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\n :iconErythWolf: and I both greatly appreciate your comments and reviews. It's a shorter chapter today, sorry

\n I couldn't move. Call me a drama queen or whatever, I don't care, but I honestly couldn't move. I'm sure it was a combination of getting the shit beaten out of me by those two, the fever, and dehydration, but it was excruciating. My head was completely sore and I felt like shit. I'm sure I looked like it too. I put an arm over my eyes to block the sun out from my eyes, but it was difficult. My arms and legs were entirely deadweight. The immobility was the worst. Feeling the sun continue to beat through my fur and slowly eat away at my body. But when Isaac gave me the water, I was oddly comforted. It was wonderful to be close to him.

\n The water was nice too.

\n I was a fool to think I didn't need it. I'm just lucky Isaac was there to save me or I'd probably be dead. How like me- try to be the hero, and wind up the victim. As I moved my other arm over my head, I felt an extraordinary strain on my torso.

\n "Fuck," I muttered under my breath. That was most definitely a cracked rib. Son of a bitch. After a brief but pleasant silence, Isaac snapped. I guess he finally saw the blood on his hands. He always was scared of blood, but I had no idea how bad it was. His screams hurt my ears. It hurt me deep inside to know that he was under distress because of me, but more than anything, I thought how reckless he was.

\n "What the hell were you thinking?" I yelled, his tirade over.

\n "What do you mean?" Isaac said, partially glaring at me.

\n "I mean, what the fuck is your deal? You could have been killed!" I screamed. I wasn't worth it. He killed himself once over me... I wasn't going to let it happen again. I continued yelling, I don't remember all of it, I just yelled my fears and anger -- the frustration leaving my body in a soothing manner.

\n Then it was Isaac's turn.

\n "You stupid, selfish, bastard!" he yelled. "This is all your fault!"

\n I stood, wobbling in pain, and screamed back. "What do you mean my fault?"

\n "I'm saying if you hadn't been such a dumbass, this wouldn't have happened! Why couldn't you have just taken a drink from the damn flask?"

\n I was stunned. I was thinking of him, and he called me selfish? "I actually did something nice! Even before all this happened, you told me to be less selfish, and now that I am, you yell at me for it?"

\n "Don't even try and pull that on me. If you had just drinking the flask, you wouldn't have gotten that fever, and we could have outran them!"

\n "How dare you try and blame this on me. I saved your ass!"

\n "After you made me kill myself!" His words stung, but I wasn't going to let him beat me into submission.

\n "Don't say that your death was my fault, your life is in your own hands!"

\n "But it's all your fault! You dumbass! I loved you!" That stung most of all. Hearing what I so wanted to hear back then... but it was 'loved' not 'love.'

\n "I told you before it--"

\n Isaac wasn't having any of it. He pushed me back so hard I fell into the sand."I'm not speaking to you anymore. You can die out here for all I care." He stormed off, not even bothering to take the bag with him. He left, but I wasn't going to let him go like that.

\n "Hey, asshole, I'm not done with you," I cried at his back, I stood, picking up the bag and ran after him, through the intensive pain.

\n "You can go to hell." He said, calmly and detached.

\n "I'm already there."

\n "You don't know the meaning of hell! Hell is watching the man you love tell you that he wants you dead. Hell is becoming hated by the people you cared most about in the world. Hell is what you did to me. You put me through hell!" His screams echoed in my ears and shook me to the very core of my being. "Jason..." he trailed off and I was expecting more hate to flow from his mouth, but instead came a loud sigh.

\n We stood in awkward silence looking at each other's feet. Neither one brave enough to face each other and see the pain in the eyes. The lion's feet looked dirtied by all the sand and they almost shook with what I can only imagine to be sheer rage. His tail whipped around in angry swipes that only his best friend could recognize.

\n "Isaac..." I whispered, my voice cracking. He looked up at me and sighed.

\n "Why did this happen to us, Jase? We were the best of friends..."

\n "You left... before I had the chance to make amends for what I did."

