Withered

Chapter 6

At first, there's only silence between the two of us. Silence which is at first simply filled with my brain pulsing with its own heartbeat as a unmercifully tight band squeezes against my skull. My arm burning within, as the area around it gets pierced with icy needles.

Reuben eventually snorts loudly, pushing against my legs. I roll my eyes at him, shaking my head as he whines at me. I'm not telling Lukas, he's probably super worried about a bunch of other stuff right now. I'm not bothering when with something I can just tough out myself. Once the Order gets their minds in the right place, which can't be too long from now, I'll deal with it. But I can tough it out until then. 

He coughs awkwardly as we turn a corner. "So I know we haven't exactly been friends, and I don't know you every well, but is there... is there something wrong?"

"You mean something other than the world ending?" Reuben snorts at me again, nudging against my weary legs again.

"Well, uh, I meant with you personally." Lukas scratches the back of his head as we walk, which is thankfully not at a very fast pace. "I asked Axel and Olivia about it, but they said you're fine. Probably just stressed or something."

Reuben, again, squeals at me, which makes two of us frustrated. "Hmm... yeah, I'd say there's a lot to stress about right now." Reuben snorts, and I lightly glare down at his head as we walk forward.

"I'm serious Jesse, I've never known you to be weak, but it really seems like your struggling and-"

"It does?" I mentally kick myself, I need to just tough this out. Blurting that question out probably didn't make it any better. Certainly not helping my headache or arm at any rate.

Lukas's eyes shy away, mouth pressing together in a frustrated line before they snap up again. "Yes, you are. You always seem out of breath, and you're basically dead to the world when you were asleep-"

"Lukas, you don't need to wor-"

Reuben squeals loudly, cutting me and hitting against my left leg. With a huff, I reach down with my right hand and rub his head. Raising an eyebrow as he gives me the stink eye.

"What's up with you Reuben?" He snorts at me, my four legged friend rolling his eyes at me. I know exactly what's bothering him, and yeah, I still don't really want Lukas to know about the purple parasites crawling up my arm. Burning every cell they come into contact to.

When I stand back up again, my legs groaning at me, Lukas has his mouth open, but my attention snaps to something green behind him.

"Creeper!"

The pulsing thing comes into light, hissing furiously. I grab Lukas and yank him away-

My ears ring and I'm thrown forward, vision gone as my balance gets thrown out the window. I stagger, my entire body recoiling and weakened by the explosion. I feel my feet slip on something, gravity pulling me back  as I scramble to make sense of everything.

Confused or not, I tell when I start to fall. My arms shoot out, my right arm thankfully latches onto something and supports most of my weight. But as the world sharpens back up again, the muscles in that arm quickly wear thin. I won't be able to pull myself up, not when I just have my left arm dangling helplessly as it hurts more than my right.

"Ohmygosh! Jesse!" Lukas thrusts one of his arms down, eyes wide. "Here! Grab my hand!"

I bite my lip, but nevertheless shoot my left arm up. Lukas clamps down on my forearm, the gray skin seething as his fingers dig into my arm. My breath staggers as I try to ignore it, focusing on using my right arm to push me up.