Vital Heart

I submitted this to UW Whitewater's creative writing festival and managed to snag third place on the fiction section with it, I think you might like it if you like action and random nonsense.

C1

“Partner? Partner! Partner!” The voice started distant and soft, then became louder with each passing second. The wind howled and whipped, biting at his skin, “You took quite a hit there. Are you still good to fight?” Matthew opened his eyes, the stormy sky above flashed white with lightning as thunder roared with a booming crash. He looked at his MVG, short for Monster Vital Gauntlet, on his right arm. The red armor lay in pieces upon the hard stone arena floor, his pale skin exposed beneath it. His chin stung from the last punch, it had knocked him out cold, he sat up slowly, his arms barely managing to prop him up. The hydra, as giant and menacing as ever, sat in front of the glowing portal, wings spread far as can be, the seven different attributed heads snapping at each other and seemingly taunting Matthew. He would have to fight blind now that his MVG was broken.

“Yeah, I’m good. Let’s do this, Nanos!” Matthew pushed himself to his feet with a grunt, everything still hurt.

“Are you still alive?” Isaac laughed from behind the hydra, “Kill him Orochi.” The hydra, Orochi, wasted no time dashing straight forwards, Matthew had no time to react to it, Orochi snapped him up quickly in its massive jaws and tore him to shreds. Matthew shot up in bed in a cold sweat, he let out a heavy exhale and stood up, he had to get ready to be on his way. Matthew looked himself over in the mirror like he did every day, orange t-shirt, blue jeans, work boots, black vest, and finally his MVG. He kept his long black hair tied up to keep it out of his face while working, although there were a few strands that always evaded it and fell down in front of his face. Piercing sky blue eyes stared him down before he moved on from the mirror. The dark oak door squeaked open on its rusty hinges, he still had to fix that, but he had other responsibilities to tend to.

He nearly fell down the stairs, which were just to the right of his bedroom door, the same as every day. The small farm house was empty, as always he was the last one awake, the smaller children at school, the farm owner, the man who had saved his life, was busy in the barn, his wife was tending to the garden, and the older children were working on getting the animals out into the field. The sun was only just rising over the mountains in the distance at the very edge of the farm's fields. Breathing in deeply Matthew prepared himself for the day, the crisp morning air in the mountains was always refreshing.

“The weather’s good this morning,” he said to himself.

“Yes, the weather is ample for the ordox to wander in the fields today.” Matthew nearly jumped out of his skin when Elizabeth, the farmer's oldest daughter, responded to him. As always she wore her magenta colored hair in a braid that draped over her left shoulder, and she wore a nearly identical outfit to Matthew, the only thing missing was the black vest.

“Morning lizard breath.” Matthew said, when they had met, to Matthew, it sounded like the farmer had called her lizard breath and so Matthew kept the nickname for her, “That’s good. I need to take the ordox out for a bit today anyways.” Ordox were like regular oxen, although they were the preferred cattle due to their sheer size and strength, along with the rock hard carapace on top of their heads, the fur on the back of their necks stood up and glowed yellow when they were about to charge. Before Elizabeth could respond to her nickname there was a large crash from the barn and the earth began to rumble, it sounded like thunder, and one would have believed it was if there were clouds in the sky that morning.

“Stampede!” One of the older children called out as the ordox charged out of the barn in a furious rage, led by the three tailed “boss”. His tails whipped and they changed directions as if under a spell, in every herd of ordox was a three tailed leader that could whip his tails and control them all, if he charged, they charged. Matthew ran right in front of the path, only the boss had the yellow charged fur on his neck, the others only followed suit. With his head down the boss charged straight for Matthew, the ordox had never liked him in the first place. Leaning back with a wide legged stance Matthew prepared to meet the collision head on, when it was only a foot away he swung his head downwards to bring the stampede to a grinding halt. The boss stood up staggered and wandered off into the field, it would be back later for vengeance, but Matthew always won against it.

“Nicely done Matthew.” The farmer patted him on the shoulder with a firm hand, “You might want to get that cleaned up before the young'uns get over here.” He said and pointed to his face where Matthew was bleeding, he could always win in a contest of strength with an ordox but he would end up bleeding.

