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“Spoke,” a whisper, and his eyelids flutter open.
“Spoke!” The voice calls again.
He sits up, rubbing his eyes, head glancing at the person at the door.
There Planet stands, looking straight at him, hands fiddling with the sleeves of his shirt.
They beckon them out of the room, mouthing, I need to tell you something.
Spoke understands.
He climbs down the bunk bed, silently, hoping none of the floorboards creak like in those stupid movies they watched.
He slips through the door, finally meeting Planet outside.
“Hello.” He grins, and they smile back, nervously.
“I need to tell you something important,” they say in a hushed tone, “let’s go downstairs.”
Both of them climb down the stairs, and walk outside, sitting down in Planet’s small mini garden.
Silence lingers in the air for a while, before they speak up,
“Spoke,” they said gravely, “I trust you.”
“Oh, well,” he smiles, “I trust you too!”
“No, it’s– it’s something you can’t tell anyone, okay?”
“Why not?”
“The–” Planet looks away, hugging their legs to their chest. “You can’t overreact.”
“When have I ever done tha–”
“Spoke!” They turn, and Spoke finally sees the tears streaming down their face. “This is serious, please.”
Guilt formed in the pit of his stomach, and he murmurs an apology.
Planet exhales shakily. They shuffle closer to Spoke, and, with trembling hands, slowly pull up his sleeve.
Immediately, Spoke’s heart drops to the deepest ends of the Earth.
His hands grab their arm, examining the bite wound closely, in a state of denial.
“No,” he breathed, “this– Planet, is this a tattoo?”
The pained expression in their eyes says otherwise.
He shakes his head, “T-this is wrong, it’s all wrong, this isn’t real, this is all fake–”
“I’m sorry, Spoke, I know this is hard, but–”
“No!” He tightens his grip on their arm, and they wince. “You–? When did you get bitten?”
“I don’t know, I–”
“I can’t!” He chokes out, “I can’t lose you, Planet. Not after Mapicc!”
Planet falls silent, eyes wandering to the ground, and the two of them sit in the garden, eyes watering, with unspoken tensions between them.
“It’s difficult for me too, okay?” They look up at Spoke. “I don’t want to die, Spoke.”
“..I don’t want you to die either.”
“I know.” Planet nodded, maintaining eye contact even with the wave of tears coming back. “I know.”
“...”
“I hope you won’t tell anyone this.” They mumbled, pulling their sleeve back down, “I don’t know when I got this bite, but I know I might not have much time left.”
“...”
“I don’t want the others to worry. Because you all are my only family left, and I don’t want to imagine the hurt and pain they would feel if they know.”
“...”
“That’s why I told this to you, Spoke. Like I said, I trust you. I trust you won’t tell them. You can’t tell them. I know this must’ve been brutal, but I couldn’t figure out any other way I could possibly tell you this. I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I should’ve been more careful.”
“Still, it isn’t your fault.”
Planet sniffs, choosing not to reply, but instead to look at the inky, black skies. The moon shines brightly, contrasting the dark background of the sky. Little stars resembling dots are scattered here and there.
It would’ve been a nice night, if it wasn’t for the situation they were in.
“You know, in another universe,” they started speaking again, after a long moment of both of them silently shedding tears, “we could be living together. Peacefully.”
“Yeah. And we wouldn’t have to worry about all of– this.”
“In another universe, we would both be alive and healthy.”
“Why couldn’t it be this universe?” He asks.
They simply reply, “I don’t know.”
“It’s all so unfair.”
“I guess.” Planet exhales, a long, soft exhale. “At least I was able to meet you.” They whispered.
The tears prick at his eyes again, and he nods. “Me too, Planet.” He says. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way.”
Silence sits with them both.
Planet rolls down their sleeve, pretending it wasn’t there. They rub their nose, cleaning the water on their face, taking in shaky breaths.
It’s fine, everything’s fine. I’m not going to die. I’m not going to die. Everything is okay.
It’s all ok.
They take out a folded piece of paper from their pocket, along with a blue pen.
Spoke glances in their direction. He looks so defeated. The rim of his eyes are red from crying.
Planet smiles weakly, hand gently patting his back, rubbing circles, trying to ease the pain. To anyone, it was like he was the one going to die, instead of Planet.
“Let’s forget this conversation never happened. Or we’ll never stop weeping until morning.” They say.
“Yeah. Sure.” Spoke says in response, his voice hoarse. “Sure.”
They open up the folded paper. At the top left, it read: Bucket List.
“I want to come up with a list of things to do. With you and the others.” Before I die.
“That’s... nice.”
“You want to help come up with things to do?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you, Spoke.”
“No,” Spoke breathes, but all he breathes is the strong, terrible stench of iron that hits his nose in such a way he feels like he’s going to puke.
But he doesn’t, because the only thing he feels now is grief.
His vision swirls, the motionless body in front of him getting blurry. Is it supposed to do that? He doesn’t think it’s supposed to do that. It’s not supposed to be that way. It’s not.
He holds Planet’s face tenderly, thumbs brushing against cold skin. “You’re so cold,” he cries out, “You’re too cold. No. No, no, no, no. This- this is all a sick twisted prank. That’s what it is.”
“Right, Wifies?” He laughs, looking up at Wifies for confirmation. He shakes his head, looking away, already trembling.
“Right?” Spoke says again, turning to Planet, but he doesn’t sound as confident as before.
“It’s all a prank. A stupid, stupid prank. It isn’t funny this time. It’s not funny.”
“Planet,” He calls out and shakes them gently, but they don’t respond. His heart shatters. “Wake up. Wake up. Please.” He shakes them by the shoulder. No use. “We- we still have to ride on that rollercoaster again, silly! You can’t– We still need to go to the beach, we still need to go tend to that garden, you still need to–” His voice breaks, and the tears that threatened to spill from before finally came, falling down his face.
Spoke’s lungs feel like they are collapsing, the way he breathes so heavily. “Please, please, please, not again. Not again.” His voice is barely above a whisper. “Mapicc already did this to me! You can’t, you can’t, you can’t–” He buries himself into their blue hoodie, his pleas muffled by the clothing.
“You– You weren’t supposed to die today.” His fists clench the fabric tightly, his voice already raw. “You weren’t supposed to die today! You weren’t! You– you had more time, you were supposed to have more time! You had– you could’ve–” He splutters out, tripping over his own words. “You could’ve spent more time with us. You– You can’t possibly leave me alone like this. You can’t. You can’t. Not again.” He begs.
He lifts his head up.
No response.
Nothing.
His heart aches. It aches so bad.
Spoke pulls Planet closer to him, one last time, whispering a soft I’m sorry in their ear, before he lets go.
Planet doesn’t wake from their deep slumber, even after they are buried six feet underground.