“What if it doesn’t get better?” Theo whispered.

I turned toward him. It was the first thing he spoke for a while, and I was trying to grasp his train of thought. “Them?”

“Yeah,” Theo said.

“Boss mode, Theo. We’re halfway done with it.”

“Halfway done with lessening its power,” Theo said, staring ahead. Black tears formed in his eyes before they started to fall. I checked the ground to make sure more of them wouldn’t replace the tears he shed. “But not… kill.”

I hesitated. Perhaps I should have said something right away, but it was too close to what I was feeling. This was depression. Theo couldn’t kill depression. It was as the memory orb showed me. Some people never got over depression, no matter what they did.

“It’s not…” I hesitated again, and Theo simply looked forward. He waited with his bored, emotionless look on his face because too much of his energy was used in taking one step in front of the other. He didn’t have the energy to show emotion. I slowed to a stop, and he did, too. “It’s not going to be this strong all the time,” I said, far more confident in what I was saying. “It can’t. They are attacking so strong right now because you are doing incredible things to lessen its powers. You are doing a ton of work, facing a lot of your demons. Of course it’ll feel stronger right now. But it won’t be this way forever. I’ve seen you. I have the memories. It will get less. It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

“Right.” Theo shook his head, looking down. “And every dawn turns into day, but the day always gets swallowed up by night again. It happens, every day. Every day, every night, it never ends. Every night it gets so dark. And we do nothing but survive. Survive until the dawn. Every. Damn. Night. It never ends. God, why doesn’t it just end.”

The weight was too much, and Theo dropped to his knees. His body shivered before his back arched and he vomited black sludge. I knelt next to him as he vomited again. I placed a hand on his shoulder, but he shied away from my touch. He panted, eyes closed. Feelings of helplessness returned to me.

I glanced down at the vomit, seeing it start to shiver and reach up to reenter Theo. I grabbed his shoulder and pushed him away before plunging my hand into the sludge. It shivered again before turning into liquid and seeping back into the earth.

“You… don’t have to do that,” Theo said.

“I won’t let it reenter you,” I said.

Theo whipped his mouth with the back of his hand before getting to his feet again. He said nothing as he kept walking forward, his shoulders slumped. His steps were a little more certain, so I walked to the side of him, ready to help him again if necessary.

We broke through the trees, and Theo didn’t register it. I placed him on the bench by the lilacs and gave him a plate of chicken wings. He grunted as he ate them, and I hoped this would help him remember that he had more in his inventory. Now that he had vomited, he did look a bit better.

There were blades of grass poking out of the lawn. I gave myself a moment to feel proud of that. I walked toward the front of the house, trying to remember what I was doing. I was building outside furniture, because I finally got my bench. I checked on him, seeing he was eating another plate of wings before I headed inside and up the stairs. I started repairing my cleaning gloves before walking downstairs again and out the front door.

Theo had his gloves off and his sword leaning against the bench. They had caused his veins to look a lot blacker. Theo was staring at his wrists.

“It’s tied to my blood, somehow,” Theo said when I approached him. “It’s in my veins.”

“How many plates chicken wings have you eaten?” I asked.

“Three,” he said.

I nodded, glancing at the house. They were attacking tomorrow night. The fences were built. It was still early in the season, so they wouldn’t be as strong. Movement caught my eye, and I watched Theo pick up his sword and start to place it against his palm. I moved forward fast.

“Whoa, wait. What are you doing?”

“If it’s in my blood, it makes sense that if I make a cut, it’ll-”

“No,” I said.

“It’s an experiment, Quinn. I think it’ll help,” Theo said.

I grabbed his wrist holding the sword with such force that Theo moved his gaze from his palm to my eyes. I wasn’t sure what he saw there, but I was terrified. “All that accomplishes is making yet another hole in your body for them to enter. You are not doing this.”

“It could be another way for the corruption to-”

“No.” I said it with all the authority I felt. I stared him in the eyes, reading every thought in his head. He seemed to just want to experiment. He hadn’t tried it yet. Didn’t he realize this was self-harm? This wasn’t healthy at all. I’d heard about how addicting this could be, and I wouldn’t allow Theo to do this. This was where I put my foot down. If needed, I would order him to empty his inventory of every sharp object he had, but the more I stared into his eyes, the more I knew Theo wouldn’t do it.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He sighed, lifting his sword enough for me to take it. I did, hearing a gurgling noise. I dropped the sword as Theo placed his other hand against his mouth. I still had a grip against his wrist, so I grabbed his other wrist and tore it from his mouth with enough time to catch the sludge hairball he hacked up. He flushed a deep red, keeping his eyes closed.

“I’m… sorry,” he said.

“I’m not.”

He opened his eyes and stared at the sludge in my hand shivering before turning into a liquid, seeping from my fingers and landing harmlessly on his legs. “Didn’t you… have gloves?” Theo asked.

“They’re getting cleaned right now.”

He closed his eyes again, shaking his head. “I’m so disgusting. I’m sorry.”

I flung the harmless liquid onto the ground. I’d have to clean that up later, but I didn’t care. “You’re not disgusting, Theo. And you’re not a burden.” I wiped the rest of the liquid onto my apron. “What would you like to do?”

