Sort of Dead

31 - Will Someone Please Tell Me What's Going On?

AAR’S POV:-

When I came to be, I saw translucent ocean eyes staring right into my soul.

'What the - '

Es levitated away from me in one smooth, tired motion. Something about her seemed different. She wasn’t outlined by the rainbow-colors as she usually was. Her translucency was almost . . . milky. She was smiling, her eyes were doe-wide, but there was something about seeing her then that made my stomach go on a full virtual roller-coaster ride.

'Yipee! He's back, Bee-wee! He’s back!’ she cried out, hovering away. I could hear her euphoric 'yipees' all the way across the hall.

Wait, a hall? Where was I?

A long, wet tongue slopped over my face. I petted See's matted, brownish fur as I got up to standing position. He was wagging his tail so fast, I feared it might just fall off. ‘Hey, boy, you miss me? You miss dada?’

Then footsteps arrived, followed closely by a cloud of pure copper hair as someone hurled themselves at me and pulled me into a tight hug.

‘Bee? You’re – choking – me –'

Without pulling away, she asked me, her voice shrill, even more high-pitched than usual: 'Are you okay, Aar? Are you hurt? How do you feel?’

‘I’m fine, I’m fine, but where - ?’ I stopped mid-sentence as Bee broke the hug and I saw who was standing behind her.

It was Marra. In what appeared to be a night-suit. Moons and stars strewn all over his garment. His eyes were . . . not right. The same way as Es’s energy didn’t quite hit me as normal. They were dead. Like there was no soul in him. Just an empty void of what appeared to be a mixture of sadness and guilt, maybe?

And Marra’s chin, there was just a trace of red on it – it could’ve been a sketch pen or something, I was just overthinking, and –

'YOU!’ I shouted as I realized. I heaved myself to grab at him, but failed. I just didn’t have the energy. Besides, See was crouched on my feet like they were his dog-house-net or something. I sensed the German-Shepherd slightly shivering. Everything was coming together now. ‘YOU!’ I screamed again, words forming on my tongue but not ready to leave. 'YOU – WHAT IS – WRONG – WITH YOU - ?!’

Marra looked at his feet. I saw a tear plonk down to the floor.

I felt a hole tear in my chest. I didn’t clearly recall what had happened, but I think I remembered enough.

Those devilish eyes . . . the blood – so that was the “sketch-pen” on his chin, perhaps he forgot to wipe it while he cleaned himself . .   and his Dad . . . the spray, the club . . . too much information reeling in at once, it was such a horrifying, such an irritating moment.

Marra looked back up. Straight at me. His eyes were drowning, the pit in there filled with saline water.

He mumbled something I couldn’t quite catch.

‘Pardon?’

‘I’m sorry,' he mumbled again in a little voice. The tears kept coming.

‘Mar! We talked about this!’ Bee said, passing him a tablecloth – or was it a napkin or a handkerchief? Something was wrong with my head. I’d just seen one of my best friend’s Dad die in front of me, after all. Cut me some slack.

Marra held the tablecloth/napkin/kerchief but didn’t use it. Bee kept saying: 'It was in no way your fault, Mar, please, you can’t possibly blame yourself - ' but I noticed that she was crying too.

I’d never seen Bee cry before. Not even when we were toddlers. So as you can probably imagine, that hit me right in the gut. And hard.

‘What – what are you talking about?’ I said, looking at Bee and avoiding the sight of Marra's crying face. Far as I remembered then, Marra had just freaking killed his own father. By sucking his gosh-darn-it blood at that!

There must be something I’m missing, something I can’t remember, I told myself. Maybe it’s all been a dream. Yes, that’s why Es seems so funny and Bee's crying and are you kidding me? Marra's Dad can’t be dead! He just lost his mother, could he really lose his Da –

'It's a complicated story,' Bee said. I could see she could barely suppress her own tears, even as she tried to comfort Marra.

Wait, the club . . . Technically, she killed Mar's Dad! That’s why she feels so bad . . .

My head was swimming. I felt like I’d faint again.

‘Tell me,' I said to her.

‘I told you, it’s compli - '

'Tell. Me.’

Yea, you better be tellin' us, ahoy.