//------------------------------// // Relyring the Past // Story: Hand In Hand // by Bysen //------------------------------// Medium gore warning! It was summer. Hot and horrible summer and the car had no aircon. The windows were down and the hot air blowing in was the only think cooling the car down. Lyra had done it. She had been literally jumping around after the show where she had performed in front of a thousand people before they left the amphitheatre. It was a huge event! But certainly not the last. Nevertheless, tonight her whole family was going to celebrate. She sat behind her father on the left side of the car, her brother beside her. She had the window down and her arm resting along the gap it left with her head resting on her shoulder, letting the wind whip her hair back and forth. Staring out the window, looking off into the traffic ahead, smile plastered on her face. And the next thing she knew, she was laying in a bed inside of a hospital. It had been more than two weeks by the time she woke, not remembering anything. Had she been able too, she would’ve screamed. Not from the pain she was in, though it was a considerable amount with both of her legs broken. But what elicited the vague noise coming from her was her left arm. Or rather, the fact that she didn’t have one. For more than six months she was confined to a wheelchair before she could only just walk on crutches. She’d accepted it. For the most part anyway and she honestly believed she would be fine in time like all doctor’s all told her. Then it returned, First it was a dream, a nightmare. Then it was a vague sense ever so often. But eventually, the small pieces formed a whole picture that scared her more than what she saw when she awoke. What she saw before she passed out. As if in slow motion in her mind, letting her see every singly miniscule fleck of skin getting ripped away from her arm as the bus slammed into the side her her car. The wheel spinning at a hundred kilometres an hour right against her arm on the window. scraping and ripping faster than any blood could escape until it ground all the way to her exposed bone. no pain registered to her. possibly the only good thing about what happened. But the worst was yet to come. Her hand. Her delicate graceful fingers began to clip the spinning rubber. First a few tiny layers of skin of her pinkie finger were whisked away before the nail was caught and ripped clean off only to be followed by the entire finger crumpling out of sight before her ring finger followed in a similar manner, only instead of going under her hand it when above and away. No more fingers followed after that. Instead her entire hand was ripped from it’s place on what remained of her arm. The car jolted to the right from the impact, finally dislodged itself from the bus. Lyra, along with what was left of her arm were hurled towards the bus for a moment before their momentum changed with the car’s. Her head on her shoulder, her arm went about her eye line, letting her see for the first and thankfully, though it would be a stretch to call it that, only time. What she saw was the entire left side of her left arm grinding away to and past the bone which too was ripped asunder with the forepart of it entirely chipped away, leaving what was left of her hand hanging on by nearly nothing more than a few stringy and still moving tendons. She screamed for a fraction of a second before she was shunted forwards rapidly and her memory ended. The car had crashed into a pole after swerving from the impact. Whether she had passed out from fear and shock or the impact of the crash she didn’t know, and tried to never think about it enough to find out. What she saw that day will haunt her for eternity. ~ ~ Bon-bon was doing her best to hold herself together. There was sheer terror in Lyra’s inflection as she went into horrid detail about her arm, she felt sick just hearing it. Her own fears were one thing but hearing about, let alone actually experiencing it first hand were on a whole other level. But despite what she was saying, Lyra was even crying. It was far worse than that. Her face was expressionless as her eyes stared at Bon-bon, dead and blank. Hugging had always worked in the past, so naturally Bon-bon tried it again. It didn’t change Lyra’s expression though, she simply accepted it without returning any of the affection. There were a number of things Bon-bon wanted to say but was sure she’d hear them before. She knew she had herself after all. Amongst the strongest she’d heard was a simple phrase. “It’ll be okay.”. Lyra didn’t respond at first, she didn’t even hear it really. She just stayed in Bon-bon’s arms for a few moments before what she’d been told fully sunk into her and she pulled away from her friend’s embrace. “No it won’t.” she said as she weakly tried to brush Bon-bon off of her. Bon-bon stayed resolute though and only shifted slightly to her side, keeping her arms around Lyra but moving her her left. One arm running across her back and the other across her chest, meeting in laced fingers on Lyra’s right shoulder. “It will…” Bon-bon replied. “I know it will. do you want to know why?” “Why.” Lyra asked flatly. Whether she knew it or not, she wanted a reason to believe her friend. She didn’t want to feel like this. Like nothing was worth doing, or nothing was interesting enough to warrant even getting out of bed and putting enough energy into taking a few small steps she had taken to get into this seat. “Because I was told it too. And I didn’t believe it either. I was told it so many times by so many people and I know how cliché it sounds but… I know it’s true because, ‘it’ll be okay’ was what someone told me right before I met you.” Lyra for her part merely turned her head slightly. It may have meant a lot to bon-bon, but to her it was just another story of another person. And while at least this story was actually tied to her, it wasn’t her. But at the same time, she didn’t want to take that away from someone just because she didn’t have it herself. “That’s… nice to know.” she said, trying to be as enthusiastic as she could without over selling anything. The tiny smile that