“Mr.Abraham.” Abraham was the farmer who had rescued Matthew when he had washed up on the beach. He had light brown hair with streaks of white and wore glasses that slid down his nose. Matthew held up his arm, the giant silver button on the back of the MVG’s hand popped open and sprayed his face with a pleasant smelling green smoke, sealing the open wound.

“You know if you just hit the boss with that MVG of yours you wouldn’t need to fight him everyday.” Abraham laughed, his face fell when he saw his daughter approaching, “Act serious. Quickly.” He whispered.

“I need to get to work anyways, the ordox all need vital checks.” Matthew tried to walk away before he incurred Elizabeth’s wrath about the new hole in the middle of the field. She grabbed him by the back of the vest, he continued to walk forwards, although it looked more like he was on a treadmill.

“You’re fixing this before anything else gets done.” Elizabeth said sternly and handed him a shovel. The last time he tried to use a monster to refill the hole in the field Elizabeth had found a way to lock his MVG for a week, he had to do it manually so he would learn his lesson. After he had fixed the small patching of the field he went about on his check ups of the ordox, a small blue screen was projected from the MVG’s silver backing telling him the vitals of each one, they were all in good health, as to be expected from Abraham’s care, and there were very few instances of issues that would need to be remedied. This was the life Matthew lived, everyday he would wake up and check on the ordox after fixing the hole caused in the field by the defeat of the boss during the daily stampede, he would make his rounds checking on the fence and making any repairs as the sun boiled him alive overhead, then he would reattach the doors to the barn when it was time to bring the ordox in. But his favorite part was the least predictable one, a monster attack. At any time of day a monster could appear and he would have to fight it, he could never understand why but something about fighting monsters got his blood boiling and excited him beyond belief.

The deadbolt slid into place with a loud ker-chunk, Matthew wiped the sweat from his face. For some reason he thought he could hear the sound of electricity crackling in the distance. Wings flapping loudly overhead alarmed him as they flew past, his senses were on high alert, even the air felt wrong. Inside the barn the ordox were stirring, their cries were frightened, the boss quieted them with the loud whipping of his tail, if even he didn’t want to fight danger was near. It had to be something strong. He was knocked off his feet as a huge gust of wind blasted by, in the middle of the field a cloud of dust had been kicked up, the wind was stirring up even more harshly, whistling and screaming. Clouds rolled in and lightning crashed, bathing the world in shadow and bright flashes of light.

“Everyone! Get down below!” Abraham shouted above the storm as he held the storm cellar doors open, his wife and the smaller children were helped inside by the older ones and the ranch hands first, then Elizabeth and Abraham followed, Matthew was last in, but he couldn’t get past the entrance, he stood with one foot set down on the top step and the other in the grass outside as the rain began to fall in thick sheets. He closed the door to the protest of the others and stayed out in the storm. Out in the field the cloud of dust had begun to spiral up into the sky, the shadow of a giant bird with wings the size of the farm house flashed from within, that was the source of the storm. It screeched loudly as he approached the cyclone, lightning crashing all around him, and despite the danger and the tense feeling in his shoulders and stomach he advanced. He snapped his fingers, the MVG making it loud enough to be heard above the storm, and his current partner monster ran to his side from the mountains. A pure black wolf whose body was half smoke with red highlights around its eyes which glowed an iridescent green, a master of illusions, he had only had the shadow wolf, which he had named Lyca, for a few months and would release it soon like he did with all of his previous partners.

“Lyca, that’s our target. Let’s take it out quickly.” A ball of electricity formed in the palm of the MVG which he threw into the air. A dome surrounded the entire field made of the light blue electricity, a dual field for monster fights, although they were rare to see anywhere in the world.

“You got it.” Lyca said in a low voice. Within the field anyone with an MVG could understand what a monster was saying, and the bird was screaming. There were no words to be made out, but it screamed nonetheless, a wild fury had overtaken all sense of reason within the bird and death was the only option left for it. The bird landed upon the ground and screeched loudly one last time and the cyclone dispersed, it took on the appearance of a giant golden eagle made entirely of metal. Lyca dashed forwards and to the right disappearing in a puff of dark smoke, reappearing above the eagle, white fangs bared to bite down on the wing to cripple its flight. Matthew put on the second glove that came with the MVG, this one was also red and made of metal, but it only covered the hand and went no further than the wrist. When Lyca bit down on the eagle’s wing it sent a surge of electricity into the air around it which launched Lyca far into the air.

