Strange things conspire when one tries to cheat fate

El wandered into my room while Feli and I were talking and stopped to stare at me. I sighed at her, I was starting to get tired of try to communicate with her through cryptic words and blank stares. “Are you okay, El?” I tried to ask her, but there was so reply. Feli stood up and walked over to her and leaned down to try to talk to her, and I realized something must have been wrong. I tried to get up out of bed to get over to her but Feli insisted I stay put and went back to trying to coax my sister into showing some kind of sign she was okay. 

Her little feet made no noise as she wandered around looking for the man that had told he’d be right back. Yes, she knew what had happened, but her ‘body’ still had to find him. There was a sense of autonomy but if fate willed her to walk, she would walk. 

Eventually she would find his body laying in a dead end hallway sprawled out. There was no evidence of a fight or even a brutal murder. He was just dead. The girl knelt down to check what she already knew, her hands were so much smaller than him, she realized. “Sorry, I didn’t stop you. I couldn’t.” Her voice was soft as if she was speaking to a small animal. 

And then he heard a voice, it sang to him and echoed down the halls. A melody he felt as though he had known all too well, but from where? He wandered forward without a thought to try to find where the music was coming from...

All he found was a fate he knew was waiting for him. Yes, he had known this whole time that this was the end of his story in this world. It didn’t frighten him as he would just move on to the next one, but ... He always ended up back where he began. 

The singer stood at the end of the hall, floating ever so slightly off the ground, hair twisting and rippling around the body as if it were live snakes waiting for their meal. The singer was not imposing, in appearance but there was something so vexing and unnerving about the stance. 

“Hello, little dimension hopper. You and I were one in the same in another life, so it pains me to do again this but you’re in the way.” 

“So, yeah, that’s about it. You know I've learned so much this way? School never really made sense to me, so I feel free here doing what I love. What about you?” I asked her what she meant.

“I mean, what do you love? There has to be something in your life that you enjoy besides drinking some white girls poisoned tea.” 

“Well...My sister is the most important thing in my life. I want to become a better brother for her to look up to, I feel like ever since moving out I haven’t been the best role model or caretaker. She seems to think she has to do all of these things in the house and cook and clean...It’s my fault she thinks that way but I want to be someone that she can rely on even if it’s just food or dishes or watching movies when she’s sad... But lately she’s felt so far away and nothing she says makes sense, maybe that’s my fault too.” I stopped for a moment to realize how much I was rambling. “Sorry, I mean outside of that ... I honestly haven’t done much with my life. I would wake up every day to see Lena and drink her coffee and after that... I don’t really know what I do I just do. Well, did.” 

It would be a lie to say that didn’t shake me up at all. I buzzed a nurse, but the doctor from before walked in a smiled at me. She asked if I was feeling okay, I shrugged but told her nothing was wrong. She turned to leave but I stopped her, “What’s your name, I don’t think I ever caught it?” 

“Oh, whoops, sorry!” She laughed as turned back to face me. “It’s Feli, well that’s for short but don’t bother with my full name. It’s nice to finally meet you officially, Claus.” I told her the feeling was mutual. I hesitated for a moment and asked her why got her so into this science thing. 

“As long as El is okay, I don’t care how long I stay here as long as she’s taken care of.” I say and as I speak the young girls finds her way into the room and smiles brightly at seeing me awake.

“You’re awake, I figured you would wake up faster than before! It’s still not enough, though. So, whenever you need that wish just let me know.” Again with the nonsense. She must know I don’t understand her and yet she gives me no hints on what she’s talking about. My head started to hurt.

“I’m glad to see you’re awake, Claus. That was quite a scare you gave us! We are lucky that Bianca was able to flag one of my nurses down on the street. You look lively, though, how much pain are you in?” Ray walked in to the room and started to speak to me. I wasn’t in a lot of pain, I told him, but moving felt ache-y still. 

