𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐁𝐲 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 [𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐁𝐲] 💗

Chapter 14

Hours later,

???

Kei and Vincent were worried. Tyler had spaced out more often in the hospital since the incident. Kei cried because it was his event, so Tyler tries consoling him that again, none of it was his fault. Vincent became worried especially when he technically left Tyler alone. The freckled boy had wanted to ask why Vincent is somehow in charge of his safety, but he stopped himself. He waited until the both of them fell asleep in his hospital room.

For he wants to know a whole other story. Now Tyler has snuck out of the hospital in casual clothes and an arm cast, and into the cemetery where Xavier is buried. It is a terrible idea, Tyler Wyner, alone in broad daylight with an arm cast and protected by nothing but a Jack Skellington hoodie.

"Excuse me!" He approached a caretaker with a shovel. "I'll pay you one grand if you do something for me."

There, Tyler stared at the dug-up plot in front of Xavier's gravestone. He doesn't know what to expect. He's going to get in trouble for this, but it's for the truth. Tyler needs to know.

He just needs to see Xavier one last time, or confirm that he has seen him.

Hours later, the caretaker's shovel finally unearthed the coffin. He looked up to Tyler, "I've uncovered it, Sir."

"O-open it," Tyler breathed out. "Please."

He did not flinch or blink at all when the caretaker disturbingly opened the casket Tyler made him dig up. For one grand, Tyler was prepared to break down and be disappointed, or break down for a whole other reason.

Tyler covered his mouth. "Oh my god."

The latter was more likely, as he knelt in front of the 6-foot hole with tears of hope streaming from his eyes. The pain from his gunshot wound was gone, as was his heart's. Yet the plague of confusion hovers above him; the plague of dread.

Xavier is alive. As proven by the empty casket, void of life or death. "Oh my god, you're alive... it was you... that guy with your eyes..." Tyler held a hand over his patched-up wound, referring to the man who shot him up earlier.

Oh fúck, oh fúck, oh fúck... Tyler doesn't even know what to do as he shakingly hands the caretaker a roll of ten hundred dollar bills. He stayed in front of the grave alone, unable to stop his tears from raining on the earthed grass.

He doesn't know what happened to Xavier. Why did he end up shooting Tyler, or why he's suddenly fluent in German. Then again, that could have been not Xavier at all. But the empty casket, the empty grave... it has to mean something. It has to.

Coming to terms with his scattered emotions of fear, confusion, hope, and worry, Tyler finally got up with trembling knees. He slowly zombied his way to Vincent's car that he stole. He is still unable to fathom his discovery. Xavier's empty grave.

Xavier is alive. Xavier is—he checked for his phone while inside the car, but he couldn't feel anything in his pockets. He realized he had left the thing. He could have called Vincent since they probably found out about his escape from the hospital.

Sighing Tyler started the car with the most solemn expression anyone can see him in. Xavier may be alive but I still can't see him. I can't see him. I want to see him. I need to see him. But now I just... can't.

What he did see in the rearview mirror though, was the most terrifying. Tyler wasn't alone in the car.

"AH—!" Before Tyler could even react to the unfamiliar face in his car, a leather belt wrapped around his neck, and a cloth-covered his entire nose and mouth.