Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
53% [WIP]
Topic Started: Nov 30 2009, 09:08 PM (130 Views)
Lilac-Hime
Member Avatar
Blaze! Artist
 *
An experimental fiction. I used a list of 100 words and wrote a story about them. Each paragraph had to either use the word or describe the word.

Just a heads up: it's creepy and still unfinished. The title is actually 100%. : D





--

He didn't want to tell Quinn. He knew how he'd react and he wouldn't react well. There was no reason for him to know... yet. It was still very treatable. He wanted to be able to tell Quinn he was cancer-free after the fact, so there would be no worries. No tears. No sadness.

Even as he dashed out from the room to head to the bathroom to relieve himself of his dinner, he wouldn't tell Quinn. Even as the elf patted his back and held back his hair, reassuring him that his stomach would settle, he wouldn't tell Quinn.

Even as he lay there on the tile floor, crying in agonizing delirium and babbling in vain pleas for the pain to stop, he wouldn't tell Quinn.

He learned of his condition in the autumn. The leaves were changing colors as the seasons started to pass with the end of summer. It was during a routine check-up that Muralei noticed the rash on his upper arm. A rash that, over the course of three days, grew bigger. It was hard finding excuses not to be intimate with Quinn during these days, should he discover the marks and be worried. It wasn't a week past September when he'd heard the worst ossible diagnosis: skin cancer.

His first thoughts had been filled with dread. He wept for hours while Quinn was conveniently out, wondering and wrecking his mind with how he was going to break the news. His tears flooded his face as he tore at the marks, as though he wished to burn them away. And yet that wouldn't help. He knew his burns had caused the skin to be so damanged that it had begun to mutate into this morbid disease.

He'd been sitting atop the hill watching the sunset, waiting for that moment between days when the city was still dark and the moon was clear as a bell. It lasted no more than a sparse few minutes, but it was worth it to see, especially if it could be for the last time. It was atop this hill that he receieved the simplest of phone calls that, to this day, brings the sparkle back to his eyes.

"First stage, and treatable. You're going to be okay."

And with that, Ike smiled for the first time in over a week. He made no sigh of relief, nor any sign of finding peace. Blissfully silence, he took the news in stride and sought out a plan.

He'd need surgery to remove the cancerous tissue. It had yet to metastisize, so at this point, only his skin was betraying him. To avoid suspicious, he took on a night job twice a week, but told Quinn it would be a daily shift. He could make his visits to the hospital and return home the next morning with minor wounds, claiming they were part of his work. Quinn was suspicious, but he trusted Ike. He trusted the boy he loved. And Ike stole that trust, flaunting it in Quinn's face.

Still, there was not that much trust. It was fragile, and sprung leaks nearly every day. Ike would turn for but a second and hear the faint sounds of Quinn crying. He knew something was wrong. He suspected, but did not want Ike to think he didn't trust him. His heart was in turmoil. Even so, Ike didn't tell him. It was better this way.

And so, a week after his final surgery, Ike made a promise. He took Quinn to the fair, and there he swore to himself he would tell Quinn everything before things got too deep. He was only two weeks into his treatment. He could do this without that sense of betrayal, and merely play it off as the result of Ike's own fear and insecurities. It was a foolproof plan, if not for karma.

That day, Ike learned he was allergic to the medication they'd put him on to manage his pain.

As Ike fell to the ground, gasping for air, Quinn thought for sure his worst fears were realized, and he was to lose his true love. This event so echoed those in the past, where Ike hadn't revealed the severity of his present condition until it was too late to do anything about it.

They carried him away in an ambulance, Quinn riding along and holding his hand. He held that hand even as they set Ike on the table for emergency tracheotomy. He held that hand and stroked it comfortingly, wishing to convey that he was there, and he was already worried, and the gig was up.

But even after Ike awoke, he didn't tell Quinn. It was too early. He needed to be sure the cancer was 100% gone before he could even bear to bring it up. If there was even the tiniest doubt, Quinn would never rest until Ike was all better.

The lies began to pile up. He just injured himself at work. He had to make a business trip across the city. It was just vitamins that caused his reaction before. He injured himself again. He just wanted some time alone. Such lies, said to the ever-agreeing face of his true love, felt downright criminal. What right had he to make Quinn suffer? It was unfair. Why did he have cancer at all? The world was unfair.

