Radioactive - Book 1: Birth 🪼

Twenty One

I am not feeling very well. I feel like someone is trying to rip me apart from the inside and yet they don't want to let go. My stomach seems to leap and jump around as I walk as best as I can. I can feel the blood leaving my face as I get worse and worse but I have to at least get to his door... I finally see it and pray that he's home. I knock on the door and wait.
"Hold on, Mom, I have to go get the door!" The door opens and Girvan looks at me. "R? Holy shit, are you alright?"
"I'm..." is all I can get out before I feel myself fall.
Girvan tries to catch me but I know it's hard when you're pregnant to bend. I mean, I don't know firsthand but I've watched my mom and Balister have issues. I try and catch myself on the floor but all I do is crash pretty much. Girvan, despite his pregnant belly, kneels in front of me and touches my head.
"You're burning up, R. Can you try and get on your hands and knees? I'll get my sister to help you to the couch. Rebecca! Rebecca, I need your help!" he yells, slowly standing back up.
I wobbly get to my hands and knees as I hear Girvan talk to his sister and I feel arms help me to my feet. My arm goes over a dainty pair of shoulders and I am moving.
"You're very clammy, Mr. uh..." she says, unsure of my name.
"R... Fountain."
"Fountain... We're almost there. There we are..." she says, laying me down on the couch.
I immediately scrunch up into a ball and begin to sob from the pain. I can't make out a lot of stuff but I can make out Girvan holding something in his hand.
"Here, my sister said this might help. She's not really sure what the issue is but you seem to be in a lot of stomach pain. You don't have appendicitis do you?"
"No, I don't think I even have one anymore."
"That rules that out then. Here, hold this against your stomach."
I unhappily move my arms so that he can place the object there. Although it's kind of hot, I welcome it and realize it's a heating pad. I hug it to my stomach, wishing it would burst into flames and then just burn whatever is supposedly left inside of me out! God, I've never been in such pain...
"Girvan?" I say.
"Yeah, what is it?"
"I need you to... to do something odd for me."
"Odd? Should I be scared?"
I shake my head. "N-no... Do you know what lavender is?"
"It's a scent or something right?"
"Yeah. Do you have any?"
"Uh... no... why?"
"I need you to find some. I can't-" I cry out in pain and scrunch tighter. "I can't have him find me."
"Who?"
"Nalak."
Girvan watches me for a moment and then lifts an eyebrow.
"You're running away from your boyfriend?"
"He's not my boyfriend! This isn't funny... I... I made a mistake and caused him pain. I don't want him to find me because he has to get to the Badlands. I'm hindering him... Please find something."
"I will but answer me this: if he finds you, will he hurt you? Will he hurt me?"
"No, never..." I say with truth. "He doesn't eat people he just... I can't stay with him anymore so I want him to give up on me. I shouldn't have tried... I just... I shouldn't have..."
I start to cry from pain and sadness. I know I shouldn't do this to him but I've caused him nothing but trouble. If I just go away, he'll forget about me and go to the Badlands by himself. I feel Girvan touch my head like a father does his child and I cry even harder. I will never know how to give that to a child, I will always be barren. I continue to sob at everything that's gone to hell, wishing it wasn't me that it was happening to. Why did Murphy's Law have to love me so much? Why?
I sob some more. I just want to go home.

****************

Nalak
I open the door of the hotel and take off my jacket. Not that I really needed it, but I guess I should at blend in with the air outside. I can feel it but it doesn't do the same thing it used to, which is make me cold.
"R, I got the stuff from Dr. White. She said as long as you take it at the right time, it'll be enough to fix what happened." I open the door to the room and go to the bathroom. "I know things go weird and stuff but-"
I look down and see that he is not on the bathroom floor. I look around the room and then head to the bed, seeing if he is in there. He's nowhere... I sniff around trying to find him but I can't! I sniff some more and find that his scent goes down the hallway. I don't know what to do... What happened? Did he leave?
Suddenly that realization hits me full force. My heart, although beating very slowly, flutters, as I swallow hard and turn into the hotel room.
"R?! R, where are you?! Come on, man, I'm not mad at you! Please! R! RAMEY!!!" I scream, feeling fear well up in me.
I tear the place apart but he's not here. Where could he be? Did I do something I don't remember? Where is he? Did... did he abandon me? That shock hits me and I fall to my knees, feeling tears well up in my eyes. I realize that that's what's happened. My best friend he... he abandoned me. He hates me... It's because I tried to eat him. I really didn't mean to! I just... after not smelling him for so long and then smelling him full force just... The disgust and anger in his eyes and voice that day still haunt me. I can't touch him at all and when he needed me I just... The sobs keep racking my body as I realize I made him go. I made him so angry that he just left me.