Call me in the morning,

Truth

I get home, and Raylan is on my bed.

"How and why are you in here?" I groan.

"You know why."

"I don't!"

"You left someone burning in a village?!"

"Wha--oh." Realization hits me. "Raylen, please.. just call me in the morning and we can talk about it."

"I always have to call you in the morning after these things! You're never in the mood."

"Yeah, that's because I'm exhausted!" I argue, not in the mood. "Please, I'm asking you to just call me in the morning. That's it. You can sleep over, for all I care."

"I want answers now! Why are you avoiding this?" He pushes.

"Because it's a heavy subject, Ray! I would tell you if it were an easy story to tell, but it's not! Please, just--"

He gets up and steps closer to me. I back away.

"Just talk to me! I need to know why my best friend left someone in a burning village, or whatever it was!"

"Ray, please just stop!" I shout, accidentally raising my voice. "I--"

"Fine. You want me to leave? I'll leave."

"Wait, Ray!" I hold the door open. "I'll tell you."

His eyes glimmer in the moonlight as he hesitates, stepping inside my apartment.

"So?" He asks, sitting on my bed next to me.

I sigh. Am I really doing this?

"I didn't mean to leave him. I didn't know I left anyone. I was trying to be the.. the great, amazing, super nice good guy everyone likes by saving everyone, and I looked everywhere.

I kept hearing screaming, and I kept looking for them, but I just.. couldn't find them. I looked in one of the buildings, my home of ten years, and saw my mom just sitting there. She was crying, and told me to have this necklace and to leave her." I stopped for a moment, wiping my eyes.

"I didn't know I left anyone. I thought I was hearing my mom screaming, that entire time. When the village finished burning, they didn't find anyone. Just rubble and ashes."

"Oh my god. Toby, I'm so, so sorry." He put my hair behind my ear.

"I know you are." I chuckled, putting my head on his shoulder. He rested his head on mine.

He grabbed my hand, holding it.

"I'm glad you're here, Ray." I smile, letting him hold my hand.

"Me too." He responds, grinning as well.

We sit there for minutes, but it feels like hours. I finally, for once in my life, feel content. I'm letting the world happen. I'm letting myself feel.

For the first time in my life, I finally feel.. happy. But I know it's an illusion. It's never this simple.

He finally takes his head off my shoulder and his expression changes from happy, to nothing.

"Ray?" I look over at him, concerned.

"What's the matter?" he mumbles.

Suddenly, he collapses onto the ground, as if he were being pulled.

"Ray!" I shout, frightened.

Suddenly, I blink, and everything is fine. His head is still on my shoulder.

"What?" I mutter, scooting away from him.

"What's the matter?" He asks again.

That's not his voice.

"What's the matter?" I gap at him. "What's the matter with you?!

"What?" His voice becomes distorted.

"Ray..?" My voice drifts as he grows into something. It's not human. He's not human.

"Is everything okay, Toby?"

I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. How did this happen? How did we go from holding hands, to him standing over me, as something that.. isn't human? I shake my head, as if I'm dreaming. I have to be dreaming.

"Toby~" His voice echoes.

I run to the window, but the sky.. something's wrong with the sky.

The sky is pitch black.

The stars are gone.

The buildings are dripping. I don't know what it is, but it blends into the sky. Almost like a canvas, where someone spilled the black paint over the sky and the buildings.

I feel something on my shoulder. It's sharp.

When I turn around, he's right in front of me.

I scream, louder than I've ever before.

"Why are you screaming? Just think of what I could do now, since.." He motioned towards the window.

When I looked, there was nothing. Everything was gone.Except..

"Hello? Is anyone there?!" Someone screamed in the goo.

"..Tideful?" I stare out the window and at Tideful, his entire body covered in goo as he wandered the streets of what once was the city.

The thing behind me chuckled. "Call him in the morning."

Suddenly, before I could ask what it meant, my vision went black.