Follow The Dark (BxB)

Chapter One Mayes_Vs_Universe

~Chapter 1~ Mayes_Vs_Universe

*1918*

I sat alone in the trenches, looking up at the war torn sky. The sound of bombs and gun shots breaking through my mind. Rain drops started to fall from the sky and roll down my dirty skin, I don't remember the last time I had a proper shower, a proper bath with soap and bubbles, it's the small things that you really miss.

You miss the feel of clean clothes across your freshly scrubbed skin, the feel of chocolate melting on your tongue, the sound of a child laughing, the smell of freshly mowed lawn.

There is nothing that I want more right now than to make the war stop, make mankind stop killing themselves.

I lean my head back against the mud, let the rain soak through my clothes. Back at home something like this would bother me, I'd go inside and close the windows, but now that everything had changed it was something that I welcomed.

For just a moment everything fell silent, it was just a moment but it was enough for my mind to remember what it was like back at home, in the meadow with the horses, the silence, nothing but the sound of your own breath in the foggy air.

I hear footsteps running through the mud and hold the gun tightly in my hands. A familiar face runs around the corner and I remove my finger from the trigger.

"Gabe! Guess what!" My best friend and brother, Zach yells as he runs over.

He's out of breath and has to catch it before he continues.

"What?" I ask, a little shocked by his entrance.

"Grace is pregnant! I'm going to be a father!" He says with excitement and shock the only thing in his voice.

"Congratulations!" I say, getting up from the ground and hugging him to me. "When did you find out?"

"Just then, she sent me a letter saying that she would have liked to tell me in person but knew it was impossible." He says, pulling away from me. "I just can't believe that it's finally happening after all of these years of trying."

I see it before it hits the ground, before the hiss begins, before the tightness takes over my lungs.

Zach turns and sees what it is while I quickly snap into action and grab the gas mask from the side of the trench, my heart tightens when I notice that there's only one here. Zach notices too.

"There must be another one somewhere around here." He says, already searching around for one, coughing in the process.

"It's no use Zach, it'll be too late." I say, feeling my throat and chest struggle under the gas. I thrust the gas mask into his body, "Take it, if either of us are going home it should be you."

He shakes his head and pushes it back towards me. "No, I can't just leave you here to die!"

"Yes you can, and that's what you're going to do because you have a family to go back to, you have a child." I say, "I have no one to go back to, if I let you die here your wife is going to mourn over you, your child will never know who you are. You have people that will miss you."

It clicks in his mind, I see it fall into pieces in his mind, like the last puzzle piece falls into place. This time when I place the mask in his hand he doesn't reject it. "I'm not going to leave you though." He says, "I'm going to stay here until..."

He doesn't finish, he doesn't need to because we both know what comes after until. "I wouldn't want anyone else." I say, tears from the gas and my heart breaking leaking onto my face, mixing with the rain and falling down my face.

Zach places the gas mask over his face and I see the rise and fall of his chest taking in nothing but clean air. It's then that I notice the extent of damage that the gas has done on my body, I notice the numbness in my muscles, the way that when I breathe it's accompanied with a fire.

I don't notice that I'm on the ground until Zach is kneeling next to me.

He says something to me but I don't hear it, either from the gas mask or my ears no longer working properly. "What?" I say, my throat tight and weak.

He just looks and me sad and moves my head so I'm resting on his lap.

Every breath feels like I'm drawing in fire. I feel the numbness roll over my body, feel my mind beginning to slip. I picture the meadow; feel the rain roll down my body. I'm clean again; I'm in fresh clothes, no shoes.

I like that I'm in no shoes, I can feel the grass between my toes; feel the pebbles scratch the base of my feet. I can enjoy the little things again where Zach can enjoy the big things. He can enjoy a lifetime with his child, with his wife and I can play in the meadow.