“Lyca, full moon cross roads.” Matthew ordered, she simply righted herself in the air as she flew and howled, the whole area went dark, the wind and rain still present, the full moon glowed high in the sky as the clouds parted. Lyca was revealed in the darkness along with three more of herself, the eagle spun around to try and block an incoming attack, but from four sides was impossible. Lyca lunged from all sides and bit at the eagle, all of which were illusions. She was really right beneath it, then she lunged at its throat and pulled it to the ground, they rolled in the dirt while Matthew readied his punch, the silver backing began to glow a bright green color at the edges and spin. He whistled quickly, Lyca released the eagle and Matthew punched the massive bird, smashing its head into the ground with a loud ka-clank. But that wasn’t the end of it, the eagle stood back up, unsteady on its feet, and rose into the air, grabbing Matthew by the shoulder with sharp talons in the process. It spun once, twice, thrice, and threw Matthew at the ground, he felt something pop in his back but that would have to wait for later. He pushed up, and fell immediately, it looked like he would have to deal with it right then.

“Get me up. I think one of the things in my spine is misaligned.” He grunted to Lyca who was tracking the eagle as it flew around the area, lightning striking the ground with each wingbeat. She picked him up by the back of his vest and threw him at the ground, popping his back again and pushing whatever the problem causer was back into place. It was time for the finisher, but only if the eagle would land, they would need to force that to happen. They launched their favorite fake out tactic, Lyca made an illusion of the two of them passing out, which lowered the guard of any opposing monster because they would think they won the battle and would go to feast upon their slaughtered prey. The eagle landed with a triumphant scream while they kept the illusion up. 

The silver back of the MVG began to glow again, this time a dark purple-black to match Lyca who was absorbed by it, transforming the MVG and the secondary glove, the secondary glove morphed to mimic sharp claws like a werewolf’s and the MVG shifted to the shape of Lyca’s head with the barrel of a gun sticking out of it. He scratched at the eagle’s eyes which broke the illusion but blinding it in the process, it lifted back into the sky, it stayed up high to avoid further physical attacks. The cannon hand of the MVG roared as it fired a large dark red beam of electricity at the eagle, clipping its wing and sending it back down to the ground. The dome faded from view along with the storm, the battle was over. The MVG and secondary glove turned back to normal, now Matthew debated turning the eagle into his new partner monster or keeping Lyca until he found a new one.

“Good girl.” He said and tossed Lyca a fresh ordox steak, the usual reward for a successful fight. He waited too long to capture the eagle in the end and it died, fading into a pile of bones in seconds after a wave of white light washed over it. It looked like he would be keeping Lyca around, although she had already disappeared into the mountains again. Matthew returned to the storm cellar and opened the door smiling to assure the danger had passed, he would be dealing with any issues that arose from the fight later, no one would make a huge scene in front of the kids, especially not after that storm. The older kids and ranch hands hauled the bones away while Matthew rested inside the farm house and watched over the younger children. They liked having him help with homework even if he didn’t understand most of it himself. Stretching out on the couch he fell asleep almost instantly.

On the day that Matthew had been brought to the farm Abraham was walking along the beach, there had been a storm the night before and interesting things always washed up after a storm. This time the most interesting thing in the world washed up, there among the rocks and piles of driftwood and wreckage a young man was passed out, soaked to the bone and cold as ice, Abraham called for some of the ranch hands to help him get the man inside.

“Who’s that father?” Elizabeth asked when she saw him bringing the unconscious Matthew inside.

“I don’t know. But you will be staying away from him, and keep your siblings away from him as well.” Abraham instructed while they struggled to bring him up the stairs, a trail of water dripped from his clothing, it smelled of the ocean. Abraham and his wife argued over what to do with Matthew while he was sleeping, one of the ranch hands had been sent to retrieve the doctor. Matthew woke up in the small room that would later become his bedroom, his vision was blurry so he couldn’t see much of anything. Feeling his way to the door he tried his hardest not to knock anything over or cause a large noise, he didn’t know where he was or why he was there. Slowly Matthew stepped out into a dark, dimly lit hallway, he could hear people talking near him, although they were so quiet it was as if they were hiding from him, he took one step to his right and he was falling. Even as he tried to stop his fall he kept going, there was nothing to grab on to, and he just accepted it towards the end when he landed at the bottom of the stairs hard enough to shake the foundation of the little house. He lay there for a moment with the wind knocked out of him and too disappointed in himself to do anything.

