Chapter Text
Enjoy your reading!! (I don't really like Zeyn's latest short, I think)
Mike felt a sudden shiver seize his ghostly body. A bad feeling gripped his throat as he instinctively turned his head toward a specific point.
In the blink of an eye, he found himself in the middle of a scene that ripped his heart apart.
The warehouse floor was covered in blood, the strong metallic smell hitting him so violently in the gut that he lost his breath, frozen on the spot.
Destiny, tied to a chair, her face covered in blood. A trembling, pain-filled smile — but a smile so sincere that Mike felt like throwing up, his stomach twisted with terror.
Zeyn, also tied up, was staring at Destiny, her gaze empty and full of incomprehension. The information hadn't yet reached her brain; the shock was too overwhelming.
What had happened? Who had done this?!
He turned his head.
A group of masked, armed strangers seemed agitated, but it was clear that one of them was the culprit.
Consumed by pure rage, he stepped toward them, fists and jaw clenched. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he had to do something. He would avenge Destiny, even if it meant killing them all.
His body stopped dead when his eyes fell on someone he never would have imagined seeing here.
It couldn't be…
He had to be wrong…
His vision must have been blurry…
Right?
But no. The signs were unmistakable. It was Micah, standing in the shadows, revolver still in hand, arms hanging limp, his gaze blank and full of tears.
Mike’s mind couldn’t process anything anymore as he struggled to gather his thoughts. He remained frozen, staring at the boy who no longer resembled the human being incapable of hurting his friends — the one he had loved most in the world, and still loved.
"DESTINY! NO! NO! DESTINYYYY!"
Zeyn’s scream snapped him out of his daze, and he rushed toward the girls.
He tried not to focus on the fact that Destiny had noticed him without him even trying to connect with her. He knew very well what that meant — he just didn’t want to believe it.
Destiny was too young to die so soon. Too kind to die in such a way.
Slightly trembling, he cupped Destiny’s face in his palms, and his heart immediately tightened. The fact that he could touch her like this, that he could feel the contact, was a definite sign that shattered his denial.
"Why? What happened? Tell me it wasn’t Micah who did this..." he pleaded, trying to concentrate on easing her pain.
If he couldn’t save her, he could at least prevent her from dying in agony. He knew better than anyone how horrible it was to die suffering. His neck remembered it — a phantom pain that sometimes made it hard for him to even swallow.
Destiny didn’t have time to answer.
The back door of the warehouse burst open, slamming against the filthy wall.
Mike immediately pulled away from Destiny as Christian stormed into the garage, heading straight for her. Mike turned again toward where he had last seen Micah, but he was gone. The masked men were gone too. And yet, even though Micah was no longer inside the warehouse, Mike could see him — fleeing into the street, swallowed by the darkness of the night.
The feeling of betrayal drowned him in a hollow pit of confusion.
His attention was torn away from Micah and dragged back to Destiny. Destiny, now free, cradled in Christian’s arms as he knelt in the pool of blood staining the girl he loved.
Destiny, still smiling.
She wasn’t so different from him, after all. She smiled even at death’s doorstep. Maybe that’s why he hated seeing that smile on his best friend’s face — because he knew she was hiding her pain, masking her fear, trying to look brave.
Deep down, he could feel it: she was terrified.
And in a way, he understood her.
He had been killed too.
He had wanted to die.
After his death, he had thanked Christian for killing him.
But on the other hand, he could only feel deeply uneasy. Because he didn’t know that it was she who had asked Micah to shoot her, that she had made that choice fully aware of the consequences.
As Christian pleaded with Destiny to be quiet, to conserve her strength, to not leave him alone, Mike turned away, feeling uncomfortable. He didn’t want to see that. He didn’t want to show jealousy in such a moment.
Instead, he approached Zeyn. The poor girl had passed out. Knowing he couldn’t really do anything for his friend without risking being noticed, he loosened the bindings slightly.
It was pathetic, but still better than nothing, right? And besides, Christian didn’t seem in a state to notice Zeyn for the moment.
