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Mike did a lot of running. Being part of the track team made that a reality. It prepared him to keep running, panting as his arms pumped back and forth, his scarf fluttering in the wind. He looked over his shoulder with wide, fearful eyes, but saw nothing as his feet slapped against the sidewalk. Preparing to slow down, he turned back, only to find a shadowy figure standing directly in his path. Fear spiked in his veins, forcing him to pivot and start running to the right. That led him directly to a familiar-looking hill, but the shadowy figure was now following him. He could see it getting closer every time he turned around. So he quit looking back and forced himself up the hill as fast as he could.
The tree greeted him as he reached the top, but he didn't stop until he was hiding behind the thick trunk, placing a hand over his mouth to quell his noises of exhaustion. His heart was trying to beat its way out of his ribcage, and he was sure the shadowy figure would hear it the closer it got. However, time passed, and nothing happened. Finally Mike felt brave enough to take a peek around the tree, only to find nothing. It was a quiet, breezy night: no shadowy figures following him. Relieved, he took a step away from the tree and stepped out, only to nearly walk directly into something.
"A-Ahh... AAHH! AAAA!" He started screaming, backing away from Lucy's body. She was dangling from a rope attached to a branch, swinging silently in front of him. Her eyes were closed: there was no life left in that cold body. He couldn't take his eyes off her, couldn't stop screaming, at least until he felt a hand being placed gently on his shoulder. He was so shocked that he actually fell silent, turning to see Sandy standing there next to him. She was watching Lucy as well, a faint smile on her face.
"It's okay, isn't it Maishul? After all, aren't you the one who killed her?" Mike didn't even get a chance to say anything in return. The ground opened up beneath him, and with a silent scream he fell, the sound of everyone shouting "Killer! Killer! Killer!" ringing in his ears, until he woke up with a start. He rose into a sitting position, tears already streaking down his face. He cried into his hands, shaking and hiccupping. Everything was going so wrong, like his entire world was crashing down around him. Why was this happening?
Sleep did not come easy after that. It washed over him in fits and starts, until his alarm rang and pulled him out of his final attempt at gaining rest. He sat up once again, groaning, with the vestiges of his nightmares resting on his brain. Barely able to pull himself out of bed, he grabbed his scarf and phone before struggling to make his way to the door. As had become custom, he skipped breakfast without a word, his stomach whining in protest as he went outside. It was time to walk to school, where everyone could ignore him like usual.
That lack of sleep was really getting to him. He was heading down the walkway as per usual, but his eyes would keep closing, leaving him in the dark for a few precious seconds. Then he'd open his eyes and keep walking, only for it to repeat. He was in the dark, then he opened his eyes, and he wasn't on the sidewalk anymore. Instead he was in the street, and someone was honking at him. Slow to react, he turned to see the car's occupant getting out of the driver's seat and heading his way. That familiar orange fur... "P-Paulo?" Mike mumbled out as, indeed, Paulo grabbed him by the shoulders.
"What the hell are you doing, Mike?! I could've hit you!" He shook Mike to get his point across, though Mike barely reacted. That was when Paulo started to frown, looking over Mike's unkempt fur and the bags under his eyes. "Wow, you look like shit. What the hell, Mike?"
"Didn't sleep much," was all Mike was willing to admit. It was true enough, though he was sure Paulo would make fun of him for having nightmares. Nightmares of his own design. He was swaying on his feet a bit, and that's when Paulo had to make a decision.
"Alright, get in the car. I'm not letting you walk to school like... whatever this is." He wasn't going to allow Mike to say no or waffle about it, so he forcefully pulled Mike to the passenger side of his car and opened the door. With that sign of decorum, Mike had little choice but to get into the car and fasten his seatbelt. Paulo then went over to his side, got the car out of park, and was back on his way to school with Mike in tow. They drove in relative silence, Mike not being much for conversation and Paulo not knowing how to get things started. He chewed on his lip, tapping his fingers against the wheel as he reached for something to say. "You know, if you want, I can teach you how to get away with sleeping in class. I haven't been caught yet." Mike laughed at that, though he still looked as if he was struggling to keep his eyes open.
"I may take you up on that."
Track practice was absolutely brutal. Another day of no eating and a lack of sleep had Mike feeling as if he was moving through molasses. No matter how much he willed his feet forward, they were stuck. "Come on, Mike! David is way past us now!" James shouted as he passed Mike, which may have been a lap, he wasn't sure. While he barely processed the words James said, they still managed to stab at his heart. How quickly he forgot how easily he was forgotten, replaced on the track team by David. He felt so... Well, he was going to say miserable, but weak was the more correct term. Yes, he was still moving, but everything felt so light all of a sudden. Was he floating? No, wait, he was falling.
"Huh..." That was all he could say before he hit the ground, and everything went black. It took some effort to force his eyes open again, but when he did, he felt sick to his stomach. There was that familiar tree, standing there ominously in the dark. In front of it was Lucy, her eyes dark and dead. Slowly Mike pushed himself onto his feet, fear noticeable on his face. "Lucy?"
"Don't worry, Michael. I know how you can repent for your sins." She sounded so sincere that a tiny bit of hope fluttered in Mike's heart. Coming down to greet him, Lucy grabbed his hands and pulled him to the tree, where she pushed his back against the bark. As if out of thin air, she conjured up rope and began tying him to the trunk.
"Wh-What are you doing?"
"Freeing you," Lucy replied, as if that was the most obvious answer in the world. She kept tying Mike up until he couldn't move, with an experimental tug proving that he was going nowhere. Then she stepped back and pulled out what appeared to be a lighter. Just seeing it made Mike start to sweat.
