—Hello, Lee... —I murmured, barely audible, as the atmosphere tensed around me. The air was impregnated with the putrid smell of blood mixed with the penetrating aroma of medicine.
Lee turned his head and gave me a weak smile.
—Hello, Marl... —his voice was barely a whisper, very different from the one I remembered. Images of Lee running and shouting beside me, after having hit a beehive or after any mischief, fleetingly crossed my mind.
—I'm glad you could make it, friend.
His voice was so fragile that it invaded me with a piercing remorse. I had never appreciated him as much as in that instant, now that it was perhaps too late.
—How do you feel? —I asked, trying to hide the growing anguish in my voice.
—Being honest... —His gaze moved away from me, drifting toward the window next to his stretcher—. I don't think I'll make it.
—Don't say that, friend. The doctors will do something... —I tried to sound optimistic, but my voice trembled, each word trapped by the knot in my throat.
Lee forced himself to sit up; his fingers, thin and bony, clung to the sheet with force. As he moved the fabric, he let out a hoarse groan, a wet sound that ended in a broken cough.
The air wanted to leave my body with that visceral image.
In the center of his chest was a hole the size of a fist, which completely pierced his body from side to side. The edges of the wound were burned and blackened; the skin around it had a dark purple color and was oozing. With each breath, which he took with difficulty, a wet and bubbling sound was heard. The pain made him tremble; his hands closed into tight fists and his jaw tensed.
The smell of burnt flesh surrounded me as soon as Lee made the gesture, like a living warning.
Something ignited inside my nose, a harsh burning that climbed to my eyes irritating them.
Bile rose without permission through my throat, bringing with it a sickly sweetness that filled my mouth with a sticky texture, a dirty poison.
Then, everything broke. The sweetness dissolved, leaving a bitter metallic taste that clung to my teeth, marking my lips. My body wasn't asking me to leave, it was demanding it. Each heartbeat was an order, a deaf cry that echoed in my entrails. Ordering me to fulfill its requests. The pain became visible in my mind, forming a single word:
"In minutes you're leaving, one way or another. Either you go out that door, or you break down right here."
My vision trembled. Everything around me spun, and inside me... something was collapsing. Like an invisible temple that had lost another of its pillars. I felt the collapse, slow and dry, as if every poorly contained emotion finally released.
I covered my mouth with my hand. My eyes moistened, I didn't know if it was from disgust or from something else I could no longer hide. A pulse pounded in my temple, thoughts buzzed, legs trembled.
My body tries to save me in its own way, pushing me away, giving me clear signals to flee. But it's me who holds it back, who clings to the pain and refuses to escape.
—Lee... that... —I stammered, while everything around me spun out of control.
I felt how my mind detached from my body, ready to let me fall to the floor, unconscious.
I clung to the stretcher where Lee lay, fingers sinking into the cold metal. I breathed deeply, forcing my lungs to obey, fighting against vertigo and the impulse to surrender to fainting.
Lee lowered his gaze. His lips trembled, hesitating, but when he finally spoke, his voice came out firm, pierced by desperation.
—Calm down, Marl! —Tears ran down his cheeks, shining on his pale skin—. I asked my sister to talk only to you. I just want to ask you one thing...
His hands moved uncontrollably, as if he regretted his next words. I felt my throat closing, unable to say anything, I just listened
—In this world full of envious gods, where they choose you and grant you something they call destiny...
Climb to the Superior Mountain and shout with all you have:
"Edgar, I'm here!"
He will help you.
I frowned, confused,
the echo of his request reverberating in my head,
finding no place in logic.
—Marl, just be careful. Your hair is what they're looking for. If you come to accept their deal, make sure it's not an envious god, or the champion's prophecy...
—But Lee, what you're saying is madness, what...?
Before I could finish the sentence, a sharp sound froze me. The monotonous beep of the heartbeat machine, a buzz that cut through the air.
I turned slowly. The monitor screen showed a straight line.
Everything around me froze, like an empty point, all the memories of my best friend passed through my mind in a flash. A ray of light that vanished with him.
I felt how tears moistened and accumulated in my eyelids. I tried not to cry, clenched my fists, tightened my jaw. I forced my body, but it was inevitable.
—No, no, no, no... —my mind and body had yielded to emotions, without realizing it, I was already lunging at my friend's body, shaking it up and down like an animal that refuses reality. —Come on, Lee, wake up. Wake up!
I didn't understand my reaction. I was impulsive. I was clinging to not wanting to let him go. Disrespecting his corpse.
All hope that he would return abandoned me. like that source of life in him. I released his body. My friend... I don't know where he went, but he was no longer there.
The air felt heavier, as if the entire world had suddenly gone mute. I felt a knot in my stomach, a mixture of desperation and rage enveloped me, leaving another void.
"How I hate emotions. They're irrational, they drag you into incoherence.
Every time I feel one, something terrible happens and its taste remains engraved in my palate.
They're part of my essence, I know, I can't deny them. But this taste... I don't want to feel it anymore."
I could only observe how a doctor put his body in a bag and took it away, leaving the stretcher empty for the next patient.
In that instant I understood. I had to go to the Superior Mountain. I had to find Edgar. I had to fulfill his last request.
—I promise, Lee.
I will climb that mountain and find Edgar.
It's a promise.