Brady Tyson's Walk Along the Precipice

The Things That Humans Cannot Bear - 15

 This time it felt like I had a dream. A fleeting memory of a warm embrace dances away from me as I stir to life once more, in another new land. Peeling yellow wallpaper, decorated with purple hibiscus flowers, soaks up my exhaustion as I sit up.

The twin mattress groans under my movement, causing the boy in the corner of the room to stir slightly. He must be exhausted though; Tarrance slouches back down with a sigh, a lock of hair shifting from one side of his nose to the other with the motion. His thin jawline clenches; he must be dreaming. Pale fingers twitch against the fabric of his black jeans, pawing for something.

He looks so small. Like the soft morning sun could very well wash him away to the field of reeds.

Of course, I suppose the only reason I feel any bigger than him is because I have some actual meat on my bones.

Again, there's an IV in my arm. I must have been out for a while again, but it's doing its job, and I feel well enough to pull it out. The wound immediately begins to seal. Crossing to the window, my eyes take what feels like forever to adjust to the light. A small town greets me, more modest than Cairo and São Paulo and far more modest than New Adiarca before that. Lettering I can't read peppers the buildings around me. There's a sign directly under me as well. This must be the thirdish floor of this building.

The people on the street are quiet and go about their business modestly. Watching them for a while, I eventually catch wind of some of the things that they say. Duh, I guess we're finally in China. The... second to last Eien branch.

...

There's a sharp pain in my knees where they hit the floor. I can't breathe. My bare feet smack at the tiles underneath me as I try to scramble towards the door, but I slip and fall onto my bed.

"Brady?" Tarrance rubs his eyes as I jerk back towards him. "Everything... alright?"

"I felt like I couldn't..." Placing my hand on my chest, nothing feels amiss. "Tarrance, do you feel like... we've seen way more than we should have?"

"What do you mean?"

"Eternity... Fate. Ragnarök. The old gods. I- I think I've only been staying sane by just rolling with the punches so far, but... What happens when this is over? How are we supposed to just... go back to normal after this?"

Tarrance's sharp blue eyes stare back into me. There's his usual slightly terrifying intensity, but on top of that it feels like there's something else behind his eyes. A warm feeling... that I think I've seen before. From Mold.

"Shouldn't you be telling me?" He lets out a slight laugh. It doesn't compel me to join in. "You have, what? Six years on me? What do you expect me to say?"

"..."

"I don't know." He looks down at his feet. "Honestly, I look at you and think 'wow, what a crazy life. That's a special person.' And I just kinda assume you know how to deal with all this. I mean, you've been dealing with it perfectly well so far. You won Ragnarök. You got us this far in this adventure-"

"Just us." I spit out. "I couldn't really keep all of us together."

"Well, that's the thing." He sighs and stands up, grabbing a remote that had been buried between bedsheets. He presses a button on it before continuing; "You have a crazy life. But if you do, then what about me? I have two worthless shitheads for parents who left me to find food for myself in the streets half the time as a child. Then Akil finds me one day and offers me the deal of a lifetime, and before I know it I'm speaking to the fucking Egyptian god of death."