'In my eyes… I can see Javi talking, he looks… panicked…'
'In my ears… I can hear his words, so loud… so far…'
'I can see… I can hear… I can talk…'
'But… I can't feel my body…'
'So cold… so tired…'
'I can feel my heart falling into a deep slumber…'
‘Feels like my soul is being pulled out of my body…'
'It's like… a silent… slow… death…'
Davante wasn’t quite sure if he was standing still with how numb and weak his legs were, didn’t know if he was breathing. Everything felt close yet far… like he had finally… reached his limits, though he didn’t know how or why did he reach them. It felt comforting, he secretly thought to himself.
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The Red Flower
Chapter. 18
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Davante stared with wide eyes at none other than Elois, who silently glared at Javi, who wasn't aware of the other's presence. Davante was lost for what to do next. Should he say something? What should he say to begin with? He doesn't know anything about Javi to defend him, nor can he stop Elois from doing anything when he has nothing to say to stop him from fighting the other friend…
He only stared blankly, completely forgetting Javi was waiting for him to say something after the unexpected news of his past. He glanced back at Javi, who finally noticed the sudden silence and the look of shock on Davante's face and slowly turned to find angry, cold eyes looking back at him, "O-oh… Elois…"
Elois gritted his teeth in a dark smirk and clenched his trembling fists by his sides, "Seriously…? You always joke around…" taking a step forward, “Must have…” three steps, “…been so funny, yeah?”
“Elois…” Davante tried to catch the attention of the angry friend, but Elois didn’t seem to listen to anything anymore as he only walked closer to the troubled Javi. Javi let go of Davante and stepped further away from Elois, who looked quite scary with the wide grin, "Hold on…" smiling awkwardly, “Let me explain—!”
Davante only felt something whooshed by him suddenly, causing him to close his eyes in reflex. When he opened his eyes, he found the spot where Elois was standing a moment ago empty. He quickly turned behind him, and in a second that felt slow, he saw his two friends about to fall from the balcony. Elois jumped at Javi to deliver a punch, and both lost their balance, and soon… they fell; before Davante could even react.
The moment felt too slow, but it all happened in seconds; Davante was left alone on the balcony. Silence at night; he could only hear the cold swish of the night breeze, his hand stilled and stretched out in the air in an attempt to catch the two friends at the last second. He stared in silence with wide eyes. His body slowly weakened at an alarming rate, but he didn't care; more like didn't notice. The only thing he felt was his fast heartbeat and coldness. He trembled slightly, walked to the railing, and looked down below the balcony. The ground was too far away that he couldn't see anything but a dark shadow. He started panting without noticing.
"Falling from this height… no human would survive…" he muttered to himself, voice trembling, "What should I do?—"
"I DON'T KNOW!"
“Mff—!!” He quickly covered his own mouth with both hands and coughed violently; he slid down to the floor and rested his forehead on the balcony railing. He was more concerned about the shriek inside his head that sounded like the scribbled figure of himself. He coughed more and more, each cough harsher than the other. He trembled violently from the sudden, painful coughs. Tears gathered in his eyes; he slowly moved one of his trembling, cold hands away from his mouth to see red with blurry vision. Red, blood, there was blood in his hand, “Mmmgh…!”
‘Why…?’ He blinked in an attempt to see properly, but his eyes only seemed to be filled more with tears. Closing his eyes shut, he coughed more, and his ears could hear something splashing on the floor between his knees; certain that it was his blood, it was impossible to breathe with the coughs that didn’t seem to take pity on him any time soon. ‘I didn’t run or tire my body out…’
Breathe; he needed to breathe. He tried to calm his body down, only to convulse in pain due to suppressing the coughs. He started whimpering and sobbing weakly. ‘But the doctors said—’
“Urk!” his body shook with another wave of coughs.
"Seriously, that stupid idiot."
He could hear someone walking toward him from behind, but it was hard to move even to turn to see who it was. The person sat close beside him, but Davante was still coughing and unable to breathe; blood started coming from his nose. A big warm hand brushed his hair back slowly and pulled his head gently to make him look at whoever was beside him. He tried with great effort to look properly at the other, ‘Ellmer…?’
