Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 43: Reluctance

This week's surprise chapter is dedicated to Wimbug. Thanks for all the shout outs! 
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Chapter Forty-Three: Reluctance

Inexplicably, Xaphile found himself lying down in a very green place. He had no recollection of how he'd gotten there; the last thing he could remember was... well, actually, nothing at all.

That thought was an empty void.

Somehow, within the blink of an eye, he felt better than he could ever remember, almost as though he'd awakened from a nightmare.

Xaphile thought long and hard about it for a moment, trying to deduce exactly how he had gotten there... but for some reason, there was a fog inside his mind.

The sun was rising, blackness creeping in on the outsides of his vision. His shivering had stopped, but he was so warm, like he was wrapped in light. There was fumbling next to him, words said but not understood, and then he was lifted, cradled in someone's arms. His eyes shifted, refusing to focus, but finally latched onto the face hovering over him.

It was that boy... the one that looked younger than him, but still so similar.

Adariel.

His face was soft, scared... he couldn't have been a day older than fourteen.

His expression was pinched with terror-stricken anguish, eyes raining tears as he uttered apology after apology... apologies that fell on deaf ears.

Xaphile wearily closed his eyes, but the boy began to scream and shook him. He felt something warm... trickling along the side of his head... trailing almost numbly across his cheek and rolling down the side of his face to his long ear.

Then, they finally came through: two words.

"Big brother!"

They were cracked and confused, like sentences and words trapped beneath water.

He opened his eyes again, looked back up at the boy.

Eyes full of terrified tears, the child clutched his shoulders and shouted something else before he bowed his head down and pressed his forehead against Xaphile's.

"I'm sorry, Big Brother!" he sobbed. "I didn't... I didn't mean to hurt you so badly! D-don't worry, you're going to get better, I'm going to heal you up, okay?"

Involuntarily, Xaphile lifted his clawed hands and struggled to get up on his own... but dizziness swamped him and he roughly fell flat on his stomach. The child beside him let out another incoherent shout... but he couldn't figure out what... was going on anymore.

Adariel tugged on his arm, struggling to make him get up.

"It isn't your fault," his voice whispered. "My selfishness is to blame. In fact, maybe... maybe it's better this way."

"Don't say that!"

"No, I mean it," he sighed, feeling the strength leaving his body. "It would be better to die by your loving hand while my heart is still whole than have every part of my being destroyed by her."

"Big brother, you can't die!"

The little boy's trembling fingers found his, curling around them as tight as they could... but even that sensation began to fade... and darkness slowly enveloped him.