Even bedroom activity had died down. It was hard to put out for someone who was lying to you. It was hard to get in the mood when your body felt heavy with drugs. It was hard to do much of anything except sleep when you'd just started your first round of chemo.

A precaution, they called it. There were no other signs of cancer as far as they could see, but they wanted to be sure. He was the tailor's son, and of utmost important to their community. They couldn't afford to mess this up. Those days were the worst. Ike counted down the days to when he'd be unable to deny he was okay. He was pale. He couldn't eat anything. He was always tired. Tired. Tired. He wanted to just sleep. But he had to leave and go to work for a job that didn't exist. He couldn't break his commitments.

Whether he'd admit to it or not, there was a strange sense of fun in these games. The thrill of not getting caught. He'd become obsessed with his numbers, trying his hardest to make it one more day without being noticed. He saved eating for his late nights alone, knowing that would be the only time he could throw it back up without rousing suspicions. Sure, he'd rather not throw up at all, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

The fun stopped the day his hair fell out. Maybe that image is too dramatic, but in truth, that was how it happened. He went to bed with a full head of beautiful red hair. He woke up with nearly half of those strands sprawled along his pillow. Still, he couldn't let Quinn know. He made sure not to disturb his slumbering lover as he carefully picked and pulled away all the hairs from the pillow, taking them to the bathroom and making like he decided on a haircut. A haircut he messed up on. The razor slipped, he could have claimed, and he ended up with a shaved head.

Not believable. If he wanted to save Quinn the pain, he had to leave. He packed that day, taking with him only a few clothes, and left a note claiming he had business outside the city and would be gone longer than usual.

He was a fool to believe this would do better. Copious tears fell from the elf's eyes as he read that, once more, his beautiful bird had flown the nest. He wept and wept... then stormed, and then raged. It was all too much. He couldn't handle this new Ike any longer. He gnawed his lip as he pondered his thoughts, the metallic tinge of blood going unnoticed in the elf's current state of mind.

Meanwhile, Ike felt purged. He had no where to go. His life had been overtaken, bleached of any vibrant aspects, with his love and happiness long removed. It was the cancer! It was all the cancer! Not even he believed that anymore.

And though Quinn knew nothing of his condition, so too had he stopped believing Ike. He was sick of being strung along like a kite on a windy day. He wanted to fly freely, away from the confines that his lover had so locked him into. And it was in this angered state that Muralei happened about him and learned of Ike's departure.

And Muralei wept, fearing far worse than the petty silence Ike had been using on Quinn. He's sick. He's sick. He can't be alone. Such drama confused the elf. While he knew well of Ike's previous problems with keeping food down, he thought certainly it had just been a touch of stomach flu.

And in shock, Muralei realized Quinn knew nothing of Ike's courtship with cancer.

A darkness hung over the room and its occupants. A darkness that Quinn sensed, but was afraid to know. That feeling that had been so nagging him, telling him something was wrong, that he had beaten down through his years with Ike. Always, always, Ike had come clean about what was ailing him, if it was serious. Never before had things escalated to him leaving. What illness? What illness!? He had to know had to know to know! No! He had to hear it from Ike, or it'd be tainted forever. He needed to keep his faith in the one he loved, or they would be forever set apart.

And yet he knew he could not live without knowing but one thing. Would Ike prevail? Would he conquer this illness as he had so many other evils in the past? Would he then return to the elf's arms and stay with him forever as they had so sworn to each other?

The truth is a painful, evil thing.

Ike was not okay. He wasn't okay, and it never would be. All of what Quinn knew now was that so long as his love was out there and alone, his chances were slim to nothing. He needed to find Ike. He needed to find him and right this wrong. He needed him, and certainly Ike felt the same. Why else would he perpetrate such lies, go to such lengths, just in the name of sparing Quinn worry!?

It was as these happenings occured that business as usual was going on for Ike. He went to the hospital in his special room and hooked up to IVs, forgoing his mobility in the name of speeding the process of healing. He needed to get better. He needed to be well.

He was unsure at this point whether Quinn would forgive his deceptions. Once his mind had unfogged and the pain ebbed away, he realized at once how his actions thus far had been those of a crazy, wild man. Picking out the hairs from his bedsheets all so the person closest to his heart would never be allowed to see inside. When did he put these walls back up? Had he not torn these down years before? Why, why now, why were they back!?

