“Just let me die,” Phantom sobs, their words barely discernible. “Echo, please. Just let me do it this time. Let my sentence be over. Let mego!”
Every instinct in my body tells me to stay where I am, on the cold floor of this bathroom. But that’s not what my body does. It stands, and I watch in awe as my hand turns the door handle, like an out-of-body experience. I can’t hear anything over the ringing in my ears as I throw the door open and run. The exit is on my left, but I run straight. Straight toward one of the most dangerous, broken, and pained souls I’ve ever met.
Maybe they don’t deserve salvation for the crimes they’ve committed. Or maybe they do. I have no right to make that decision. There’s only one decision I can make in this moment. To preserve a life. And fight like hell against Phantom’s demons.
“Phantom,” I scream, my legs and arms pumping.
The room is destroyed. The wall of shelving that held hundreds of painting supplies has crashed to the floor and thick splashes of paint now cover every surface in the room: floor, walls, ceiling, and windows, like the inside of a kaleidoscope. Phantom’s large neon sign lies broken on the floor in a puddle of fractured glass, the flickering neon light casting grotesque, orange-hued shadows like a raging fire. Our canvas is ruined, newly covered in large splotches of dark paint, but I don’t care about any of it.
I slam into Phantom’s back, wrapping my arms around theirs. They’re on their knees with their head in their hands, sobs racking their body so violently they’re struggling to breathe.
“Don’t touch me,” they wail, knocking me off them. I fall hard to the floor. My elbow throbs, but I jump right back up, wrapping myself around them again.
“Get the fuck off!”
“No!”
“Get off!” I fall again. Get up again. And embrace them again.
They sob harder. “I’ll ruin you. Like I ruin everything. Echo’s right. She’s always been right.”
“I don’t care.”
They shake their head, but I can barely register it over the trembling of their body. “Why not?”
“Because you don’t see what I see, Phantom. You don’t see it. And youfuckingshould. This life you’ve led... it’s not fair.”
They relax slightly beneath my grip and turn their head to peer at me over their shoulder. Inflammation rims their eyes red; a martyrial fire raging in their depths.
“You didn’t ask for any of this, Phantom. You might’ve done bad things. Terrible, unforgivable things. But you regret them. You regret them so much your brain conjured up a ghost to haunt you.” I take a deep, shaky breath, leaning my head against their upper back. “You weren’t born a monster. You were molded into one. And now you torture yourself for it.” They release another shuddering sob. “There’s still time to make different choices. Time to repent, to make amends. Time to banish the demons and slay the monster.”
They wilt beneath my words.
“You’ve been so strong,” I whisper. “If you’ll let me, I can help you. We can do it together.”
They turn and I let them go, my arms dropping heavily to my sides.
“Why? You should be cursing me and running for your life. Why are you still here?”
Their broken gaze is blue and green. The colors of truth and life. My favorite colors.
“You were my inspiration, my friend, my partner, and you deceived me,” I whisper, raising my hand to their cheek. Fear flashes across their face. “I gave you my heart.”
Fresh tears fall, soaking their mask.
“Now it’s time to give me yours.” I take the soft cotton fabric between my fingers and pull.
I don’t flinch as Phantom’s mask falls to the floor, and even though I take in the mutilated scar tissue around their mouth, I never look away from those eyes.
“You tried to kill yourself.” It’s not a question.
They nod, their expression so ashamed it hurts me.
Already afraid of the answer, I ask quietly, “How?”
“The first time, I tried the same way I killed Echo, but my grandmother noticed the symptoms too early.” I flinch, horror crystalizing the blood in my veins. “The second time I used something I thought would be stronger. Turpentine. But Echo made me throw it up the second I swallowed it. It left blisters and burns, and I was in the hospital for a week.”
I grab their face and hold it tenderly between my hands, my fingers grazing the edges of their ruined skin.
