Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 20: Departure

Chapter Twenty: Departure

Xaphile was relieved upon making it outside since the cool evening air brushed across his face, clearing his drowsiness and reducing his irritation. Rubbing his eyes, he made his way down the cobblestone streets of the crumbling stone village, purposely ignoring all the people who were still milling around as he plodded forward with no thought to where he was going.

The sun was going down, but he hardly cared since he would be leaving this hellish place soon, and he was grateful for that. After everything he'd been through, it would be a nice change to escape from all the nervous stares and tenseness surrounding him, but he knew deep down that even if he did escape the place, he couldn't escape from his own memories.

He could never forget what they'd done to him.

His thoughts continued to drift back over those unpleasant, lawless experiences as he walked, but he eventually found himself standing in front of Marty Crawford's tree. He didn't know how he'd ended up there, or why, but he did and all he could do was stare at it blankly.

When he'd first used his magic, something had happened to him that he hadn't been able to explain. It was as if the plant had attempted to drag him out of his body so it could shelter him, as if it had sensed his anguish and lamented over it.

If he had to put it into words, it was almost like by connecting with the tree and healing it, he had partially been pulled into another world that was free of all sight and sound, yet still somehow full of beautiful colors and sheer, blissful feelings.

The sensation of being needed, and wanted, of feeling the crying plant reaching out to him, asking for his help in a way that had stretched far beyond the boundaries of the voice and into something more, had temporarily ignited within him an instinct to protect it, but the moment he'd tried, his senses had abruptly expanded and made him realize that there had been silent cries of anguish coming from every direction, so much suffering, and wailing, and yearning and needing and begging, all crying out for him, specifically him, to help them, nurture them.

The cries had resonated with his own inner hurts in a way he'd baldly understood. 

He'd silenced the pain, lost in a blissful and very blue place... a place where he had almost forgotten everything. Because that was the cold hard truth: all of his pain, for several moments, had completely melted away to the point where he hadn't been able to remember it.

Xaphile stared at the tree, thinking back to how he'd disappeared into the land of green, how his heart had lightened from its burdens, and as he did so he stepped forward, tentatively pressing a hand against the bark, trying to go into the green place again. This time, nothing actually happened... there was no glowing light, no weightlessness.

No relief.

No rescue from his sadness.

The tree remained quiet and still, as a plant should be.

Feeling very world-weary, Xaphile sank down to his knees beside it and sighed, leaning against the bark and looking at the dirty, crumbling, ashy stone-brick buildings surrounding him. The marketplace was small and haphazard, and all of the buildings were decrepit, but directly across the street from where he sat stood Amelia's crumbling home, which stood at a good two stories.

It was extremely old fashioned-looking and almost castle-like in appearance, just like every other building he'd seen during his stay, but something about it seemed cold and sad. His long hair brushed against the jagged cobblestones as an icy wind touched him from behind, and after a moment he looked at the cage he'd been locked in near the furthest edge of the marketplace.