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The first thing that Parrot registered was the sound of water –?– dripping. The second thing was that when he opened his eyes it was still dark, no matter where he looked there wasn't any light around him. "Where am i..."
He slowly stood up, from what he could feel he was standing on something hard textured. Obsidian probably. "Theo?" His voice echoed breaking the eerie silence, no one answered him. A shiver ran down his spine, his wings pressed against his back subconsciously.
He stood there, in darkness, in an unfamiliar place. He didn't know if he was going insane but he could swear that he felt eyes watch him. He felt like a prey with a predator lurking somewhere in the shadows that he couldn't see or hear. The silence was broken by another little sound of drip, he had to get out somehow. "Okay..what stuff do i have with me.." He was talking to no one in particular.
.....
"Oh."
Parrot's eyes widened in horror, he felt his throat close up, his eyes going blurry as he took out the only item he found in his inventory, it was dripping with blood with that person's blood— the person who had died because of him—
He felt like he might throw up.
"Do you blame yourself?" He flinched at the sudden voice, making him drop the item. No– it couldn't be–
The person who had spoken kneeled down to grab the item he had dropped. Wifies kneeled down to grab the spyglass—
"Do you blame yourself Parrot? For what you've done?" Wifies smiled at him as he held out the spyglass to Parrot, who in response let out a broken sob. "Go on, take it." Wifie– no, the Director forced him to take it back into his hands. He looked down at it and the second he looked back up the other wasn't wearing that armour anymore, he looked like he did back then. The only difference was–
Was the blood.
The blood dripping down from his head.
Wifies pulled him into an embrace which wasn't returned by the avian, he just stood there, and whispered in his ear.
"You're the reason."
Parrot felt like he was frozen in place. He couldn't move away. He was rooted to the ground, flightless—
"I'm dead because of you."
"No– i didn't—" Parrot let out a strangled, humorless laugh then pushed Wifies off of him and he took a step back. The other tilted his head slightly, looking at him with a confused look.
Drip.
"What do you mean, Parrot? You dropped the spyglass onto," The scenery around them switched from the pitch–black to bright, Parrot had to blink a few times to get adjusted to the light. His breath hitched as he looked at the room, a very familiar room. The white pillars, the yellow lights and Wifies standing on the other side of the place on– "the pressure plate, didn't you?"
Drip, drip.
The silence, occasionally broken by the sound of Wifies' blood dripping, was deafening.
Neither of them spoke a word.
Wifies just stood there, smiling, waiting for Parrot to do something, to do anything.
The avian unconsciously tightened his grip on the spyglass, he opened his mouth to say something, to break the silence. He couldn't, his throat closed up and no word managed to come out, only a broken sound got past his lips. His world became blurred soon enough and he felt his face get wet by the tears. He wasn't loud, he didn't sniff he just silently stood there, both of them stood there in silence.
It wasn't like last time—
Last time when Parrot didn't let himself feel a thing. He had to shut himself down to be able to drop the spyglass, to be able to–....to do what he had done. To be able to walk away, to be able to let his communicator buzz with the message of his best friend's death without reading it.
"Can you own up to what you have done, Parrot?" Wifies broke the silence, the person in question opened his eyes and looked at him, he didn't even realize that he had closed his eyes.
Drip.
"I...." The avian trailed off, looking at the spyglass then back at Wifies who was now in front of him and not on the pressureplate, his eyes widened, "Wifies–!"
"Don't worry. You won't die, remember? It might hurt a little, but it'll be bearable." He laughed then cupped his face in his hands then smiled at him with a fond look. He slowly wiped at the avian's eyes to get rid of the tears, "Don't cry, it was me who died not you, silly." Parrot flinched at his words, even if they were said with a sickeningly sweet voice, as if it was supposed to comfort him. As if it didn't make his gut clench with guilt.
"–ot!"
Wifies let go of his face, then raised one hand and held up three fingers.
"Three."
"–rrot!"
"Two." He lowered one of his fingers.
"–arrot!"
"One." He lowered another.
"Parrot!"
"Bumm."
Parrot didn't even have time to register anything besides the color red of hundreds of tnt before he woke up on his bed, bolting upright "Woah! Parrot!" He didn't hear the person talking to him, his chest heaved with ragged breaths. He put a hand to his chest in an attempt to calm himself down so he could get air– he couldn't breathe. He couldn't–. He flinched, hard, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. The hand was immediately gone the moment he reacted to it.
He closed his eyes, trying his best to calm down but he couldn't. The face of Wifies– bloodied but still smiling at him. The spyglass—
It was all his fault, wasn't it?
He was the reason that Wifies died.
He was the reason that Wifies was dead.
His blood was on his hands, the blood that he'll never get to wash off because he can't. He can't because forgiving means forgetting.
"Parrot!"
His eyes snapped open as he heard a voice next to him. The voice sounded worried?
