Unintentional

In certain circumstances, small mistakes can become big ones. Carelessness from one point of view can be malice from another. Not much you can do about how others interpret your actions, though.

. . . . .

Robin watched in horror as her two former companions appeared again. They looked to be in even worse condition. James’s hair was falling out, vines crawled visibly under his skin, his cheeks were gaunt, and one of his eyes had a popped vessel, turning the entire sclera red.

Gloria had lost any of the kindness she’d previously shown. Frothy whiteness dripped from the corner of her mouth, her eyes stared off in different directions, and she was constantly twitching. “I’m so sorry,” Robin thought. “I’m sorry you’re like that when I’m… when I got so lucky…” This might’ve been her if she’d gone to investigate that vine creature with them. As it was, she’d gotten the parasite almost a day after them, and that gave her the time to find a way to fight it.

Well, Graham had found out how to fight it, but he’d only taken her in because she’d still had her sanity. “What would they think of me for abandoning them like that?” As soon as she had a chance to work with people who weren’t going insane, she’d abandoned the two. How could she not realize what a terrible thing to do that was? She’d spat in the face of the goodwill Gloria had shown her.

They attacked and she couldn’t move. Graham stepped in front of her, getting tackled by James. With Graham out of the way, Gloria was free to aim for her. Robin’s eyes widened. “No, please! I’m sorry! Don’t attack!”

She cringed away with a hand on her arm, too afraid to fight back. “What if the vine tries to kill her, too? I don’t want to hurt anyone!” The attack from Gloria didn’t come. Just as before, Orion had restrained her without too much problem. He had her flat on the ground with a knee to her back and her arms pulled behind her.

Robin sighed, putting a hand to her chest. She checked on Graham, just in time to see James flying away and Graham flip in the air, landing on his feet. Her jaw fell. “Wha—? How did he…?” Graham had just displayed some kind of acrobatics she’d never known he could do.

He began laughing, a hearty laugh from the diaphragm. It was like he was really enjoying himself. But that couldn’t be. They’d just been attacked. What was fun about that? Orion didn’t seem to be having fun, either.

“Ah man, did you guys see that? That was really incredible,” Graham said.

Orion frowned. “Yeah, I saw. Was that really necessary?”

Robin nodded. It really did seem like overkill. Her eyes widened and she looked to where James had fallen, a score in the dirt leading up to him. He wasn’t moving.

“Ah, come on! I just wanted to see if I could do it. It was like I was in one of those kung-fu movies, right?”

Robin ran to James’ side, feeling for a pulse. Vines slipped out of the neck of his shirt, grasping for her hand, but they lacked strength. James didn’t have a pulse. Robin tried to stand, but her legs gave out halfway and she fell back, scooting as far from James as she could. Her stomach turned more than a stormy sea.

She couldn’t keep it down and curled on her side to vomit. “James. A man that I met just a few days ago. He’s dead.” He hadn’t been her friend. Hell, she’d barely known him. But their brief companionship created a small connecting thread between them, and now it was severed permanently. A man’s life had ended because Graham wanted to show off his new prowess.

In an instant, all the doubts she’d felt about him before returned tenfold. Was Graham really the kind and caring person she thought he was? Had she been deceived, again? For all she knew, he could be a monster in a man’s skin! Stranger things had happened. Recently.

Her eyes stung with tears as she looked up. “You killed him!” she shouted. How could Graham be so careless? He’d fought Gloria before and knew she wasn’t much stronger than a normal person. Being infected by the vine hadn’t made them any more powerful. Yet, he’d gone out of his way to cause a tremendous amount of damage, kicking James so hard that the landing killed him!

Graham looked like a deer in the headlights. Maybe he hadn’t meant to do it, but that kind of carelessness… She thought he was better than that.

She wiped her mouth and stood. “You… you actually…” A stream of tears rolled down her cheek. Her eyes became steely and she fixed Graham with a glare. “What is wrong with you!?” She couldn’t bear to look at him anymore. She stalked off into the woods.