“‘Lizabeth stay away from him.” He heard someone saying, a man much older than he was.

“Lizard breath?” He questioned out loud, thinking he had heard wrong.

The man laughed, “No, no.” He felt a hand on his shoulder as he sat up, “Come sit at the table, the doctors on the way to look you over.” The man pulled him over to the table as his vision began to clear up, it was still foggy, “‘Lizabeth go and fetch a towel, and keep your siblings out of the kitchen while we’re in here.” Matthew smacked the sides of his head to clear his ears of water, everything sounded wrong. Elizabeth returned with a light blue towel and tossed it on the table.

“Thank you…”

“Elizabeth.” She said and went to herd the smaller children away from the kitchen as they tried to peek in on what was happening.

“I’m Abraham, that was my daughter ‘Lizabeth.” Again Matthew thought he had said lizard breath which caused Abraham to laugh again, “So how are you feeling?”

“Like I was tossed around a lot.” Matthew said as he dried his hair, which was much shorter at the time.

“Well then. Let’s get down to business. Who are you? Where are you from? And why were you passed out on the beach this morning?”

“All I know is that my name is Matthew. I can’t remember much else, waking up and falling down the stairs are really the only other things I can remember.”

“He’s charging! Everyone out of the way!” One of the ranch hands shouted as loudly as possible. Matthew ran outside, reacting before thinking, the boss was running rampant outside, his tails whipping so wildly it had caused the other ordox to pass out. The boss turned to charge at the house, a single charge from him would take down the entire building and everyone inside. Matthew ran out into the field in the path of the boss as he lowered his head and charged, stepping only slightly to the side he grabbed onto the neck of the boss and tried his hardest to slow him down and stop the charge, somehow succeeding in his endeavor. The boss then turned on him and charged, which started the daily routine of Matthew head butting him into the dirt. Using the MVG Matthew scanned for injuries, treating it as second nature, and proceeded to pull a rotten tooth out of the back of the boss’s mouth.

“That’s all it was. A toothache.” Abraham began to scheme right in that moment of ways to keep Matthew around, he didn’t need any convincing. That was how Matthew ended up spending three years on the farm, working every day from sunrise to sunset.

Matthew woke up in the living room in the twilight hours of the morning, he had been covered with a green knit blanket and left to sleep. He got up, got dressed, and went to work. He followed this routine and before he knew it another three years had passed. During that time a new ranch hand was hired who also had possession of an MVG, which gave Matthew more time to roam around by himself and he began to grow bored of his life on the farm, everything was nice and peaceful aside from the random monster attack, but the call of the world outside got to him, he wanted to see what waited for him outside, and he still hadn’t forgotten about that dream about the hydra. The day finally came when Matthew couldn’t stand being on the farm anymore, he had grown tired of living the idle life on a farm and so he left. He thanked everyone for allowing him to stay for so long, then with his bag slung over his shoulder he walked out the front gate for the first time in his life, the wooden gate closed behind him with a sharp creek, they would need to oil it before too long. The grass on the other side of the gate was tall, the trees were close together, wild berries and fruit grew everywhere in unorganized rows, smothering each other. He snapped his fingers and Lyca was right there by his side, in silence they walked, listening to the dirt, sticks, and leaves crunching under their feet as they went along the path, the light passing through the leaves giving the world a new look that he hadn’t experienced before, or at least he didn’t remember experiencing it. After walking for a few hours Elizabeth finally caught up to him, out of breath with sticks and leaves in her hair.

“You forgot your lunch.” She said when she had finally caught her breath, holding up a paper bag.

“Thanks.” Matthew grabbed the bag, not wanting to tell her he left it behind on purpose, he was planning on eating whatever he found during his trek, “So what’s with the backpack?”

“I’ve been sent to make sure you don’t die.” She stretched and straightened up, “They also decided it was time for me to go as well. Said I needed to think about something other than the farm. I seriously don’t know what they’re thinking, I mean I’ve been keeping things running smoothly since before…” Matthew zoned out, whenever she got into one of her rants it could go on for hours at a time, he turned and began to walk the path again, she would follow behind him, all he would have to do is nod along and give simple answers to every statement. He was brought back to his senses when he walked face first into a low hanging branch, a spider the size of his fist crawled off the branch onto his face.

