Threat

“Tyler…”

A voice.

“Tyler~”

A familiar voice.

“You know it’s your fault~”

I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t breathe.

The voice grew closer, humming a small song.

A pale figure.
Long, black hair.

Dull, green eyes.

As the figure grew closer, I could see all of the cut marks on her skin; some were still bleeding.

I was now face-to-face with her; she let out a devious smile as water dripped from her hair.

“You know it’s all your fault~”

Stop.

“If you hadn’t loved Michael, I wouldn’t have been dead.”

Stop…!

“It’s all your fault~”

Stop—!

“It’s all your fault, Tyler—”
“Marcia! STOP!”

A cold, wet hand clamped over my mouth; she was closer than before, those dull, green eyes staring into mine.

“Shh, baby boy. There’s no use in arguing. You know why I did what I did. It was all your fault~”

No.
No, it wasn’t.

“All your fault~”

I struggled with the hand against my mouth.

“All your—”
“ENOUGH!”

She stopped; her smile was gone, replaced by an angry stare.

I returned her stare, able to breathe again.

“I have had enough! You are gone, Marcia! You are nothing but ashes now! You are dead and gone, and you can no longer hurt me! I refuse to let you hurt me anymore! What you’ve done is your own fucking fault, and nothing you say or do will change that!”

She removed her hand from my mouth, raising it in the air as a threat to hit me.

“Go ahead. Do it. Let out whatever anger you have towards me, hoping that you can change my mind. That’s all you’ve ever done. Nothing will change, Marcia. My decision will not change. My love for Michael will not change. Your death will not change.”

I stepped towards her.

“It’s over, Marcia.”

She lowered her fist, her gaze not straying from mine.
She began to disappear as water rushed in and out of my lungs.

Once again, I couldn’t breathe.

“Tyler…!”

Rushing in and out.

“Come on, Tyler…! Don’t do this…!”

Rushing in and—

“Tyler!”

My eyes shot open as I began to cough and spit up water.
Everything was blurry, and I couldn’t make out who was calling my name.

“Tyler?!

My vision cleared, revealing a panic-stricken, crying Michael who was hovering over me.

“Can you hear me?!”
I nodded slowly; he let out a small sigh in relief.

“What the hell were you thinking…?! Why would you…?!”

More tears fell from his eyes.

“Why would you try to drown yourself?! You and I both know that this isn’t the answer!”
“I…I tried to drown myself…?”

But why would I?

I looked around, spotting a bottle of pills lying next to the bathtub and realizing what he was talking about.

“Michael, I…”
He was still crying.

I struggled to lift my hand up, but managed to do so and placed it on his cheek.

“I…I didn’t want to drown myself…I just wanted to sleep. You and I both know that I needed to, and I thought that a couple of pills would help.”

“So you thought that taking sleeping pills before sitting in a pool of warm water was a good idea?”
“Honestly…I wasn’t thinking.”

He pulled me into his arms, placing a hand on my head.

“Fucktard…I thought I was gonna lose you.”
“I know, I’m sorry.”

He pulled away, placing both of his hands on my cheeks.

“So, you’re not…?”
I shook my head before pressing my lips against his. He didn’t hesitate to return the gesture.

“I’m okay now, Michael.”
“Really…?”

Another kiss.

“Yeah. I love you, and everything is going to be okay.”
I gave him a small smile before hugging him.

“I love you too, but…promise me that you fucking won’t ever scare me like that again, okay? I really love you too much to lose you like that.”

Hearing that only made me smile more.

“I promise.”