Enter the boy, in love and full of joy and happiness. Enter the cancer, eating away at his very soul and depriving him of the basic happinesses he deserved as a living creature. What is left?

None is left. None shall leave. The disease, he knew now, was not in his body but in his heart, his very soul; a cancer that was feeding off of him in a way that no drugs nor surgery could ever cure.

A cancer so foul as to sneer at a weeping child whose parents he never knew. A cancer so vile as to devastate the heart of the purest of individuals, making his sunny days seems like naught but clouds and decay without his true love by his side.

A cancer with a loaded gun aimed at Ike's chest. Right now. Cardiac arrest.

~

An inquiry at the office informed him of Ike's location. Quinn had to go to him. He needed to see him. He had to know. The secrets had to stop here and forever be put to rest. It was just too much. With every stop of Muralei's car, Quinn's heart pounded faster in his chest. He was scared. He was afraid for Ike. Something evil had overtaken and ravaged his body, and Quinn had to save him, he had to! He could not allow Ike to die!

And there it was, his first enemy: ICU. Immediate family visitors only. A title that, wish as he might, Quinn could never achieve. They knew full well Ike had but one immediate family member.

Muralei.

That bastard.

He knew that this would be the case. He knew he'd have brought Quinn so close and so far. He knew, and yet he did this anyway. What did he hope to accomplish!? Worried for Ike's health? He didn't want Quinn to aggravate him? Oh, Quinn would aggravate something. His furious state was so unruly, the nurses were forced to sedate him to finally calm his fit. For far too long he had been pushed around under Ike's deceptive thumb, willing him into believing whatever he wanted and toying with his still-beating heart. The creature Quinn wanted to see wasn't the boy he fell in love with. The body is the same, but the mind has been warped. Something evil is behind this twisted world, it has to be.

And yet while well-deserved, this fury was not intentional. Instead, by accident, Quinn has fallen victim to the same disease Ike had been shielding him from. The cancer of the mind, tearing apart his soul.

What cruel joke is this that two who were so in love could be torn apart by such irony?

Back in Ike's room, the cancer has become benign and gentle. He cries soft tears as he yearns for the boy he loves. The boy he's been so cruel to in hiding such a horrid thing, even if it be for the best in his own mind. Quinn wouldn't agree.

It is a mockery to his affections to say they are through. Despite the lies and the pain, Quinn knew well in his heart that he loved Ike, despite this transgression. And for that reason alone, purely for his love and not for the cancer in his soul, he found a reason to carry on. He had to find Ike. He had to see him.

Calling out his name would do no good. And no matter how far he searched, Ike is out of his reach. He needed to find a connection; any that would allow him in to see the boy he loved.

And should he learn how to save Ike, that would be a fine bonus as well.

But inside there was nothing he could do, and soon he left on foot. The nurses were immovable and the ICU impregnable. Of course, he could wait for Ike to be discharged, but in such a ward there is always the risk that no one shall go out once they go in.

He wanted Ike on the outside. He longed for things to be as they were, his mind wandering back to those beautiful days together where Ike charmed the elf with sweet nothings and physical affections. Days where the love didn't stop just because the sun went down, and sometimes the elf just never slept because of Ike's obsession with love and his desire to show Quinn his love in every way his body could. Things were simpler then...

But things could be simpler now. His eye caught the sight of the cars weaving in and out of the traffic on the road sandwiched between the buildings. An idea struck his mind: he could get into the ICU with this! He took a sharp turn and leaped out towards the cars. He could almost hear his bones crushing as he was slammed between a ton of metal and glass. He could feel his warm blood fly from his veins and his final breath escaping his lips as he realized that maybe, just maybe, this time it'd be too much...

At least, this is what he would have felt had a rough hand not darted out and grabbed him by his collar, yanking him back onto the concrete sidewalk before he could even give a cry.

In that moment, he saw his own desperation. Saw what he had been forced into nearly doing, once more playing into Ike's calculated fingers. Ike must have intended for this...! He has gone mad! They'd both gone mad. If only Quinn could see that he, too, has been locked up in his own delusions. They're lost.

[TBC]
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Fan Art & Fiction · Next Topic »
Add Reply

Emoticon bases provided by Matdredalia of deviantART.