Into Darkness We Walk

Nevermore Evermore

Something was wrong with him; Gavin could feel it. He was twitching uncontrollably and unable to sit still. Scratching his itchy red arms, he felt like hurting someone in the worst ways he could think of, and it made him sick. He wanted to vomit. "... vin... Gavin, stop! STOP!"

Hands grabbed Gavin's wrists and held them up, snapping Gavin out of his reverie and making him lift his head. "What?" He asked in confusion.

Evan was staring at him with this... strange look on his face. "Look what you did!" He exclaimed, shaking the wrists he was still holding. Gavin lowered his head to his arms and let out a gasp.

His arms were red, spotted with small red dots, and his arms were bleeding in some spots. His eyebrows raised. "Oh my God..."

What had happened? "Evan... what's going on? What is this?"

Evan's expression was one of sad confusion. "Don't you remember?"

A memory danced around in Gavin's head, and it took some effort to pin it down. When he had it, he told him, "I remember being really angry... and wanting to hurt someone, but... something told me I shouldn't. That I should wait. It hurt, somehow."

Evan furrowed his brows, as if thinking of something. After a short while, he lifted his head to Gavin. "I think I know what to do," he began.

"What?" Gavin asked.

"YOU need to learn how to fight,"

"Wha- fight? What for?"

"To relieve stress. To protect yourself, to let out your anger, a number of reasons." Evan shrugged, standing. He held out his hand and helped pull Gavin up.

The latter dusted off his shirt and pants. "Well, alright, I guess it's worth a shot,"

Evan smiled. "Sweet; I'll get the sword."

As he ran off in the direction of a polluted stream, Gavin called after him with a worried frown, "Wait, what sword?"

From a distance, he heard Evan reply, "You'll see!"

~

Swinging the sword around in his hand, Evan smiled, not bothering to wipe the blood off of his face. "Ok, you ready?"

Gavin remained in his defensive stance, whose blood he did not seem to mind having all over his face, arms and hands. "Yeah, bring it on," he made the "come at me" motion with his left hand.

Smirking, Evan twirled in a circle as he swung the sword around and around, bringing it down onto Gavin, who just barely gripped the sides of the blade with his pointer finger and thumb while sliding out from its path. Releasing the blade, he countered with a hard karate chop to Evan's wrist, who let go of the sword and allowed Gavin to grab it and, with lightning speed, hold it to his neck.

Evan smiled with pride, lightly rubbing his hurt wrist; it would be fine within the hour. "Great job, bro; let's break for now, we'll do more later, maybe tomorrow or something,"

Gavin nodded. "Alright."

~

"Kill them all burn them burn burn burn burn burn-"

Gavin sat up with a gasp, awoken from his sleep by strange voices whispering close by.

Unbeknownst to him yet, those voices were closer than he thought; inside-his-head closer.

When he looked around, he heard nothing except for the slow breathing of Evan by his side. Looking down at him, the feeling of fear slowly welled up from his insides. He tried to dam it up, but it wouldn't; what Evan had revealed to him was simply too much to bear. He killed his own brother, Gavin thought that was worthy of fear.

Just then, the sound of Evan's voice interrupted his thoughts. At first, Gavin couldn't make out what he was saying, but as he drew closer and Evan's voice louder, he could hear what it was. "CJ... CJ, please don't... don't..."

Gavin frowned. CJ? Like his dead younger brother CJ? "Don't die, please, I didn't... I didn't mean it! Please! CJ! NO! Pleahease..."

Now Evan began to cry. No, that wasn't right; he was sobbing. Wailing, from the deepest parts of his blackened, hardened soul. "CJ... CJ... I miss you, baby bro..."

This... this was too much. Gavin felt the emotional wall he'd built come crumbling down as his heart gutted. Tears fell from his eyes to the black earth below, which greedily soaked them up. Evan obviously felt horrible for what he'd done, and the guilt was killing him.

The term soon became literal as Evan began to shake uncontrollably, bloody foam coming out of his mouth and blood out of his nose, ears and eyes. Horrified, Gavin hurried to wake him up. Shaking him, he cried, "Evan! Evan, wake up! EVAN! Oh crap..."

Like a switch had been thrown, Evan stopped shaking and his eyes fluttered open. When they did, they were tinged yellow from the bloody tears. Frowning, his eyes darted around, taking in his surroundings.

When they found nothing of concern, they came back to Gavin. "What is it?" He asked, sitting up. Feeling the blood and spit on his face and the sides of his face, he wiped it away as he waited for Gavin to reply; which he did, with tear-stained cheeks and disbelieving eyes. "Nothing; I was just, scared."

Evan frowned further in question, but said no more. "Well, alright, then. Since we're both awake, how 'bout we get a head start?"

Anything was better than sitting alone with his thoughts, so Gavin agreed. "Sure, definitely."