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Which
I woke slowly, my vision blurry, and an agonizing headache that had been waiting for me to wake up began to grow. I groaned and cradled my head. I shut my eyes soon after I had opened them- the light hurt. I breathed slowly, trying to sooth myself. “God..” I muttered, “… Feels like I’ve been hit with a bat…”
When at last my head stopped swimming enough for the pain to become just a dull sensation, I reopened my eyes. Blinking hard, I realized I was sitting in front of a window, through which bright light was shining. I didn’t recognize it at all.
“Where am I?” I murmured aloud. Closing my eyes again against the sheer brightness, I began thinking. As I thought, I realized that my earlier, bitter comment about getting hit with a bat might not have been as far from the truth as I had originally surmised. I was slowly beginning to recall the events before I lost consciousness.
It was our second time on shore leave, Cain and I. The last time, we had stayed together in a hotel. It seemed Cain only agreed to stay with me because I was an easy lay, as usual. After a while, I got a hold of my bank for cheddar, and began hunting for an apartment to stay in until we were called back to active duty. Cain decided not to go with me. Wasn’t worth his time apparently. Shortly after I finally got an apartment, though, he showed up again to stay with me. Apparently, he realized he had nowhere to stay anywhere in town or around it. He wouldn’t let me say no.
During our second shore leave, the apartment was still in my name, and the rent paid regularly by the bank. Sometimes there was a perk to having a rich, politician dad- I had a lot of pocket cheddar on top of my military salary. Cain and I had just arrived at the apartment building after leaving the base, still in our uniforms. It was then I couldn’t find the keys to get into the building.
Cain was a jerk about it, of course, calling me useless. Then, grumbling, he finally left to see if he could find or contact the landlord as I stayed by the door and continued digging in my pack for the keys. After several minutes, my hands closed around cold, jagged metal. The keys! I smiled to myself, and at that moment heard footsteps behind me.
“Hey, Cain!” I began, pleased with myself, “I found the-“ I never finished the sentence. I heard a dull ‘thud!’ and felt a brief, sharp pain in the side of my head, and then I was out.. Until I woke up without a clue where I was.
Now that I recalled the events that led to this moment, I realized I had been kidnapped. I stood suddenly, felt dizzy for a moment, and then recovered. Looking around, it was nearly silent. No one there pointing a weapon at me or anything. And also, despite the bright light from the window, the room was almost pitch black.
When my eyes adjusted, I noticed I was in a small front room, near a staircase, and what appeared to be the front door. Stepping towards it, I saw the word ‘EXIT’ scrawled on its surface. Cautiously, I slowly opened it. My heart would have sank if I’d had any hope in the first place- there was a screen door. And it was covered in at least five padlocks. I could hear birds chirping outside.
“Hellooo?” I called. No answer, not from inside or outside. I tried a few more times. No luck. No one home, nobody outside. It was like I was just abandoned here.
I returned to the window, and banged on it several times. It didn’t help that I wasn’t very strong, but I figured it was also reinforced glass. I’d need something large to break it, like a chair.
Stepping away from the window, I began to explore my dark surroundings. Not bothering to go up the stairs, yet, I found myself in a dark kitchen. To my left, I saw what appeared to be a pantry door. There was a window on the door, and through it, I could see light streaming through a skylight. I hurried to the door, and vaguely noticed there was a drawing of a heart on it.
Figures, it was locked. I thought I heard a small sound inside, but there was nothing I could do. I turned and went into the small kitchen and began opening drawers and cupboards- why not? In one of them, I found a key with a tag attached- it had fallen from the cupboard onto the counter. Squinting, I managed to read the tag in the dark; It was labeled “1”. I shrugged, and hurried back to the front door, to test it on the padlocks. It didn’t work on any of them. With a sigh, I pocketed the key and returned to the kitchen.
I didn’t find any more. Then I heard that sound again, louder than before. I looked up, and noticed it was coming from a grated window between cupboards, which led to the pantry. It was too small for me to fit through, even if I pulled the grate off. The sound, when I listened carefully, was like a beating. In the back of my mind, I connected this beating sound to the heart drawn on the pantry door. I shuddered and tried not to think about that.
