Forgive Me, My Love ~ ReddNook

Chapter 60

It had been about a week now since Tom and Redd broke up. The pain hadn't subsided, on the contrary - it got much worse. Redd was done. He felt so weak.

In the last few days he had hardly eaten anything and has lost weight. He couldn't sleep properly either. Horrible nightmares prevented him. Most of the time he just lay in bed as he was too exhausted to leave the house anyway.

The fox got up with difficulty and staggered out of the room. He thought he was back on his boat for a moment as it felt like his house was shaking.

Redd entered the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked like a zombie. He had dark circles under his eyes, which made him look very old. His fur was disheveled and he was totally emaciated. The scratch - Tom had given him - was still clearly visible.

"Geez," he murmured, running a paw over his slender face. "Look what you've done to yourself."

He turned on the tap and washed his face. After that, he slowly returned to his bedroom. That's when he realized something wasn't right. He suddenly felt dizzy and nauseous. He saw black dots dancing in front of his eyes.

Groaning, he squeezed his eyes shut and clutched his head while clinging to the wall with his other hand.

His body began to sway, his legs went soft as pudding, and a piercing, high-pitched sound rang in his ears. The next moment he saw, through his blurred vision, that the floor was coming closer and closer to him in slow motion.

Then everything went black.

----------------------------------

It was quiet on the island. Nobody was to be seen, all residents were still asleep at this time. But not Tom. He was sitting alone on a bench, staring out at the sea with a melancholy look.

The sun was already slowly rising behind the horizon and made the water glitter. An enchanting sight. But the tanuki couldn't be happy about that. In the last few days there was no reason to be happy anyway.

And he hated it.
He hated that he fell so easily into deep grief because of this heartbreaking fox. This was certainly not how Tom had imagined life on Te Fiti. He thought he would have a fresh start here and put his horrible past behind him.

But of course his ex had to come back into his life and open up all the wounds. He had wrapped Tom around his finger, made him believe he could be trusted, that he had changed.

Of course, Tom had to admit that he had missed Redd terribly all these years and he was happy that he could be together with Redd again, that he was loved by him.

At least he thought he was loved. But even that was apparently only a lie so that he could take advantage of Tom's trust and steal from him. It was all just a game for him and Tom was his puppet.

The tanuki sighed and buried his face in his paws.
Why had he trusted him?
Why hadn't he kicked him off the island in the first place?
Why... why couldn't he let him go after all these years?

Tom didn't know how long he had been sitting here, feeling sorry for himself, but after a while someone walked up to him and sat down next to him.

It was Isabelle.

"Hey."

The tanuki lifted his head and quietly returned the greeting. He was glad of her company. She was just the right person to talk to.

"How are you?" Isabelle asked, looking sideways at him.
"I'm okay, i guess," Tom replied with a shrug. "How's it going at the resident services? Are you getting along?"