The avian looked in the direction of the sound, the person was blurry, they had large, yellow colored wings which were pulled tightly to the person's back, as if to look non–threating to him.
"Parrot?" The person spoke up again, with a much more soft and quiet voice. "Hey, buddy, you here with me?" The avian's vision was slowly becoming less blurry and he realized that the person next to him was Theo.
"Y-yea." Parrot's voice cracked as he answered. He pulled his wings closer to himself and broke eye contact with the cockatiel. "Did i wake you..?"
"Yea, you did."
He felt his cheeks warm up with something akin to shame and embarrassment for waking up his friend at an ungodly hour. Theo was always so great to him, never asking for anything in return for his kindness and this is how he repays him? By not even letting him get sleep? Gosh he was such a bad friend.
"But i'm glad you did."
Parrot's eyes snapped back to the other at his words, only to find him wear a reassuring smile on his face. Like he was actually glad that he woke him up. Parrot moved so that Theo could sit down next to him, which he did, then the cockatiel opened his left wing and brought it around his friend and pulled him closer so that he was really sitting next to him. His wing staying in place, not moving, it acted as a large, heavy blanket. It was great, Parrot felt grounded.
"Do you often have.. nightmares?" Theo spoke up after a little while, breaking the comfortable silence. Parrot didn't answer for some time but when he did, he nodded instead of talking. If the macaw had been looking at his friend, he would've seen how Theo's eyes hardened and how his jaw tensed at his answer. His wing closed around Parrot a little bit more.
"They're not..usually this bad.." Parrot broke the silence, "I just wake up and..go on with my day i guess. I can usually handle them alone, this one was a rare occasion. I'm sorry for waki—"
"Don't." Theo cut him off, "Don't apologize for waking me up when i don't mind it, i'm happy that i woke up because you would be alone right now." He went quiet for a few seconds, Parrot was about to speak up but the cockatiel started talking again.
"You would be alone right now, like all the other times when i didn't wake up." The macaw felt shame build up again, he felt guilty because Theo probably felt guilty for not being there for Parrot, even if he was always there for him.
"Why don't you just let me help you? I want to be there for you, Parrot. I'm your friend, i want to know your troubles, i want to lift the weight of whatever troubles you off of your shoulders! You know why? Because you're one of the most important people in my life. And i can't bear the thought of you suffering and handling things alone because you might think that i don't want to hear them!"
By the time Theo was done with his rant his voice was strained and his chest was heaving. So Parrot was right, Theo did feel guilty. Because he was too much of a coward to face his problems and talk to someone, to talk to Theo who only wanted good for him.
"Please, Parrot, talk to me." If he didn't know any better he would've thought that he heard begging in Theo's voice.
"I'm sorry, Theo. I just.." His voice trailed off then he hugged his friend, who, after a second of shock, hugged him back more tightly, the cockatiel's wings immedietly went around Parrot and the macaw relaxed. He felt safe. Something that he didn't experience in a while now, not since the Mafia or before that. But here? In Theo's embrace with his wings around him? He knew that nothing could hurt him because Theo was here with him.
"I dreamt of Wifies. It wasn't pleasant..there was..a lot of blood." That's all he said, because, even if his friend didn't know exactly what had happened he knew that his old friend wasn't here anymore. He didn't need to explain because Theo knew that whatever happened was bad, so instead of asking any more questions he just tightened his hold on Parrot.
"I feel guilty." The avian admitted, voice muffled by how he buried his face into Theo's shoulder.
"I don't know what happened between you two but..from the few interactions i had with Wifies i know that he wouldn't want you to blame yourself because he wouldn't blame you either."
Parrot felt his eyes water and his throat close up, he swallowed hard, trying to keep it in.
"I know that me saying this won't immedietly make you stop blaming yourself and feeling guilty. Especially since i don't even know the full story, which by the way i expect to know one day!" Parrot let out a huff at that, "But..trust me.. just trust me on this one."
Parrot tightened his grip on Theo's shirt, then nodded. "Yea, okay..okay.."
The two stayed like that for a while, in a comfortable silence and soon enough Parrot could hear his friend's breathing evened out. How Theo managed to fall asleep sitting was something that he didn't understand, he let out a huff of laughter then moved them so that they were lying down. The cockatiel did not let go of his grip on Parrot, even if the latter did try to get out so after that he didn't try. He hoped that they won't fall off the bed.
Parrot slowly felt himself succumb to exhaustion and after a few minutes he drifted off too, feeling safe for the first time in years.
He dreamt of a memory of a flowerfield and a red poppy.
"Sleep well, Parrot.." Wifies smiled, his cold being felt a flicker of warmth at the sight of his friend finally getting on the path to start healing, "I don't blame you. I could never." The ghost's presence left as quickly as he came, leaving a cold spot in the room in his disappearance.