“Ridiculous..” I muttered.
Turning, I noticed another door, between the kitchen and staircase. I opened it, and found myself in a bathroom. I glanced around; there was another key in the sink! I eagerly reached for it, but my finger nicked it and it went down the drain.
“Shit!” I lunged for it, but it was too late. Ducking under the sink, I noticed it probably got stuck in the corner of the 90-degree angle the pipes formed. If I could get the pipes loose… But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t pry it open with my bare hand. I’d need a wrench.
With a sigh, I left the bathroom. It looked like I’d explored all I could of the first floor. Hesitantly, I stared up the stairs. After a few tense minutes, I began to walk upstairs. I soon found myself next to another window. I checked- reinforced like the first. Onward, there was a hallway, lined with two doors on the left, two on the right. As I walked by the first pair, I saw that the one on my left had writing on it as well… a large number 1. Biting my scarred lip, I pulled the “1” key from my pocket, and put it in the lock, and turned… it worked! Hopefully, I stepped inside. There was a large cupboard, another window, and.. A glass door! Hurrying to the door, I tried to open it- locked again. I banged on it and the window – reinforced again. I was beginning to grow aggravated.
By luck, I glanced up- and saw yet another key! Grabbing it, I immediately tried it on the door. No luck, of course. Then, with a sigh, I looked at the key’s tag. It read “2”.
“I guess there’s a “2” room…?” I said to myself. I searched further, including the nearby cupboard, but there was nothing else to be found here… until I saw the wall by the door. There was writing there. Well, more like drawings. Stick figures, keys, a door, an equal sign and a does not equal sign.. I realized it was a picture equation. I translated it aloud:
“Person plus key, equals exit… exit does not equal… two people plus key.” I thought on it for a second or two. “Well… I guess that means only one person can leave at a time. But…” I felt strangely cold. Was I not the only one there? I had thought I was alone.
Shaken, I stepped back into the hallway. I curiously walked to the door straight across the hall from me. A picture of a head was drawn on it.
“First a heart, now a head..” I murmured. Then I shut up, and thought I could hear.. breathing from inside. “Hey!” I shouted, “Is someone in there?! Can you hear me?! I can help you!!” No response; just breathing. I figured, maybe they were hurt, and couldn’t respond. The breathing sounded ragged.
“Don’t worry… I’ll find some help!” With that, I continued down the hall. Two more doors. On the left, a door labeled “2”. “3” was on the right. I turned to the left door and unlocked it with the “2” key. I was shocked to see someone standing inside, by a large window.
I opened my self to say a weak hello, when something that had nagged me the moment I saw the masculine silhouette made itself clear; There was nothing above his shoulders but a bloody stump. I clamped my hand over my mouth, nearly vomited, barely stifled a scream, and I stumbled back and fell. No response from the headless dead guy, of course.
When I found strength in my legs, I stepped toward the body. I wondered how it was staying upright, and why there seemed to be a white heart drawn over his heart area, under his left shoulder on his back. Then it turned, and I screamed again, startled.
“How the fuck-?!” How in the world was a headless person moving?! ALIVE?! I noticed, somehow, that there was a white heart matching the one on his back on his chest, over his heart. Then I realized- it was too dark where I was at to see a white drawing on a black-clothed person. That was the light of the window- shining through a heart shaped hole cut through his torso, where his heart should have been.
I vomited up saliva and bile. I heard shifting in front of me, and glanced back up at the- zombie? He had held out his left arm, and was holding- a key! The key was labeled ‘EXIT’. I was almost ecstatic.
“You’ll… You’re gonna let me out…?” I asked hopefully. Then I felt stupid for talking to someone without a mouth. But on further though, it seemed plausible that he could talk, seeing as he was moving without a head or a heart! But then he tossed the key into the air, and caught it with the same arm- it was then I realized he was holding something in front of his gut with his right hand, but it was too dark to see it.
