Synthetic Lover

It hurts…

The surface is hard and cold…

Where am I…?

I slowly opened my eyes, my vision blurring at first.

Was it all a dream…?

I fully opened my eyes and sat up, noticing that I saw my study with the left eye.

I saw nothing but darkness with the right.

“What the hell?! W-Why am I…?!”

I stopped as I remembered what happened last night.
I looked over to my left, seeing Ricky’s corpse in the same place.

“Ricky…?”
There wasn’t any movement.

I started to crawl over to him.

“R-Ricky…?”

I placed a hand on his cheek

He still felt so cold.

I looked over him and noticed the mark on his chest.

It was the same mark from the cover of the book.

Once I fully glanced at it, the pain in my right eye returned.

“F-Fuck…”

I closed my eyes tightly and tried to will the pain away.

When I opened them again…they met with Ricky’s own blue ones.

“Ricky…?!”

He blinked once, staring at me with tired confusion.
A smile spread across my face and I allowed a few tears to escape.

“You’re alive…You’re really alive!”

He didn’t say anything. He only stared at me with the same blank expression.

My smile went away.

“What’s wrong…? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

He slowly sat up and I took a second to look at him.

His once bright, blue eyes were dull and his skin was deathly pale.
His breathing was quiet but shallow.

I gently placed my hand over his heart, where the mark was engraved.

It wasn’t beating.

“But…you’re alive…aren’t you?”

He tilted his head slightly.
I grit my teeth together and balled up my fists.

“Answer me, dammit!”

I couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

“She didn’t tell me that this would happen…! That I would lose my sight in my eye…! That you’d be a mindless zombie…!”

I brought my gaze to the floor and continued to cry.

“She didn’t tell me any of it…”

I felt a cold hand against my cheek, wiping the tears away.
I looked up to see Ricky, slowly shaking his head at me.

Why am I acting this way? He’s alive (somewhat), and he’s here with me. This is what I wanted.
It’s not completely perfect, but this is what I wanted.

I placed my hand over his and leant into his touch.

“I’m sorry, Ricky…I shouldn’t have called you that…I’m just a little overwhelmed, that’s all.”

He pointed to his right eye with a questioning look towards me.

“I know…it looks grotesque, doesn’t it?”
He shook his head again and it was my turn to give him a questioning look.

He pointed to the mark on his chest, then pointed to my eye.

“What are you trying to say…?”

I got up and walked to the bathroom, stopping in front of the mirror.

There was blood that dried on my face from last night, but…

…My eye wasn’t damaged or missing.

The iris color changed to a blood red, and the mark glinted in the center.

A sacrifice had to be made, so my sacrifice was my eyesight in the right eye.

I turned the water on and washed the blood off.

The pain was still dull.

I walked back to the room and sat in front of Ricky, pulling him into my arms.
Everything finally set in and I cried again, hugging him tighter to my chest.

“We’re together again. And this time, I won’t let anyone take you away from me.”