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What the hell is happening right now?
I stare at her as she sits there with her features set, her eyes focused and her decision unwavering—whatever that decision is.
I step forward and point the sword at her face. “You knew all of this! Why didn't you tell me? Are you telling me we have to battle it out like old school dungeons and dragons or else the world is doomed for the end of time?”
She scoffs and I want to slap her upside the head with the flat end of the blade. Derrick uses his own sword to push mine down. I look at him incredulously. He couldn’t possibly be taking her side!
“Fight?” she starts. “There’s no fighting him. He’s going to kill us all with a simple flick of his finger.” She turns to look at me with a grim expression. “We have only one choice: I give up my baby or this world will end in a great flood.”
Derrick groans and falls to one knee. I bend to help him up, but in the blink of an eye, he disappears into thin air. I cry out into the air and roar his name to no avail as the sky gets covered in dark clouds and thunder booms overhead.
We are going to die in some Noah shit if I don't do something. “Fine! Let's find your bastard of a father and get this shit over with!” I quickly make my way to the driver’s seat and crank up the car, throwing the shift into gear. We quickly leave the area, kicking dirt behind us as we get back onto the road.
I am focused on one thing and one thing only. Getting Derrick back no matter the cost.
“Where the hell am I going? Tell me!” I scream at her.
She screams right back. “Go back to where they summoned him, you jackass! Stop yelling at me!”
“It’s your fault we’re in this mess! If you would have just told me the truth from the beginning, it could have saved us a damn trip!”
My foot slams on the pedal and I shift to the next gear, taking the turns faster than I should as we get back on the highway.
“Right, I’m supposed to just tell a complete stranger that they need to kill my unborn child,” she sneers. Who is this woman? Was that sniveling little hand wringer all an act? Was any of her story true at all?
I replay everything the old man said back at the mountain. Only the light and truth could reside here. Here in this battle? Where was here? Was it the ocean? The beach? In this stupid car we stole?
What’s my truth?
As if crumbling the invisible walls I always have up, my subconscious throws memory after memory at me.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, James? Keep your head straight. Stop getting into this kind of shit!”
“It’s not shit, Derrick! I just needed something. You can’t understand it. I don’t know how to explain it.”
I turned away from him, ashamed, but he grabbed my shoulder and turned me back around to face him.
“I’m not trying to make you feel this way. I just care about you, James. I worry about you.”
We were always worried about each other because we were all we had.
“Tell me what she did to you? I’m gonna kill her.”
Derrick was ready to drive into the side of her apartment if I asked him to. It wasn’t his fault Carrie didn’t want to be with me anymore. I was a mess. No one wanted to be shacked up with a mess.
“Don’t you fucking do that. Stop those thoughts right now! She never deserved you. Good riddance! Let her see what she’s missing. They never miss the water until the well runs dry and when she comes back crawling, you better not take her back, bro.”
I look at him with my heart on my sleeve. Derrick is the only one who continues to stand beside me, no matter what. Even when what he’s spewing is utter bullshit. I was a shitty boyfriend, an absent-minded one that couldn’t find a path in life. That’s why she left me. But here Derrick is, standing up for me anyway, as if I was the personification of perfection. He was fooling himself but I couldn’t find it in me to tell him that. Not when he was looking at me like he was saving the world by backing me up.
“Hold on, Derrick. I’m coming for you, brother,” I whisper to myself, reminding me of my purpose.
If Delizah has been lying this whole time from the start, she can’t be trusted anymore. But I already have a plan of my own.
When it comes down to choosing to save her or Derrick, I will always choose Derrick.
James
He standsthere with his hand gripping his blade, his back to us.