“Hey!” I said, reaching for the key- but he’d pocketed it. Then he pointed to the wall. I looked at it… Another picture equation. Head slash heart.. I guessed that meant Head or Heart… Equaled key.
I turned to him again. “So, you’ll give me the key if I get you’re your head or your heart, then?” No reply, aside from him lowering his arm. I sighed, and glanced around the room, opening a few cupboards. No keys, but I found a wrench…
A wrench! Just what I needed to open that pipe downstairs! I stood up from where I had kneeled to pick up the wrench and turned- only to find the headless guy had been standing right behind me. I gasped, shocked, and choked a bit on some spit I accidentally inhaled. I could smell the blood from his gaping wounds… and something else. Something almost familiar. Uncomfortable, I guess that he just wore the same cologne that someone I knew did, and I nervously stepped around him.
I exited the room, hurried down the hall, and stepped quickly down the stairs. Forgetting the direction of the bathroom, I glanced around, then I saw something over my shoulder, and suddenly I smelled the blood, and I realized he had silently come down the stairs again and was right behind my once more. Shocked, I stumbled, and fell right into him… then through him. I felt a sudden chill, and my vision blurred and jumped and I screamed at the shock. When I recovered, I glanced around and saw he’d vanished. A ghost??
Nervous now, I slowly entered the kitchen and found the bathroom. Before I entered it again, I glanced around- and saw him again. This time, several feet away. He was standing in the middle of the front room, not even facing me. With a gulp, I went into the bathroom, bent down and managed to yank the pipe open with the wrench, and finally retrieved the key. It said “3” on the tag. Guess I had to go back upstairs. I turned to face the door, and there he was again. I let out a small, short scream. Then I glared.
“S-stop doing that!” I demanded uselessly. I managed to eek by him without touching him. I was aware that he’d probably be behind me if I ever turned around, so I tried to avoid looking over my shoulder as I went back upstairs, to the “3” room at the end of the hall. There was nothing in there but cupboards. I searched through them all, but found only one key- it had a picture of a head on it.
“To the head room, I guess…” No heart? Oh well. I turned, expecting him to be there, but he wasn’t. He wasn’t in the doorway either. Or the hall. With a shrug, I returned to the door I had seen with the head drawn on it, unlocked it, and opened it.
The breathing grew louder. It was then I realized that the breathing wasn’t from an injured person, but from… a disembodied head, sitting in the toilet. I felt squeamish.
I knelt by the toilet, smelling the blood, and picked up the head from the water. I tried hard not to gag. It was warm to the touch, dripping blood gently into the water, breathing in my hands. I inspected it in the dark. Though my eyes were used to the dark now, I could make out very few details. The head, which I figured was the headless man’s, had short-ish hair, in strange layers and uneven length. Seemed he had an earring. Something nagged me at the back of my head, but I ignored that for now.
I stood and turned- he was standing in the doorway. He held out his left hand, his right still holding… something. I held the head out towards him. He gripped the hair, and put it back where it belonged- on his neck. After a few minutes, it seemed right, and he looked a little more.. normal. A nearly complete silhouette, but with a heart-shaped hole in the chest. I remembered the heart room downstairs… But I had never found the key.
He turned, messy wet hair dripping on the carpet, towards the number “1” room- the exit room. Then my vision blurred and jumped again, and I could vaguely see through it to see his form moving extremely quickly, without running, into the room and towards the exit door.
Startled, but fine, I followed. That nagging feeling was still there. I didn’t know what it was trying to make me see. He stepped towards the door and put the key in the lock and turned the knob. But for some reason it wouldn’t open. He kept trying to open it, several times. He growled. Then he seemed to realize something and he turned around. I could see his head move towards me. I had been standing behind him, and now I was in his way. Gulping, I stepped away, around him, towards the window by the exit door. He turned to read the equation on the wall.
The equation! Only one person could leave… I saw him lift his right hand a little, and he looked down at what he held, as if he realized what it was for the first time. I realized what it was for the first time as well. It was a large knife. I felt my blood go cold and I backed away, against the wall. He turned to face me, knife gripped in his hand.
