Tale Zero: Screaming Scorpion (14)

Once we got there, we wasted no time getting down to business. The biggest source of drama was the fact that we both wanted to try fighting each other in as many games possible, but every time a match ended someone would want to go for another round.

As a hardcore gamer at heart, it was an afternoon to remember for a very long time—though only the wins, that is.

When it was over, and keep in mind we only stopped when one of my parents decided to cut electricity to my room, we didn’t waste an instant in deciding on another time to have another round.

“We can do tomorrow if you want, it’s not like I’ve got much planned anyway.”

I said that to Oliver, but was only met with a frown.

“No… Unlike you, I’m busy tomorrow. I’m busy most days, in fact. I don’t think I’ll really be free until next month for doing something like this. We can meet up in the park sometime, though.”

“S-sure. I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah… Thanks for today, James. It was really fun.”

“No problem, I needed it too. I guess this is what friends are for.”

“You’re probably right. Anyway, I’ll be going now. Goodnight.”

“Night, Oliver.”

“Wow, escaping again… It’s so easy and so fun, isn’t it?”

…?

“What are you gonna do next, keep carelessly hanging out with Oliver until he’s K.O. as well? And what about after that?”

Whose voice is that…?

“Ooooh, but of course. You’ll just ignore me and go on with your pitiful and self-pitying excuse for a life. When Oliver’s gone, you’ll cry for an hour or two and then move on to your next target, isn’t that right? Come on, even you must be getting tired of this shit. What about snapping out of it and acting your age for once in your life?”

… There’s nobody around. No reason to pay this any mind. My mental state has been constantly deteriorating for a while, though… All I can do is take it easy until I’m back in full form.

Now, what to do for the rest of the day?

It seems like I’ve exhausted all my repertoire by now. It’s either walking around the neighborhood, reading a book, playing games, walking around the other neighborhood, watching movies or movies online, or walking inside my own room.

Spicing it up for once was becoming a real possibility—no, a necessity.

……………

I couldn't think of anything. I was truly hopeless.

Please, no… Don't talk like that, don't let yourself fall even deeper…! I'm sorry for being harsh before, but please, I beg you, not this again…

…I wasn't in the mood for listening to voices in my head.

Once again, I stayed in my room all day.

Doing nothing.

Not even trying to hide that fact—there was nothing I wanted to do. The days when I had so many things to look forward to… if you told me they had ended half a decade ago, I'd believe you in a heartbeat.

When everything becomes background noise, when you can hardly get your own body to respond, when going downstairs to eat seems like so much of an effort you'd rather not eat at all—eventually, you realize you're sleeping sixteen hours a day.

Or maybe you won't realize it.

Maybe the few hours you spend awake aren't so different from the ones you spend asleep.

After all, both are spent in bed, with minimal movement, performing the bare minimum tasks to stay alive, much like a plant would—going to the bathroom three or so times a day being the only noteworthy exception.

Nobody cared to even try to help me break out of this vicious cycle… no, that's a stupid affirmation. It's nobody's fault but mine that all who once cared about me are no longer able or willing to reach me.

The days kept passing and passing… or so I thought, anyway. I could only barely tell the time at first, but at some point my body clock went crazy enough that sunlight and common sense stopped having any effect on me.

“Hey. Wake up, you dumbass. You've probably slept enough to cover the next year or two.”

“Mmmm.”

Who's here now…?

My parents would never care enough to check on me. And this voice definitely wasn't theirs… It was that of a younger male, one which I knew pretty well, but was too sleepy to fully remember.

“No mmmm’s, you stupid idiot. Do you want to stay like this until you fucking die of starvation?”

“Just… let me rest, okay? It'll go away eventually, I promise. I'll be back to normal…”

“Cut the crap, you've never been normal. You don't know what normal even means. Get out of your own head for once and look around you. Do you ACTUALLY plan on keeping this up any longer?”

“… Keeping what up? It’s not as if this affects anybody else, you know-”

Slap.

I felt Oliver’s hand—right, that’s who the owner of that voice was—hitting my face with far more strength than I’d expected. Or maybe I just hadn’t been expecting him to hit me at all.

Or maybe I’d spent so much time holed up in this room that any amount of force would have felt like I’d just been completely beaten up.

“Stop being such a self-absorbed piece of shit, James. Do me a favor and look around you for once.”

Dumbstruck, I did as I was told.

And slowly, I realized what he meant—for an instant, I became genuinely afraid of myself. Of what I’d been unconsciously driving myself into…

My whole expression must have changed to reflect this, because Oliver’s relaxed a small bit. Perhaps seeing I wasn’t so far gone as to not recognize the situation I’d put myself into, his look softened into one far less worried.

“Here, take this. You should eat something at the very least.”

He handed me a sandwich—it was made with pretty thin bread, and its contents (cheap supermarket ham and cheese) also didn’t have much substance to them. Normally I would have complained about it being way too small for my usual appetite.

But then again, as Oliver had said, maybe I was never normal to begin with. Or maybe I was at one point, but it had been so long I’d forgotten about it completely.

I couldn’t deny the possibility. And that might as well be a confirmation.

“… Come on, James. Get out of bed. We’re going for a walk.”

“A-are you sure? Don’t you have anything else to do?”

“Nah, I’m free today. I came to see you because you wouldn’t pick up the phone… Seeing the state of this place, you probably haven’t charged it in weeks.”

Wait.

Weeks?

How long had I even spent in that pitiful state…?

“Hey, Oliver…”

“Hm? What is it?”

“How long has it been since our gaming afternoon?”

“Like three weeks, maybe. Or four.”

“Oh shit…”

“How much time did you think had passed?”

“A week or two at most… though honestly, I legitimately had no clue past a certain point.”

“I see. Thank God I decided to come by, if I hadn’t you would probably have…”

“Yeah… I don’t really want to think about it.”

The more I asked, the more I thought about it, the more it terrified me. Maybe Oliver truly had saved me—no, of course he had. If it wasn’t for him, I would have ended in a state worse than dead sooner rather than later. Once again, someone else had to come and save me from myself.

“It’s fine, I understand. Get dressed and let’s go outside, okay?”

“Yeah… Thanks for everything, Oliver.”

“It’s nothing. This is just what friends do, man.”

As he said that, a smile emerging on his face for the first time since he’d entered my room, he went to patiently wait outside for me to get dressed.

I could’ve just gone back to sleep.

Technically, I could have—but there was no way I would allow myself to do something like that. I changed clothes the fastest my extremely weakened body would allow, and I stumbled my way out of my own room—my own prison, in which I’d stayed for far too long.

“Hey, welcome to the real world. How does it feel to live a little?”

Oliver said that upon seeing me go out of the room into the morning light. Sadly, though, I wasn’t the only one now exposed to the light—he was too.

And now I could see them bright as day.

The cuts all over his arms, bruises in his face and legs, blood still pouring out of some of them… All of that was now impossible to hide.

Impossible not to see.