Catharsis [Novel]

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

            Darkness envelopes me both inside and out.  I've made it.  The rectangular shape of the closet I've come to know and love blocks out all the light, so I can finally die in peace.   The dark hunger that I have come to hate so much for what it causes me to do has helped me get here.  Now, though, I don't have the energy to push it away, so I just let it burble up and flow through me.  I know it wants an outlet, it wants to suck the living life blood from another creature because it doesn't want me to die, but I have trapped it in this room and others are safe.  It tried to pull me off course on the way to the warehouse, but I wouldn't let it.  The stubbornness I inherited from my parents (They both vehemently claim it was the other one who gave me that trait.) finally served a purpose.

            I will starve here regardless of what the darkness wants.  I have won this battle, and I no longer have any regrets.

            Closing my eyes, I give in completely to the dark hunger.  It can have these last few moments; I don't need them.

            Something wet is on my face.  I ignore it, but it's persistent. 

            Go away, I think.  I'm trying to sleep.  The wetness pauses, but it doesn't go away.  Instead it is joined by a whimpering sound.  The whimper grows in intensity, and I burrow deeper into the darkness, so that I can ignore it. 

            Something heavy is slowly lowered onto my chest and stays there.  The whimper is coming from the weight, and some part of my brain tells me this should be important. 

            I'll worry about it later, I tell myself.

            Lazzy!  The thought rips me from the clutches of the darkness, and I claw my way back to a level of consciousness.  No.  He can't be here.  Not with the darkness in control.  I can't have that on me.

            With strength that I shouldn't have, I croak out, "lazzy.  go away. i'm dying," and I force as much of my will into those words as I can.  He must understand.  He can't stay.

            My furry companion raises his head and looks at me and blinks.  He stares into my eyes with his wonderfully, doggy multi-colored ones and blinks.  I know he understands what I'm saying.  I know it.

            I smile and say my last words, "i love you buddy."  With that done, I give up holding on any longer.  He knows and that's all I care about right now.

            And then my best friend in the world does something I will never forgive him for.  Something that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

            Lazzy stands up, shifts his body closer to my eyes and lies down across my face.  To be precise, he lays with his furry little neck across my mouth.  He rests his throat against my teeth, and then I hear him sigh.

            The heat from his body flows across my cheeks.  The pulse of his artery on my lips is intoxicating in ways I don't want to describe. 

            The darkness roars back through me faster and stronger than I've ever felt before.  I'm powerless to stop what happens next.  All I can do is stop holding back the tears and weep as his body slowly goes limp against me.