“N-No…” I pleaded, “D-don’t!” I grew scared for my life as he drew closer, “Please don’t! W-we can… we can find some other way! Y-You don’t..!” He came close, standing a foot away from me. I whimpered. He lunged, and I thought I was going to die.
He held the knife against my throat, his face near mine. It seemed he wasn’t going to kill me just that second. I could feel his breath on my face. I realized then that I had closed my eyes in fear of my death. I dared to open one. My eyes adjusted to the strange combination of the light from the window on one side of me, to the pure darkness of the other. I could make out a few features of the face before me.
Then it hit me. The nagging feeling about his scent… it was cologne, it was the latent smell of a person. A person I knew, a person whose scent I knew better than anyone’s. The nagging feeling I’d had since I felt his strange hair, his earring. My breath hitched in my throat as I laid eyes on the man I had labeled “the headless zombie guy” in my head.
It was Cain.
“Oh my God…” I gasped, “What… h-happened to you? What did they do to you?!” My heart ached. For once, for Cain, my heart ached. They had kidnapped us both, chopped off his head, cut out his heart, somehow made him keep living… I felt the tears run quickly down my cheeks. He didn’t answer me. He didn’t let that knife leave my throat.
Instead, he leaned in, towards my ear, and… snickered. I shivered. He bit my earlobe, and I gasped. “C-Cain!” I whined, “This.. this isn’t the time! You’ve been mutilated!”
He ignored me. He moved his knife, using it to cut open my collar, so he had access to my shoulder blades. He left bites and hickies all along my neck and shoulder, and I couldn’t help myself, but react to each one. Even with his mutilated body, and the knife still dangerously close to my jugular, that was still Cain’s mouth, and I had to react. I couldn’t help but react. I moaned.
Then he threw me so suddenly to the ground. Before I could try to sit up, has was kneeling over me, already between my legs. “Cain…” I pleaded. But I didn’t even know what I was pleading for. My life? Freedom? His cock? Just something. He seemed to comply, though he still kept that knife clutched in his hand as he leaned over me.
[spoiler]He brought the knife close, and I thought he was going to stab me. Instead, he used it to roughly rip open my shirt, and my pants, until I was left pretty much naked, with what was left of my clothing hanging off my arms and legs. He fumbled one-handed with his pants, still not relinquishing his weapon. Soon, he had freed his arousal, and gripped my thighs with his hands, tilting my pelvis more favorably towards him. I could feel the cold metal of the knife against my skin, since he still gripped it as he touched my leg.
He positioned himself at my entrance, and seemed to hesitate. I opened my mouth to say something, when suddenly he forced himself inside me, and my breath hitched, and I winced. If I were still new at this, I might have yelped, or cried out, or even whimpered. But I was used to this, used to Cain, used to how Cain like it. I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing to be used to someone like Cain.
He fucked me for a while, as usual being as rough as he desired. Which tended to be fairly rough. Every so often, whenever we would have sex, I’d rip. It was inevitable. It happened this time, too. He was being harder than usual. It probably had something to do with our situation. I bit my lip, to avoid making any complaint at the pain, which soon faded away, back to pleasure as he rocked his hips harshly against my pelvis. All throughout, though, I was aware of the cold metal that kept rubbing against my hip.
Eventually, I came, followed shortly by Cain. I remained laying on my back, panting, feeling the heat in my booty from my blood and his semen. He pulled out, but remained hovering over me, breathing heavily as he looked me over. After several minutes, as I was staring away in a post-sex daze, I noticed movement in my peripheral vision.[/spoiler]
Looking back at Cain, I saw that he had done up his pants. He had also raised his right hand some, and it was sort of.. over me. The knife… it almost seemed like it was aimed at me, but…
Cain was staring at me. I propped myself up on my elbows.