“Here you go lizard breath.” Matthew said as he peeled the spider off of his face and held it out to her like it was just some childrens toy. She stabbed it quickly, nearly taking off one of his fingers in the process, “It’s gotten late. We should set up camp.” Matthew commented on the setting sun as Elizabeth flung the spider off into the forest. Elizabeth set up her tent while Matthew lounged in the hammock he was planning on using, he hadn’t planned for rain but he would figure that out when it came to it.

“Do you have any idea where you’re going?” Elizabeth suddenly asked as she poked at the fire, it was the first thing either of them had said since the sun had gone down.

“Not a clue! I’m just going wherever I feel like!” He said, proud of himself for it. The smile on his face fell when Elizabeth just stared incredulously.

“You mean you just left without any plans?”

“Yeah? Was I not supposed to?”

“No. You weren’t. When doing something like this you need to have a plan laid out first. Okay. Then the first stop on this little adventure of yours will be Grandiflorus.” Elizabeth chastised him as she climbed into her tent, “Now go to sleep. We’re waking up early tomorrow.” At the crack of dawn the next morning they were off again, the path split several times causing them to have to choose a path, most of the time Matthew chose wrong and they had to backtrack a great distance. Finally after close to a week of traveling they arrived at the gate of Grandiflorus, the grand white brick walls and golden gate gave Matthew the impression that this was an important city. The gates opened as two stone guards came to life to move it out of the way, the interior of the city was an amazing sight, a paradise for monster tamers such as himself. Stalls lined every street selling a great assortment of items from healing potions, to weapons, to armoring made more for the looks than the defense, and even food and drinks. It seemed weird for an entire city to be devoted to just shops, but that was only the lower layer, another wall awaited in the center of the city where the real action was, taking a large set of white stone brick stairs up to the next level of the city gave life to another world entirely. On this level monsters roamed freely throughout the streets, trusted enough to not destroy the perfect buildings, each of them two storeys tall with a stone base and orange roofing, other people with MVG’s roamed around talking about fights or going to work, although the number of people with them was small. The buildings got taller the further inwards they went, in the very center of the city was the tallest building Matthew had ever seen; it looked like a tower of glass and steel.

“And there’s our destination.” Elizabeth said pointing to it, “We need to get you registered before we go anywhere else.” She crossed her arms with a satisfied look, “And then you can take me to get some strawberry cheesecake from Grandiflorus cafe.”

“Yeah sure. Get me registered for what?”Matthew wasn’t paying all too much attention to what she was saying, he was busy watching the monsters.

“Keep your voice down.” She whispered, “Technically you were never registered as a monster tamer so the whole time you were living at the farm it was illegal for you to operate your MVG.”

“Cool.” Was all he had to say about it.

“But it’s also the best way for us to travel, if you don’t have a set goal in mind then you can register as a ranger as well and travel the entire world. You’ll get free transport and discounts at all of the best shops.”

“You know a lot about this stuff.” Matthew commented.

“Of course. I had to keep the farm running so I needed to know everything about the rangers in case of emergencies.”

“Do I have to be a ranger? Sure it’s got some perks but doesn’t it come with a lot of responsibilities and stuff?”

“It’s a paycheck, with a lot of benefits.” Elizabeth said with finality, Matthew didn’t even get to make the decision himself. He was going to be a ranger. The interior of the first floor of the building was mostly greyscale, there was a desk on the far side where the receptionists sat, in the center was a fountain lined with green from the few plants it had growing in the water. Screens decorated the wall showcasing the achievements of the tamers association as well as the rangers, behind the receptionist on the largest screen of all was a promotional video for the strongest monster tamers, encouraging other people to join up.

“Welcome to the tamer’s tower, how may I help you today?” The receptionist recited as if reading off of a script.

“I guess I need to register my MVG or something. And I need to register as a ranger.” Matthew said.

“Very well. Take this form and fill it out, bring it back up to me when you’re done.” She handed him a clipboard with a pen, and a sheet with a lot of questions was stuck to it. Matthew sat in the chairs next to Elizabeth, there were a lot of questions he couldn’t answer, country of birth, blood type, etc. When it was all done, most of the page was still blank, the receptionist looked at him as if to ask if he was serious, but she filed it anyway and pressed a red button on her desk. An elevator to the right of her desk opened, Matthew and Elizabeth took it up, only one floor, before stepping out into a giant empty room.