He stepped back slowly, as though afraid of breaking something, before finally leaving the warehouse that had witnessed the horror.
Mike tried to sleep. Well, sleep was a strong word for the mind he had become. He wasn’t really tired; he just wanted to rest. An old human reflex.
But a gentle warmth and the sudden absence of light above him made him open his eyes. Destiny, a halo of light around her and a golden aura floating above her head, was smiling at him, her teeth gleaming.
“I missed you!” she said, tilting her head, her long hair sliding over her arm like a stream of clear water.
Mike sat up suddenly, the sensation of about to cry overwhelming him, but nothing came.
“I missed you too,” he whispered, his voice choked. “But I didn’t want to see you here. Not this soon.”
Destiny didn’t answer, but her smile faded slightly. With a sigh, she sat on the illusionary bed where Mike was sitting cross-legged.
“First, I wanted to thank you…” she began, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “You know, for the pain… And then, to answer your questions…” She paused, taking a deep breath.
Mike didn’t appreciate the seriousness of this silence at all.
“It was Micah who shot me,” Destiny said in a clear and direct voice.
Mike felt like he’d just been hit in the head with a heavy dictionary. Destiny had definitely stunned him.
“W–Why?” he stammered. “How could he do that? I–”
“I” what? “I’m sorry”? “I didn’t mean it like that”? But who did he think he was, anyway?
“It’s me who asked him. To sum it up, Zeyn and I were kidnapped by some bad guys who wanted to get back at Chris by taking Zeyn down... Micah was there, and I asked him to shoot me, pretending to be Zeyn.”
“But why was he there?”
“He wanted to save us, but the others were too many. It was the only way to save Zeyn and Micah.”
“I’m sure there was another way, there’s always another way.”
“As you say,” Destiny whispered bitterly, but the tone didn’t suit her, and Mike stiffened immediately.
“What do you mean?” he dared to ask, hesitant.
“You killed yourself!” she exclaimed, her voice filled with a dull pain. “You said in your letter that you couldn’t find another way… How can you dare tell me there was another way… when all I was trying to do was save my friends?”
Mike looked away, ashamed. He totally deserved her reproach, even though it touched on an extremely sensitive topic for him.
“It’s true that I wanted to kill myself, and I’m sorry, you know that… But I didn’t…”
“What?” Destiny turned sharply toward him, surprised. “But Chris said that…”
“No, that’s not true…” Mike interrupted, slowly raising his head. “Actually, it was… someone else who pulled the rope.”
Fear drained the already pale skin of Destiny, making it look as white as paper.
“Don’t tell me that…”
“Yes…” he nodded. “It was Christian. But he didn’t really mean to… Even though we hated each other. In fact, he was trying to stop me. But I said something and… Well, I don’t blame him, I actually thank him. Without him, I don’t know if I would’ve really had the courage to do it alone…”
“Why did he lie to me? He knows I wouldn’t have blamed him… if he had told me the truth…”
“I don’t know…” he admitted bitterly. “Maybe because he felt guilty? Or maybe he just didn’t care… In the end, it’s the same.”
“Do you understand the pain we all felt?” Destiny whispered, a phantom pain in her voice.
Mike looked up at the non-existent ceiling, his arms stretched back to support his weight.
“I think living with someone who’s self-destructing a little more every day, who refuses to heal, is way worse than grieving,” he replied, his voice tired. “I regret… A little. Sometimes. But here, at least, I’m better. The negative feelings fade quickly here.”
Destiny nodded, caught between resignation and the lingering sadness that had no place.
“Still,” Mike muttered, the irony clear in his voice, “We got killed by the other’s crush. There’s something a bit comical about it, don’t you think?”
A light laugh escaped Destiny’s lips despite herself. She covered her mouth with her hand, as though ashamed to have laughed at something so absurd, so tragic.
“You’re really stupid…”
“Yeah, I kind of figured…” He shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “That’s why you love me, right?”
And suddenly, they both burst into genuine, liberating laughter.
A laugh that felt like a refreshing rain after a terrible drought.
A laugh that erased, just a little, the old wounds.