“Cain?” I asked quietly. He didn’t answer. Just stared. I managed to sit up fully. He did, too. “Cain…” I tried again, to no avail. His gaze slowly shifted from me, to the dimly lit wall, where the picture equation was drawn. One person may leave, two may not.
“Cain.” I repeated, an urgency filling my voice, standing up. He stood, too, slowly. I shivered slightly, feeling cold in my nudity. But that was unimportant. His stare returned to me. I felt scared.
“Cain, d-don’t…” I said, my voice pleading, and I backed away. We were suddenly back where we started. My back touched the wall. “Don’t do this, Cain, we can figure something out together. We always do, don’t we?”
But he didn’t seem to be listening. Or, if he was, he didn’t care. I saw an odd smile form on his face, and a chill ran down my spine. He made a lot of faces at me during our time together, but that smile, that smirk… I only ever saw it in my nightmares.
He stepped forward. I held my breath. He lunged.
I felt the blade pierce my chest and I screamed in pain. He was grinning. That fucking bastard was grinning! He pulled the knife from my chest, blood spurting out from my wound, flecks of it getting on his face, and I slumped to the floor, my legs having buckled beneath me. He kneeled in front of me, and I lowered my head, already feeling weak as I could feel liquid heat down my front as I bled profusely. I was already going to die.
He grabbed my hair and forced me to face him, that sick smile still on his face. Then he reached his right arm back, and stabbed me again. He pulled it out, then stabbed yet again. And again. And again. Each time he yanked the blade from me, blood went flying with it, staining the floor, staining Cain… How was I not dead yet? He yanked my hair, tossing me aside. I could see the door at this angle, the light of the outside shining through. I gasped for breath. He’d already gone and given me a pneumothorax, piercing my lung several times. I could hear the air of at least one of my lungs escaping through the knife wounds. My body shook.
I thought that he was done with me, as I lay motionlessly on the floor, but he forced me onto my back, straddled me, keeping my shoulders down with one arm as he began stabbing me repeatedly in the gut. Over and over, each time a new, agonizing pain. Then, he let go of my shoulder and used both hands to stab me relentlessly, practically mincing my midsection.
He must’ve stabbed me more than thirty times by the time he was finished. But eventually, dripping with my blood, the light from the door teasing me through the gap where his heart should have been, he stopped and stood up. He turned from me coldly, without a care. The door opened by itself, slowly with a creak. He walked through as my vision finally began to fade away. I was finally going to die. I tried to sigh in relief, but I only managed to spit up some blood and tissue. The bastard had just gotten one last fuck out of me before killing me so that “one person could leave”. That person just had to be him.
It was always him.
The world vanished before my eyes…
I saw a light. I thought it was the afterlife. I guess it was real… but then the light took on an eerily familiar shape. A window… A bright window, the only light in a dark, silent room.
I sat up, feeling myself over. My clothes were intact. I wasn’t bleeding- hell, even my booty didn’t hurt. “What the hell…?” I whispered, confused. Didn’t Cain just stab me to death?
I stood slowly. Everything was exactly the same as the last time I woke up in the front room. I opened the front door- padlocks, birds chirping. I went into the kitchen, I found the “1” key in the cupboard, somehow lost the “3” key to the sink drain again in the bathroom… What was going on here?!
Then I heard it. That dull beating sound. I’d ignored it before… but now I was certain. If there was a head, there was a heart, too. Maybe.. I was given a second chance? What was this, some kind of sick game? Whoever could take Cain’s head and heart and keep him alive, also brought me back to life and rewound time. What sort of sick, twisted fuck was doing this to us?
This time, I was determined to find the heart key. I went through the paces, unlocking room “1”, finding the “2” key, opened the “2” room.. and there was Cain’s headless, heartless body, waiting for me with the key and the message on the wall.
“I know..” I said quietly, touching his arm hesitantly, gently. No reaction. I sighed. “I’m bringing you your heart, this time.” I grabbed the wrench and ran off, trying to avoid running through Cain whenever I turned. I got a hold of the “3” key, and I soon found myself in the room where I’d first found the head key- and I found it again. But this time I put it right back where I found it and kept looking.
