Chapter 8

Andrew layed on the couch with his eyes unfocused. All around him were copies of himself. One of the versions of himself was stuck in a loop of slamming the door and screaming, “Get out!” 

Another version of himself was crying in a corner of the room. A version of himself was drinking alcohol at the table and sobbing. Andrew’s mind felt like thunder, and he tried to sit up, but it was impossible. His whole body was shaking, and he felt cold and hot at the same time.

“What’s happening?” 

Before Andrew could blink, glass shattered from his balcony, and a figure with black wings tumbled in. All of the copies of Andrew disappeared like vapour, and the figure held his head on his knees. 

“Vita?” Andrew croaked.

Andrew stumbled over to me after slowly pulling himself off the couch with a thud. I was crying loud obnoxious wails that I always tried to keep beyond the flood gates. I tried to hold my breath to perhaps stop my sobs, but it was futile. I didn’t remember how I got out of the cave, everything was a blur.

“Vita… Vita.” 

I turned to Andrew, he looked very unwell, and it managed to snap me out of my episode. I touched his forehead, expecting to feel heat, but then I realised that he was a rabbit, not a human anymore.

“What’s wrong, Andrew? You look horrible!” I yelled.

“Shut up.. My head hurts.” Andrew spoke weakly.

Andrew slumped to the ground and fell asleep. I picked him up and climbed the stairs up to his loft, and placed him on his bed. 

“You’ll be okay.” I said, not knowing if I was telling the truth or not. 

I placed a light blanket on him and walked in circles for a while.

“What do I do?” I panicked.

“I’ve never taken care of someone who was sick, especially not an animal.” I spoke a little too loudly and covered my mouth as I turned towards Andrew.

Andrew was still fast asleep. Little wheezes could be heard from him, and I was relieved to hear him still breathing. I ran down the stairs and came across a mirror. The person in the mirror was dishevelled, and their wings reached down to their ankles. 

“Ah!” I accidentally yelled. “I look horrible.”

I came across the washroom after searching for a little bit. I was relieved to see that the humans’ bathrooms had improved, but I was also very confused. There were bathhouses in the underworld, and we would bathe in a special sort of cleansing water, said to have passed down hundreds of waterfalls and heated by lava rocks. The bath here had a strange mechanism. There was some sort of pipe coming out of the wall and weird-looking box things. I tapped on the pipe, but that did nothing. I pressed a button in the bathtub, and it fell into place.

“Okay, so I'm guessing that it stays down in order to keep the water in. The question is, how do I get the water in?”

I looked towards the strange little box things besides the pipe and turned one of them. Water came flowing out, and joy that could not be expressed in words filled my head. I touched the water and discovered that it was freezing cold, and all of the joy I had developed disintegrated. I twisted the small box counterclockwise, and the water ceased. I tried again, but this time I turned the other box. After a long time of struggling I managed to figure out how baths work, and I cleaned myself thoroughly. 

I wrapped my lower half in a towel and left my clothes in the bathroom, since I didn’t dare try to discover where to wash my clothes. I looked at myself once again in the mirror and was relieved to see that I looked more put together. I thought, “It would be better if I didn’t have these horns and cursed hands.”

I checked up on Andrew many times over the course of two days. He slept most of the time, only waking for necessities. I was extremely worried and strangely lonely. I had spent less than a week with Andrew, but somehow he had changed me. It was weird. Perhaps it was the way I was able to get along with him, or maybe it was because of my growing attachment to him, but I started to dread the thought of taking him to the immortality curse and handing him over to Jayin. 

I sat on the floor and laid my head on the bed.

“Maybe I just won’t tell him.” I spoke quietly to myself.

I thought, “I can find another way to deal with my situation, or maybe I could just stay prisoner to Jayin.”

“Won’t tell him what?” A voice rang out from beside me.

It was Andrew, he had awoken. He looked better than he had been in the past three days, and strangely, a smile grew on my face.

“Good morning, Andrew.” I rejoiced as I touched my lip. 

Happiness, that's a faint memory, at least I thought it was. Being happy only brings one sadness, so to save myself the trouble of being hurt again, I stayed in a constant detached state, but now I found myself incapable of hiding my emotions.

“Are you okay? Do you still feel horrible? How's your head?” I asked question after question. 

“Just kinda groggy, I guess… What happened to you?” Andrew asked.

“What happened to me?” I questioned.

“Yeah, you look stressed.” Andrew said with concern.

I felt my heart drop. I spent three days keeping my mind occupied with Andrew, but now that he was okay, it seemed as though years of stress and the effects of trauma were hurdling back at me. I stayed quiet for a while as I tried to calm my racing mind, it was only when Andrew let out an ‘ah’ that I managed to snap out of it. 

“You're wearing my clothes!” Andrew spoke a little more loudly than he intended to. 

My face started to burn.

“It’s not what you think! I was washing my clothes in the sink, and now they’re drying. I’m wearing my own underwear because I washed them before my other clothes… For some reason.” I rambled.

There was no way I could have told him that my clothes were indeed clean and dry, but I was too cold in my shorts and crop top, so I opted for his clothes instead.

“Uh huh… You were too cold in your other clothes, right? Your lying skills have gotten way worse, haven't they? Also, those clothes are huge on you, haha!” 

I felt my face turn into fire, and I sped down the stairs. I tripped on Andrew’s long pant leg and flew forward. Luckily, I caught myself in the air by spreading my wings widely, but I should have just fallen on my face because I knocked dishes off the counters and posters and paintings off the walls. The apartment that I tried so hard to keep clean managed to become a dump in the matter of two seconds. I folded my wings back into my skin and internally sobbed at the fact that I also managed to rip holes in Andrew’s hoodie. By the time Andrew came downstairs after hearing crashing, he came across me sitting sorrowfully in a corner, like he had done not so long ago. Andrew exploded with laughter and rolled around on the ground. I couldn't bear to look his way, I only sank my head farther into my knees.