A Dance With Death

|| Chapter 29 - Breaking Point ||

                         

If I were human, I would've felt my heart race and my pulse would've quickened. If I were human, I would've had beads of perspiration on my forehead. If I were human, I would've felt my cheeks burn, as they would turn red. My breathing would've became uneven and my hands and feet would've turned cold.

Sadly, I am not human. All I can make out is that my body starts to tremble yet again. Not by the tremors that had happened before, but by seeing my dead friend in front of me. I may not be showing signs of nervousness, but I am. My eyes are unfocused, unable to take a long lingering look at Niall. Whether it's because of fear or guilt, I don't know.

His blue eyes don't even flicker when he looks at me, his eyebrows furrowed with confusion. He doesn't even blink. His hair is ruffled, his blond hair darkened, almost to the point where it's brown. He's dressed in a white T-shirt and black jeans. He doesn't care about all the people around him, not even flinching when they pass by him.

He finally removes his gaze from me, causing me to relax a bit. He looks at the reapers behind me, who too haven't spoken. He bites his lower lip, unsure of what to do or say, just like us. He then looks around the place, eyeing each person who passes by. His face is firm, though he is bewildered.

"A hospital?" he guesses. His accent is quite reminiscent. "What the hell am I doing in a hospital?"

"Niall," I gather the strength to speak. As soon as I say his names, his eyes dart back to mine, making me gulp. "Is it really you?"

He seems unamused by the question, staring at me with a doubtful expression. He narrows his eyes at me. "Of course it's me. The question is, are you Zayn? Or are you another hallucination?"

"Another hallucination?" That seems quite odd. "What do you mean?"

"I see hallucinations now and then. Of you." He looks down at his hands. He opens and closes them, as if he's checking whether they're real or not. "I haven't had them in a long time. The first vision I saw of you was something about you moving to your new apartment or something. These-- these mirages, the seemed to show me your life, after me." He speaks as if he's questioning himself.

He thinks of his appearances as hallucinations. All this time he saw me, he didn't even know he was in the real world. And I thought he had followed me around, watching me all the time. He wasn't in control of what he was doing.

"I am not a hallucination," I insist. His face retorts. "And the previous visions you saw, they weren't hallucinations either. They were real. I am very real. So are these guys behind me." I gesture with my hand at the three reapers. I notice that they're standing a few steps away from me than where they were before. "You didn't know?"

He shakes his head. "I-I don't understand." He faces the ground, his face masked with bewilderment.

Before I can say anything, I hear Althea's faint hiss behind me, "Zayn, step back. Now."

I glare at her and quietly mouth an angry 'no'. I turn back to Niall and ask, "Do you remember anything that happened in the previous few days?" I want to know whether he really killed Ava or not.

"I don't remember anything," he shrugs.

He didn't do it. "It's okay. You don't need to," I explain. "This all may seem a lot confusing to you, but you've got to listen to me. You were killed by a very powerful being. He's the farthest thing from human. And he's killing more people. But we're finding a way out of this mess. You've just got to trust us. Trust me." I stop, thinking that whatever I said to him won't make any sense. Actually, I'm not talking sense. He shouldn't be hearing all of this.