“Hey," said a voice soft as the ocean.

“Wake up,” said the ocean, the seas turning rougher.

“Last chance,” said the voice, a calm before the storm.

*Sigh*

“...It’s your decision,” said the malice filled voice, a wave about to crash.

“Ah…? Gah!” I scream.

Pain encroached through my arm and through  my brain.

Who...?

What…? 

Why…?

Opening my eyes, I see my ‘best friend’.

Inseparable since we were young since he was always chasing after me.

Always together so he could watch me fail and burn. 

I hated him and he hated me.

To my young eyes he just seemed like a bad friend. But I've come to realize he was just a bully.

Laughing at others to feel better about himself.

Scaring others to feel more powerful.

If I remember correctly this event happened when both of our families were on a trip together.

How old was I?

“If you keep on sleeping, everything will close!” he yelled, pinching and pulling on my bruised arm.

Letting go he quickly leaves, being considerate enough to close the door.

After a minute passes, I’m able to sit up.

But I don’t do anything.

I didn't want to, so I just laid on my bed unmoving.

Mustering up my willpower, or maybe finally noticing my hunger, I got up and threw on some clothes.

*** 

Walking down the stairs I saw our families eating together.

Noticing my arrival, Daisal began to shout at me.

“Took you long enough! Even though I sent him over to wake you up, you still didn’t hurry!” She yelled, anxious about the perfect plan she made for us.

The plan which everyone except me agreed to.

The plan I didn’t even learn about until I wasn’t following it.

“And since you were so slow there’s no food left for you,” he piped in, shoving a pancake into his mouth.

"Hurry up. We're leaving in five minutes," Daisal announced, hopping from her chair.

I wanted to make some kind of objection, but everyone had already turned away from me.

Sighing in defeat I opened up the fridge and scavenged a granola bar and a few handfuls of dry cereal.

Looks like today's breakfast will be filling.

***

"Wait, a hike? Why couldn't we do something cool?!" He whined as the car stopped, the nearby mountain peering down at us.

"You'll thank me at the top! The view is supposed to be gorgeous!" Daisal told him as she opened her map.

"Whatever. Hey Azalius, race you to the top!" He yelled at me, dashing up the dirt path.

Watching him run I stood there at the foot of the mountain, the sun shining bright.

*Thwack!*

"Don't you dare ignore him, Azalius. Now go on and race him!" yelled my father.

Getting up from the gravel driveway, I ran away like my life depended on it.

And after getting out of view and wiping the blood off my knees, I had a notion it did.

***

"What a… loser… I got here… ages ago… loser…" he declared as he saw me make it to the very top of the mountain.

After an hour straight of running, I fell to my knees and focused on breathing.

*Crack!*

Rolling over to my side, I see him praise himself on his kick.

Laughing, he walks over to a cliffy area and gazes into the sky.

My entire body stung like I stood in a dust storm of needles. I wanted to do something, but all I could do was focus on breathing.

Then, when I gained enough energy to stand back up, I watched him slip and fall into the rocks below.

That is what happened.

He fell.

And then I ran.

I ran down the mountain.

I ran and ran until I reached the road.

The cars were blaring and beeping and flashing.

It was all so funny that I collapsed.

***

The next time I woke up, I was in the hospital. My family wasn't there.

I layed in bed waiting staring at the ceiling until eventually a nurse came in and found me awake.

After assessing my health she leaves and comes back with a doctor.

He asked me many questions.

Who am I?

Where was my family?

Why was I on the side of the road?

I answered him, and eventually I was reunited with my family.

Outside my room the doctor and my father talked.

They probably didn't want me hearing, but I heard.

The doctor asked him questions.

Including the ones he asked me, he asked some new ones on top of them.

Why was one of my ribs broken?

Why was I malnourished?

Was he taking proper care of me?

My father answered them, but they weren't the truth.

He said I probably fell on the hike.

Lies.

He said he fed me, but I didn't eat anything.

Lies.

He said I loved him.

Lies.

Eventually, the doctor was satisfied, and let father come in and see me.

He didn't say any words. 

He just stared at me.

They were eyes of disdain and annoyance.

***

A few days passed and I began to get better.

But then my father took me away from the hospital.

The car ride was silent.

When we got to the hotel room, it was only Daisal.

His family were gone.

Out to look for him.

Hoping they would find him like me.

But they didn't know what I knew.

They didn't know he fell and died.

How could they?

"The real question is, how could you? I can't believe you watched me fall all while you did nothing," he said, back from the grave.

He stood in the shadows of my room, bloody and unliving.

"While you live, you left me for dead. I hate you," he said, his corpse beginning to drown into the darkness.

"In fact," he begins as he walks towards me, "by the end of this I'll see to it that you hate yourself as well." 

As he spoke the darkness began to fade, showing a mangled body that looked much like my own.

As he stared back at me in his stolen form, the dream began to break, evident by the cracks running across the room.

"Think you've escaped just because you're in a different world!? Think I'm something so SIMPLE as to be discarded by the likes of YOU!?!" He screamed, the cracks widening.

"I'm following you all the way to hell! And then I'll be the devil on the other side of the whip! So don't be so stupid as to think anything has changed! You're just the same as—!"

As the cracks covering the world grew, all I could do was stare at the spectre that haunts me, the shadow that mocks me, the ghost of the one I watched bleed.

The culmination of my crimes.