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┏━━━━━ CHAPTER ELEVEN ━━━━━┓ ★゜・。。・゜゜・claimed ──── Chicago Rhee
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❝ I close my eyes Only for a moment, and the moment's gone All my dreams Pass before my eyes, a curiosity ❞ — dust in the wind, kansas
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PERHAPS I WAS THE FOOL. I had let relief seep into my pores, gambled with what luck I had left stored, and still believed that the reaper wouldn't finally come for me. Was she smiling down upon the ruin he made a mess of? Did she mock my willingness to be content in this body I harbored, thinking that I had played in this game of risk only to evade what sickness I had exposed myself to? I lingered too close to the deep waters, heeding warnings of what danger lurking within the blue, yet I had not listened to my full capacity. This determination to play life's hero, to expunge infection from others had only left me kneeling in humility at Death's door. I forgot that this vessel of mine wasn't immortal nor invincible and now I was paying the price.
I stared down at my hand, at how the crimson blood painted the tips of my index and middle fingers. A streak of blood trailed down into the palm of that hand and I could feel a burn in the back of my throat. It was a hopeless feeling, knowing that the sight wasn't normal, that my body was infected with a sickness intent on killing. Would this be just another thing I barreled through or would my body fail to fight? And the only thing I could do was hope. Hope that my poor soul was pitied, that somehow I evaded the reaper once more. I didn't want death yet, not when I just found my reason to live once more. I had to stay strong; for Glenn.
Footsteps were behind me, I curled away from the source and against the rough, calloused texture of the concrete wall. Guilt captured my heart, and made a sour ache stir the inside of my stomach at the thoughts that formulated. Had I transmitted this sickness? I couldn't imagine anyone falling sick by my hands and hated that possibility with every fiber of my being. Had I gotten it in the initial exposure within the cell block, amongst the unfortunate? Or had I been claimed only by being near my brother? That didn't necessarily matter due to the plain and simple fact that was that I was sick and speculation always led to the same conclusion. Now that it had happened there was nothing more.
"Chicago," Two sets of footsteps entered my bubble and I slowly lifted my head to glimpse at Rick and Maggie. Both of their faces reflected concern and I waved to them with a weak arm. One second I was fine, the next I felt the world turning on its axis and that terrified me. What other changes would I discover? How quickly would this sickness ravage my body? Now, I regretted just how naive I was previously.