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Ellmer slightly frowned at the other; though he looked calm, but deep down, he was shaken by Davante's current state. His little brother was bathing in his own blood and looking miserable, a face so pale as if seconds away from death.
For some reason, Davante stopped coughing with Ellmer's hand on his head which calmed him down a bit and allowed him to breathe, if only for seconds.
"You have to come with me, Davante," said Ellmer; he tried to say it calmly rather than demanding and urgently. Davante tried to shake his head and coughed again; he tried to talk nonetheless. "Elo— un-! Ja-v—!" he kneeled down, resting his forehead on the floor as he started coughing roughly again.
"Are they important to you?" Ellmer asked calmly. When he saw the other coughing more and unable to answer him, he patted Davante's head, "I'll take care of it, don't worry. Now," he gently pulled the other and made Davante meet his red glowing eyes directly, smiling kindly at him, "Time to take some rest, lil’ brother."
As if a switch, Davante fell limp on the other’s firm chest. Ellmer put his hand securely around the teen. He sighed before pulling his phone from his pocket and making a call. He didn't wait long for the other person to pick up, and came the expected cheerful answer, "Hey, I need you to do something. It’s about your brother and Javi… Yes, do it fast, if possible, before anyone dies. We don't need any more drama… Yeah, and tell Alvis to prepare a room in the hospital and wait for me there. It’s about Davante… no, only Alvis. Let him tell the doctors to stay out of it… yes, thank you."
He ended the call with a sigh, glancing at his sleeping brother and then up to where the two friends had fallen from the balcony minutes ago. “I’m sure ‘it’ caught the two idiots by now.”
.
.
“YOU IDIOT!!”
Both friends faced each other while falling upside down. Elois had a stronghold of the other's collar, still mad enough to care less about their current situation. Javi grabbed the other's wrists with panicked eyes, "DO YOU WANT US DEAD?!!!"
Elois glared in anger, secretly panicking with the other, "COULDN’T YOU STAND STILL TO RECEIVE MY PUNCH?!!"
“HUH?!!”
Suddenly, they were caught inside a glowing bubble that came out of nowhere, making them float slowly in the air. Both friends fell silent with wide eyes, not knowing what was happening anymore as they quietly accepted to be slowly, very slowly let down to stand on the grass inside an empty garden.
They both stood quietly with their disheveled hair as the bubble shrank into a small glowing ball and flew up somewhere else.
“So, you were working for Anfinrud organization? Along with Lucas~?”
Javi flinched and looked to the side, backing away from the murderous smirk Elois was giving him with the unique dagger in hand. He smiled awkwardly, unsure, "Lu… who?" he twisted his body immediately, dodging the sudden attack from his smiling friend, "WA- LISTEN FIRST!!"
"DECEIVING ME INTO THINKING ELLMER WAS THE ONE AFTER ME AND DAVANTE INSTEAD OF YOU! WELL, AREN’T YOU A SMART ONE?!!"
“NO!! CAN YOU JUST—” Javi yelped at the sadistic, lunatic smile of the person running after him, "LIsteeeaaaAAA—!!!!" Javi was really scared now, the other had the eyes of a crazed murderer, and no way he would listen to him at this point. He took turns and twists between the trees in the dark to confuse the other and hid behind one tree at last, calming down his panting so Elois wouldn’t hear him; he peeked around and found no sign of his friend, ‘I can hide here for a bit… now, breathe~’ He closed his eyes and put his hands over his chest and breathed in, then out.
THUD—
Javi stiffened when the dagger ended up stabbed between his long hair so close to his neck and into the tree behind his back.
Elois walked barefoot on the grass toward the other, seemingly calmer than seconds ago, "Was Owin one of your targets too? How can you blurt out all that crap to your next target and then act innocent now?"
Silence…
“So…” Javi stared back at his friend with a stoic face, "Am I not allowed to change? Am I not even allowed to admit my sins and move on? Am I not allowed to save the most wanted target of Anfinrud organization? I know!" He clenched his hands into fists and stepped close to his shocked friend, “No matter what I’ll do, the past won’t ever be erased!! The fact that I killed people left and right can’t be changed!! BUT I'M TRYING! I'm trying to be the person I want to be! Not what THEY want me to be!!" he hates to play the victim, yet he wasn’t able to hold back from showing the painful feelings he hid so well until now, "To them! I was only a 'tool', ‘ animal' or 'the deadly shadow'! But I—!” He halted by the memory of Armand, “I… he told me…” he looked down when he felt his eyes tearing up a bit, “I deserve… to live… as Javi Cavalon…’
Elois stared wide-eyed at the other, unable to say anything after everything was told to his face. He was suddenly reminded of his roommate’s words.
