No rest for the wicked

(WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS DEPICTIONS OF ALCOHOL ABUSE AND SELF-HARM. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED)

-One… Two… One… Two…-I grunted as I tried my best to keep myself awake. Each step I took made the next one harder, and that made me wonder how I was gonna manage to keep going.

As my walk became clumsier and wagglier, the kid groaned in pain. I stopped immediately after listening to her complaints, waiting until she calmed down to keep going.

-Ja… cob…-she said in a low voice.

-Go back to sleep, ok? I promise I'll walk straighter from now on.

With her healthy arm, she reached for my face and rubbed my cheek with her hand. Then, she whispered to me and fell unconscious again.

-Fuck…-I mumbled before sitting down and resting my back against Nicky. There, I brought the kid to the floor and placed her head on my lap, pondering about all the shit that happened since we got out of the school where she was.

Layla got stabbed, I had a dream about Armando, a rando shot us, then another guy tried to attack us,... and the list goes on and on. The worst part? It hasn't even been 6 days since it all began.

Ugh, I still remember the voice of that creepy old man who tried to kidnap Layla. I'm glad that I left his body unrecognizable, but maybe I went a little overboard.

-Ja… cob?-the kid groaned while opening her eyes with effort.

I quickly brought my ear close to her mouth, making the communication between us easier.

-Sleep… please…

-You want to sleep?-I said worried while caressing her hair-It's okay, I'll keep guard while you rest, ok?

-No…-she complained before attempting to get up unsuccessfully-I'm asking you… to get some sleep…

I shook my head, refusing to listen to her. 

-You don't get it, do you? If I sleep, some other creep will try to attack us again.

-But if you don't… then your ass will drop dead mid-fight… Plus… you look like shit right now…-she told me while touching my eyebags with her fingertips.

I held her hand and gave her a gentle smile, soothing her worries and promising to sleep after I checked on her and Layla. She nodded slowly and then put her head back on my thighs, closing her eyes and falling asleep in a matter of seconds.

A long sigh of relief escaped my mouth after watching her. She was right, I only got to sleep for a few hours these days, and the effects of my insomnia were starting to weigh on me.

I looked up to the sky, contemplating the sunset before closing my eyes entirely, allowing myself to get a break before continuing.

My breathing became more relaxed, and the tension on my muscles eased up as I tried to let go of all the stress I was put into this week. As my mind began to go blank, and my consciousness started to fade away, a memory from before I started my journey appeared in my mind.

It was a few days before "new year". I don't even know if I should count festivities in this shitty world, but it's easier to keep track that way. Anyways, as I was saying, a few days before New Year's eve, I sat on my dad's smithy while treating my leg's wound.

Just spending time there was enough to remind me of him and make me cry, but I had to look for anything that would tell me what his "best pieces of work" were.

As my blood dripped on the floor of his workplace, I took out a cup and put it into a table, pouring one of his expensive whiskys inside of it. I was never much of an alcohol person, but since the only few times that I got drunk, I was almost completely numbed, it seemed like a good option to ease the pain.

I took the glass on my hand and brought doubtfully to my lips, tasting the drink before downing the content of the cup in one go. At first I didn't feel like nothing changed, so I filled my glass again and downed it almost immediately again.

I waited for a few minutes, expecting to feel the effects hitting at any moment, but the wait was useless. My fist quickly punched the table, damning the blood that was running through my veins.

-Ma gave me her language and her color and you give me your tolerance? That's pretty funny, dad…-I mumbled to the air as my rage turned into a laugh, which then changed into sobbing.

The tears fell down my face and touched the floor at the same time as the blood droplets did. I stared into the nothingness as I lost myself in the sound of the liquids leaking into the floor. It was almost like I was in a trance, and the only way of escaping it was forcing myself to do something, anything.

Five minutes passed, and I decided that it was time to do something productive. My lungs took a big quantity of air, and once they reached their full capacity, I released it all. 

In a swift motion, I took my dad's bottle and started to drink directly from it. As the liquid began to flow into my throat, my eyes directed themselves towards every corner of the smithy.

-I'm sorry, dad. I know you're writhing on your grave right now, but I promise I'm doing this because my leg hurts like hell…-I whispered before resuming my whisky intake.

A few milliseconds after saying that, the world suddenly became lighter, and the control I had on my body was almost null. With a big effort, I put the bottle back on the table and rested myself on it.

As every sensation on my body began to get blocked, only one remained: a big sense of sadness and guilt. I laughed to myself after realizing what I was feeling, trying to ease the weight that was growing exponentially on me with bad jokes. At that moment, I looked like a madman: laughing and crying at the same time. 

-I'm pathetic, aren't I, dad?-I asked the air as I started to regret what I did-Instead of looking for anything that might help me, I'm here drinking your fancy ass alcohol.

Wanting to stop that feeling of misery, my head began to bang itself against the table. It would've been easier to pass out if I had just kept drinking, but to be honest, nothing was clear to me at that moment.

The hard banging caused the table to vibrate, and the loud noises echoed through the room. I was able to ignore the sounds because of the state that I was in, but the vibrations weren't as easy to avoid.

They creeped through my hands, getting under my skin and resonating into my whole body. The sensation was really unpleasant, so to put myself together and stop that shit, I slapped my face twice.

After regaining some of my composure, I went back to staring into nothingness for a long time. When I decided that it was enough, I placed my right leg on the floor and thought of going out to get some fresh air. As I started to hop on one leg towards the entrance, I stumbled across everything that came my way, causing a lot of things to fall to the floor.

For some reason, I stared normally at the falling items, but from one moment to another, everything around me changed. The time suddenly changed and began to flow slower, and for something that's unknown to me, my eyes locked onto a notebook that made its way to the floor.

I watched in slow motion as its pages flipped in the air, and at that moment I felt the urge to catch it. My body tried to rush off to it, but it also moved at the same pace that the notebook did.

In an attempt to catch it, I threw myself to the ground and placed my hands where I thought that it would've landed, and as soon as it came into contact with me-

BOOM

I woke up agitated, a droplet of sweat falling down my face as I came into my senses. My heaving chest fought for air as I tried to calm myself down, attempting to lower my heartbeat to a normal rate.

Once I was back to normal, I noticed an extra weight on my body. I opened my cape to check what it was, and once I saw it, I smiled at it and hugged it.

Turns out that while I was sleeping, the kid curled up on my body and covered herself with my cape. My hand caressed her hair as my head turned around to check on Layla. 

I remained completely silent, looking for anything that would tell me about her well-being, and once I heard her breathing, I snuggled myself against the kid and closed my eyes. I didn't know why I dreamt of that memory in that way, and I was also unsure on how I was able to have such a deep slumber without being attacked, but for a moment, just for a moment, I decided to listen to the kid's advice and forced myself to rest…