Eventually, I saw a glint in the corner of my eye- there! Kneeling down where the open door met the wall, I finally found the heart key, partially hidden by the door when I opened it. “Tricky little bastard…” I muttered, picking it up. Dodging around the mutilated Cain that haunted me, I hurried downstairs, unlocked the pantry door, which was the heart room. I realized now that the skylight was probably reinforced glass as well… if I could have even reached it. Looking at the far end of the room, I saw it, and I almost threw up.
On a metal bar, hanging from the aorta, the vena cava, and other such large veins and arteries, was Cain’s heart. Just hanging there, bleeding. I hesitated, not wanting to touch it. Trying to clear the tense air around me, I said to myself “I guess Cain does have a heart…”
I chuckled weakly, but it wasn’t enough. Then suddenly, I saw Cain walking around me from behind, towards his heart. I backed up to give him space. He pulled the heart from the bar, and tried to place it in the hole in his chest. It wouldn’t just go in, though, and he began trying to force it, shoving it into his chest. It kept making the sickest squelching noises. I turned away, and tried not to throw up. Soon, my vision went crazy again, I could see his silhouette fast forward its way out of the room and up the stairs. I followed quickly, my heart racing.
I found Cain at the glass door, again trying to open it to no avail. “Cain, we can’t..” He stopped and turned to read the wall. Without a head, somehow. I tried not to think too hard about it. He ‘looked’ down at his knife.
“C-Cain…!” I said, backing up against the wall. I didn’t want to die again. I tried to go for the exit to the room, but that door had closed itself and wouldn’t open. I cursed, and turned back towards Cain. He had turned around, and was facing me. But the knife wasn’t raised threateningly this time. It was in his hand, which hung limply at his side.
Then he approached me, I tensed, and I pleaded. But he couldn’t hear me, or chose not to listen. When he was nearly against me, as I was against the wall, he raised his left hand- and rested it on my cheek.
It was uncharacteristically gentle of him, and I was confused. Then he did something he’d never done before, and stroked my cheek gently. I felt my face grow hot, and I trembled. I was almost as scared as when he was going to kill me, but this time… He was being nice to me. I was so confused.
His thumb moved to touch my lips softly, and he stopped stroking my cheek. I thought at first it was a trick of the eyes, but then I realized… Cain’s shoulders were… trembling. Without a head, he was… crying??
“C-Cain?” I questioned, perplexed. He suddenly pulled his hand away from my face and stepped back. “Cain…” I repeated, “What are you doing? Don’t do anything crazy-“
As if on cue, he gripped the knife with both hands, and raised it above where his head should be- then he brought it down, towards himself, and he stabbed himself in the gut. He almost doubled over, but he was tougher than that. He yanked the knife out of him- I felt something hot. I had been sprayed with his blood!
Then, the opposite of what had happened last time occurred. He stabbed himself so many times. It had to be ten times before he dropped to his knees. All the while I kept trying to get him to stop, but he would only brandish the knife at me, then keep going.
Eventually, he movements began to slow, his body began to lose balance. Finally, with one last stab, he slumped over, knife still in his minced gut, and he was still.
“Oh God…!” I gasped, my hand over my mouth. I stood silent, frozen, my legs like lead. Then, just as I made a move towards him, I heard a sound. A creak. The door had just opened itself.
“Cain…” I whispered, to which I got no response. I realized then that I had been crying. And now it was in full force. I sobbed, weeping for Cain. I never thought I would do such a thing, but now…
Finally, when I regained myself, I looked at the open door, then back at Cain. “I’ll… I’ll be right back!” I said, heading towards the door. “I’ll be back soon, Cain! I’ll bring help! I’ll… I’ll do something!” My voice was practically a scream, then, and I ran from the room, out into the light until the brightness consumed me.
The pure whiteness took over my vision, just as the darkness of death had taken me before. Then the light began to shrink….
It shrank until it was confined within the shape of a window.