came to her face as she said it though said for more than those words did however. Bon-bon seeing her opportunity pressed the attack. “So c’mon. Where’s the Lyra I know? Lyra who helped me so much? Who has too many ‘steam sale games’ whatever that means. Who always has a silly reference to reference that I don’t understand. Who-” Bon-bon was cut off however. She’d both succeeded and failed at the same time. “She killed Kenny.” Lyra coldly replied. “Uh… you did?” Bon-bon asked. not entirely sure what Lyra meant. She understood the reference though for once. Simpsons did it. Right? “I shot him. I had too.” Lyra said as she finally fully turned her to friend beside her. “I shot him in the back. And I killed his girlfriend. I just wanted everyone to live so I cut her arm off!” “You… wha..?” Bon-bon questioned in confusing, thinking Lyra had gone completely delirious. “I thought if I cut off her arm I could save her from zombie bite! But they just ate her! All I did was make her suffer before she died. I did it to her and I can’t take it back. Even if I reloaded a save I still did it!” “Oh!...” Bon-bon said in realisation. Also realising she’d probably said that too loud. “Was that a game you played?” “The Trotting Dead.” “Don’t worry… it’s just a game.” “No it wasn’t!” Lyra shouted! “It was more than just a game. It was a story. And I chose to do it. I wasn’t railroaded into it, I CHOSE to cut her arm off! I made her suffer. Tried to keep her living in a world she couldn’t handle. It was crueler than letting her become a zombie. Just because I wanted her too. Just like you…” “I-” “Shut up.” Lyra interrupted before Bon-bon could even say a word. “I’ve had my hand on yours this whole time.” she said as she looked her to right where Bon-bon’s hands were clasped over her shoulder. There was nothing on top of them though. “It’s been four years. And I can still feel it. I should’ve gotten over it by now but it’s still there!” There was really nothing Bon-bon could say to that. Honestly, from what she could tell, she’d only worsened the situation so far. The only thing she could do right now was stay still and hold onto her friend. She even feared letting go, worrying where Lyra felt her hand at that moment and that it was still holding onto hers. Looking down from her shoulder, Lyra turned to face the stub of her arm in front of her. “You know… they say that phantom limb syndrome is caused because even if your body is missing a limb, your soul still has it. So maybe, one day in heaven I’ll get my arm back.” she said. She’d finally gotten some positivity from her friend after all this. “That’s a nice thought.” “No… no it’s not.” Lyra said as she finally began to cry. Whether it was an improvement in her emotional state was up for debate, but at the very least it meant that something had changed. For Bon-bon’s part she simply couldn’t understand why such an idea was a bad thing. Surely getting your arm back when you di- “Oh my god!” Bon-bon gasped as she let her hands slip off of her friend before quickly putting them back around her and pulling her into an even stronger hug than the first. “Don’t you dare even think about that!” “Why not?” she asked, though it was more of a statement. “It, it’s cruel. Why should i have to go on like this? That damn game showed me! It’s kinder to let people who don’t want to live die instead of dragging them through a world that hurts every single day! I’ll never have my arm back, I’ll never have my hand and I’ll never play the piano!” she practically screamed as tears continued to cascade down her face. And it was at that moment Bon-bon knew what she had to do. up until now it had all been guess work and hope and it had all failed. But now, now she knew exactly what she had to do. Lyra was what had saved her, when she had helped her do what she couldn’t do on her own, and though Bon-bon wished she had the few more weeks until Lyra’s birthday it was now or never. “Lyra. Come downstairs with me.” she said as she released the hug and took a small step back. “Why?” “Trust me.” Bon-bon said with a smile. Despite her lack of interest and the fact that no matter what the answer was she wouldn’t get up anyway, Lyra still asked “Why?...” “Just come down stairs with me, I’ll show you!” she said with even more enthusiasm than before. “No.” “Don’t make me carry you.” “You couldn’-daargghh!” Lyra started but startled as Bon-bon swung her arms back around her, only this time one was behind her back low and the other under her legs and forcibly lifted in her in a cradling position. “Stop, put me down!” Lyra yelled. “You’ll drop me. You can’t carry me!” and with that Lyra was fully out of her chair and in Bon-bon’s arms. She quickly threw her arms around her friend’s neck and nearly sent the both of them tumbling as she tried to clasp her hands only for one to not be there. At the last second she managed to swing her arms with the help of a tilt from Bon-bon to grab a told of her elbow around her friend’s neck. “We’re going!” Bon-bon declared as she turned around and walked past Guyra who’d been standing in the doorway since he’d first heard screaming. “No… don’t drop me!” Lyra yelled as they approached the stairs. She suddenly fell! Then maybe a fraction of a second later she stopped. Realising Bon-bon had intionally let her slip just a tiny bit just to give her a scare Lyra yelled “That’s not funny.” “It’s kinda funny.” Bon-bon said with a small chuckle. While Lyra was mad at her friend, she was well aware it was the type of small prank she would play on Bon-bon if she had been the one carrying her instead. And while she didn’t fear being dropped she did indeed trust Bon-bon, even if she had answered that with ‘Why?’ just moments ago. Her condition only affected small intricate movements, carrying someone in your arms didn’t fall into that category. They reached the bottom of the stairs without incident. Unless you count Bon-bon’s spine yelling at her to stop. Lyra hadn’t noticed it herself but she was excited. She’d been ‘bored’ moments before but this was all so exhilarating. In fact, she was happy. That is until Bon-bon finally came to a stop. In front of her piano.