Ezra Phantoms: The Cursed Sword

20

"You're not going to eat that?" Phoebe asked me, as she intently stared at the light blue meat that was sitting on my plate completely untouched.

"You haven't eaten all day dude," Bowie chimed in. "You gotta eat something."

I knew they were right, but my appetite had basically been nonexistent ever since Alex's death. It became difficult for me to do anything. Especially eating.

"You guys can share it," I shrugged. "Both of you are probably hungrier than me right now anyway."

"That's not the point, Ezra. You have to eat. You can't keep doing this to yourself."

A week and a half had passed since Alex died, but it felt more like a year. Every day for me was ten times longer. I wanted to quit being an Outer, quit chasing after Zero, quit searching for the stones, and quit living in general. I was tired of everything. I just dragged myself aimlessly through each day. What made me even more depressed was the fact that I knew Hailee must have been feeling the same way. I wanted to be there for her, but I knew she wouldn't want a person that she utterly hated at that time to try and console her. For that reason, I just left her alone.

The day after we rifted to Outer City, we held a funeral for Alex. It was amazing, and very respectful. I'm sure Alex was looking down smiling at every single one of us. Even though I had End laughing inside of my head during the entire funeral, I still managed to enjoy it a bit. Hailee and I were asked to say a few things. Despite us both having trouble getting our words out due to us crying, I think we both said some great things about him.

After the funeral, Phoebe, Bowie, and the rest of the Outers spent the rest of the days doing their absolute best to try to cheer Hailee and I up as we were grieving. Hailee would just push them away, and keep to herself whenever they tried. I, on the other hand, thought it would be easier to just comply, and let them try to cheer me up. I figured it would be better than me being in my hut alone with my own thoughts, and End who berates me twenty-four seven. Not only that, but I also just didn't have the energy to deny their efforts. It was like someone had sapped all of the emotion out of me. I just didn't care anymore.

"Fine," Phoebe sighed, as she took the meat off of my plate. "I thought I could cheer you up if I wore this mask again. Remember when you first saw me with this on?"

"Yeah," I said. "I thought it was stupid. Still do."

"Hey! It's stylish, and unique. Right, babe?"

"Honestly...no," Bowie laughed. "Why did you even get that?"

"I was trying to make it my new look, but everyone's a critic. You never said anything about the mask before. Why now?"

"I didn't want to be mean."

"Wow. This whole time, I thought it made me look cool."

"Well, nobody was going to tell you otherwise," Bowie replied. "Everyone's kind of scared of you. Except me of course."

Phoebe quickly glanced at him with an expression that said, "are you sure about that?"

"Okay, maybe I'm a little bit scared of you too," he admitted.

Without even realizing it, I let out a little chuckle. The two of them heard it, and jerked their heads in my direction with their eyes wide open.

"What?" I said.

"D-Did you just laugh?" Phoebe exclaimed.

"Yeah, a little-"

"Dude, I almost forgot you could laugh!" Bowie said. 

"You guys are stupid," I said jokingly.

"We know," Phoebe smiled. "Are you sure you're not hungry though, Ezra?"