“No…” I said breathlessly, in disbelief, as I sat on the floor before the window. “No!!” I repeated, this time in a scream, and I flew into a rage. Jumping to my feet, I flung myself around the room, beating the window, trying to break down the screen door, yanking at the padlocks, all the while screaming, feeling the worst agony I had ever felt.
It ended with me as a mess on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably, my limbs bruised, my head aching, and my emotions a wreck. It took a long time for me to recover enough of myself to move again.
Again, I went through the paces until, again, I found Cain. After he gave me his headless, heartless message, all I could do was wrap my arms around his bleeding body- only to have my vision jump and he disappear. I wept a while longer. Then I continued to go through the motions, until I reached the room with the head and heart keys. Then finally, I got an idea.
I took both keys. First, I unlocked the head room. Cain, who had been following me as usual, entered it on his own. While he was busy reattaching his head, I ran as fast as I could downstairs and flung open the heart door. All queasiness was gone from me as I yanked his heart from the pole on which it hung. I hurried back upstairs to find him again trying to open the door, his head attached. Then again, he read the message on the wall, and looked at his knife. But before he could turn on me, I grabbed his shoulder, and shoved my hand and his heart as hard as I could through the whole in his torso, through the back.
He seemed to be in pain when I did that, doubling over. I backed away, only hoping that I had done the right thing, that finally everything might be coming together.
When Cain recovered, he turned and looked at me, as if for the very first time.
“Abel…” He said in disbelief, and I sighed, laughing weakly. It was the first time I’d heard him speak since before this whole nightmare began. It was a relief. It took a huge weight off my heart.
“Cain,” I began my reply as he stared at me in bewilderment, “Are you okay?”
He frowned, and looked at himself. He dropped the knife, surprised to see himself carrying it. Then he saw the gaping wound in his chest.
“What the fuck?!” He shouted. I stepped forward, hoping to calm him down.
“Don’t panic! Do you know what’s going on? I found you earlier, without a head, or your heart…” He looked at me like I was crazy.
“What the hell are you on, princess? What happened to me?” But there was something in his eyes, like there was something he was trying to remember.
I bit my lip, not really knowing how to respond. “I think we were kidnapped…” I said eventually. He replied with a ‘no shit Sherlock’ comment. I groaned.
Then he took his time ignoring me and looking around, and something seemed to click. “Someone brought us here… and only one of us can leave.”
I began to grow worry. I didn’t want him to think he had to kill himself or me again. “I think it’s someone’s sick game. I think we’re being watched. I… This is the third time I’ve been through all this…”
Something seemed to dawn on Cain. “Someone wants to watch us die. Someone wants to see how we struggle to survive, what we do as humans.” I was surprised by Cain’s insight.
Then something dawned on me, too, and I replied, “Yeah, that’s why you had your head and your heart taken- Ordinarily, you should only get one back… and would you think with you head, or your heart? Heartless logic, or… selfless sacrifice?”
Cain stared at me seriously. “I think I remember.” He said, turning to stare at the door. “You died… Then I died. Now the door won’t open cuz we’re both alive.”
Great, it had come full circle. Now one of us was going to die again. But then… Cain smirked. Not the one from my nightmares, though… The one he wore when he felt he was invincible, when he was number one. He snickered. “Like I’m gonna let one of us keel over for some asshole’s enjoyment. He’ll just make us do it again.”
Then he turned to face me. “Come on, Abel. Let’s find some way to break this shit down.”
I smiled again, at last, and relief washed over me. I had Cain back! Whole! Even if he was back to being a selfish bastard, he had his head… and his heart. And with his strength, there was a chance.
We scoured the small house for materials, gathering them up in the exit room. Cain used the wrench to break off from the walls the pole his heart had been hanging from, while I removed the pipes from the sinks. Soon, we both had metal pipes, Cain had a wrench, and I had a metal bar.
“Alright…” Cain said, “You ready to wail on this thing?”
I nodded. With two hunks of metal, I was a bit better at breaking things. Cain nodded back. “Okay… hit it!!”
