Reboot: a Short Story

II

The morning sun rested upon Magnus' head softly. He groaned and rolled over attempting to get more sleep as he rolled over he felt a terrible pain in his leg causing him to open his eyes. He found himself face to face with a sleeping wolf cub, this terrified him. He held back a scream which on his part was extremely smart. Magnus felt extremely claustrophobic, he tried to remember where he was and what was going on and what that pain was. He instinctively reached for the pendant that he normally had hanging from his neck, he held it tightly. Then he remembered it, all of it, his family, his friends and his neighbors were all dead. His eyes filled with tears as he remembered the lurid images engraved into his mind. All of it was gone, the memories his life everything. Magnus just wanted to give up he wanted all of this to be over. 

Magnus' crying had woken up the wolf and the orange creature who were curious. The cub opened his eyes and looked at the poor creature curled up into a ball on the ground. It sat up and walked towards it feeling empathy. Something about the creature reminded it of when it lost its mother and how he felt then. The orange creature looked at the cub and remembered, he had been separated from his family too, and how his only friend was the wolf. The orange creature walked up next to the cub. They sat there unsure of what to do. 

They're gone

Dead

You have nothing left to live for.

Magnus wanted to die. He reached for the knife which he had in its sheath and laid on his back, gripping it in both hands. The creatures on the floor watched in horror as he held it above his chest. The wolf cub rammed his arm sending the knife flying into a pile of dead leaves and moss. The orange creature stood there, scared out of his wits. Magnus glared at the wolf who was now growling at him menacingly. Magnus was angry, he just wanted to be gone, he raised his fist to strike the wolf but then noticed the orange creature who was now crying in a ball on the floor. Magnus froze realizing what he was about to do, he lowered  his outstretched arm and started to cry, not at the prospect of his friends and family dying but at the fact that he tried to kill himself. 

The orange creature looked up at Magnus from  behind his tail when all of the movement subsided. Magnus was curled up in a ball again, his hands wrapped around his leg, sobbing. The orange creature got onto its feet and approached Magnus carefully. He poked Magnus with his nose as if to test if he was safe or not, Magnus didn't react. The creature looked up at him feeling a sense of pity for the giant. The orange creature glanced back at the wolf cub who was supervising him from a distance. 

The orange creature suddenly jumped on top of the sobbing giant. Magnus took his head out of his legs and looked at the orange creature who was on his knees. He could see it in more detail now, its innocent expression looked back at him as if trying to understand what was going on. Magnus smiled at the creature and wiped the tears off of his face. All the orange creature wanted to do was make the giant happy, it had helped his friend so he had to be good. He had no idea why it was crying. 

The creature was taken by surprise as the giant wrapped his arms around him. First he was scared and tried to get away but then he noticed how happy Magnus was and relaxed, Maybe this makes me a little happy too, the creature thought to itself. Magnus hugged the creature hard and smiled, it reminded him of hope. Just as Magnus was beginning to forget the horrible event of what had happened mere moments before he felt a burning feeling on his chest as if a red hot piece of metal was pressed into it. Magnus screamed and dropped the creature and clutched at his chest. The creature yelped and ran behind the wolf cub. Magnus wrapped his hands around the amulet and once again ripped it off his neck and threw it blindly shattering a window into small glass fragments.