“Don't throw yourself away.”
He looked down in realization of the meaning behind those words, “You are not Elois Feldstain. You're not anyone else. You’re Elois Iriart."
“As for Owin’s eye…” Javi looked to the side, ashamed and guilty, "I don't think fear and anger could be used as an excuse for my actions, but that's… all I have to say, honestly…"
"And all’s good now~"
Elois and Javi froze at the cheery and sudden voice; Owin showed up between them out of nowhere, looking so relaxed and happy with a wide grin, patting their backs lightly. Despite being the topic of their deep fight just minutes ago, the said person looked completely fine and unfazed by their talk. “Good thing no one died!” He threw his arms over the two friends’ shoulders, definitely aware of how they smiled awkwardly and pointedly avoided looking him in the eye, "I can never blame you Javi, but we still need to talk, of course! Big bro, you liar~ So you DO remember me now! Do you know how painful it was? Waiting for your memories to come back~"
He didn’t wait for any of them to answer and walked to pull out the dagger from the tree, walking back to his brother, who still refused to meet his eye, “Do not use this thing unless necessary, got it?” he smiled at his brother as he gave him back his weapon, making Elois feel like the little brother between them, “Yes…” he obediently nodded and took the dagger with his face looking down.
"Well then, time to go back! You should have talked like adults, but guess you can't do that with your hot temper—" he glanced at Elois, who flinched, "And your horribly wrong timings." he glanced at Javi, who flinched next. Owin sighed as he started guiding them out of the garden, walking them back to the dorms, "You even dragged poor Davante to all this mess when he's too tired even to open his eyes."
Elois and Javi turned their heads in shock, finally looking at him.
"You know Davante?!" said Elois.
"He was tired?! Is he okay?!" said Javi.
Owin chuckled at the two and patted their backs, “Someone is taking good care of him now, so you two should focus on calming down first.”
They looked down in shame and embarrassment and quietly walked back to Elois and Davante’s shared room.
"Sit down, calm down, discuss everything, know more about each other and be better friends," Owin said, standing by the door, looking at the two friends as if scolding two kids. Javi and Elois sat awkwardly on the floor in the middle of the room, both looking down. "And try not to kill each other," Owin added.
"I wasn't going to kill anyone…" Elois muttered when he felt his brother’s eye on him.
Javi whipped his head to glare at the other with wide eyes in disbelief, "Look me in the eye and say it again."
“sorry…”
Owin chuckled at the two. He looked at Elois with a hopeful smile despite the other still avoiding looking at him, "Dad and I are waiting for you… Elois…"
“I…” Elois looked nervously to the side and muttered, "I won't be late…"
“Great!” Owin brightened up with a broad smile, "Goodnight, guys!" he closed the door and left the two alone.
Awkward silence.
The silence was soon disturbed by the loud growl coming from their tummies.
They slowly nodded and awkwardly decided to eat something before going to bed. Of course, none knew how to cook and soon made a mess in the kitchen.
Unknown to the two chaotic friends, Davante's bag was peeking out from under his bed and left open.
.
.
Kaven sat on the desk in his office in the dark, flipping the blank pages of the diary in his hands. He smiled coldly, then slowly tore out the pages one after another.
Tearing the last page, he smiled at it with the eyes of a lunatic, "Let's see how you'll survive the game without…” throwing the ruined book to the floor, “The bastard’s diaries~"
.
.
The next day, the ball flew through the open window and inside the quiet room, going slowly to its owner. A hand reached out to it and made it shrink with his fingers before putting it back in its place in his necklace. Ellmer sighed as he was assured of the two friends’ safety at least. He turned to the sleeping person on the bed he was sitting on, brushing the teen’s hair and looking with a frown at the pale face of his little brother with the oxygen mask on.
“Though you’re breathing now… why can’t I feel your presence at all…?”
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The End of CH. 18