The fridge wouldnât stop humming.
Dirty clothes. Greasy hair. Lights off. Shadowed in the cloudy evening.
He would do anything, anything, for her not to come home.Â
Anything. Heâd sell all he had for it. For her to be staying out late at a pub or something. For her to stay at a friendâs place. Heâd do anything. Here, he was nameless. He wasnât a person. He was translucent. Nothingness. A wisp of everything he could have been. Transfixed by the dread.
Tepid condensation dripped onto his hand from the bottle he gripped with white knuckles. They littered the ground beside the couch as he absentmindedly flicked through TV channels that he really couldnât care less about. The fridge hummed. The shadows chewed away on the corners of the room, wisping through his head in wafts of silence, broken only by the sound of the tap dripping.
The television flicked to a static channel, and he put the remote down. The fog gripping his head dragged him into some sort of disjointed state. It was like he was sitting just a little left of his body. He would do anything for her not to come home. Anything.
The tap wouldnât stop dripping.
Sleep wouldnât come easy to him. He knew that, now. He knew the routine. Lie in bed until she fell asleep, until she wouldnât notice him getting out of bed and sitting on the porch, waiting. Waiting for something. Anything. He didnât know quite what. The cold would seep into his bones, sending tremors to shake his body, trying to force him back inside. The cold would wake him. The cold would make him feel achey. Staring into the darkness made his eyes go funny. Ghosts ofâŚthings. Animals, maybe. He didnât know. Darkness made you see odd things, is what he was saying.
He bit at his lips, getting his teeth around the scabs there and pulling, pulling. Iron bled into his mouth, flowing over his tongue. The sting of pain didnât much register. The scab and bit of skin sat between his teeth, sitting there, wet with blood. He spat it out.
Behind him, the door clicked open.
Everything in him deflated.
It stayed open for a very long moment, where the silence was deafening.
A breath, like she was going to say something, before catching herself.
Irritation rose before he could stop it. She always had something to criticise about him.
âWhat?â he slurred out.
âYouâre drinking.âÂ
Staying quiet for a moment. It wasnât worth the lie.
 âYou said you wouldnât do that anymore.â
The tension was almost unbearable, a hand on a taut bowstring just itching to release.
âYou said you wouldnât do that anymore.â Her voice had risen, insistent but not yelling.
The TV static crackled and flickered. âYeah.â
âYou fuckingâdo you not have anything to say!?â she asked, voice tight, on the verge of cracking.
The burning in his chest rose, no matter how much he tried to push it down. Still, he kept quiet, hoping she would storm off and this wouldnât be another shouting match.
âOne thing! I asked you one fucking thing! Is that so hard?! Is that so damn hard?!â
âLOOK AT ME, YOU BASTARD!â
He whipped around. âWell at least Iâm fucking awake when you get home, huh? At least Iâm actually fucking here! Iâm better than youâI come back every day to an empty house and you asleep! What do you want me to do, just sit here?!â he snarled.
The bowstring had snapped. The arrow had flown.
âOh, I don't know, make dinner?! Actually do something for me, for once?!â
He barked out a humorless laugh. âYeah, well, even if I did that, Iâm sure youâd find issue with it. Find something to criticize.â
âThe hell do you mean?! I appreciate every single damn thing you do for me, you just never notice âcause you never fucking do anything for me!â
âWhat do you want me to do, huh?! The hell do you want me to do?! âCause Iâll give you anything, you know! Iâll give you pills, Iâll give you money, Iâll give you anything you fucking want! Anything!â he spread his palms, emphasising. A lump was fighting to rise in his throat.
She exhaled shakily. âI donât want you to give me stuffâŚâ Her voice cracked.
âWhatâis it something wrong with me?! Something wrong with you? âCause I know itâs not just me! Just please tell me what the hell is wrong!â
She took another shaky breath. âNo. Noâyouâre fucking wasted again. NoâIâm going.â
She rummaged around in her bag for her phone.
âYouâre going?ââ he echoed, wrinkling his face. âWhere the hell you going?! You ainât leaving, I know youâre not.â
She kept on rummaging around in her bag.
âJust settle down.â The alcohol was messing with his headâhe couldnât keep sense of what was happening. âSettle down, where you going?â
âYouâre calling your dad?!â he sharply laughed. âWhatâs he gonna do?â
âHeâs gonna pick you up?âÂ
âYeah, heâs gonna pick me up.â
She looked up at him sharp, a disbelieving, humourless laugh lining her features. âWhy?â She echoed slowly. âWhy?â
He was so sick of this. All of this. He wanted to love her, but he was so sick of this.
âJustââ He stopped. His words had gone.
âAll of this, and you didnât even apologise.â
âIâm sorry, okay? Iâm sorry! Iâm sorry for notâIâm sorry for this, Iâm sorry for not doing whatâŚthe things thatâlook, Iâm justâIâm sorry, okay?!â
She stared back at him, with something that looked like grief in her face.
He knew what she was saying. He didnât know.
He shrugged, looking at the ground.
Pulling out her phone, she called her dad. He sat back down on the couch. Stared at the static. Tuned out the words. Tuned out the guilt simmering in his lungs, stealing his breath in the way she used to do.
He blinked and he was in an empty apartment. No one was there, no footsteps sounded through the place, no oneâs breathing but his own. The hum of the fridge, the crackle of the TV, the dripping of the tap. Light from the TV was burned onto the back of his eyelids.Â
His mind kept stubbornly drifting back to her, and he would very much like to not think about thatâand not think about the knowledge that he was the one fucking this up. Because he was definitely the one fucking this up. Maybe.
Peeling himself off the couch, he turned around to go to the kitchen and came face to face with his brother.
Party nodded at Kobra and stumbled on past him into the kitchen.
He opened the fridge and was met with absolutely nothing. Just a blank white looking back at him. Damn. They needed to get food.
Turning back around, he passed his brother again, staring at Party through the waves of blood pouring into his eyes.Â
He sat back down, wondering if that hurt. It looked like it hurt.
The silence was never really silent. The hum of the fridge. The constant drip.
why didnât you save me?
He turned around, looking over the back of the sofa to see Kobraâs form flickering and melding in and out of the shadows.Â
why didnât you save me?
He blinked in sluggish confusion.Â
The bullet wound in Kobraâs forehead dripped into his eyes.
He felt his face crease. âFrom what?â his voice cracked with bottled emotion.
He knew. And he knew that Kobra knew that. And so the only other thing present in the room was Partyâs pleading, desperate attempts to ignore this. The haze in his mind ever turning into the shape of a little brother. Ever tuning out the dripping of blood.
âI missed you.â His voice shook.
Kobra kept on staring at him, red-washed and unblinking. Fading in and out of the shadows.Â
His mouth tried to form words, but he was shook still, transfixed.
i called for you. i know you heard me.
His head shook ever so slightly, denying any of this. His brother was dead. It hadnât been his fault.
it wasnât my fault either.
âI knowâI know, none of this was your fault, none of it wasââ
i saw you leave me there.
âI didnâtâbut I didnâtâŚâ his words shook and stuttered.
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