Withered

Chapter 9

Step after step I walk away from Lukas, a whole pit of emotions weighing down on my tired bones. My muscles wobbling and crying at me for getting up again, the parasites conducting a sea of misery in the tiny space in my arm.

I mean, I'm right. I have to be. What the heck could telling my friends about this do any good? I should have never even told Lukas, he doesn't need to know either. I've been managing fine, they don't need to be worrying about me.

"Everyone!" I lift my head at Petra, the hazy image giving me more motivation to drag my body around. "We've found Soren's escape!"

Reuben bounds up to me, whining and pushing my legs forward as if to help. I sigh, not even having the energy to bend down and pet him anymore. I'm being to feel reluctant to even speak anymore, not with my throat crawling with phlegm.

Silently, we all slip into the dim hallway. Before my visibility dramatically drops, I catch the hopeful and excited grins dancing on the other's faces. While moving my shoulders back to seem stronger is... exhausting, twitching my lips into a smile isn't.

"Okay guys, fan out." I cough a bit, ignoring the look I get from Lukas. "The faster we find Soren, the better."

Lukas scowls behind me, but I pay him no mind as I continue forward again. My left arm writhing and withering, burning and seething, sniff in agony. But that doesn't mean I can't walk, I just have to walk forward some more. Just find Soren.

Deciding that it's best not to have him hovering behind me, I float over to Olivia. Realizing that I've been keeping my left arm pressed tightly up against my side, I let it fall limp. The raging agony still bristling inside, as they rest of me wishes it could go limp too.

She wanders over to the right, and I follow in her footsteps. Trying not to lag behind when I'm only walking, but when I have never felt so incredibly drained before. It barely even feels that my legs have life in them anymore.

"Hey Jesse, do you hear that?" I shake myself out of it, noticing the faint drifts of music floating in my head. Louder and louder as we get closer and closer to the door.

"Hmm, yeah, I do." I take a deep breath, only feeling the urge to cough more and more. "It's definitely coming from behind there too."

I force a grin at her as my right hand wraps around the handle. "Let's find out shall we?"

She nods, her excited grin jittery as I push it open. Music flowing freely from the room, and I hope with all my worn out body that Soren is in here. That he'll come out of this weird place of his and save the world, that I'll finally get the chance to just... stop.

Reuben snorts and sniffs as we enter the room and I-

"I call that one, Symphony in E. A new composition to celebrate my newest discovery." My heart, my exhausted but still beating heart, staggers forward at the voice.

Olivia gasps besides me, almost disbelief in her voice. "That's him!"

"Come on!" A jolt of excitement carries me over to the sound. After all this time of struggling we've finally found him and now the world can be put into good hands. Finally.

"This time I observed one enderman place a block on top of another block-"

Only to stop dead at the sight of the blurred jukebox in front of me. Soren's ramblings about enderman lost as disappointment crashes down onto me. My legs wobbling to keep me up and I really want to cough now.

"What the-"

I huff, a raspy thing that forces me to 'clear my throat'. "Just a recording."

"-not imaging things. Goodness knows, it's happened before."