\n The silence permeated between us as the sun slowly left the blue and cloudless sky. The soundless void of the desert reflected on the silence of my mind. I had no thoughts. No words. Nothing to describe the torture of being with him. I loved him so much it hurt. Just like I hurt him.

\n The setting sun's light ebbed and flowed as the sky turned red and stained with the sins of those damned in this place. My mind's eye had pictured something similar. I remember seeing many sunsets like this when I went on vacation with my family. Hawaii was perfect with golden skies that my dad loved to walk under. We would walk and talk, laughing at the events of the day as we talked life and death. Nothing and everything came out of our mouths with such a freedom that was never so clear to me before. The quiet plodding of our feet through the smooth sand. But it wasn't anything like the sand here...

\n Nothing is quite the same here.

\n But what I remember most about the vacation was the closeness I felt with my dad. It wasn't something we had ever again. Life just got too hectic. School was constantly beating at my back, and applying for colleges was total hell. His job pushed him away from me and he never realized it. I'd ask to go for a walk with him, like we used to, and he never could respond. His fatigue was absolute. And he lost his son with that. There wasn't much he could do to stop it. He did this to himself. He pushed me away.

\n Isaac sighed and sat down, drawing in the sand. Quietly and with hesitation, I walked to him, sitting down to draw with him.

\n I opened my mouth to speak, "Remember that time during the pep assembly last year, we played mad-libs on my iPod and you kept typing dirty things and those blonds behind us thought we were nuts?"

\n "And then when they tried to talk shit about us," Isaac started, a smile growing on his face, "you tore through them and hit their insecurities." He was full out laughing then, and looking at me with the same familiarity of our friendship. "I'm surprised they didn't cry."

\n I smirked and gave Isaac a light push, "I don't regret it. No one talks shit about my best friend and gets away with it."

\n Isaac smiled and rested his head on my shoulder for just a few seconds before catching himself and turning around from me. "But then you had to go and wreck the whole thing... like an ass," he said.

\n I bit my lip silently and cleared my throat, feeling bile fill my mouth. I coughed some brown-green fluid into the sand and clutched at my sides. "Fuck." I mumbled. Isaac looked over at me and sighed.

\n "Why am I always taking care of you?" he moved slightly away from me and looked on, making sure I was alright.

\n "It's not like I ask for i-" My train of thought was cut short by the familiar feeling of vomit filling my throat. As it spilled onto the sand, Isaac walked over to the bag and pulled out the canteen.

\n "You're gonna need this in a second," he said, walking back and sitting down next to me. I couldn't nod, but he knew I wasn't going to question his judgment. This wasn't the first time he's helped me through a fit of vomiting. My sophomore year, I was sick from a party, and I went to his house, completely drunk when I knew his parents were out of town.

\n "Hey, Izzy," I slurred.

\n "Jase, what're you..." His tone changed as soon as he got a wiff of the overpowering stench on me. "How much did you drink?"

\n "Um... about... thre-four... was it five? Yeah, five glasses." I said, half-stumbling into his arms.

\n "Shit, c'mon, let's get you into the bathroom." He said. I nodded and leaned against him as we made our way to the bathroom where I didn't even hesitate to throw up.

\n That night was long, silent, and painful. He was kind enough to put up with me when I was far from coherent and I always remained in his debt because of it.

\n "Do you remember when you stumbled into my house, drunk, Freshman year?" Isaac shook me from my flashback. I coughed, and felt a phantom pain in my throat, one I'd probably never forget after the wreck...

\n I nodded and wiped my maw with a hand. "I was just thinking of that..." I stood, feeling much better, and took the canteen from Isaac, taking a large swig, letting the tepid liquid cool my throat. "I can't sleep near that..." I said with a weak smile. Isaac nodded and and picked up the bag, moving about fifty feet away before plopping down. Laying in the sand, I sighed contentedly in the dusk's light.

\n "Night, Isaac," I said in a low voice. I felt his mane gently rest on my stomach and gently drape an arm over his chest as he whispered,

\n "Night, Jason."

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