Matt

Hiking for weeks on end in an apocalyptic nightmare forest full of feral creatures that want to tear you apart was usually a pretty unpleasant experience, if my walk to the monster village was anything to go by. This might be a surprise, but being accompanied by a dragon, several dozen people, and a not insignificant chunk of the forest itself made it considerably easier.

And yet somehow, that was almost worse. Without the constant threat of death, there was nothing to do but walk and imagine all the potential nightmares I might be dealing with soon. I found myself constantly vacillating between immeasurable dread and intolerable boredom. The only times we weren’t on the move, we were either sleeping, eating, or squeezing in some last minute training. I almost wished that a giant spider would drop on my head just to break the sameness of it all.

Almost.

Instead, we arrived at our destination entirely without incident. After weeks of tension, boredom, and the weird state between the two, the others set up camp, and Chelsea, Evelyn, and I pressed on alone. I changed into the shirt that had been prepared for me, shuddering a bit as it dawned on me what it was. It needed to smell like Evelyn, like her blood, her death. Regardless of how much effort had been expended to make it palatable to wear, there was still a visceral discomfort just from the thought of it.

With that bit of unpleasantness out of the way, Evelyn, Moom, if you’d prefer, opened her arms wide, a question in her eyes. With a heavy sigh, I stepped forwards and accepted the hug.

“I need to back off soon. Can’t risk you being seen with me. Just remember, I- Wait a second, Chelsea, stop shuffling away like I can’t see you. Come here!” Chelsea, who had indeed been trying to creep away, froze like a deer in headlights. “This is about you too. Now come here and let me hug you.” Chelsea came over and allowed herself to be hugged. “That’s better. Anyways, we need to get some distance between us, but I want you to remember I’ll be with you every step of the way. You won’t be able to see me, that’s kinda the point, but I won’t lose sight of you both. Not even for a moment. I’m proud of you. I’m proud to know you. I’m proud to have been there to see you grow. It’s… I can’t imagine how hard unlearning the things Cyrus taught you has been, but I’m proud of you both for doing it. You’re good kids, and you deserve better than this. I love you, Matt.”

She loosened her grip on both of us, stepping back slightly as she did. Then she tilted her head downward, leaning towards me. When I realized what she was doing, I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

“Bonk.” I said, giving her a gentle headbutt. I hadn’t done that since I was a kid, when hugging and touching were just too much for me, but I still wanted to show people I cared. “I love you too.”

With a deep breath and a moment spent wiping away the bloody tears that started forming in her eyes, she turned towards Chelsea.

“Thanks for being his friend.”

And then she was gone, a crimson blur that vanished into the trees.

As the two of us gathered ourselves to continue onward, Chelsea turned to look at me, an odd glint in her eye.

“How come you’ve never bonked me?” She asked, shattering the remaining tension like a cat shatters a Christmas ornament.

“Because,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Most people prefer hugs, and it’s not like you’ve ever asked me to.”

Before I even finished my sentence, she’d stepped closer and tilted her head towards me, throwing her best puppy dog eyes my way. Unfortunately for her, she’d thrown me on my ass a few to many times for me to buy into her attempt at eliciting pity.

“Bonk.” Fortunately for her, we were good enough friends that it wasn’t necessary to begin with. I was laughing softly as I stepped back after the headbutt, shaking my head. “You’re such a nerd.”

“Nerd affectionate or nerd derogatory?”

“Fuck you.” You’d think there’d be a limit to the amount of times you could roll your eyes in a single conversation, but here we are.

“No thanks!” She winked in response before turning back towards our destination, shoulders falling slightly as she remembered what we were here for. Nonetheless, she tried to keep a smile in her voice. “You ready to finish this, Matt?”

“Let’s go.”

ashlynflagg

Wasn't sure how much time I wanted to commit to this scene, but since finals are kicking my ass right now, I figured a shorter, fluffier chapter would be the right call. Things might be kinda rocky for a bit, to be completely honest. I finally have a date set for bottom surgery, and it's really soon. So soon, in fact, that I have less than a month to prepare for it. I'll try to keep up regular updates until surgery actually happens, but I'll probably need to take a bit of a break for recovery once it does, and the chapters might be on the shorter end for a bit. Thanks for understanding. Wish me luck!