Final Hours

Chapter Eighteen

   I walked into my room and looked at my backpack that was resting on the chair near the window. I walked over to it and fished out the necklace I'd brought with me. The little heart shaped locket shined in the sunlight. I opened it, a picture of our family together was still inside of it, it was taken on the Fourth of July a couple years ago.
    I walked over to the mirror to put it on, but I noticed how awful I looked. I was covered head to toe in brownish red stains and my clothes were completely ruined.
   "Great." I mumbled, setting the locket down and walking back over to my backpack. I grabbed out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt that I'd taken with me. I had a good amount of clothes now between the stuff I took with me when we first left and the stuff I'd just grabbed. I pulled my old shirt over my head and slid on the new one and a new pair of jeans. I folded up the old, dirty clothes and set them on the chair next to the backpack. I planned on throwing them out when I got downstairs. I walked back over to the mirror, my arms and hair were still quite dirty. I picked the locket back up and struggled with it in the mirror. A knock came from the door and I turned my attention to it instead.
   "Come in." I said looking back at the mirror. I messed with the necklace and fumbled with the clasp, but it kept closing before I could latch it.
   "Here let me help." Chris said closing the door behind him and walking over to me. I handed him the necklace and he looked at it popping it open. "This...this was moms." He said in a whispered tone, "You got this for her last Christmas." His voice broke a little in the middle of the sentence. He took a deep breath in and closed the locket, turning to face me again. He pulled the necklace in front of me and I pulled my hair up so he could clasp it. The locket dropped against my chest and I let my hair fall back down against my back.
   "I grabbed it before we left." I whispered back to him.
 
  "Speaking of that...h-how are you doing?" He asked as I turned around, he moved backwards sitting on the bed.
    "I don't really know, I guess fine." I answered moving to sit next to him. He looked tired, but I wasn't really sure.
    "Are you sure? Pushing it back isn't gonna help, if you need to you can talk to me." He added looking at me. I didn't respond, even if I did I wouldn't know what to say. "I-I didn't kill dad...I couldn't kill dad." He muttered disappointedly.
     "What?" I questioned, he hung his head down and wouldn't look at me.
      "I tried...but every time I went for it I just pushed him back." He responded, he barely lifted his head.
"I...I guess he got up faster then I thought he would and Eric lunged at him before he could get me." He finished rubbing his finger over dad's watch.
      "So that's how he injured himself." I asked, he finally looked up.
      "Yes, I suppose it is." He answered, his manner was depressing and he looked like he was about to break down at any second.
      "Chris, it's fine. And Eric's fine too, it wasn't easy to do I understand." I said reassuringly.
      "No it's not fine, you were alone up there and you did it yourself...I-I should've done it." He replied in a mixture of anger and sadness.
      "Christian...I could barely do it myself, I...I held on to that hope that she was still alive, but she tried to attack me Christian, she nearly bit me...and still, still I couldn't do it." I tried to make him understand, this was normal, he didn't have to be able to do it. "I almost let her do it...then I could be with her." I started pausing to look at him.
"But...then I thought about you, and Eric...and I couldn't, it forced me to fight back when I didn't want to." I finished. He looked up at me, his face still looked defeated. I just instinctively wrapped my arms around him in a hug. He paused before placing a hand on my arm.
     "I guess I needed to talk to you more than you needed to talk to me." He said in a joking tone.
I pulled away and looked back at him.
     "I think we both needed this," I responded with a smile. He stood up and walked over to the door.
     "Well I've been out on wood collecting duty since we didn't get any at the hardware store." He said with a smile grabbing the door handle.
      "Chris wait!" I started standing up, he turned around in confusion to look at me. "Please be careful, we don't know what or who is in those woods." I finished, he nodded and walked out the door. I stepped back and looked at the room around me, this place was starting to feel more like home. But there was a lingering trust that still needed to be addressed, and it had to happen soon.