"Lucy, wait-"
"You hurt me, Michael. You alienated me. You pushed me to the brink of death, but you think you've suffered enough? You think that you deserve to even think about living the same way you used to?" A wry grin crossed her face as she flipped open the lighter, igniting it as a spark of a flame appeared. "You're the real parasite, Michael. Now let yourself be cleansed." She threw the lighter at Mike's feet, immediately igniting the grass it touched. Mike began to yelp in fright as he tried to move out of the way, but the rope had him completely bound. He couldn't even move his feet to keep them from catching fire. "Goodbye Michael." Lucy disappeared, leaving Mike behind to scream and scream as his entire body was set ablaze.
"AH!" Mike woke, terrified, having been thrashing in his sleep. The thin blanket that had been laid on him was now on the floor, white as the rest of the room. It took some time before he realized he was in the nurse's office. So he had fainted, huh? He looked around, but there was no one there. Right, that made sense. He let his head dip, tears leaking from his eyes. Of course there'd be no one there. Lucy was right: he didn't deserve to keep going on the way life had been before. Everything that had happened was his fault, and he didn't know how to fix it. How was he supposed to right so many wrongs?
"Now let yourself be cleansed." Well, there was one way. Curling his hands into fists, Mike got out of bed, his entire body screaming at him for doing it, but he ignored all the warnings. Forget the warnings: he had somewhere to be. So he left the nurse's office, left the school grounds, and no one appeared to stop him. He was tired, he was hurting, but he was determined as he walked into what was steadily becoming bad weather. The empty sky was now covered in dark clouds, and thunder was rumbling in the distance. He pushed through all of that, letting the wind breeze across his unbrushed fur.
He finally made it to his destination, and of course it was the tree. It was always going to be the tree. He struggled up the hill due to having just stopped being unconscious, but he willed himself up it, until he had a hand pressed against the trunk. Closing his eyes, he whispered, "Sorry mom," before beginning his ascent. He had barely climbed onto the first branch, however, when a voice nearly sent him falling back down.
"Get down from there, stupid." He looked over his shoulder and his jaw dropped at the sight of Lucy just standing there, hands on her hips.
"What are you doing here?!"
"Trying to figure out what you're doing," she shot back, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. "Now get down from there now." Reluctantly Mike did as told, climbing back down and going to stand awkwardly in front of Lucy. "Are you trying to get yourself killed or something?" When Mike didn't deny it fast enough, Lucy's eyes narrowed. "You can't be serious. You- You..." As she was talking, rain started to come down, and it wasn't a light drizzle. They were both instantly getting pelted by big drops of rain, and Lucy was just about to suggest that they hide beneath the tree for shelter. A suggestion that, it turns out, would've probably killed them.
A roaring bolt of lightning struck the tree, their tree, making a booming sound that made both of them temporarily go deaf. Lucy stared up in shock as the tree that they had spent so much time together under was suddenly falling, falling right in their direction. The first thing she heard as her ear cleared up was "Run!", and then Mike was grabbing her hand and forcing her down the hill. Running through the rain and down a hill wasn't a recipe for great success, and soon Lucy found herself falling off her feet. She screamed as she hit the ground and began rolling, awkwardly spiraling down. At least she was out of the way faster. The same couldn't be said for Mike, and as Lucy finished spinning out, she could only watch in horror as the tree swallowed a wide-eyed Mike up in its grasp, and he disappeared from view.
"MICHAEL!" Lucy's entire body ached, but she forced herself up to get back to the tree. The wind was whipping rain in her face, but she ignored it as best she could so she could start digging through the branches. "Michael!" She was nearly waist-deep in leaves, risking another lightning strike, but she wasn't leaving until she found-
"Ughh..." She heard something, so faint that most wouldn't have even picked it up. But she knew it was him.
"Michael!" Branches stabbed at her as she threw them aside, until she at least found Mike. He looked terrible, scratched up and bleeding, but he was moving. "Oh thank God!" She pulled him up and cradled him in her arms until he was finally lucid, at which point he surprisingly began to cry. "M-Michael? What's wrong?"
"Why won't I die?!" he cried, sobbing his little heart out. "All I do is mess everything up! Now you almost died, and I-I-" He was stunned into silence when Lucy suddenly smacked him across the face.
"What is wrong with you?! Do you think it's okay to just jump out of a tree and die? Did you learn nothing from me, or what?!" Mike's jaw dropped, but he didn't say anything. Whatever anger Lucy had in her died out at seeing the pitiful state Mike was in. She knew something was wrong, she always had, but this was too much. Sighing, she pressed her forehead against his shoulder and lightly punched his arm. "You're a fucking idiot, you know that?"
"Yeah," he whispered. "I know." He sounded so sad and defeated that it was impossible to be mad at that moment. Well, almost impossible. She was still uproariously upset, but there would be time for that later. Honestly, she was as dumb as he was being out in a storm like she was. But if it was to keep him from doing something incredibly stupid, like she had done... The entire scene was then changed when they both could clearly hear Mike's stomach angrily growling, mad about being left unfilled for days at a time. Lucy narrowed her eyes, while Mike sheepishly looked away.
"Alright, come on then. Let's get you a burger or something. And maybe some Neosporin or something." They both climbed out of the wreckage of the tree, not even sparing it a second glance. Mike's scarf was matted down against his fur, and the cold korat unconsciously pressed himself against Lucy for warmth. She sighed and shook her head, though to her own surprise, a small smile was there on her face. "Idiot..."