The End of Everything

Departure

Thia's POV

When I finally came to, it was dark. I had no idea how long I'd been unconscious or how much time had passed but I remembered falling. I remembered the horrible sound. I remembered Andy.

Sitting up caused my head to flare in pain but I ignored it. The moon was nearly gone tonight, as if it were grieving the loss of something. Just a sliver of it was visible. The weather was colder now. Cold enough for my breath to fog in front of me when I exhaled.

I stood shaking from my place in the gravel and glanced about. Andy was laying a meter or so away from me. He was two feet from the edge of the water. He was sprawled out face down in the rocks.

"Andy." Feet digging into the gravel I rushed to where he laid unmoving. The ground was damp where he was laying. Perhaps water. Hands shaking, I struggled to turn him over. He must have been really out of it. "Come on Andy get up. We gotta find Leah and keep going."

My next thought quickly abandoned me. At last I had gathered enough force to roll him onto his back and I wished I hadn't. My heart leapt into my throat and there was no stopping the vomit that came as I turned to puke in the rocks.

His chest was...no I couldn't look at it again. The horrible cracking sound flickered in my head. It had been him. He must have hit something on the way down. It had-it had completely crushed his sternum and ribs. His chest was practically imploded.

With shaking hands, I turned back to face him. Carefully, I undid the buttons of his flannel as some odd part of me wanted to see the damage. His pale skin was now a deep bruise. Internal bleeding had killed him if the fall hadn't already.

The back of his head was split open. Blood had seeped into the rocks. It wasn't water wetting the ground like I'd originally perceived. His eyes were wide and glassy now. He wore a surprised expression on his face. At first it didn't make sense. the reality began to set in and my veins seemed to fill with ice.

"Oh no. No no no." This wasn't supposed to happen. It couldn't. Not so soon. The quest had barely even started! "Andy, come on. This isn't funny."

He didn't respond. He stayed there on his back looking at the sky. My throat felt painfully tight.

"Andy, we have to find Leah. Come on." Shaking his shoulder, I expected him to crack a teasing smile stand up and dust himself off. I would punch him and he'd just laugh it off and call me Kid. "She's gonna be worried about us okay? We gotta get to Italy and find Order remember? Once we do that we can go home like I said."

He was gone. He was gone and I didn't want to believe it. Maybe I could have saved him if I hadn't blacked out. "You were supposed to make it back Andy."

Tears stung at the edges of my eyes. He'd infuriated me so much but as the quest had gone on he seemed to find himself. He seemed to relax. He was a genuinely good person under all of that flare. Like an older brother of sorts.

"You can call me kid, Andy. I won't get mad this time, okay? I promise." The words were futile. Taking a shaky breath I tried to steady myself but I couldn't. I was crying and I couldn't help it.

Andy didn't deserve this. He'd made some mistakes but he'd been good. He was just a kid with a rough start to life. This had been his chance to prove he could be a hero. That he could someone good not just a lost cause.

I looked around for something I could use to help him but there was nothing. It was quite
when the world should have been upset. It should have grieved for the death of such a young person only it didn't seem to care.

When I'd run out of tears to shed a realization settled over me. I couldn't leave him here out in the open. Not like this for scavengers to ravage his body. I couldn't deny him a proper burial or he'd never make it to the underworld.