Chapter Eleven

~ Death the Kid ~

Her blood dripped from my skin as I stood beneath the thundering shower. Feeling the sting as her blood part itself from my skin and stained itself against the shower floor.

My nails scratched at the tiles against the walls. Feeling them pinch back at my fingers as the force of the slab pressed against my bones. As if they wanted to break me just a fraction more than I wanted to break myself.

Soul sat on the outside of the bathroom, the sound of his head silently tapping against the door echoing throughout the space around me. Lingering longer than it should have.

He refused to leave my side from the moment Maka was placed in the back of that ambulance and taken away from me. I could hardly focus on anything around me as he walked me home.

Everything was numb. The bruises on my hands didn't hurt anymore, they couldn't possibly hurt anymore. I didn't think it was possible for physical pain to exist any longer.

For me - anyway.

Red water drained beneath my feet. Bringing back memories of watching her lie there, bleeding from her wrists, breathing without the air around her.

My fists hammered themselves against the wall. Shaking the tiles and forcing water droplets to slide towards their draining death.

"Kid?" Soul asked. "Is everything okay?"

I placed my palms against the tiles, arching my back as the pressure of the water forced me to place my head against the wall. Watching more blood trickle down the drain.

Water ran down my biceps and towards my back. Creating shivers that ran up and down my spine with every drip of water that dripped against my skin.

I breathed deeply. "I'm fine."

~o~0~o~

My bedroom carpet was held tightly in my two clenched fists. Sitting there, staring blankly through the window at the darkening sky, whilst repeatedly ripping up the carpet in my hands.

Soul sat on my bed opposite, staring at me as I remained silent and occasionally hit my head against the wall that was from then on - my only support.

I wore a new white t-shirt and a pair of grey jogging bottoms, still half expecting to see blood stains every time I tilted my head to look at them.

I smiled to myself. "She likes Chris Daughtry."

Soul still watched me carefully, like I had finally lost it, and was now digging myself into something that I couldn't escape from, even if I tried.

"Her face literally lit up when he came on."

"Kid," he started. "What are you doing?"

I felt the carpet rip beneath my fingers. "What do you mean?"

Slowly, he shook his head. "You're acting as if she meant something to you."

My heart began to race all by itself, portraying how my anger controlled me more than I controlled it.

"I'm just saying, don't get all worked up when you hardly knew the girl."

I gritted my teeth, "past tense."

He rose an eyebrow. "What?"

"Don't talk about her like she's past tense!"

I couldn't prevent my body from standing, but I did find the ability to stop myself from grabbing hold of the boy before me.

I slammed my fist at the wall behind me. "She's not dead!"

Paint crumbled beneath my knuckles, scratching at the scabbed over wound with every second it remained held there, rushing with the sheer pain of anger.

I breathed deeply, trying to catch my breath before it stole itself from me altogether. The uncontrollable rage burying itself deep within my veins, and laughing at my misery.

"Kid..." he sighed. "She's gonna be okay."

And just as I thought I had found it, my anger transformed into something different. An emotion that had never once before replaced such rage of mine.

My knees fell weak, and I landed against the ground. My arms shaking as they too struggled to keep myself together.

"If..." I stammered. "If I had just gotten there earlier..."

Tears formed within my glaring eyes, blurring my scowling vision altogether as I placed my head against the carpet.

"If I had gone straight to her house to find her..."

Soul placed his hand against my shoulder. "This isn't your fault, Kid."

My lower lip shook drastically as I tried to grasp it with my teeth.

"I could've stopped her, Soul."

"You could've," he sighed. "But fate let you save her instead."