The Fading Oddities of Nate Smith (A NateWantsToBattle Fanfiction) --COMPLETE--

Chapter Twenty

Æ~Nate~Æ

Eleven months.

That was how long I'd been traveling. I'd gotten off the train to Tallahassee during one of the stops to get something to eat, but by the time I'd gotten back, the stupid thing had left without me. That city was no longer my next destination; I had to find another place to wander to.

I'd hitchhiked, taken busses, more trains, and walked for hundreds - maybe thousands - of miles, going anywhere I wanted to go with really no true destination in mind. Laying low and making sure no one recognized me was the extremely easy part; the hard part was actually traveling alone.

Ever since I got off the train, I'd noticed that the exact same cat I met on the first night of my escape had been following me around from state to state. The same gold eyes, the same mysterious flick of the tail, the same quiet meow...I thought I was going crazy, but everyone I met would make a remark at how adorable "my cat" was, and it'd remind me that I still had my sanity with me.

Honestly, it was cute for the first few weeks of traveling with me, but after a few months, it started to become a nuisance. That thing had followed me everywhere, and no matter what I did to get rid of it, it'd come back again to just annoy me some more.

I guess it was a curse and a blessing. As much as it irritated me out of my mind, trying to get rid of it was a way to pass the time as I traveled from one place to another. Eventually, it'd followed me all the way to my original destination, Tallahassee, and one night, while walking alongside the road, I decided I'd finally had enough.

"Jesus, are you ever gonna stop following me?" I growled at the thing, bag slung over my shoulder as we strolled down the freeway. The roads were empty, save for a few street lights and a complex of buildings not too far away. We were standing on the edge of the road, just next to a steep hill and a long drop to the other streets far below. The cat simply meowed and flicked its tail at me, the same response it gave me every other time I asked it that question.

Suddenly, I stopped walking and sharply turned around, an angry glare flashing across my eyes. "Okay, that's it," I said, raising my voice by the moment, "I'm sick and tired of you always coming back no matter what I do to get rid of you! Can't you see I'm tired of you?! I JUST WANT YOU TO LEAVE ME ALO-"

My sentence was cut short as my words choked up in my throat. My foot slipped against a patch of loose dirt, and I lost my traction. Next thing I knew, the view of the highway, the cat, and my bag had been replaced with a blur of overgrowth and underbrush, and my ears were filled with the snapping and cracking of what I prayed to God were twigs. My whole body slammed against tree trunks and roots, scraping myself against rocks and pointy twigs. My head suddenly smacked square into a tree root, and the world around me was sent spinning as I tumbled down the hill.

At some point, I stopped rolling and the world stopped spinning and the cracking noises ceased, and I found myself lying on my side on the right-hand shoulder of the road I could see from the first one I was trekking higher above. I tried to get up, but my senses were too blurred together for me to do anything but groan in pain.

My consciousness slowly faded in and out, and the last thing I saw before blacking out was the very cat that sent me falling from grace.

---

I can't handle this anymore.

This whole thing with Oracle, Chasseur, this college...everything. I can't take it anymore.

I finally understand what Ora is trying to do now. I finally understand why Chasseur has been following me all this time. It's all falling together...but at the same time, I'm falling apart because of it.

Olive is trying to save me. So is Tess, and Leo, and Aphrodite and Damian and everyone. I can't let them find out who I am, though. I can't go back to who I once was. Not after all that's happened to me.

I needed to end it somehow.

I clench my fists and stand up, leaving the dorm in quick paces. Behind me, I can hear the loud, panicked "meow" of Chasseur, and the furball brushes up against my leg with pleading eyes.

"No." I growl, shoving the vermin aside, "I'm done with you. I'm done with everything. I can't do this anymore..."

Chas hisses and bounds up in front of me again, ears back and fur bristling as the desperate look in his eyes is replaced with all-out aggression.

"Don't you get it? It's over."

With that, I push Chasseur aside again and continue my walk out of the dorm hall, heading up the stairs, and eventually I find myself at the roof.

The campus is peaceful from this high up. Barely any sound can make it up here, leaving me with nothing but the wind and near silence. It's almost like I've found myself in the closest place to Heaven...

Up ahead is the edge of the roof. As I slowly take a step forward, I take a shaky breath and begin speaking aloud.

"Hey, Hunter..." I say, my volume so quiet it's almost a whisper, "I'm so sorry it all came to this. I'm so sorry for everything I did...I was so stupid. I wish I could go back in time and stop this from ever happening. Maybe then, I could find a way to cope with it all...maybe then, you'd still be here.

I hate that I have to end it this way. But hey, don't worry. I'll be there soon to come apologize to you in person."

Tears are beginning to steam down my cheeks as I step up on the ledge. The long drop below make my legs feel weak, but I don't give in just yet; I wasn't finished.

"Hunter, will you forgive me? Or do you hate me for what I did to you? If I come see you again, will you be angry at me? I hope not...all I want is to see you again..."

I can barely talk anymore. My nose is stuffed and my voice is cracking too much to even make any noise. My eyes shimmer with hot tears that stream down my face and onto the concrete at my feet.

For a moment, I change my mind. Something deep within me tells me not to do this, that something is missing and I'm not ready to leave yet. But as my senses return to me, I realize that this is my final decision. There's only one way out of this, and this is probably the only chance I'll get at it.

Heart pounding in my head as despair and adrenaline course through my veins, I raise my arms out to my sides and look up at the sky, closing my eyes as I cry the last tears I'll ever cry. "I'm coming, Hunter..."

"NATHAN!"

I don't turn around. My feet have already left the edge.