Graham stared at the body of James, a hand fisted in his hair. “I didn’t… I never thought he’d die!” he told himself. “I just wanted to… to test my strength is all. What’s so bad about that? It’s not like I knew this would happen.”

But, rationalize as he might, there was no changing it. He’d killed a man. Sure, that man had attacked him first, but he wasn’t in his right mind. It felt like someone had buried a lump of lead in his gut and it just sat there, weighing on him. He looked to Orion, who was still restraining Gloria.

“Hey, you know that was an accident, right? I didn’t do that on purpose. You know that.”

Orion sighed. “No, Graham. I don’t think you’re the type that kills people on purpose. I do think you’re an idiot. And careless. But you’re not a bad person.” He glanced off into the trees. “It seems Robin isn’t so sure, though.”

Graham pursed his lips and nodded. “Do you think you could go after her? It’s probably not a good idea for her to be alone out here.”

Orion tilted his head. “What about her?” He gestured to Gloria. “I can’t just let her go. She’ll attack us again.”

Graham put his hands on his hips. “I’ll take her to the tower. She’ll be safer in there than out here. And…” He looked at James. “I need to dig a grave, too.” He shrugged. “Give me an hour or two before you come back, alright?”

Orion nodded and let Graham take over restraining her. She wasn’t struggling much anymore, likely too tired to continue. They couldn’t really restrain her, as the only rope-like things they had were vines and it didn’t seem like a good idea to trust them to keep her tied. She might find some way to undo them with her own vines.

Graham marched her to the tower and opened it the same way he had before. He pushed her in, stopping in the doorway. “If I go any further, I might get trapped in here again.”

She turned and snarled at him, but she didn’t attack. Her eyes flicked around, her arms up at the ready so that she could attack if she wanted to.

Graham smirked. “I guess she knows she can’t beat me. So she’s still capable of learning?” That might be a good sign. Graham actually wanted to do something to help Gloria. Maybe it would make up for killing James. If only a little bit. But, if he could help Gloria return to how she was, Robin might forgive him for what he did. The memory of the way she looked at him before twisted in him. A mixture of pain and regret that he’d be happy to get rid of, by any means.

“If you can understand me then listen up. There are things in this tower that can help you. Maybe you’ll be able to get rid of that parasite, too.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out the scripture he’d retrieved from Orion. “I’ll even give you this. You’ll probably make better use of it than us.” Robin and Orion would be able to figure out how to circulate without it. It just took a bit of practice and they had him to help them.

Plus… it’d give him a good reason to talk to Robin. If he was going to apologize and actually be heard, he needed some way to make her listen. This was what he came up with.

He tossed the scripture in and backed out of the doorway. “Good luck.” The stone shifted and the entrance disappeared. “Now all that’s left is digging a grave. I don’t have a shovel or anything, though. This is gonna be tough.”

There was little choice but to use his hands, which wasn’t an attractive proposition. He shook his head. It couldn’t be helped. He’d brought this on himself. “I need to be more aware of the damage I can do. I can’t carelessly use Qi to fight other people.”

He returned to where they’d been attacked, intending to dig the grave there to save him the time and effort of dragging James elsewhere. However, something had changed. The area where James had been was completely overgrown with leaves and vines. They were growing at a visible pace.

“What the hell is happening?” A writhing mass stood right where James had been, twisting, pulling, and very dense. Was James at the center of that? “So James died but the vine didn’t. I don’t get what’s happening, but it can’t be good!”

The growth stopped spreading, leaving a several meter wide patch of dark green vegetation, as tall as a man and too thick to see through. And at the center of it all was an even taller lump of twisted vines.

Graham’s eyes widened. “Is this how it reproduces? Infect people or animals and when they die a new plant grows from their body? Shit, if I leave that alone, someone else might get caught by it. But how can I deal with that massive plant?”

