GROWL (Semi-Haitus)

THREE

Jasper brought some food from back home, so dinner actually felt like a proper meal for once, despite the missing futon table. Seth was laid in the blankets of his mattress, sleeping soundly before I had to wake him up and call him to dinner. 

I could never quite get used to seeing him so up close anymore, which was a horrible thing since he was my brother, but it hurt too much to see the purple and blue bruises on his skin, the green veins that appeared through his translucent skin. 

He seemed to have caught my worried gaze as we laid the food out on the floor. 

"Don't look at me like that Thee, I'm fine" He said, obviously fighting the cough threatening to spill out more of his blood. I bit back an argument and pushed the plastic cup of water towards him.

He wasn't fine. And he knew he wasn't fine.

Seth has never been diagnosed with anything. More so because he refuses, with every living fibre of him, to go to a hospital. His excuse was that we couldn't afford any treatment anyway so there wasn't any point. But when Jasper offered to pay the expenses, Seth shot him down quicker than a gun fire. 

I understand that we were in enough debt already and it was too much to ask for of a friend who could barely keep his own roof over his head, but I was still tempted. 

I wanted Seth to live. If that meant being in debt all my life then I was willing to risk it. But obviously Seth didn't value his life as much as I did.

"Make sure to take your medicine during the meal" Jasper crouched to the floor to place the last of the sides dishes down and plants a small bottle of, what I assumed were tablets, beside Seth as a reminder.

"I'm sure you won't let me forget" Seth chuckled.

A couple of days. I couldn't even fathom those words. I couldn't fathom what life would be like without him. Living without my brother, the house being even emptier than it was...I wouldn't be able to manage...Yet Seth still had enough sanity in him to laugh and act as though death wasn't banging on his door so to speak. 

I broke out of my thoughts when Jasper asked me, "How long did it take you to get to the city center?"

"Not...that long" If they found out that I took a dark and mysterious underground tunnel, neither of them would be so happy.

"How did you get there?"

I thought fast. "Bus"

"Bus?" Jasper laughed. "You snuck onto a bus?"

"Not that hard," I shrugged, eyeing the food in front of me to avoid being detected as a liar. "Just walk behind the person in front and make sure the driver doesn't notice. Easy" Not like I hadn't done it before.

"I don't remember teaching you to be so sneaky" Seth said.

I didn't miss the way Jasper suddenly stiffened, his eyes suddenly solid on Seth. "Maybe she learns from the best"

The atmosphere tensed. My brother peered up at him, a stone cold look almost startled me. Something was wrong. 

Then all of a sudden, a strange growing tension suddenly built up in my gut. My heart spluttered at the horrible feeling, a shudder rippled through me as the odd sensation coursed through my body, my blood. Goosebumps ran up my arms, a cold drip made it's way down my spine as I watched Seth and Jasper glare at each other, as though sending each other secret telepathic messages.

I couldn't even bring myself to ask. Even if I did, they wouldn't tell me.

Dinner went on in silence, with only the sound of the spitting rain outside knocking on our roof and metal utensils scraping on plastic plates to fill it. I tried to ignore the strange tension hovering above my shoulders.