The Infinite Cycle

CHAPTER — 2

(Narrative Max)

“ I am sorry Mr. and Mrs. Hudson, at this moment I can’t confirm or deny anything. Our doctors are doing their best but the situation looks grim”. The nurses were trying to calm my parents as best as they could. Tears were rolling down my mom’s eyes and my dad was trying his best to keep a poker face. Blake was sitting at the far end corner of the waiting area with hands over her head and Mrs. Anderson held her tightly. Mr. Anderson was at the front desk scanning through the bills and other various documents that were issued by the hospital. The whole scene was absolutely shocking.

The doctor came out of the operation theater with a grim expression on his face.

“ Mr. Hudson we did everything we could do but the damage was severe, a rod punctured his main artery and another two rods went straight through his heart. Currently, he’s under life support. I am so sorry”.

“ Isn’t there anything you can do…. heart transplant maybe…. “, my mom sobbed in a dazed state.

“ I am sorry Mrs. Hudson but there’s nothing we can do. It’s already a miracle that he still had a faint pulse even after two rods punctured his heart, that was how we could place him on life support. “

“ It’s okay doctor, when can we see him “. My dad spoke with his eyes red and voice choking. “ It’s alright Grace, everything will be okay now’s not the time to cry we have to say goodbye before he’s gone”. He consoled my mom.

My dad had held on a brave face up until he saw me lying lifeless. The slight whirring sound of life support was cut short by my parents’ cry. They sat with me for over an hour while Blake sat outside still shocked and her parents were trying to console my parents. All forms were filled and it was decided to take me off life support, that was when Blake slowly walked in the room.

“ Guys can you give me and Max a minute alone”.

“ Of course Blake”. My mom replied and then slowly left the room with my dad and Blake’s parents. Blake stood there staring at me for a moment and slowly pulled a chair and sat next to me.

“ If I could choose between ending world hunger or bringing you back I’d choose to bring you back in a heartbeat and I know you would do the same for me. If I knew our time together was this short I would have listened to your stupid theories and punched you some more”. She let off a wry smile. “ Looking back, the best decision I’ve ever made in my life was ten years ago when I decided to walk over to your seat and ask you why you were crying, little did I know from that day on you would become one of the most important people in my life. I wish I had paid attention to more of your new stupid theory. You will always be my best friend and brother for the rest of my life”. She choked after saying that and took a moment to calm herself. “ I always promised you I wouldn’t cry at your funeral if you ever had one before me, but now I don’t see myself keeping that promise.” With that, she left the room. I was taken off life support after their final goodbyes and the sound of the monitor flat-lining filled the silence of the room.

— — — —

Only my relatives and Blake’s family were present at my funeral, due to my increased unpopularity at school she was my best and only friend.

“ Thank you all for gathering here today”. Blake started her eulogy. “ Max has always been a weird guy, his thoughts were like that of an old person. When we were 10 years old he made me promise that if he ever died only I got to speak at his funeral and he also made me promise that I wouldn’t cry as according to him “ tears are for losers with low emotional quotient and a badass like you should never cry “ “. She let out a sob. “ Then I didn’t see myself breaking that promise but I have to apologize. He always talked about life and death, and what would happen when someone died and all, like a normal child I did not understand what he was talking about but now I guess he was not like any of us and was special in a way none of us understood”. My mom sitting at the front row gave a tearful smile. “The last thing he made me promise to do was to bring him a flower garland shaped in the symbol of infinity made out of white roses and a single red rose in the middle if he ever died, and that promise I will always keep. I have a million memories I wish I could share and another million more I wish I could make with him, but I want to keep it short and simple like him”. With that, she ended her eulogy and took out the specially designed flower garland and kept it at the head of my coffin.

The service ended and the small crowd started slowly trimming down. I was buried at our local cemetery, a tombstone was laid but nothing fancy with words etched into it “ Here lies Maximus, he who achieved transcendence “, Blake really came through and remembered to quote I wished that would be etched in my tombstone. My parents, Blake, and her family stayed there

for a little longer and after that they slowly left for home.

— — — — -

(Narrative Blake)

“Mom did I somehow ended up killing my best friend ”. Tears rolled down my eyes as the thought of the accident kept replaying in my mind over and over again like a bad nightmare.

“ No baby, don’t think like that. What happened was a pure accident nobody couldn’t have done anything in that situation, don’t think it’s your fault you will only hurt yourself more, Max wouldn’t want you to think like that”. My mom said in a concerned voice trying her best to console me.

“ But looking back wasn’t there anything I could have done to save him, oh God if I had done anything other than slamming the brakes, Max would have been with us right now. At least he would have gotten off with an injury rather than dying”. I sobbed.

“No Blake it wasn’t your fault you couldn’t have done anything differently at that time. There’s no good in regretting things that already happened in the past, what can now do is pray that Max ended up in a better place and move on “. Dad consoled me in a really logical way but as of right now my mental state was not ready to accept this logic. I mulled over different possible directions I could have swerved the car and this made me feel even guiltier.

— — — — —

A week had passed since the horrible accident that changed my life and I wasn’t doing any better. On the outside, I pretended to be normal so as to not make my parents worry but on the inside, I was boiling. I slept at 3 AM in the morning and woke up at 6 AM and went out to jog every day since the incident. I would sprint fast till I collapsed, sit and scream for a minute then get back up again and sprint till I collapsed. This was the only way I kept sane and could actually get and go to school without being a wreck, all my energy spent on being angry, frustrated, and depressed was taken up by my rigorous sprinting and this was proving to be the only way I could keep pushing myself.

It was Tuesday 2:28 AM and I was sitting in my bed staring blankly outside the window, the only working street light was flickering and was imitating the flash of a photographer. I looked back into my closet and immediately regretted it as memories of Max and me hiding in the closet from my mom after we stole the candy kept to distribute during Halloween flooded my mind. A tear rolled down my eye.

It was then I noticed something, blue light was seeping out under the small slit of my closet door. I immediately panicked but didn’t scream, I swiftly reached out to the baseball bat I kept at the bedside, stood up on the bed holding the bat at a striking position ready to smack the crap outta anything that crept out of my closet. The blue light slowly faded and I heard the faint ruffling of my neatly hanged hoodies.

“ Don’t hit me with that stupid baseball bat if you are awake and if you are not then well you didn’t hear me then”. A voice whispered.

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