The In Between

Chapter eleven

• Trauma Aaaaaaaaa. •

Ricky

• November 1 •

Scarlet was gone, which made me kind of happy. Not that I didn't like her, but she definitely didn't like me, which made me not like her. She left in the afternoon, after lunch. I didn't know why, but she said she'd be back. James let her go.

"Why can't i leave?" I asked him.

"Because i don't trust you on your own." he said, shrugging.

"And you trust scarlet?"

"Scarlet has lived alone here for a century and didn't die. You on the other hand, you've almost died eight times in eight days. Plus, if she theoretically died, I wouldn't have to also die."

"Wow, I didn't know you were keeping track."

"When someone almost dies, it's hard to forget. Especially when I almost died along with you."

"Okay, okay," I sighed, kicking a rock.

"The good news is that we're over half way through the in-between."

"And what's the bad news?"

"There's no bad news." I blinked.

"What?"

"There's no bad news."

"There's... no bad news?"

"Yes Ricky, god I swear to—"

"YES. OH GOD YES FINALLY." I buried my hands in my face.

"Yeah, sure." I peeked out of my fingers to look at James. He was smiling, though it looked like it was reluctant. I smiled back.

Then something bad happened, because something bad always happens.

Black fog came.

"This again?" I muttered.

"It's not coming towards us." James pointed out. It wasn't, it just stayed there. I grabbed his arm.

"Don't go in there." He looked at me, with a slight smile on his face.

"I'm going to be fine." he said. I swallowed.

"Don't die."

"I won't." He took out his sword and advanced. He poked it. His sword bounced back. "Well, this is going to be fun." He walked in. And then fell down like he'd been punched in the face.

"James!" I shouted.

"I'm al—" he fell back to the ground.

"James, what's going on?" I moved forward.

"Don't come in!" He shouted, struggling to get back up, only to be kicked back down again with a cry. "OW, FRICK."

His sword flew across the ground to me. I picked it up.

"All your friends will die, you'll be left to roam around this earth unsatisfied until you die." An ominous voice from nowhere said.

"Haha, well jokes on you, all my friends are bullies, and I've been roaming around this earth unsatisfied since I died." I drew my sword.

The ominous voice laughed, though I assumed it wasn't laughing at my comment.

James staggered up, and grabbed his cheek. I could see a bruise forming around his eye.

"Agh frick you fog!" I shouted, and then I could see it. Three figures out of the fog. "Not this again," I muttered, and ran into the fog.

"Just calling out some dumb people" Someone said. I said? I could see Josh in the fog smiling. Me and James locked eyes for a few seconds, and I could see tears pooling in his. I grimaced, and then I felt it.

The knife in my stomach. I screamed, falling backward, staring at the blood on my stomach, but no knife.

"Ricky!" James shouted, catching me before I fell. I could see the cuts and scratches forming on him too, but he seemed a lot less concerned about them than he did about me.

"I'm sorry." I said as he started panicking, trying to stem the massive amount of blood coming from my stomach.

"Don't be stupid." He told me. I tried to smile, but I came out as more of a wince. My eyelashes started to flutter. "Don't you dare close your eyes, Ricky." He said.

"S—sorry." I muttered. I heard more taunting words, but I blocked them out.

James brushed away some hair off of my face. My breath hitched, and my hands made their way to James, on top of my stomach.

"Calm down." He told me as I started breathing faster. "You're going to hyperventilate."

"It hurts." I muttered. He nodded. If I wasn't bleeding out, I would have noticed how close he was getting. Not physically, though he was close physically, but emotionally. He sat down, giving up on my not bleeding out. He put my head in his lap, looking down at me as I looked up at him. His face was covered in bruises and cuts.

"It's going to be okay, you're going to be okay." He told me in a hushed voice, but it raised the question: would I be okay?

My breathing hitched again. James was crying. I might've been crying.

My eyes closed on their own.

"Ricky no!" James shouted. "Ricky please stop." His voice wobbled.

And then everything went dark.

I woke up. Wow, that was an accomplishment in itself.

"James?" I muttered.

"Hey." He said. He was beside me, sitting down on the grass.

"Am I dead?" I asked.

"Do you look dead?"

"I guess not." I took the time to study my surroundings. I was lying down on a blanket, it was bloody. I had a bandage around my stomach, also bloody. James didn't have anything except for bandages around his hands. The sun was setting, feeling much more pretty than it should've been, especially when we were both dying.

"Is scarlet back?" I asked. His face changed into something for a fraction of a second and then back to normal.

"No, she's not." He said.

"My stomach still hurts."

"You got impaled with a knife. Again. What did you expect?" He asked.

"That it was just a dream and I'd be back at home and you wouldn't be dead." I said. The light around James flickered a bit as he laughed sadly. "Thanks for... doing that by the way," I said, my words slurring together.

"Yeah, well don't expect it to happen again." James said.

"I'm not."

"Good." I studied his face. Most of the bruises and cuts were gone. "It doesn't hurt anymore." he told me.

"You sure?" I asked.

"Im sure."

"How long... was I out for?" I asked him, propping myself onto my elbows, even though it caused a massive amount of pain. He shrugged.

"A few hours at the most. Not much." I blinked.

"Is it bad to wish I was dead-dead?" He laid down beside me.

"Nope." He said, popping the p.