“How long was I out for? How long will I have to stay here? Where is my little sister?” The second I was up and able to speak I started firing questions at the doctor. She had me hooked up to all of these random machines I had never seen before and it was making me want to faint all over again, so I was trying to distract myself. 

“Oh, look at that! You’re awake!” A voice rang out in my head, I was awake but I couldn’t open my eyes and everything ached like I hadn’t moved in years. I recognized the voice that spoke to me from the Science Center tour, and tried to open my eyes to see her but I couldn’t be bothered. Thought floated through my mind as if they had no impact on me, I wasn’t here, I wasn’t alive. Even though I thought that way I knew it was wrong, I had to get up. How long had I been asleep? Was El okay without me? 

“You seriously don’t know, huh? I figured by turn two you would have remembered at least a little bit. I guess you’re dumber than I have you credit for, Fool. You know in myth what Lotus eaters were right? If someone ate the leaves they would lose their minds and become addicted to it. Claus, how many times have you had something that Lena made for you? When you first started to drink her darling concoctions how much pain tolerance did you have? Were constantly in pain? Did that slowly subside the more you drank?” She paused to look me up and down. “You are a frog.” She said flatly, I interjected to ask her why she would say that and she hushed me. “You do not realize that the temperature is rising around because it is rising slowly. You are in a pot that is trying to cook you alive but you don’t realize until you are dead.” 

I didn’t understand anything she was trying to tell me. She tried to explain it again. “Lena was poisoning her drinks with an addictive and numbing mixture that she made herself. It is tasteless and odorless and if you don’t drink it at least once every 24 hours you will start to feel pains you have never felt before. You didn’t notice that you were being drugged be it was a gradual process, the drug is painful and so she numbs your nerves over time and soon you are just used to it. Do you see?

“What are you doing, touching her body? Who are you?” I stammered out questioned as she advanced towards me, what she the suspicious individual? Did she kill Lena? 

“Why are you looking at me like that, you stupid little boy? You think I did this? You would, wouldn’t you?” She crossed her arms, seething belligerence as she stared at me.  “I didn’t kill her, though I wish I did after everything she’s done I wouldn’t be surprised at how many enemies she’s got.” 

I blinked, Lena had enemies? I mean she wasn’t a great person but her indifference and lack of compassion never really seemed to get her in trouble with people from how she talked. 

Walking up to Lotus Eater I stopped in my tracks. The shutters were still closed and the lights were off, it was not open. This hadn’t happened in the whole time I’ve known Lena, her little regard for herself and the safety of people around would let her open the shop even if she was dying of disease. I tried to peer inside the shop but I couldn’t see anything at all, she wasn’t in there. 

I started to panic. The only way she wouldn’t open shop is if she wasn’t able to at all. Something was serious wrong. I started to walk down the sidewalk which quickly broke into a run as I routed my way to her house. 

There was a girl staring blankly at something... I couldn’t make out exactly what she was looking at. It wasn’t gore, it was more like a visual glitch, a body of a human that was just glitching? There was no better or human way to explain what I was seeing.

“It’s painful, isn’t it?” She cooed to the thing on the ground. “Are you blaming yourself for your death, Lena? Do you regret your actions? Why didn’t you change?” Her soft words turned into aggravated snarls as she spoke to what was once my friend. I grabbed the girl by her shoulder and pulled her away, telling her to stop yelling. She fought against my hold and pushed me away.

“Maybe I was being rude to Claus... He was just trying to make sure I was safe.” She runs her fingers through her hair as she leaves the shop, closing and locking the door. It wasn’t dark out, yet, but the sun was going to go down soon. Lena wasn’t the type of person to second guess, or to be scared of some rumors. Bodies and evidence were barely enough to convince her. Most people called her hardheaded or stubborn but she didn’t really understand why. You could argue that she was filled with selfishness, and a lack of understand for those around her, and you would be right. That is why on her way walking home all by herself the sun set just a bit too early. Just a bit faster than what was predicted.