- Joined
- Jan 1, 2003
- Messages
- 16,598
- Reaction score
- 417
done for a challenge at 15minuteficlets
~~~
"Go," he had told me.
"I'll catch up with you later," he told me.
That was 74 hours ago. 74 hours of waiting for any word.
Buson was officially listed as missing. The agents around me spoke in hushed tones, the word 'missing' being accented strangely as though they were using it as a euphemism for 'dead'.
And he may very well be dead. It would be too dangerous, they've told me, to go and look for him. Better to lose one agent than two.
He wouldn't give up on me. If our situation was reversed, he'd defy orders and go looking for me. And probably get himself killed in the process, the dumb lug.
We took our connection for granted. We always assumed that we could tell what the other was thinking because it always seemed that way. We assumed that we would have an empathic link if we were ever seperated. In retrospect, it was a rookie mistake.
No, I can't do it. I can't ever think of him in the past tense. And yet I do it anyway.
Another agent passes me by, bowing her head respectfully. Everyone around here has given up on him, but I can't.
I feel like an idiot clinging to a false hope. Only a fool would think his partner alive after all this. Over three straight days of waiting, the haze of being without him for the first time in years clouding my judgement, because it hadn't sunk in yet. Over three days I'd been waiting, catching sleep in five-minute intervals and being awoken with a sick feeling in my stomach at the slightest sounds.
I've decided that I can't take this. It may be stupid, and it may cost me my life, but I have to find him again. I stand and grab the chain that holds my pokéballs and am almost down the hallway when an agent takes my arm.
"I have a message for you. Report to Commander Isadora's office, she has word regarding your partner."
I try to ask for more information but he shakes his head and says that this is all he knows.
Part of me wants to grab on to any news, even if it means the worst. Part of me thinks I'm better off not knowing, that I can always delude myself into thinking anything.
It seems like a day in itself, but I finally reach her office. When I extend my arm to open the door, my hand is shaking uncontrollably.
I never should have left his side. Whatever happened should have happened to both of us.
~~~
"Go," he had told me.
"I'll catch up with you later," he told me.
That was 74 hours ago. 74 hours of waiting for any word.
Buson was officially listed as missing. The agents around me spoke in hushed tones, the word 'missing' being accented strangely as though they were using it as a euphemism for 'dead'.
And he may very well be dead. It would be too dangerous, they've told me, to go and look for him. Better to lose one agent than two.
He wouldn't give up on me. If our situation was reversed, he'd defy orders and go looking for me. And probably get himself killed in the process, the dumb lug.
We took our connection for granted. We always assumed that we could tell what the other was thinking because it always seemed that way. We assumed that we would have an empathic link if we were ever seperated. In retrospect, it was a rookie mistake.
No, I can't do it. I can't ever think of him in the past tense. And yet I do it anyway.
Another agent passes me by, bowing her head respectfully. Everyone around here has given up on him, but I can't.
I feel like an idiot clinging to a false hope. Only a fool would think his partner alive after all this. Over three straight days of waiting, the haze of being without him for the first time in years clouding my judgement, because it hadn't sunk in yet. Over three days I'd been waiting, catching sleep in five-minute intervals and being awoken with a sick feeling in my stomach at the slightest sounds.
I've decided that I can't take this. It may be stupid, and it may cost me my life, but I have to find him again. I stand and grab the chain that holds my pokéballs and am almost down the hallway when an agent takes my arm.
"I have a message for you. Report to Commander Isadora's office, she has word regarding your partner."
I try to ask for more information but he shakes his head and says that this is all he knows.
Part of me wants to grab on to any news, even if it means the worst. Part of me thinks I'm better off not knowing, that I can always delude myself into thinking anything.
It seems like a day in itself, but I finally reach her office. When I extend my arm to open the door, my hand is shaking uncontrollably.
I never should have left his side. Whatever happened should have happened to both of us.
. Great character work, as ever - your usual strengths shine through.