Longing

Chapter Nine

Kendo stammered back. Melanie was there, right beside him, just as he'd wished. Except she wasn't how he had imagined her. She wasn't whole. She was covered in blood, skin ripped in shreds and fresh scars with her left leg missing and her right twisted backwards. She faded in and out of view like a mirage. Wilfred stared, his head of fur standing prickled on his head. Of all the things Kendo could've manifested, he chose this. No wonder no one had eaten him.

Melanie said nothing. Kendo couldn't take his eyes off her. It wasn't because of his love for her either, no. It was more like watching a disaster. As much as he didn't want to see her like this, a sick fascination kept his eyes in check. He realized Melanie wasn't looking at him as he had first thought; she was looking through him, beyond him, like her eyes wouldn't focus. For the first time since his breakdown in Creature's Court, Kendo felt his eyes swelling with tears, his jaw lock into an open gape and the rest of his body shudder in a soul-shivering chill. He felt as weak and uncoordinated as a wet noodle, overcooked, cold and discarded. His knees nearly buckled.

Melanie's eyes refocused. It was then she was truly brought into being; her flickering ceased and the blood pouring out of her every wound became so real and clear, deep red and blinding whereas before it had been a pastel pink as faded as the rest of her. If Kendo had any doubt she was there in front of him, it fell out of him like a brick. Kendo couldn't help remembering Fowlina as she tore Melanie apart, couldn't help remembering the shrill screams as he looked on, terrified and immobile.

Melanie reenacted it. She opened her mouth wide, blood seeping out of one corner where it was torn longer than it should have been, and she screamed and screamed and screamed. Wilfred winced at her shriek; Melanie's voice cracked in the middle and rebounded louder than ever, shrill as a banshee screech. The wounds on her face re-ripped themselves, healing and breaking and healing again only to be torn all over and bloodier. It was as if Fowlina were there doing it all over again. And Kendo couldn't stop grinding his teeth and staring.

"Kendo!" Wilfred yelled over Melanie's shrieks, his normally brown eyes fading to yellow and his fur-for-hair ruffled so pointy and high, now with fangs instead of teeth in his mouth, "Kendo you have to make her stop! You brought her back; don't make her go through this again! Stop thinking about how she died!"

Kendo clapped his hands over his ears and clenched his eyes tight. He couldn't get the image out of his head. He spent so much time denying it like it was second nature and now it was all he could think about no matter how hard he tried. "Stop," he started whimpering, "Please just stop..."

Snapping out of her screams, Melanie rushed at him in an angry shudder. "I will not stop!"

Kendo winced open his eyes. Melanie was still being torn to shreds over and over, but her expression was one of decided placidness. He was splattered with her spraying blood. It dissolved into nothing as soon as it touched him but he still felt it, sticky, wet and cold.

Melanie's eyes narrowed.

Kendo gulped.

"Why didn't you stop her? Why didn't you protect me?" Melanie's voice was hollow, betrayed, pointedly distant.

Kendo couldn't respond. The words died in his throat and all that came out of his mouth were scratchy choking noises.

"Answer me!" Melanie bellowed, rage ripe from her diaphragm. She gritted her teeth as an invisible beak shredded her shoulder, which spewed deep red blood at Kendo, who didn't move and was still looking at her with unshed tears and pure guilt in his eyes.