Best Served Cold

The Talk - Lewis

Note: Yes, I will hammer the title of this chapter in until they’ve all gone. You know who you are, and you will suffer with me. The characters belong to MysteryBen and Artsy.

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            “Everything hurt.” Lewis’ voice was quiet as he recalled the night in the cave. “By the time I realized I’d been pushed, I was already half-dead. I wanted to die, everything was broken and ripped and I knew I’d never come back from it. I’d never felt anything like it before. My head rolled to the side and I saw you staring at me, Vivi.”

            Arthur buried his face in Mystery’s fur. He’d always suspected Vivi saw Lewis die, but confirmation still lashed his conscience. When he looked up, Lewis was no longer sitting down. He was in front of Vivi, holding her face in his hands and staring at her like he hadn’t just been sitting with her, hadn’t just been yelled at by her. Like he hadn’t seen her in a year.

            “I could feel myself going. But the look on your face… I wanted to make it go away. I wanted you to not have seen what you saw. I wanted it with every fiber of my being. To have to hold a memory like that… it crushes a person. It changes them.” He brushed a lock of hair away from her face. “I didn’t want you to change like that.”

            Arthur heard a sniff from Vivi.  Again, he couldn’t help wondering what stories had passed between them, how Lewis knew about such memories changing a person, but it was not the time to ask.

            “And then… I can’t explain it, but there was a flash, and your memories were in my hands. All of them, your whole life laid out right there. And you looked so frightening, like a zombie standing there. A very pretty zombie,” he added hastily, “But… lifeless. I took the last five minutes and placed the rest back in your head. I don’t know how I knew how to do it, but I did. I think I didn’t do the best job though, because you didn’t snap out of it, you just stood there. That’s when I realized I was standing in front of you, and not lying dead and impaled.”

            He dropped his hands from her face, half-turning back to Arthur.

            “Then Arthur came. He was bleeding, and I didn’t get why HE was bleeding, but he grabbed you and jerked you away. I don’t think either of you could see me at that point. And I didn’t know what to do, because when I turned around there I was lying on a spike, but I wasn’t in myself. And then I remembered I’d been pushed. Then…” Lewis paused, then leaned forward, extending his hands to either of them. Arthur felt the warm, bony hand settle over his forehead as he saw Lewis’ other hand rest on Vivi’s forehead. And then memories that were not his own poured into his mind.

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            Hours, days, then weeks spent wandering the cave floor, replaying every second, wondering why.

            Why.

            They came and took his body away.

            Why.

            He was left in the dark, alone and forgotten.

            Why.

            The only remnants, a spike covered in dried blood. A few shreds of cloth. A silver locket.

            Vivi. That is why. That’s why he killed me.