To Kill a Cactus - The Beginning of the End part 3

The Beginning of The End part 2: HERE

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The ground was cold beneath me, I opened my swollen eyes, but all I could see was a wall of grey fog. I was aching all over as if I was covered in bruises, but I didn't know where I got them. Everything was a blur inside my head. 

The moment Christopher died, I felt something in me die as well. A wave of emotions hit me every now and then, I could see his eyes looking at me, his hand in mine, the cold feeling in my palm. I looked back down at the pattern of dark lines in the centre of my palm, I didn't know what they meant and I was lacking the motivation to find out. I knew I should've at least tried, but at the time being all I could do is lay on the stone floor of my personal prison cell.

I didn't remember how I got there, I barely remember someone lifting me up and then there was nothing, maybe they drugged me, maybe they knocked me out, I didn't know, but when I opened my eyes I was there.

The thing about dying is that it sucks. It sucks for everyone who cared about the person and it probably isn't all that great for the deceased either. At least it was fast, was all I could say to myself, Christopher didn't have to suffer, he seemed to have welcomed death so easily. A part of me wished I could've done the same, I felt like I had outlived my days already, I wasn't supposed to survive the day of my escape and now faith was punishing me. The only thing that kept me going was the fear of hurting others. I would've rather suffered than make others suffer, but in the end, everyone suffered anyway, so what was the point.

I kept arguing with myself inside my head, not moving, barely breathing. I was so confused, it took me far too long to realise that the answer was right in front of my eyes. Christopher's plan, it was all going as he intended, I just couldn't see it, I was too blinded by the pain.

After what seemed like an eternity of lying on my side on the stone floor, I rolled over to my back. My heart felt so heavy in my chest, I thought it was going to suffocate me. I looked at the ceiling, all of its greyness, the little cobweb in the corner, the crack running from one edge of the wall to the nearest corner. 

A spider was walking across the ceiling, he seemed almost possessed, walking back and forth, beginning and ending his journey in his web. I could've sworn he was looking down at me and judging me, pitying me. I closed my eyes for a moment and as soon as I opened them, the spider started its journey again. I looked at it's quick movement to the right then the soft curve to the left and the realisation hit me. I looked at my palm and then the spider. The pattern was exactly the same. The spider finally stopped and crawled back to its web.

I slowly got up, my legs felt weak underneath me and I was trembling all the way to the spider, I reached out to him and he crawled right to the centre of my palm. He melted into my skin the same way Christopher had melted something to my palm moment before he died.

I gasped, a wave of wind lifted me up and brought new life to me. I knew what I had to do now.

...

To Be Continued