The Sidekick

It's A Battlefield Out There

I chuckle silently as she drives her sword into his gut. Another one bites the dust.  Maria has slaughtered the majority of the dead soldiers on the field. She was onto the boss battle while I, as usual, stood on the sidelines. But I'm okay with that. I'm used to it.

I watch as her victim crumples to the ground, choking on his own blood. A smile spreads across my face as the light leaves his eyes. We've won yet again.

At this point, you probably think I'm talking about a video game. That I just wasn't very good and Maria, my supposed best friend, always reigned supreme. Except I'm not. I've known Maria for a couple of months, three max. I don't own a television, much less a Playstation 4. And in fact, I could've taken Samson down 4.7 seconds faster than Maria did. I shouldn't be the sidekick, but I am.

Maria saunters over to me, covered in blood that's probably not her own. She wears a weak smile and lays down in front of me. I lay down beside her and we stare up at the clouds.

Maria was fighting for control of her kingdom. Her dad handed the crown to her cousin, Samson, who had planned to profit off of their people and just generally use his position for his own personal gain. Her dad didn't believe a woman could handle the throne or more specifically , the responsibility of the throne. Maria more than proved she could when she took down the royal army with a seventh of the soldiers, using strategies and persuasion.

Maria is pretty chill, but sometimes she's got a bit of a temper. She refuses to wear the formal dresses that belong to a princess's wardrobe, but she loves to to do people's hair and makeup. She lives in a castle, but prefers the crowded streets of a democratic-country city. She's the living definition of contradiction. We're cool though.

I met Maria when I moved into Enstationa in November and started going to Enst. Prep, where Maria attended school. She was the only one who bothered to even try to talk to me. We hit it off and I gained her trust pretty quickly. She eventually told me about the coup she was staging and I told her I wanted to help. She wouldn't let me a first, but I easily defeated her in a sparring match. After that, we both fell down in the open field and stared up at the sky. It's become a bit of tradition since then.

Today was no different. We lay on our backs and count the clouds. They have no number because in the end they're all one giant mass, like us. Isn't that what humanity is? A mass of dead bodies walking around with a limp and a hunch, waiting to be claimed by the reaper? Perhaps we are the reaper. We are the dead and the dying and the sword that has slain them.

We slowly rise, to our knees, then eventually to our feet. We both know this will be the last time we will see each other, but we are warriors. We give each other a quick squeeze and walk off in opposite directions. Neither of us look back.

The minute I arrive home, I know by the pissed expression on my mom's face that I'm in big trouble. Before I can even begin to explain, she points at my suitcase on the ground. I immediately start throwing my stuff in, knowing I have five minutes before her car pulls away with me and whatever is already in my suitcase.

As I throw the last pair of socks in, I sigh, sit up, and head outside to throw it in the trunk. Mom is already in the driver's seat. I climb into the passenger seat and she shoots me a disappointed look. I hate that look but I can't help it. I always find my way into trouble.

We make it out of the house in record time, almost beating the time when we had to scramble out because a bomb was going to blow in ten minutes, directly under our house. That sucked. I lost a good bit of my stuff.

"What happened this time?" she finally asks me. After an hour of silence, her words startle me. I take a deep breath and compose myself, taking the rest of the drive to explain everything that happened with any detail that I could remember.