Mum's Diner

by Golden Tassel

Brothers

Lucky Day ran until he couldn't see the diner anymore. Out of breath, he collapsed to his knees then slumped over to his side on the cold, barren ground. Rake stood over him, cast in the red glow of his horn.

"You think you can just lay down and die?"

"Watch me." Day closed his eyes.

Rake laughed. "It's not so easy." He circled around slowly while Day tried to ignore him. "I've seen it happen. You have to be pretty far gone already to go that peacefully. That rock in your side has to be uncomfortable."

Day grunted. "It's fine." He shifted a bit then rolled over to kick the pebble aside and laid back down.

"How long do you think you'll have to wait? You're well-fed, so it'll take at least a week to starve to death." Rake looked up into the sky. "Unless it rains, you'll die of dehydration first. What's that? Three days? That's a long time to wait here. It's chilly out, so maybe you'll freeze or the sun will come up and bake you instead. You don't think some nasty beast is going to come along and finish you off, do you? More likely it'll be a bunch of little scavengers. They might speed things up for you if they're hungry. You really expect me to believe you wouldn't go kicking and screaming?"

Day sat up and growled, "What do you want?"

"Me?" Rake laughed again. "I'm dead. I don't want anything. What do you want?"

"I want you to leave me alone!"

"And why would you want that?"

"It's hard enough to fit in without you constantly looming around."

"Don't blame me if you can't fit in. You lock yourself away and never talk to anyone. You drink their water and eat their food and don't give anything back. What do you expect?"

"I expect to not have to think about hurting everyone around me. When I first met you, you told me it always comes down to you-or-me. You put these thoughts in my head. It's all I can think about sometimes, and you make me afraid of what I might do."

"I beg your pardon." Rake feigned indignation. "I never told you to hurt anyone. That's all on you."

"But I don't want to hurt anyone! So why? Why are you here? Why do you always have to remind me what I'm capable of?"

"That's not me. That's the world you live in. That's the world that killed me. And if you don't want to end up like me, you need to remember it. No, you didn't ask for it; nobody did. But you were born here in this place at this time. Somewhere else, some other time, maybe things would be different. Right now, though, you need to pick yourself up and get your head out of the sand. There's a whole world out there and it will kill you—no escape, no bargain, no way out. You know what you do get to decide, though."

Lucky Day stared at Rake silently. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I get to decide how it kills me." He opened his eyes and Rake was gone. He turned around and started his walk back toward the diner.