CoAi Week 2024 (Aug 1-7) - Almost Strangers

By Crystal Snowflakes

CoAi Week 2024 Prompts:
Prompt #1 - Trust
Prompt #2 – Choice
Prompt #3 – Hurt
Prompt #4 – Promise
Prompt #5 – Innocence & Guilt
Prompt #6 – Help me breathe / Give me up
Prompt #7 – Best moments

I. Trust

"I trust you."

His words echoed in the darkness, reverberating around her skull. She was tired of him saying those words with such conviction and certainty. She hated the way they rolled off his tongue, like he truly believed in her.

Didn't he remember it was her who made him suffer the last few years? Did he not understand that there was so much blood on her hands that she'd never be able to wash off?

…Did he not realize it could all go very wrong very, very quickly?

Tick tock.

The clock ticked on, the seconds dragging on excruciatingly slow until the tick tock seemed to be mocking her, pounding inside her ears, drowning out everything—like her sanity.

"I trust you."

But why?

The sudden screaming—his screaming—shattered the silence, breaking through the haze of her mind as it brought clarity back. It was muffled by the door separating the two of them, and she knew he was experiencing pain worse than anything a normal human being should ever feel.

The sound tore at her heart, twisting it into a painful knot until she thought she might scream too.

But still, she didn't move.

There was nothing she could do to help.

All she could do was wait and hope his heart wouldn't give out first.

The screams and groans continued, his voice becoming more hoarse as time passed until finally, finally, silence enveloped the room again.

Tick tock. Tick tock.

It felt like it had been an eternity.

Her fingers curled around her lab coat, clutching at it tightly as if she could be swallowed whole by the fold of fabric alone. The sudden fear that the worst had happened swept over her, threatening to overwhelm her, but instead of letting it paralyze her, she tried to control the panic that was rapidly building up.

She knew she needed to calm down to be of any use. But how could she remain calm when every second spent waiting out here could mean that he—

The quiet shuffling inside the washroom drew her attention from her thoughts, and her gaze immediately flew to the crack underneath the bathroom door. Relief flooded through her veins—he was breathing and fine and alive—at the sight of the doorknob turning.

Light poured through the car as the door creaked open, revealing his hunched figure and dishevelled clothes. His skin looked clammy and sweaty, and he was pale and tired and feverish.

But alive.

Their gazes locked together for a long moment before his brain finally caught up and his eyebrows furrowed.

He should've never trusted her.

"What about you?" he asked warily, his voice sounding raspier than usual. "Were you just making sure I wasn't going to keel over and die?"

A small, humourless smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. "I never intended to take the antidote."

She had never lied. But he had never asked either.

The blood drained from his face.

Story has been planned until the end. However, due to life being busy, only three chapters have been written so far. The goal is to have them all posted by the end of August, but no promises :)