The Death Thief

Robbery

"Where are we going? Have you thought of something?" I attempted to keep pace with the far more long-legged Calista, though I always remained a few steps behind, gasping for air. I tried not to beat myself up over my lack of athleticism. She didn't, after all, need deep, oxygenating breaths to keep her muscles pumping. In fact, had she wanted to, she could have probably run full tilt while holding her breath. Either she hadn't learned to appreciate her zombie identity yet, or her anger was so great that she needed the walk to compose herself for the moment she could truly unleash her wrath.

This anger, however, may have also stilled her tongue as the only response I received was a cold shoulder and bitter silence. She just kept her strides steady and her direction unwavering. All I could tell was that we were heading back into the heart of town.

"Are we going to find Sheriff Hathaway? Last I left him, he was heading to the Nightshade Lounge. Admittedly, that was awhile ago, it was quite a walk from the station to..."

"Why?" snapped Calista, whose sudden halt upon the sidewalk almost sent me face first into her lean back. "Why are you following me? This is none of your business." Even though her voice licked with flames and her eyes burned with severity, she didn't actually stick around to get an answer from me. Instead I got one harsh dip of her brow and pinch of her lips telling me not to respond, and then she turned back to her destination, her pace resuming as if she never even stopped.

"You're right," I answered. I stood still where Calista left me, my eyes gazing towards the sidewalk as my hands clenched and unclenched. I didn't see her, but the lazy afternoon was quiet on the outskirts of town and it was easy to hear her slackened pace. "It is none of my business. I shouldn't even be here."

Now the steps stopped all together and I looked up at her with fire singeing the corners of my eyes. "I should not be here. I was supposed to be dead." My words cut through the air, sharp and strong like the beat of a drum. The reverberations of which rattled my rib cage and tightened my lungs. I swallowed hard, my mouth dry and wanting. "Had I had it my way I would have died in those woods. I would have starved to death or, more than likely, I would have been too weak to even handle that pain. I'd have given up and just found a nice cliff with a pretty view so that my last moments would be surrounded by beauty."

I crossed my arms, my nails digging through the cloth of my shirt so that they tore at my skin. Somewhere behind my heart and trapped between my lungs was an emotion I couldn't reach, that I couldn't touch. I'd rip it out if I could, just so the flames burning the lids of my eyes could be extinguished.

"But, I'm not dead am I? I should be, but I'm not," I continued, my words a harsh whisper. "Because you died, I had to live. Had you survived, I would not have been called. My feet would not have carried me through a vast forest to the one tiny spot where I could not seek my mortality."

My arms released the hold over my chest and fell to my sides. My head drooped, my limp hair curtaining my face, my eyes failing to provide me the release I needed.

"No, this was not my business, but the same person that stole life from you, stole death from me." My hand closed into a fist, my nails digging into my palm as I straightened my back and looked towards Calista, who stood still and silent a few paces away. "I've been robbed. So many times I've tried to do the world a favor, I tried to do something right for once, and this time was supposed to be it. I'd left everything behind, there'd be no turning back and yet somehow I still failed. And maybe I should blame myself for always falling short, but not this time, not right now. Right now, I blame the person that forced me here. We both want revenge."

A pocket of emptiness filled my stomach and it took a few moments for my lungs to breathe in enough to refill me. In that silence, I watched Calista and she watched me. She even took a few tentative steps forward as if I were a wild animal that just might pounce at the slightest agitation.

"Did you really want to die?" she asked. It wasn't laced with that syrupy sympathy of someone who pitied me more for "misinterpreting" my feelings rather than empathizing with the pain I felt. It wasn't tainted with a roll of her eyes or a snarky quirk of her mouth. It wasn't spiked with curiosity as if I were a side show amusement. It was firm. It was understanding.

"I-I don't know," I answered, my spine loosening as a slight hunch pulled me down. "I don't know what I want. I've never known what I want. Right now, my family is searching for me and I should perhaps feel sad or guilty for them worrying over me. Or maybe I should be hopeful that by some miracle they might find me out here. But...but I don't. I feel nothing, I've always felt nothing."

"You must have felt something if you wanted to die. Just like you must have felt something if you never succeeded."

I couldn't hold her gaze for long. Instead, I turned back to the sidewalk, watching how our shadows laced together beneath the afternoon sun.

"Come on, we need to get going."

My ears twitched at her voice and I looked up with a slight gape spreading my lips. Calista had resumed her stride, but she was watching me from over her shoulder and motioning for me to join her. I left our discussion there upon the ground and raced forward to take up my position beside her.

"Where are we going?" I asked, darting a few glances up at her determined face, but careful to keep my eyes ahead of me so that I could better keep pace.

"We're heading to human housing. Hopefully we can both find our closure there."