Children of the Mirror
...17th Part: Krad...
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Dark's face, peering at me with a horrible intensity. I was lying on a couch, I realized, and not suspended in his arms.
"Where are we?" I asked him, looking around.
Dark shrugged. "Who cares? I'm done travelling with you." He stood up from a chair that was positioned close to me, and I came to the conclusion that we were in a hotel somewhere. It was a nice improvement over solid ground. "I just thought I'd let you know that before I left."
I sat up quickly, losing my vision to darkness for a couple seconds, then blinking it back to normal. "What!?"
"I'm leaving you," he repeated, emphasizing each syllable.
A sudden feeling of dread was growing inside of me. "Why?"
"Because I can," Dark said simply. "I don't feel like being around you anymore, so I'm not going to. It's not a complicated concept, Krad. You know that."
"But –"
He shook his head at me, giving me a look that stopped my voice in its tracks. "Don't make any excuses. The only reason we were ever together was because we thought we had to find something. You were the only one of us who completely believed there was really something to find, and when even you gave up, I saw no reason to continue this mindless search. Good-bye, Krad."
And with that said, he left.
I lips parted to call out his name; to make him come back, but no sound came.
. . .
I wandered around the town for a few days, sitting out on the street because I didn't have the knack for stealing that Dark had, and I was out of money. I had no idea how long it had been since Dark and I had run away. It must have been months, but how many exactly, I didn't know – It made no difference to me anymore, anyway.
I had clothes in the backpack that I still carried around with me, but not much else. The food had all been eaten long ago, when we were wandering in the desolate nowheres between cities. I had a lighter that I'd snatched from my house before leaving it for good, I still had my book, and I had the wallet I'd stolen, which contained only some useless plastic cards.
One night, I commenced to picking at the dirt with the driver's license, cutting through the dust and sand and gravel with the relatively sharp edge until I was able to bury it. I buried a card a day after that, simply to keep myself busy with something.
On the fourth day I had only one card left. I examined the edge of it for a while, sliding my finger along it and trying to determine if it would be able to cut through anything other than soil. I got my answer when something crashed somewhere and I jumped, slipping the card haphazardly enough to cut my finger.
I flung the thing to the ground and stuck my finger into my mouth. I tasted both dirt and blood, and neither of them was very pleasant.
Wrapping my arms around myself, I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my forehead on them. I was hungry. I was in pain. I was alone. The thought nearly crossed my mind that I would be better off still living with the frazzle-haired woman, but I quickly dismissed that notion. There was no one I loathed more than her, and she was dead now, anyway.
Oddly enough, Dark was the one I wanted to see right now. Or just have him be here. I didn't care if I saw his face again or not, as long as I just had him next to me again.
My eyes were filling with tears. And the longer I thought about it, the worse it got, until the tears were falling from my face. Silently.
. . .
There was a sound coming from inside the building I was curled up against – a bar, of all places. It was a sound I remembered hearing a long time ago. A laugh. It was distorted greatly, but I still recognized it.
"Dark...?"
I lifted my head off of my knees and looked through the night blankly, pressing my hand and my ear against the brick wall with the hope that I might hear that sound again through it.
I heard his muffled voice.
I couldn't believe it. Dark had never even left this little town, had he? He had lied to me...
Standing up quickly, I almost ran around to the front of the building. I didn't really want to go inside, but as soon as I opened the door and saw who I had been wanting to, I forgot all my unease and walked right to him. I didn't know what to say, so I just stood behind him, staring at him until he noticed me.
It didn't take long.
"Krad!?" he exclaimed in disbelief, nearly falling off of his stool. "What are you doing here!?"
"I was outside," I said. "I heard you and I came to see you."
"I told you, I don't wanna see your face anymore!" He turned and shouted pleasantly for another drink.
"No; you told me you were leaving." I wanted to reach out and touch him, but I didn't. "Dark...?"
He gulped down more of his disgusting alcohol. "Yeah; what?"
I put my hand over the rim of the glass, blocking it from his lips. "Don't."
Dark shoved at my chest. "Don't what? I'm not doing anything wrong." Then he whispered, smirking, "They'll never be able to catch me."
I doubted that.