Tragedy ✔️

Chapter 23

Traitor:

That is a word used to describe "a person who betrays a friend, country, principle, etc."

Friend:

"a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection..."

This floats in my mind as I sit in the tight room, with the doorframe too small for my prosecutor to fit through easily. Fighting the door frame like always, she finally beats it in their match.

Ms. Pudge sits across from me in her new desk as her old one was charred to ash by the king of Dead Disney Land. She cracks her knuckles and places her hands flat on the desk, her face so tranquil that it makes me feel like I am being rewarded.

Oh, how the mind is tricked.

"Colin..." she begins. It is all she says and we just sit there for a minute, staring each other down, but it doesn't feel like just a minute. "When security found you on the top of the building unconscious, do you remember how you got there?"

I want to tell her. I want to tell her everything, but how can I when I am a traitor. Not only to Charlotte, but to everyone here who is risking their souls. I could've saved them, but I didn't because I chose to save only one.

"I know this is hard," she continues, "I know you feel responsible for losing Charlotte but we will find her."

She's dead. She's never coming back and we'll never see her again because of me. Even if she's not dead yet, she will soon be.

"The psychiatrist said you aren't talking because of trauma. That your mind turned off speech to heal. But I think it's just because you're scared of what the truth will bring." She leans in forward and grabs my hand. She gives me a warming smile and tightness her grip. Not a threating grip, more like a reassuring grip.

"Hey, bud," she says in a way I've never knew she was capable of, "We're friends. Not only friends, but companions of war. We have been through a lot. I know we had a rough start. I destroyed your mother..."

My eyes have been gazing down at my mud crusted red shoes this entire time, but at the sound of a word that was once so familiar ten years ago, that faded away for seven years, and now just  regained its meaning, my heart breaks all over again. Now, she has her gaze down.

"I think about it every night, you know?" her voice cracks, water forming in lowered eyes, "How I separated a family that was already separated for so long. I see myself every night under my closed eye lids. I see myself destroying someone's hope, happiness, and love. I cry myself awake, wanting to get rid of myself to end this misery."

The harder you fight, the less you can contain it. Tears threaten to fall from my eyes as well. A river is already formed on Ms. Pudge's face that are full of guilt and sorrow. I do feel sorry for her, but also for me. She was my mother. She deserved better after death than this. But so did Charlotte. Ms. Pudge and I are so alike in many ways. But hearing her say she would rather destroy herself than bare the burden is enough for me to lift her eyes up. And I do.

I make her eyes meet mine and I give her a reassuring squeeze back. I can hear a tear of mine drop on the desk as I tell her what I should have said a long time ago, "I forgive you."

He lips starts quivering and her left eye starts twitching. She tries to control it by blinking faster but that only causes more tears to come tumbling down. But through the waterworks I can see her smile. She's laughing and staring up to the ceiling, taking deep breathes of air. She suddenly looks back at me in a quick movement and gives me a big, teeth-filled smile. I can't help but smile back.

"Oh," she says, standing up from her chair, "come here, you."

She extends her arms wide open and I leap from my chair, my heart feeling a weight lift from it. I reach her and she gives me a big bear hug we both really needed.

Forgiveness:

"the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven."

We stay like that for a good amount of time, taking in the positive, and extracting the negative. It never crossed my mind when I started working at 6x3 that my supervisor would become someone so influential in my afterlife. That she would manipulate me into destroying my sister. That she would send me to Earth on a mission to kill innocent people. That  she would then destroy my mother before my eyes. That we would work together to find people, special people to fight a war that no random person can fight. And finally, that I would forgive her, and we would become the best of friends.

I move my mouth to her right ear and whisper, "The king has Charlotte. I let him take her. To save Mandy."

We depart from the embrace and she puts her hands on my shoulders. She stares at me but there's something I feel around her. Like the same way a dog senses fear in someone, I sense compassion in Ms. Margaret Pudge.

"I would do the same," she whispers, "for my daughter."

"You can take me now," I say, "Lock me up. I'm sure there's a punishment for what I did."

"Colin-" Ms. Pudge is cut off by a man who barges into the room dressed in a red military uniform, wearing a red helmet that covers his entire head, his face included, except for his eyes. He is holding a gun with the shape of an AK- 47 but the color red.

"Ma'am," says the man, "We need you to come with us."

"Is there a problem?" says Ms. Pudge.

"No, but we need to clear some things up with Mr. West and we think you're the best help. I'll escort you to where we will talk and another guard will take Colin to his room."

"Okay," she says, "Can you give us a minute?"

The guard steps aside by the door without saying a word. He stands up straight and still like a statue, his gun lowered, but his finger on the trigger.

Ms. Pudge walks toward me and hugs me once again saying really loud, "I'll see you later, Colin. Remember what the doctor told you. Also, make sure you're eating well."

Her voice is too... exaggerated. She stresses the last syllables, and her voice is a little more high pitched than normal. I also see that her face doesn't match her voice. Her words are happy and energetic while the look in her eyes is stern and bold.

She then leans in and whispers in my ear, "Don't trust him. It isn't what it seems. Find Charlotte. Save the world." She breaks away and gives me a big smile.

"Goodbye, Colin," she says happily, but soft. She walks toward the guard and he opens the door for her.

Just as they slip out, her trying to casually get out, another guard comes in. Same uniform and same posture. He shuts the door behind him and takes out something shiny from his back pocket. It's a pair of handcuffs.

"What are those for?" I ask.

"Just for precaution," he says.

Before he can take the first step towards me, I shoot a blast of magic at him, sending him crashing back into the wall. He hits his head and falls unconscious on the floor. I run to him and kick him in the head to make sure he won't wake up.

I sprint out the door and run as fast as I can to who-knows-where. The warning Ms. Pudge gave me. What does she mean? Who can't I trust? Why was the guard about to cuff me? All of this falls on me as I run. I must find Ms. Pudge and ask her for a further explanation.

Just as I reach the end of the long corridor, I see the same guard that left with Ms. Pudge, exit from the last door of the hallway. I hide around the corner until he passes by and I run into the room he came out of.

I enter the room backwards and close the door behind me. When I turn around, I fall to the ground screaming and gasping for air, as I see Ms. Pudge's red glowing body pixelate bit by bit, and then turn into a pile of ash.