Keia

Chapter 5: The First Loop (Lyle)

  Lyle awkwardly pats Autumn's head after taking him outside. "H-hey, I'm not very good at this. How can I get you to calm down?" he asks bluntly. Autumn clings onto Lyle and sobs heavily into his shoulder. "T-There there.." Lyle says with a forced smile. He had seen Autumn comfort others hundreds of times with other friends, how was he so good at it? Normally he would ask Autumn for help with this, but he wasn't exactly... available. The music playing outside the house didn't help slow down Autumn's thinking, and Lyle whispers to Autumn. "So.. um.. whose blood is this?"

Autumn struggles to force out a syllable, making some sobbing heaving sounds and gripping tightly onto Lyle's shirt. 

"I can't help if I don't know," Lyle says, he attempts to make it sound heartfelt, but he comes off sounding more like a critical mother than anything. 

"Keia's dead" Autumn heaves out. Lyle shakes his head.

"That doesn't sound right, Autumn," he says. "Where is she?" Autumn points in the direction of the house.

"H-her body is in the bathroom," he says

 "I'll prove to you she just had an accident or something. I'll check" Lyle gently lets go of Autumn and lets him sit down on the ground. He didn't fully consider the possibility that police may stop by to see what was wrong, but he was more focused on taking the most direct approach to calming Autumn down. Why did Autumn's friends pick him to comfort his poor sobbing friend? This was probably the dumbest choice they could've made. Hell, Robin would've even been a better pick. She was drunk out of her mind, but still had more emotional knowledge drunk than he had when sober. Lyle makes his way back into the house to check on Keia. 

Upon re-entering the home, something felt different. The air was... woozy? Everything seemed to bend and warp upon looking at it, even the sounds of the music around him felt... wrong? "H-hey.. dude" Lyle hears a voice out from behind him. He whips around to see the voice was Andy. 

"Andy, are you alright?" Lyle says. Andy shakes his head and stumbles over. At first, he assumed that Andy was just as drunk as Robin, but the way that Andy stumbled seemed too forced for it to be an effect of alcohol. It looked like something was pushing him over. 

"Some weird shit is going down in here.." he says slowly as if trying to remember what syllables made up his sentence. Lyle starts to take a good look at Andy, and he notices something.

His eyes had no color at all

"Andy, did something get in your eyes?" Lyle asks. He felt his heart pounding in his chest, a sure sign of fear. Something was horribly wrong. 

"No, I can still see. Just.. what I'm seeing isn't right." Andy says, his voice almost a whisper. Lyle began to wonder if he should just run. Grab Autumn's hand after charging out of that house, something was happening and if he stayed much longer he would die. Lyle decided that he had to get out of there now, and began to hold his breath and ran out of the house. 

Lyle burst outside to see that Autumn had thrown up again, and was still shaking. He picked up Autumn by the arm and began to run as quickly as he could.

"L-lyle?" Autumn croaks.

"A chemical must've gotten released in the house," Lyle says in his bravest voice. "I'm taking you to a hospital."

"Lyle..." Autumn tries to protest, but Lyle ignores him.

"We're taking you to a hospital, and you are going to be ok," Lyle says firmly. 

He was crying.

 "I'll... I'll save you, ok? Just.. stay with me."