Chapter Eleven: The true Pain of loss

He stood before me, his bright pink pupils blazing and full of rage. Up until now, I’d never seen him show any emotion, and the amount that almost boiled over now was frightening. “I won’t let you go 113. Not again. Not this time. Why are you in such a hurry to get back to her anyway? You never hurried back after you left us!” He shouted, fists held in front of his face like a professional boxer. “Let me through Pain, I don’t have time for this. Please. She’s waiting for me.” His hands dropped to his side and he looked as though he might laugh. “You don’t have time? You want to talk to me about time? You want to talk to me about waiting for you? You don’t have the right!”

His anger blazed back and he charged me, slamming a bare fist straight into my midsection. I shouted out in pain and reeled back, my body writhing from the effects of his hit. It wasn’t the punch itself that hurt, but that strange after effect. Contact with his skin caused immense pain, for whatever reason. Ironically, his punches themselves were light and most likely would be painless without that after-effect. A left hook sent me reeling back again, and I began to flail about again. I had to get myself under control or he’d take me down with another hit and I’d never see Lee-Ann. That thought steeled my resolve and instantly my body stopped shaking and held firm again. He swung again towards my mask, and I ducked underneath it. A fist sprouted from my stomach and sent him flying onto his back. It seemed that as long as I avoided his hands, the pain didn’t affect me. That meant I could hit back, and I planned to. Without giving him time to stand, I wrapped a whip-like tendril around his leg and pulled him into the air, slamming him into a nearby tree. His hands wrapped firmly around the tendril at his leg and the pain shot right through it, forcing me to let go and pull back. As the tendril disappeared into my body, he stood up brushing off his pant leg and smirked at me. “You can’t beat me. I was practically built to fight you; you’re nothing but bare skin aside from that mask of yours. It’s an interesting ability I have, isn’t it? Wanna know how it works?” Before I could respond, he leapt into the air and brought both fists down on me, the combined force and after-effect of the pain made me flatten out on the cold forest floor.

He reached his hand down against me and let it sit there for a bit, watching me writhe as the pain shot through me. But through the blur of pain and flailing, I noticed something odd in his eyes, as if he was saddened by my pain. “It’s a chemical they engineered.” He said pulling his hand back and hovering over me. “It gets into your body through skin contact and attacks your nerves. It forces signals into your brain telling it that you’re in pain. You wanna know why I'm full of this stupid chemical? For interrogations. They wanted a way to make people talk, a way to torture them that wouldn’t kill them or cause visible damage. Just like the rest of us, they made me to be a tool. And did they ask if I wanted to be their torture device? Of course not. I was a kid, what did it matter what I had to say? You were the only one who cared what I had to say. But it looks like that’s all over now, isn’t it?” While he was talking, the pain had subsided enough for me to regain control of my body. A large fist sprouted from the puddle that was my body and knocked him clear into the air. I didn’t know I had that kind of strength, but I was happy for it at the moment. I didn’t waste any time waiting for him to fall back down, and ran off into the forest. Somehow, I knew he’d survive the fall.

Sure enough, I heard a loud thud nearby and the sound of his footsteps soon after. I could hear him running through the forest, his footsteps getting closer as I ran deeper into the forest. Running was getting me nowhere, I had to fight, but I didn’t know how many more hits like that I could take. And he was a lot quicker then he looked, which meant I didn’t have much time. I noticed a sizeable log lying between two strong pines that were oddly close together. It gave me an idea, but I had to be quick about it, I could already hear him approaching. I leapt over to the trees, wrapping one end of myself around each of their trunks. I picked up the log and rested it pointing outwards against my mask, and pulled myself back like a rubber band, using another nearby tree. I waited until I could see his blazing pink eyes as he charged towards me, and let go of the tree behind me. The log shot forward like a cannon ball and slammed straight into him, and then shattered into tiny pieces. In my haste I hadn’t noticed that the log had been completely hollow, and was no more than a large ring of empty bark. He brushed wood chips from his shoulder, looking annoyed, and charged again. I was tangled between two trees and didn’t have enough time to move, and his fist came down hard. My body shook and whipped off the two trunks, and I fell between them. “Why!? Why did you leave me behind?!” he was shouting, fists raised to strike, but they never came down. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, ok?! I’m sorry! But I don’t remember! I don’t know why I didn’t come back! I don’t even know who I am! Or who you are!” I was frightened and shaking as I looked into his eyes, so many emotions welling up behind them. I tried to stand, and he slammed his fist into me again, sending me back to the floor. “I was a child! And they pumped me so full of these damn chemicals that it changed my hair color! How many people do you know with pink hair!? And to make matters worse, I can’t touch anyone! Do you know what it’s like to be a frightened child who can’t even hug someone without making them ball up in excruciating pain?! The only person I ever had in that godforsaken place was you!” He fell to his knees before and began slamming his fists into my puddled body, like a toddler throwing a tantrum. “But you left me! You left me behind with those freaks, those madmen! And you never even said goodbye! You had to be the hero! You had to go back when you knew the place was rigged to blow any minute!” Tears began to slide down his cheeks as he broke down, still trying to beat his pain into me. With ever blow my body shook, racked with pain. I could do nothing but lay there and watch this sad spectacle. I was surprised I had not yet been knocked unconscious, but part of me wished I would be, as the pain that ran through my body was unlike any I had ever felt. And yet I couldn’t help but think that perhaps this boy was going through a much greater pain then my own.

  “You were like a brother to me! You said you’d always be there! But when I needed you most. YOU. WERENT. THERE!” He slammed both his fists down and slumped over, sobbing uncontrollably. He spoke softly through his tears, trying to sound strong. “Do you know what it’s like to be me? I can never love anyone. I can never be loved. All I can do now is cause pain. I didn’t ask to be this! I wanted to practice medicine! I wanted to heal people, not hurt them! But my worthless parents sold me off to that damn facility just to make a few bucks. You were my only family…so why did you leave me behind?” He fell completely to the ground after that, sobbing into his suit sleeve. I couldn’t help but feel bad for him, regardless of the pain he had caused me. No matter how much I hurt, I knew that pain of the heart could do more damage than any pain of the flesh. This was not the cold, emotionless killer I had first met; this was a frightened, tormented child, who just wanted to go home. Shaking and trembling in my pain, I did the best I could to make a single hand, and let it rest upon his shoulder. He turned to me, his pink eyes dull and red from the tears. I did my best to speak through the pain, though my voice came out shaky and hoarse. “I’m sorry…for leaving. I wanted… to come back. But I forgot…I'm sorry I was away…but I’m here now. And I won’t leave anymore.”

He sniffled, and looked straight into my mask, rolling my words over in his head for a bit. “But you will, you’ll go back to her, and leave me alone again.” He said as a single tear ran down his cheek. I brought my hand to his face and brushed the tear away, fighting off the pain that came with it. “You..can come with me. You don’t have to be alone…” He was taken aback by this, and soon began to cry again. But the tears were different this time, happier, and not filled with all of the pain and loneliness of those before. “I..I’d like that.” He said with a weak smile, and laid down next to me on the forest floor.