We started by reducing alcohol, since we needed him to take in the pain, mindfully.

Being heartless had its perks ; no amount of cries and yells could make you fold. It was obvious how much it pissed him off.

Whenever I found him secretly drinking on times where we were supposed to focus, I would snatch his drink the same I used to snatch Mom's wine, to pour it in the sink without caring about its price.

Sometimes he would snap, sometimes he would accept it. Sometimes he would blame himself, sometimes he would blame me.

Me, who walked him like a dog to his dead owner every day - Where he would whine for a few agonizing hours of sobriety. 

Generally, he would suddenly stop to stare at me, realizing the oddness of the situation in a mist of clarity that he would drown in alcohol the minute I was gone.

In his hungover state, he would grumble to my silence during lunch, as his plate would remain untouched. 

Each day I felt my eyelids drop lower.

It was getting tiring and there were no progress of any sort.

....I was tire-

SLAM

An impatient fist hurried the table. "We're late"

"..." I put my fork down. " Tell me more about you two"

"Why should I ?"

Seems mister is in a fool mood today

"So that I can help you"

My calm gaze fought his defiant one.

"Help me ? Can you fucking resurrect him or what." 

Isaac instantly left his seat, stomping on the overused parquet. If I wouldn't walk him, he would walk himself ; basically.

Well, it's not like I ate because I enjoyed it, therefore I grabbed the dematerialized leash and stepped out at my turn - Colliding with the cold wind, and forgetting my keys.

-

Lou was the one to open the door. She looked pale.

"I forgot my keys here"

The door grew wider as she clearer the way. She seemed too tired to talk, hence headed back to the couch, which made things simpler for me.

I believed I had put my keys on Isaac's bedside table while trying to wake him up, unlike last time, when I had found my phone in the bathroom...and the other time my beanie on the counter.

I knocked, announcing the issue, but complete silence answered.

"...I'm going in"

"..."

In this alcohol drown room, Isaac was awake. He was crying.

Those sobs were now a routine for me, it was usually redundant...although not this time. The way he had curled himself up and buried his face in this piece of fabric, felt familiar.

I sat on the bed's edge, his whimpers hence getting clearer. 

For some reason, I acted on an impulse...and before I knew it, my palm was sinking in Isaac's dry hair. The sensation of caressing burnt grass in summer.

So close to his brain...

Isaac's shoulders slowly went down as his grasp on the fabric loosened up. As I had acquired such power over him, the urge to make use of it sweated out of my putrid bark.

I quickly snatched the t-shirt away, startling him - He immediately went to get it back so I escaped the bed, and as trying to follow, Isaac got tangled up in his sheets and violently crashed down.

Lou called her brother's name. She would probably be there in a minute, so I had to hurry.

I brought the t-shirt to my nose. The smell was strong, meaning Isaac had put perfume on it. "...So that's how he smelled...Algae"

"___"

Loup rushed through the door, finding me helping the drunkard up.

Somehow, I became good at conversations. "It's alright, I'll take care of it. You should go rest."

She quietly thanked me with her head down.

"I'll stay here tonight if that's alright with you"

Obviously she said yes.

"Isaac" I gave him back his cuddly toy that he instantly suffocated himself with, restricting his bitter breath.

As he was inhaling the nostalgia to the point of asphyxia, the gaze in his glassy eyes was reflecting something...

"Isaac..."

His irises went slightly up and wavered at the view of my palm that...slowly went to cover his upper face. My fingers diverged to let him perceive light, then drown him back in the dark to hide my filthy teeth.

"Isa-"

"Rowan." He muffled in Yacinthe's tee-shirt.

It was the first time he had pronounced my name. 

"___"

I had nothing to hide anymore, hence I freed him, only to realize I had been imprisoning a glare, still reddish from fresh cries.

Isaac's anger against my hollow. It was like he was provoking it.

My hand that had been waiting mid-air tried to reach for the algae memory - Isaac slightly backed off.

"Is it his perfume ?"

His brows reversed their arc as his mouth revealed itself.

"...was" Isaac spoke in lower cases "until he changed it"

Why ? When ? How ? For what ? 

"because of me..."

What had happened ?

"because..."

What was that...? The hollow....was, pounding ?

"because ?" My words hurried.

"because.....I...."

My fingers grabbed his chin that wanted to close back.

My bark was itching, branches aching, dead leaves tensing, roots tightening.

Isaac and Yacinthe movie was looping in my brain over and over, and over and over, and over and over, and over, and over, unable to meet closure, over and over again, looping or sometimes boomeranging the bit of scenes it had, over and ove-

"I..."

Tears were back...however the look in his eyes was different...

"broke him..."

He had this crooked smile slicing his tortured features.

This time...I was unable to hide my perversion, and he clearly was not a fan of it. 

We both fell back in our respective resting faces, but his past one would now forever be craved in my irises. In all honesty, it kept me up all night more than the hard and cold floor did.