Chapter 5: Just one more sip

Hope and his brother

“Just give me another….  After this…. I’ll quit.  I promise!  Just one more spoonful.”

“You say that every time, Hope.  But you never quit.  You always keep coming back.”

“Please man….  I’m sick.  I just need another spoonful.  It hurts….  I just wanna make the pain go away.  I’m begging you…. just take the pain away…. one more time.”

“The pattern is calling out.”

“What does that mean?  I just want another sip….  My head…. it won’t stop throbbing.”

“Hope, you always get into these patterns, and the pattern is calling out.”

“Heath, please. You’re my brother.  Why can’t you just help me out.”

“I have to keep you alive.  That’s why.  I feel that you’re starting to slip away.  Mother told me to always look after you when you were born.  She died giving birth to you, Hope.  That makes you special.”

“How does that make me special?”

“Because I just know.  She named you right before she died.  That means something…. and even though you can’t see it for yourself, it doesn’t meant that it isn’t true.”

“I’m dying here, brother.  I just need some relief.  Just give me another sip.  That’s all I’m asking.  I’m not hurting anybody, why are you making a big deal out of nothing.  It’s my life, not yours!”

“I’m not giving you anymore, Hope.  I’ve done enough to you.  I’ve hurt you too much already.  I’m sure there isn’t much left in you, so we’ve got to hold on to it.  That’s what family is for.”

“But you were the one who gave me the first sip!  You made me drink it, and look where we are now.  Stuck in Blackwater, we don’t know any of these people…. We’re strangers.”

“That’s why we have to stick together….”

“I don’t care about that, I just want a little mo-”

“Hope!  Wake up!  Hope!  Are you okay!”

“Why are you screaming, I’m okay….”

“You passed out again…..  I thought I lost you again.  I don’t know what I would do if I lost you, Hope.  I would probably follow you into the afterlife….”

“Haha, no you wouldn’t…  You’re too much of a coward.  You could never kill yourself.”

“You never know….  People do crazy things for family….. Here just take another sip.   It’s the last one I’m going to give you.”

“Thank you, brother.  Can I tell you something…. I am a coward as well.  This life…. it scares me.  I don’t know what lies beyond, so I sip until I can’t feel anymore.  I don’t like feeling scared….  I want to be in control of my life, but that’s impossible.  There’s too much ‘outside interference’ for anyone to live a good life.  There is no such thing as fair, only resentment and envy.  I envy those with better lives than mine, unbeknownst that their lives are just as damaged as mine.  It’s an endless cycle….  My head….”

“What’s the matter brother....?”

“Something’s coming….  This world we know now, is not the world of tomorrow.  Something’s coming….