“Welcome. It’s time to begin your ranger trial.” A man wearing a freshly cleaned suit and tie with long blonde hair walked out of the door, pulling on black gloves emblazoned with the towers outline on the back.

“That’s Zeke. The strongest tamer the rangers have.” Elizabeth whispered.

“Call out your monster.” Zeke said and snapped his fingers, “We rangers need to be able to adapt to constantly changing battlefields, so this tower was equipped to simulate just that, and if you can’t adapt then you can’t be a ranger.” The floor began to move upwards, through multiple different biomes, a swamp, the ocean, a rainforest, the desert, an arctic tundra, and even a simulated city.

“Lyca, let’s do it.” Lyca appeared by his side, “So we’re fighting right?” Matthew was ready.

“You will be.” Zeke remarked before stepping off of the platform, Elizabeth went with him, “And begin.” The floor dropped suddenly into the rainforest area, monsters began to attack him and Lyca, monsters he had never seen before. Eventually they had fought their way through every trial that the tower offered them and they were brought to the very top.

“Nicely done, Matthew!” Elizabeth celebrated while he lay on the floor exhausted. He couldn’t remember a fight lasting so long before, but he would need to get used to it quickly for the job.

“Yes. Nicely done. Luckily you managed to pass. So we’ll have you a new set of ranger gear fitted for you, and your ID will be printed in a moment.” Zeke said, pressing buttons on his chair without looking, “The rest of you get in here, we need to finish off his trial.” Four more rangers walked in and took their places in the chairs next to Zeke’s, they were the five strongest rangers and depending on critical trials they could be replaced in an instant. They all wore identical suits of armor with a helmet to hide their faces. They went through a basic ceremony in which they gave him his starting weapons and his ID, then they sent him down to the first floor again. The silver backing was now stamped with the shape of the tower, something that Matthew would try to scrub off later when he was cleaning it; the new uniform was delivered to him in the lobby. The top was skin tight red rubber to disperse electricity and to help with swimming, then the pants were of the same color but made to be heat resistant, the boots were made to be resistant to the cold, the only nice thing about it was the hat, but it looked ridiculous. He wasn’t going to wear it, the farm uniform worked just fine.

“Don’t throw it out.” Elizabeth stopped him as he was opening the trash bin in the lobby by the doors, “I can make edits to it.” She snatched the uniform out of his hand and stuffed it into her backpack in one swift movement, “And now you can take me to get that slice of cheesecake you promised me.”

“I did? Alright, let’s go.” The automatic door slid open, cold air flowing in like a tidal wave. Matthew’s ears began to ring, the world began to spin around him, he felt as if his life was being drained from him. In through the doors walked a man who Matthew guessed to be about his age, if he knew his own age, he had white hair cut short and harsh orange eyes, he wore a camo pattern t-shirt, and black pants, under his arm he carried a large green egg with a black streak that spiraled around it from end to end, and on his other was a pure black MVG. He glanced towards Matthew for a moment, seeming to be disturbed by what he was seeing.

“Welcome back, Mr.Isaac.” The receptionist said without looking up from her computer, “They are expecting you on the top floor.”

“Good.” Matthew could hardly breath, like someone or something had a grip upon his throat and kept squeezing. It wasn’t until the man, Isaac, was in the elevator with the doors closed that Matthew could breathe again.

“What was that about?” Elizabeth asked him, “Are you okay?”

“I should be, yeah. That guy seemed like trouble.” Matthew said, now standing properly once more, “Do you think he’s a ranger?”

“Possibly. Ranger’s don’t need to use the uniform, just look at what Zeke was wearing.” Elizabeth paused outside the doors for a moment thinking, “Yeah. That makes sense. None of the rangers I’ve ever seen have worn their uniform. Now no more stalling, we’re getting that cheesecake.” Elizabeth grabbed Matthew by the wrist and pulled him down the street, the entire time Matthew was looking back at the tower. Matthew could see a figure standing by the window, without a doubt it was Isaac watching him walk away. A clock tower in the distance rang out, Elizabeth began to pull on his arm harder, “They close in half an hour. Hurry up or we won’t make it.”

“Alright, alright.” Matthew’s ears were still ringing, though the world was no longer spinning.

Author's Note

Say what you will, just get your thoughts out