Touch

Part 27

"What will you do now?"

Everything was red.

"Keep him safe."

Laughter, tired and sad, reverberating around the room, dying slowly.

"From who? Yourself?"

Blue was on the floor. It was broken down, weak, no longer able to struggle as it sank into the sea of red.

Sinking

sinking

sin
ki
ng

Red stepped over, tilting its head down, watching, towering.

"No, from you." It clasped its hands behind its back, eyes narrowed as Blue smiled. It was poison, black and shiny.

"You think you're helping him." Blue turned its eyes to the ceiling. "But you've been the problem all along."

Red clicked its tongue, foot pressing down on Blue's half exposed throat.

"I respectfully disagree." Blue flicked its eyes to Red, tired tired tired. Sad. Afraid. Red pressed its foot down a little harder, pushing Blue deeper into the floor. "I'm the solution. The first and the last."

It was almost gone now, not much left, disappearing into nothingness below. Red removed its foot and turned, walking away. Blue could only whisper.

"You'll kill him."

Red paused and glanced over its shoulder.

"We'll be whole. Together. Him and I. Always."

Blue laughed. It laughed, and laughed, a desperate, quiet sound, laughing until it was gone, nothing left but an echo, a memory left behind. Red continued to walk, stopping only beside Jeremy, kneeling down in front of him. He was red.

"We have work to do."

Its smile was poison, black and shiny.

Jeremy poked and prodded at his skin, observing himself in the mirror. Michael hadn't been kidding, he really did look like shit. He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks, frumpy and disheveled, angry shadows under his eyes. He thought it was weird, considering the amount of sleeping he'd been doing recently. If there was a problem, surely Squip would say something? When he thought about it, Squip had been unusually quiet recently.

It's possible the dreams have been affecting your REM sleep.

-It is, or are you just guessing?-

It was in his brain, how could it sound so uncertain?

As a precaution, I've decided to temporarily limit our interactions while you sleep.

Jeremy pouted in the mirror and scrubbed at his face with a washcloth.

-Fine.-

It'd make Michael happy, anyway.

You haven't eaten, Jeremy.

He'd dragged himself to their old coffee shop haunt with Michael and Kevin, despite his lack of interest. If he'd had his way, he would have just stayed in, but even Squip had insisted he needed to socialize more for his health. Jeremy wasn't hungry; he'd ordered a sandwich over an hour ago and it was still on his plate, untouched. He looked at it disdainfully, picking at the crust.

-I'm not hungry.-

Squip was sitting in his lap, an arm draped around his shoulder. It brushed the knuckles of its hand down his throat.