Two Worlds around Us

12. The Epiphany

The next morning after breakfast, everyone was doing something. Kris was revising and I was told not to disturb him, Agnes was.. well.. I don't know what she was doing. Mr and Mrs. Fox were both out doing something for the paper. That left the house empty. Well, almost empty. It seemed to be only me and Ash that weren't actually doing anything.

For a while, we both sat in silence in his room. Ash was curled up, his head held between his legs by his arms, which rest atop his head. He didn't look right at all. It seemed like whatever I had told him last night had either really upset him or made him reach some kind of epiphany.

"Are you alright?" I asked quietly.

"Y-yeah, just thinking." He replied equally as softly.

"About what?" I asked.

"Just.. stuff.." He replied.

"Like what?" I asked.

"You know when you're doing stuff and you don't really care?" He asked.

"Yeah." I replied.

"Then suddenly you realise you should care and that there's so many things you didn't realise you wanted to care about?" He asked.

"Yeah.." I replied.

"I'm having one of those moments," He said. "When you told me I could have died last night, I realised how careless I am and how much I take for granted."

"You're not careless," I said, moving closer to him. "You just make a few quick decisions that don't go in your favour." Ash sighed.

"I wish there was a way to stop my brain thinking I'm an awful person." He said, taking his head out from between his legs and looking at me.

"Usually when I'm upset, I go somewhere that I find peaceful and relaxing," I said "I sometimes go there with a comforting friend if I'm feeling really down."

"You're my friend, right?" He asked.

"Of course I am!" I replied. Ash smiled.

"Thanks, that means a lot. It really does," He said. "I know where we could go."

"Where?" I asked.

"I'll show you." Ash replied, getting up. I followed him out of his bedroom and down the corridor where he opened the front door and darted off into the darkness.

We continued walking down dark, cold corridors until I started to hear a noise. It sounded like water. I mean, we were in a sewer after all, so it wasn't exactly uncommon to hear water. I turned a corner and was greeted with a bridge leading to an unknown area of the tunnels on the other side. In the middle of said bridge was a cascading curtain of beautiful pearl-like water, elegantly gushing towards an unknown destination far below our feet.

"This is it." Ash said, his voice echoing around the room as he sat on the side of the bridge, his feet dangling off the edge.

I sat next to him, doing the same thing. It really was a beautiful location. Everything was calm, no-one was there to get us to do anything. It was just perfect.

"You know, I've been thinking," Ash said suddenly. I looked at him. "What's your world like?"

"Pretty much exactly like this," I replied. "Except there's less talking animals and crazy deluded farmers roaming around."

"Is there anything that you recognise from here?" Ash asked.

"There's this big tree that I saw just before I came here that I saw earlier," I replied. "There's also the train track and my housing estate."

"Are you scared?" He asked.

"Scared of what?" I asked.

"Scared of what's going on back at home, scared of dying in this world, heck even scared of me." He replied.

"There are times I worry about home. I just don't know what's going on back there. I have no idea if time's frozen there, I don't know if people are looking for me, I don't know how much time's passed." I said.

"I guess you could say I worry about the same things sometimes." Ash said.

"How so?" I asked.

"Sometimes I worry about other people worrying. You worrying about your home worries me like I'm in your shoes or something." He replied. For once, I seemed to understand Ash. I did the same thing sometimes.

"I do that too." I said.

"You do?" He asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "I think we resonate quite a lot."

I could see Ash wanted to do something, but I had no idea what it was. He also looked scared to do it.

"What?" I asked. Ash continued to stare at me for a moment. Then, he did something unsuspected. He leaned in and hugged me. I froze. Why was he hugging me?

"Thank you," He said. "Not a lot of people understand me, but you seem to."

"That's okay," I said, putting my arms around him and hugging him back. "Are you feeling better now?"

"Much." He replied, pulling out of the hug.

"Should we go back?" I asked. Ash thought for a moment.

"Without having at least a little fun?" He asked, smirking.

"Like what?" I asked. He looked at the waterfall. I wasn't getting the hint, and it caught me off guard. Ash suddenly slapped the water with his paw, sending tons of the stuff in my direction, splashing me in the face. "Oi! This is my only set of clothes!"

"Better win then." Ash replied, doing the same thing again. I swung twice as much water in his direction, nearly drenching the poor fox.

We played like that for ages until we looked like drowned rats, when we realised we'd have to return to the house looking like this. As we made our way back, we shared a laugh at how angry everyone would get.