the opposite one. "I am."
. . .
I felt like my arms were going to fall off if I didn't put him down soon, but I figured that we would make more progress this way than if I made Krad do his own walking. I could see the buildings of the next city in the distance. It looked like a smaller town, this one, but anything would do at this point. We'd been walking through the middle of nowhere for too long.
Krad had fallen asleep, which helped my debate about making him walk or not to. He didn't have that peaceful look anymore, though. It was almost disappointing.
"Nothing..." he was mumbling. "... wish..."
"What the hell are you talking about..?" I wondered. Shaking my head at him, I focused back on the buildings ahead. We were very close.