Theo groaned, leaning his head back against the bench. “I don’t know. Nothing. But I can’t do nothing. I just want…”

…to go back to my side of the river and die.

It was surprising how well I could predict what he wanted to say. “You can’t.”

He sighed, like he knew I knew what he was thinking about. “They are attacking tomorrow. I’ve dropped to forty-five percent corruption, which is fine, but I will gain more while I sleep. Especially considering what I did today. I need all the corruption gone if I have any chance of fighting them off by tomorrow night.”

“Tomorrow night?” I asked, eyebrows raised.

“Well, yeah. Isn’t that when they’re attacking?”

“Yeah, but… are you going to face the last two ghosts before tomorrow night? Are you ready for that?” I asked.

Theo leaned forward like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. “My dad was the scariest. The other two…”

He didn’t say anything. The other two were his mother and a younger version of himself.

“What do you need?” I asked.

“I need you to stop taking care of me,” Theo said. “I know you have a ton of stuff to do, and I don’t want to get in the way.”

I studied him closely. He was constantly telling me he hated being a burden. “I do have some things to do. What are you going to do in the meantime?” I asked. I didn’t want to say it out loud, but I couldn’t trust him to go back to his side. He might die. Considering he tried cutting himself, I wasn’t sure I wanted him too far from me.

Theo didn’t look at me. He was still leaning forward, wiping the liquid from himself. “I… don’t really want to do anything.”

There was a lot I wanted to get done. I glanced at the house, thinking. “The electricity is working in the house now.”

Theo glanced up at me, confused at this seemingly random change in subject.

“There’s a TV in there. And… literally all the horror movies ever created,” I said.

Excitement was pushing past the numb feelings of them. “Seriously?”

“Just… don’t make it too loud. I hate horror, and I really want to finish cleaning upstairs,” I said.

Theo stood up, glancing at the house. “I… this might have just given me an excellent reason to enter the house.”

A smile tugged at my lips. “Do you need me to help at all?”

“No. I know where the TV is.” Theo moved forward, then stopped. He took a steady breath, then kept going. I followed at a short distance, wanting him to do this for himself. He walked up to the front door. To his credit, he waited only a few seconds before twisting the knob and entering the house. I gave him a moment in there alone before quietly following him in. He glanced around, taking it all in.

“Wow,” Theo said quietly. “This… is a completely different house.”

“Nah,” I said, my fingertips brushing against the forest green walls. “Same house. Just cleaned up.” I dropped my hand, smiling at my work. “I’m telling you, it’s absolutely charming.”

Theo smiled, shaking his head slightly as he walked over to the bookshelf with all the VHS’s. Them was still leaking out of his ears as he ran his fingers over the movie cases.

“There’s also books if you want,” I said, pointing to the other bookshelf. “I tried getting rid of these a while ago, but they reappeared the next morning.” Theo chuckled like I said something funny. “I was trying to get rid of all the bad vibes.”

“Right.” Theo pulled out the VHS for Sixth Sense. “Well, I, for one, am glad they all came back.”

I shook my head, taking a few steps back as Theo started fiddling with the TV. “Have fun, Theo. I’m going upstairs. I don’t want to hear that movie.”

Theo glanced at me, raising an eyebrow as he lifted Sixth Sense. “Have you still not finished this?”

“Absolutely not. I don’t get what you see in this genre,” I said.

Theo chuckled again. “You know, if you’d watch the movie with me, you might understand exactly what I’m doing here in this portion of the game.”

“Nope. Not watching it,” I said, my hands in the air. “I’ll be upstairs.”

Theo settled into the recliner chair, a huge remote in his hand. “Thanks, Quinn.”

I didn’t say anything, but I was glad the TV was being put to use. I rushed into the kitchen when I heard the movie starting, and quickly went up the stairs. Despite me not knowing what Theo could possibly see in this genre, I was still willing to respect his tastes.

I went to work cleaning the green room. I heard the movie going on downstairs, but I refused to pay attention to it. It made me uneasy. I went outside the back door to reach the dumpster instead of out the front door, because I didn’t want to listen to the movie. Theo was having his moment to relax. After facing his father, he needed it.

I finished decluttering the green room when the movie had been going on for about an hour. I waited for anything to happen for cleaning the three main rooms on the second floor, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t get a reward until the entire second floor was cleaned, and that meant the locked room.

Instead, I walked downstairs and checked my stats on the clipboard.

Farming level 31

Cleaning level 31

Logging level 36

Cooking level 29

Building level 35

Animal Care level 26

Animal care was now falling behind. I was surprised farming had shot up, but then I remembered I had to be in farming clothes for the lawn care, and I spent a few solid days working on that. I needed to bring my animal care levels up. There might be another upgrade once I reach level thirty in all levels.

I glanced out the window, staring at the back yard that had some new grass growing. We had defeated half the ghosts. This was the end game we were looking for. The feeling in my heart told me that I probably wouldn’t stay here long enough to see what that level thirty upgrade did. I couldn’t deny that part of me felt peace about that.