And the two of us began pounding at the door, me at the doorknob, Cain at the reinforced glass, just to seem which might cave first. Soon, I felt the knob coming loose, just as cracks began to appear in the glass. With several more hits, the knob broke off, and the square of glass Cain had been hitting shattered.
Quickly, he shoved his arm through the gap, finding the knob on the outside of the door. With the knob that had the lock removed, the door opened very easily. It was almost sad how easy it was, now. I almost wanted to cry at the irony.
The two of us stood there, panting, staring at the open door as the light flowed into the dark room. We glanced at each other, both of us knowing that when we stepped through, we could just be reset all over again.
I took a breath. I thought I heard Cain do the same. We stepped through the door at the same time…
After a few minutes of my vision being overtaken by the light, I thought I was being reset again, and I felt my hope fading. But then, the light began to bleed out into colors… After blinking until my eyes adjusted, I realized I was now standing in an alleyway, the sunlight shining in from the street. Cain was standing beside me, shielding his eyes from the sudden brightness of the sun.
I looked around, looking behind me to see the broken door, and the blackness inside. It occurred to me that we had left through the second story, only to be standing on solid ground outside. “How in the…” I never completed my thought.
Cain took the initiative and stepped out of the alley and onto the sidewalk. I followed eagerly. We both were taken for a loop- we were right outside our apartment building. Cain unleashed a string of curse words to alleviate his confusion, while I simply stared in bewilderment.
It took us both an hour before we could accept the situation. It was then I noticed Cain lacked any sort of blood or injury. His neck showed no sign of ever having been severed, and there was no gaping, heart-shaped wound in his chest. He was perfectly fine.
“What the hell was all that shit?” Cain finally asked. I didn’t have the answer, so I shrugged.
“Did it… even happen?” I asked quietly. Cain scoffed.
“Of course it had to have happened! You were there! I was there! Two people can’t have the same fucked up dream at the exact same time.” Cain’s logic was, for once in a lifetime, infallible.
I saw my pack sitting by the apartment entrance. “Hey!” I ran up to it and picked it up. Cain followed. After rifling through its contents, I was pop flyin' to find everything was as it should be. I pulled a watch I never wore from a pocket- it was the exact same time it was when we were kidnapped.
“You gotta be shitting me.” Cain said with a groan.
“Oh, hey…” I said meekly. He looked at me in annoyance. After a pause, I pulled the apartment keys from my bag and said quietly, “I found ‘em.”
With a grimace, Cain yanked the keys from my hand and turned to open the door. While he was doing that, I walked back to the alley and glanced down it…
There wasn’t even a sign of the door. I shook my head in irritation and turned as I heard the apartment building door open. I followed Cain inside, lest he’d leave me locked out outside.
Once we were finally safely inside our small apartment, I collapsed on the couch with a long, ragged sigh. Cain walked over, lifted up my legs, sat down, and replaced them on his lap. “So… I guess it’s over, huh?” He said, not even looking at me.
“Mm-hmm..” I replied quietly, hugging a couch pillow.
“You kinda did a lot back there.” He continued. Still not looking at me.
I simply nodded. I wasn’t sure where he was going with this.
“… I guess I should take better care of you, in case you need to do shit like that again.” He still wouldn’t look at me, but I could hear the awkwardness in his voice. It made me smile. He was trying to say ‘thank you’. He tried to keep going, “I mean, you’re kinda more useful than I thought, so-“
I cut him off. “You’re welcome, Cain.”
He huffed a bit, trying to make it seem like he hadn’t just shown a little emotion. I couldn’t stop smiling. Cain couldn’t deny how soft he’d been with me, when all he had was his heart without his hot-air filled head. And he knew it. So did I. Maybe that experience, whether or not it really happened… could be the start of something new for us? It was about daisies time.
“Hey Abel…” Cain started.
“Hm?” I felt compelled to humor him.
“Wanna fuck?”
I groaned and buried my face in the pillow. Figures. He was the same as always.
“I promise I won’t stab you when I’m done this time.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Maybe he was the same.. but different. I liked it.
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