It Follows {Book One}

18

Monday, August 20
11 days

•Mark•
 
"Mark?"

Mark hummed and turned towards Ten. Ten's hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles turning white. Mark waited a while after telling Chenle about his plan to gather up the courage to follow through with it. It took a couple days, because he was selfish, and wanted to spend as much time with Donghyuck as he possibly could before he left.

He spent those two days doing absolutely nothing, they held each other close and talked about everything and nothing. Mark ended up sleeping most of the time, as hard as he tried to fight it, his body decided to shut down sometimes. He'd wake up and profusely apologize between soft kisses placed anywhere Mark could reach. Donghyuck insisted it didn't matter, that he knew Mark didn't mean to fall asleep on him. But Mark could tell how worried he really was, though what was the point? It wasn't like there was any way to keep him alive. Especially now that Ten was driving Mark to his death.

"I slept with Johnny last night."

If it was two months ago, Mark would've been surprised. He would've wondered, wow, since when does Ten have a thing for Johnny? Or he'd wonder why Ten would tell him. He didn't think that was something to just casually bring up.

But this was literally the end of the world. What better time to tell? And again, Mark wasn't going to be around the next day, so maybe Ten thought he was the perfect person to drop the news on. He'd be taking it to his grave. Mark almost smiled.

"Turns out he liked me, too," Ten said, and Mark expected him to be. Instead, he looked upset. Ten laughed softly. "This entire time. I could've done something sooner. We could've had more time, you know?"

Mark nodded. They finally made it to an empty beach. Driftwood littered the sand, but other than that, it was pretty nice. Mark slid out of the car, his legs shaky as he struggled to hold himself upright. Ten ran around the car to his side and gripped his arm. Slowly, they began to walk further into the beach.

"It just sucks. This whole thing sucks. The world is a giant . . . suck fest," Ten glared when Mark started to laugh. "Don't laugh, you piece of shit. God damn it, look at you. Scared of your boyfriend, so your solution is to kill yourself."

"Dude, like fifteen minutes ago you were totally on board. You said it was a good idea."

"Shit, man, you're right," Ten said with a sigh. "I'm just mad. Sad and mad."

"Smad?"

"Frustrated."

Mark sunk down into the ground hissed as the hot sand burned his palms. "I don't like sand."

"Shut the fuck up, Anakin, take your pills."

Mark laughed and threw a handful of sand at Ten, who screamed and tried to dodge it as it rained down on him.

Two days ago, Mark had left with Ten to search for the perfect place. They drove around the city for a while, before Ten suggested the beach. Donghyuck could search the city for Mark, but neither of them thought he would think to go to the desert, eleven miles away from the store. Not too far, but again, Donghyuck couldn't drive, and even though Johnny was able to, Ten would keep them from coming anywhere near where Mark's body would be.

They were gone for hours, and when Mark finally returned, Donhyuck had jumped on him out of nowhere, tears streaming down his face, repeating "I thought you left me" over and over.

That almost changed Mark's mind about everything he had planned, but he decided that he'd rather have Donghyuck think he'd left than to see him dead. And Mark had already lived a few days longer than he expected. In all honesty, Mark's only fear had been dying before he got the chance to leave.

But everything turned out okay so far, though getting up without waking Donghyuck was impossible. He woke him up almost as soon as he started to move away. Mark had a moment of panic, scared that he blew it, he wouldn't be able to leave. But he kissed Donghyuck on the forehead, nose, lips, told him that he was just going to see Jisung, and then told him to go back to sleep. Donghyuck stared at him for a while, and Mark stared right back, thinking, shit, he knows. But he just nodded and closed his eyes.

Mark let out a sigh of relief, and sat there for a while. Part of him didn't want to leave. Donghyuck looked absolutely stunning, even with the severe amount of weight he had lost, though, Mark couldn't really say anything because he was much worse off. Mark wasn't sure how he managed to stay so tan, none of them had been outside in weeks. At least, that's what he had thought, until he had caught Donghyuck sitting in the sun. Mark yelled at him, as the sun's rays were extremely deadly, especially now, but Donghyuck just rolled his eyes. 'We're all dying anyways. It doesn't matter.'

Mark reached into his pocket and pulled out the two pills. Maybe it was the bright, blue color, that made them seem so harmless, or the fact that they were no bigger than those mini M&M's he used to get when he was a kid. 

He didn't want to think too much about it, afraid that he'd back out. So before he could change his mind, he placed both pills on his tongue, took the bottle of water that Ten held out, and swallowed them both.

"How long do you think it's gonna take?" Ten asked, his voice suddenly soft. He stood a good distance away from Mark, pacing slightly as if he was too scared to come any closer. Like Mark might explode.

"Not too long, I hope. I'm already bored."

"You don't think . . . you know, since you took two, something bad is gonna happen?"

"Ten," Mark said as he narrowed his eyes, "One pill will kill me. What could two pills do that could possibly be worse?"

"Good point."