This wasn’t something circulation would solve. What would punching that thing do? There was no way he could generate enough force to cause any real damage. And it’d put him at risk of being infected with a parasite. Fire might do the trick, but he didn’t have access to any.

Vines started reaching out for him, the vines at the center mass pulsing faster like a beating heart. Graham hopped away and took more distance, but they followed. “Dammit! I need to get out of here. There’s nothing I can do about this thing. I just hope Orion and Robin are far enough away. I really don’t want Robin to figure out what happened to James.”

He took off in the direction he remembered Robin heading in. “I hope I can find them again.” He’d been intending to wait back there until Orion brought Robin back, but that wasn’t an option anymore.

As he ran, he noticed marks on some of the trees. “Oh, I see. Orion marked his path. Smart.” By following the scratches in the trees, he managed to spot them. He stopped before they noticed him, observing. Robin might not be ready to see him yet and the vines didn’t seem to reach here, so there wasn’t a hurry. Barging in now might just make things worse.

Robin sat at the base of a tree, her arms huddled around her knees. Orion stood against a tree a few meters away. They weren’t talking or anything. “Has she calmed down? I hope so. I hope Orion didn’t say something that actually made her angrier.” He frowned. “He can be a bit blunt…”

After a while, Robin stood and said something to Orion. “Good. Maybe she’s calmed down some.”

Graham joined up with the other two. Orion ran a hand through his hair and gave him an apologetic smile. Robin trembled upon seeing him, her eyes dark. “Crap, she’s still mad.” He braced himself. “Well, if she’s gonna yell at me, so be it. I deserve it, at this point.”

She grabbed one arm to steady both, gripping tight. “I hate to ask this, Graham, but did you… steal James’s shoes?” she asked, her voice quiet.

Graham tensed up. That had to be the last thing he wanted her to find out. Not only had he killed the guy, he’d done it while wearing his shoes. It was such an inane detail, but there wasn’t any way he could pass it off as an accident. It was a deliberate act and she knew it. His eyes flicked to Orion, who looked away, his arms crossed protectively around his chest. He even had a hand around the shield charm he’d gotten from the last room.

“Does he think I’m gonna attack him? It’s more likely I’ll be the one attacked.” Because there was no way to deny he’d stolen a dead man’s shoes. So, he nodded.

Robin began trembling again, hugging herself with both arms. “I-I-I can’t be-believe you!” she ground out between clenched teeth. “How could you do something like that and then pretend like everything was okay?!” She took a breath to calm down. “You lied to me. You lied right to my face, for nearly the entire time I knew you.”

Graham pinched the bridge of his nose. “I did what I needed to. I was missing a shoe and it hindered me considerably. I needed new shoes, so I took them from someone who tried to rob me—who might’ve killed me if given the chance!”

“He wasn’t even sane! The parasite was controlling him!”

Orion blinked, unfolding his arms. “Hey, what—”

“What does that matter?!” Graham said. “He tried to rob me and take my last healing fruit, which is much more valuable than a fucking pair of shoes! It was just compensation for inconveniencing me!”

“You stole shoes from a dead man!” Robin shouted, taking a step forward and sticking a finger in his face. “That’s just… it’s despicable!”

Graham snarled. “He wasn’t dead when I took them! And I never meant to kill him. I’ve never even considered killing anyone! It was an accident. I underestimated my own strength. It could’ve happened to anyone!”

“So stealing from a mentally deranged man is supposed to be somehow better than robbing a corpse?! How can you be trying to justify yourself right now?”

Graham grit his teeth. “Because…” He threw his hand to the side. “I’m not in the wrong, here! I did what I needed to do to survive and I don’t regret the actions I took. Even if it led to a result that I didn’t like, at least it kept me alive! If I didn’t have these shoes, I probably would’ve died in the first goddamn room!”

