SPASE

SPASE: CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Maddie wakes on their back still slightly smiling. The grass tickles their thighs just underneath their dress. A tear falls as they take in the bright bluish-purple haze of the sky above them. For a moment, they feel weightless as they imagine themselves among the stars. The smell of grass fills their nostrils. Maddie feels a nudging on their left shoulder. They turn to see Reynolds beginning to lick their arm. His tongue glides along their arm and ends at the crease of their elbow. Maddie giggles as Reynolds tickles their fat as he continues to nudge them with his snout. They continue to lay in the grass until Tyrell decides to gently kick the bottom of their boot.

"Yo, you alive in there? Where in the hell did you go?" Ty questions.

Maddie takes a deep breath in before they speak.

"Back."

Ty looks at Reynolds, who just continues to lay next to Maddie and nuzzle their arm. Reynolds has been through this before with Maddie. They always come back. They're reliable.

"I don't get it," Ty says, confused. "I don't understand what you mean by 'back.'" Tyrell begins to pace back and forth, throwing his arms up when he talks. "You say, 'back,' but do you mean, like, back to the past, back to the future, back to the present, but just somewhere else?"

Ty begins to freak out and speak really fast. It's as if he is speaking his frustrations to the sky and not to them. Maddie lets him go on his rant. Reynolds stops licking Maddie's arm and stares at Ty.

"I just saw you literately vanish... vanish! I thought you were gone! I didn't think you were coming back! You're my only hope to get the fuck outta this place and you just disappear like that?" Ty screams. "How can you just do that to me?"

Maddie continues to lie in the grass, looking at the sky and the stars. They listen, but half of them are having a hard time grasping the words that Melissa had said to the doctor seconds before. Melissa stuck up for them. She believes in them. Maddie feels Melissa's love fill them. It's a love they haven't felt since their mother was alive. Tyrell continues ranting about how they scared him half to death. Reynolds remains calm, with his ears relaxed, drooping beside his head, and his eyes squinting. He listens, knowing that Maddie is always going to come back no matter how many times they are pulled back to reality.

"Fuck, Mad, do you have anything to say?" Ty yells.

Ty's voice echoes throughout the stadium. The echoes jolt Maddie awake from the thoughts running through their mind. They sit up, not even caring about the grass stuck to the back of their dress or head.

"She loves me," Maddie whispers to themselves and smirks.

Tyrell looks at Reynolds.

Maybe you should explain what happened, darlin'. I think we are losing T, Reynolds relays to Maddie.

Maddie takes his advice.

"Look, I'm sorry if I scared you like that. I can't control when the pulling comes. I just get this feeling in the pit of my stomach. It's almost like I'm riding a rollercoaster and when you just go over a hill, your stomach drops. It's like that, but stronger. It lets me know that it's going to happen. It lets me know that I'm ghostin'."

"Ghosting? What the hell does that mean anyway? You're not dead." Ty snaps back.

"It's the sign I'm going to be pulled back to reality; pulled out of Spase and placed back on Earth."

"But this is reality. Spase is real. Spase is reality for all of us who are stuck here," Tyrell says with an attitude. "We can't go anywhere. Lucky for you, you're special and you can apparently. We're not that special." Tyrell crosses his arms and looks down.

"Look, I didn't ask for this!" Maddie yells. "I didn't ask for this at all. I was chosen. Chosen to help. I don't choose who I help. Y'all come to me! Remember?"

"It wasn't my fault that I ended up here! It's not my fault I'm stuck," Ty yells through tears as he continues to pace back and forth, stopping to throw his hand up in the air occasionally. Maddie stands and plants their feet in the ground and stands as strong as an oak.

"It's not my fault that I'm dead!" Tyrell screams into the air as he collapses to the ground. "It's not my fault. It's not my fault. It's not my fault," he continues to repeat and he hits himself in the chest with clenched fists. His cries boom along the empty, metal stadium seats.

No one hears Ty's cries but Maddie and Reynolds.

Maddie begins to walk closer to Ty. Maddie takes cautious steps, but Reynolds begins to prance in his direction. Confused at Reynolds' happy demeanor, Maddie decides to pick up the pace until they finally reach Tyrell's side. Reynolds knows when it is safe and Maddie trusts his judgment fully. He's their guide after all. Gandalf never steered Bilbo wrong, right?

Reynolds whimpers and lets out a loud howl when he gets to T. Tyrell closes his eyes as tears stream down his face. T collapses to the ground, outstretches his arms, and begins to sob uncontrollably. Reynolds curls up next to Ty, hoping that love can be filtered through him and into Ty. Reynolds licks his right hand. Maddie walks over to Ty and sits next to him, not really knowing what to say or do.

"I can't help when it happens. When it pulls me back to my body. I'm sorry I scared you," Maddie says in a low voice.

Tyrell sniffles and stares directly into Maddie's green eyes that seem to glow.

"I loved him," Ty says through hiccups as he tries to catch his breath. Ty looks Maddie up and down, noticing all of their curves and rolls in their stomach. Although he's gay, he notices the beauty in all of the imperfections. Jealous of the love Maddie feels from Melissa, Ty stares at the ground and picks at the grass on the field. "It's a long story."

Maddie rests their cold hand on Tyrell's shoulder. "I like long stories."

Tyrell touches Maddie's shoulder, closes his eyes, and firmly grips their shoulder. Maddie begins to feel the pulse of electricity as if a vein was connected and blood was rushing to their brain; except this isn't blood.

Vivid images from Tyrell's past electrify Maddie's brain.