Day 50: Courtyard
Again, there were choices. After leaving the child and the animal, Rei had followed again. When prompted where she wanted to spend time, the pilot had no preference. If they wished her to do something, they would place it before her. If they left her with options, she would take the ones they did not want. So her response was minimal, and so the
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Seeing them go had been all Mihai could manage before he began to suffocate. Being there, a prisoner, with the life he'd dreamed of dangled in front of his face like bait: it was all too much, and when his nurse asked where he wanted to go for the remaining time in the shift, all Mihai could mutter was "Outside."
The woman was strangely quiet as she led him on, and Mihai grinned as he wondered just how pathetic he really looked then. A man his age gripping his chest never foretold anything good, but instinct said protect what hurts. And good lord how it hurt, squeezed tight and burning, leaving Mihai gasping for air by the time they finally made it to the Courtyard.
But he couldn't die yet. Mihai couldn't die, and he couldn't forget the life he knew he had led. There was too much blood on his hands for that, and a man who wasn't a man couldn't just wash away sins because he wanted to. He couldn't even look out into the world without seeing a brick wall, a reminder that fresh air was provided by their captors, just like shirts with smiley faces and terrible dreams.
At least he could laugh now. And with all the bitterness and agony he felt tainting the sound.
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