"Truth or Dare, Chi. What Will it be?"

"Truth or dare Chi. What will it be?"

-

Part One, Truth:

Larrikin sat in his bedroom, examining his hands as they shook. His tremor had gotten worse. Much worse. Everything had happened so quickly. Chi had given birth to a child who, despite his best efforts, wasn't his but Anton's. The two people he'd ever loved were now engaged with a beautiful baby boy and Larrikin was, once again, alone. He glanced at the bathroom before shaking his head. "I can't..." He muttered to himself, looking down at the ground.
His phone screen lit up with a text and he glanced at it, sighing. He ran a hand through his hair as he picked it up, checking the message.

"Hey Babe. Xxx. Can I come round your place?"

Larrikin bit his lip. In all that had happened lately he'd forgotten about Eirik, his boyfriend.

"Not tonight love, I'm busy." He replied, getting a response immediately.

"You're always busy. What's up?"

"I can't do this now."

"I'm ringing."

Lar sighed as he picked up. "What is it?"
"Babe, calm down. I just want to see if you're alright."
"I'm fine."
"Lar... Please. Talk to me. What have you been doing the past few nights that meant you couldn't see me."
"I have a life outside of you, you know." He snapped.
"Clearly." Eirik replied, upset.
"Look this isn't the time to talk about that."
"Then when is? Lar, I can't do this anymore..."
"Eirik... Sweetie..."
"Don't 'sweetie' me. Lar I'm sick of waiting for you to get back to me. Waiting to find out if you're ok. I can't do this anymore."
"Then leave." He whispered, his voice shaking as much as the phone in his hands.
"I love you. But I can't be with you. And I know what you did..."
"I love you too. And I'm sorry."
"No you don't. You don't love me. You love Chimera. And that's ok. But I can't be with you anymore. I love you." And as the called ended, so did Larrikin's composure. He sobbed, collapsing against the bed and weeping. Weeping for all the people he had lost. Weeping for all the people he had pushed away. Weeping because the truth is, in the end, he is always unlovable and always alone.

-

Part Two, Dare:

It takes about 3,024,000 seconds to die of starvation.
About 720 seconds to bleed to death.
300 seconds to die from hanging
180 seconds to drown.
14 seconds to die from strangling.
But none of these ways were very effective for suicide, Larrikin found. Starvation took way to long, he knew from experience. Drowning involved a lot of will power to stay under, or concrete... Hanging involved leaving too much evidence and that's two whole minutes of hanging there waiting for death. Strangulation involved a second party and, well, no one would ever agree. Bleeding to death however, was the most favourable at this point. All he had to do was what he normally did, just going a bit further. But still, he thought that was rather mundane. So he was going to pull a Sherlock. He wasn't afraid of heights, so that made things easier, but as he walked up the stairs he was afraid. Afraid of leaving her. How would she cope without him? Sure she had Shudder now, and a child, but she did care about him. He sighed and pushed those thoughts aside along with the door as he made his way onto the roof. He'd only told one person he was doing this but that one person was not the one standing there on the roof.
"You can't do this Lar. You just can't." Chimera sobbed, rushing towards him. His breath hitched and he stepped past her, not meeting her gaze. "I have to Chi, I have to."
"This? This is not the answer."
"I can't..."
"Yes you bloody well can. Just because I'm with Anton and you're not!" She yelled.
"It's not him. It's you."
She paused, looking at him. "What?!"
"I don't love him. I love you. And I can't live with you two happy together with... With a family... All the things I wanted when we were together. I just can't."
She slapped him. "You stupid, ginger fool." She cursed before cupping his face in her hands and kissing him strongly. He gasped quietly, kissing her back but only for a moment before pulling away.
"It's too late now, alright? I've made up my mind."
"You can't do this to me. You can't leave me."
"Do you remember when we first met?" He asked, walking towards the edge of the building slowly.
"Yes? What does that have to do with anything."
"Truth or dare Chi, what will it be?"
"I'm not playing one of your stupid games right now. Get away from the edge!"
"I chose dare, and this time, I'm not backing out."

And he took the final step off the building, plummeting to the ground below.

It took Larrikin less than a second to hit the asphalt below.

It took the paramedics 487 seconds to arrive at the scene.

And it took a month for Larrikin to finally wake up from the coma.