[BoxHead]

Chapter 23: Cease-Fire

…Or whatever you want to call it since we weren’t really firing all that many things. The inside of the base was very busy. People were running around, usually with medicine, or something. Most people sat up against the wall, giving the wounded as much space as possible. The infirmary was overbooked, as the injury level was extremely high. The most life I saw out of people was various small conversations.

“I’ve got to go submit a report. You make yourself comfy before we head out in a few hours,” Roy told me. I nodded in agreement and headed over to get some food. I sat down next to a wall and realized how tired I really was. I coughed a bit and tried to sleep for a few minutes.

I woke up about an hour later next to Alice. I was startled, but I was too tired to lurch back. My body hurt of battle wounds, and my mind hurt of information of enemies and spirit energy. She looked at me and smiled, and I didn’t have any migraines anymore, thank god. “Awake, sleepyhead?” she said with a slight tune to her voice.

I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah… I’m fine,” I had no idea why she would approach me like that. It’s not like we’ve hung out much. For the two weeks I’ve been here, I’ve hung out with Roy, Chase, Akio, and Alex, while our friendship lasted. The most I’ve seen from her was around the base or on a mission. I’ve seen Alex try to hit on her, with me telling him that it’s no use, but besides that, we haven’t hung out that much.

“Hmm…” she said.

“What? I asked.

“N-nothing,” she muttered.

“It’s Alex isn’t it?” I asked.

She burst into tears. “Alex is scaring me. Over the past nights I came to serve him, he seemed close to himself, muttering about destroying this death system and killing the King. I don’t know what’s gotten into him…”

I figured she was overreacting, but I tried to comfort her. “It’s alright… He’s angry at me…”

“No… He’s angry at me, not you,” she said. She explained everything that happened during the night she explained her past. I was stunned. I had to check out his cell for myself. “Where are you going?” she asked. I ignored her and ran to the jail sector. “No, wait!” I heard her cry.

As I ran down the hall at top speed, I begged the guard to let me see Alex. He told me that he wasn’t there. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I pushed the death guard aside and checked the inside. All I saw were some scruffy-looking BDs. I tried looking for the cell that he was in, but BDs occupied most of the spaces.

I slowly trotted back to Alice. She knew what had happened already. I sat down, and she laid her head on my shoulder. She said, “He liked me and I liked him… I thought my afterlife wouldn’t be so bad… Also, I forgot to mention some things about my past life. I was a kid who survived on her own… I had a boyfriend, but he was abusive, and I only used him for some living space, to be honest. I saw him and I just….”

She started sniffing again as I hugged her. “To be honest, you only knew him for two weeks. I knew him for a year and a half. It was too early to decide that you were-“ She slapped me with the little strength she had at that moment. I looked at her and said, “I know how much love hurts. It hurts even more when you think about it. That’s not what it’s about. That’s not what this Afterlife is about. It’s about second chances,” I hugged her head.

“It’s about overcoming your mistakes or bad memories from your past life,” I said, trying to sound supportive. “I know you’re trying to build a family from all of us, but it won’t help just moping about a couple difficulties like-“ she grabbed my head and hugged me.

It took me a few seconds to recover from that because I expected her to slap me again, more than her hugging me. Sure, it wasn’t something like a kiss, but I wasn’t much of a boyfriend, was I? I felt more like her brother, or a close friend. Maybe it was best to stay that way. She hugged once more me and smiled. “Thanks… I’ll remember”

She stood up and headed towards the ration stand for some food. I kept to myself for the next few minutes until I mustered enough courage to do it. I looked for Roy and finally found him sitting in on a table. I looked him in the eye and said, “I’m ready.”

He raised an eyebrow, “For what?”

“I’m ready to continue my memory training”