Robin faltered, taking a step back. She narrowed her eyes. “Even so, there had to be another way. You can’t just take what you need like that. It’s awful!”

“I didn’t want to do it, but there wasn’t much choice. My life is my number one priority, and if someone that I don’t know—someone that attacked me—ends up dying because of my actions… I’ll just have to live with that. But I can only do that if I fucking live in the first place!”

Robin shook her head, tears in her eyes. “There’s no talking with you. Why can’t you understand that you’re wrong! What you did is wrong! You can’t honestly believe this was all for the best!”

Graham rubbed his face. “I never said it was for the best. I said I don’t regret what I did. Only how it turned out.” He clenched his fists. “I don’t even get why you’re so upset. You said you hardly even knew James. It’s not like I killed Gloria. She’s just fine. Can’t we just let this go?”

Robin’s jaw fell. “Let it go?” Her eyes narrowed. “So, you just want to forget about it? I can’t believe you!” She marched up, her hand reeling back, palm open. Graham spread his feet, readying himself.

Robin swung… and Orion caught her arm. “That’s enough!” He looked back and forth between them, a small frown on his face. “This isn’t the time or the place. You can go at each other all you want once we get out of here, but not now!”

Robin let her arm go limp, biting her lip. Graham relaxed his stance, rubbing his neck.

Orion narrowed his eyes. “We’re all under a lot of stress, but we have to work together. If the two of you can’t do that, then I’m leaving.” He looked at Graham. “Which way is the bog?”

Graham pointed it out for him.

Orion nodded. “Walk in front.” He turned to Robin. “Walk behind me.”

And so, they proceeded in single file, Orion blocking each other from view.

The bog spread out before them in all its sopping, muddy, stinky glory. And it stank. “What is that? Sulfur? This gas is awful,” Graham thought. It bubbled up out of the muddy pools of water and filled the air with shimmers. That must be what he saw from the hill and from up in the tree.

Robin pressed her sleeve to her nose. “Do we really have to go through here?” she said through the fabric. “Can’t we go around or something?”

Orion pressed forward, getting his feet wet in the muddy path. “That’d just waste time. The exit’s right there. Let’s get to it.”

Robin cringed as she watched his feet squelch in the mud, sinking up to his ankles. She turned to Graham and her eyes hardened. She entered the bog.

Graham sighed and followed. “Everything’s really gone to shit.” Looking at Robin made his chest hurt. Just hours ago and they’d been good friends, comrades in this hostile place. Now, she hated his guts and he couldn’t really blame her.

He still didn’t regret stealing those shoes, and he wasn’t about to pretend he did for her benefit. She wouldn’t accept that anyway and if she found out he was faking it, she’d just become angrier.

“If I could just rewind time so I didn’t kill James, everything would be fine.” It was strange. He’d taken a life but didn’t really feel like that was the case. When James had died, he was already thoroughly corrupted by the parasite. He was more like an animal than a man. Is that why it didn’t feel real to Graham?

His foot got stuck in some deeper mud and he cursed at the offending goop. “Dammit! At this rate, I’ll lose the shoes that cause me all this trouble in the first place. I bet Robin would get a kick out of that!” He winced and shook his head. That wasn’t true. Robin wasn’t the sort to laugh at others’ misfortune. Even if she hated them.

He looked up and his eyes widened. “Crap, they’re actually pretty far ahead.” With a heave, he pulled out his foot and tried to catch up. “Hey, wait up!” he called.

The ground rumbled, putting them all off balance. A bulge formed in the distance, mud rising up to meet the sky. Slowly, it took shape, mud sloughing off in glops. As the mud fell, it revealed what had lain underneath. Scales or plates of some kind, yellowish brown.

Then, the massive shape opened its mouth and roared, foul air bursting through teeth like stalagmites. It was a tremendous lizard. It snapped its gaping maw shut, teeth scraping and making sparks. The air ignited.