The Dead Who Are Immortal
Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2019 11:53 pm
It was now July. Chen spent more of July outside his room, though mostly in the living room. Mom seemed overjoyed to tears by him coming down and having dinner with the family like a proper son again, and it was such a strange thing to be tearful over to him- she still saw him at meal times, he merely did not stay in her sight. Or was it Mom that left Chen's sight? Irrelevant, he dismissed.
Today, like most days, he ate his dinner quickly. Dad complimented Mom on her cooking, and she smiled. How nice it must have been for something that simple to make one smile. Chen wished that could happen to him, too. He thanked Mom for dinner, and scurried upstairs, back to his room, and back to his computer, not that there was much on the internet he wanted to address. He noticed that he had a couple of notifications on Discord- 3 different people DM'd him, all of them classmates.
Looking at the first two, they weren't much special. Jackie was organizing a game night, and Chen was one of those invited to a night of games and mountain dew (read: have them all play super smash bros and all get beaten by her little brother). Then there was Matt, who was trying to get the anime club members in the past year to go see that movie with Ant Man and some other hero he never heard of.
His peers erroneously assumed his lack of self-inflicted confinement to his room meant a sudden interest in their own activities. They were idiots and morons who couldn't realize that no matter what console first person shooters they played together, no matter which distractingly loud and flashy action movies they showed him, they could not bring Meilin back.
Meilin would not be sitting on the sofa next to them, stuffing her face with cheetos, fumbling the controls and accidentally shooting Chen's character in the head. She would not be at the movie-refreshments-thing stand with them dropping loose quarters everywhere and apologizing to the cashier as she picked them up.
No matter how many times he peeked through into her room, she would not be at her laptop, typing away, muttering something to herself, only stopping to check the notebook laid open beside her, or to sip from a can of cream soda.
She'd never do those things again. Yet everyone seemed to assume Chen's grief was simply because she was a victim. If that was the case, he'd lose sleep every night grieving for every victim of survival of the fittest. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, among those victims, there was nothing about Meilin's case in particular that made her special in it.
As horrific as it was, it was not her suffering. It was the fingerprints she left all over the neighborhood, that would not be touched by her again, and the ones she did leave would eventually fade away.
He shook his head, snapping himself out of his thoughts, to respond to those messages.
If Matt wanted to call him a dick, so be it.
Now, there was one that he'd seen, but it was a rather generic message from the twin brother of one of his friends. While his friend Maya was a perfectly decent human being, he couldn't care less about her brother Samson. He seemed like a blustering idiot, and to boot, somebody whose words belonged on the front page of r/iamverysmart.
He supposed he was a bit curious about the sudden outreach, so he responded.
Then he uploaded a file. A video, by the looks of it. His previous message already put Chen in a defensive mood. How dare he?
Barely able to see the screen through his enraged tears, he somehow managed to block the bastard. He angrily shut the the laptop so that it was now folded, and placed his elbows on its surface, burying his face in his hands.
The more rational part of him was constantly nagging to go tell Maya. Call her, text her, whatever.
But he'd never be able to tell her anything. He was hardly able to breathe.
"Chen?" Dad's familiar voice was on the other side of the door. "Are you okay?"
Chen did not speak. He uselessly shook his head.
Today, like most days, he ate his dinner quickly. Dad complimented Mom on her cooking, and she smiled. How nice it must have been for something that simple to make one smile. Chen wished that could happen to him, too. He thanked Mom for dinner, and scurried upstairs, back to his room, and back to his computer, not that there was much on the internet he wanted to address. He noticed that he had a couple of notifications on Discord- 3 different people DM'd him, all of them classmates.
Looking at the first two, they weren't much special. Jackie was organizing a game night, and Chen was one of those invited to a night of games and mountain dew (read: have them all play super smash bros and all get beaten by her little brother). Then there was Matt, who was trying to get the anime club members in the past year to go see that movie with Ant Man and some other hero he never heard of.
His peers erroneously assumed his lack of self-inflicted confinement to his room meant a sudden interest in their own activities. They were idiots and morons who couldn't realize that no matter what console first person shooters they played together, no matter which distractingly loud and flashy action movies they showed him, they could not bring Meilin back.
Meilin would not be sitting on the sofa next to them, stuffing her face with cheetos, fumbling the controls and accidentally shooting Chen's character in the head. She would not be at the movie-refreshments-thing stand with them dropping loose quarters everywhere and apologizing to the cashier as she picked them up.
No matter how many times he peeked through into her room, she would not be at her laptop, typing away, muttering something to herself, only stopping to check the notebook laid open beside her, or to sip from a can of cream soda.
She'd never do those things again. Yet everyone seemed to assume Chen's grief was simply because she was a victim. If that was the case, he'd lose sleep every night grieving for every victim of survival of the fittest. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, among those victims, there was nothing about Meilin's case in particular that made her special in it.
As horrific as it was, it was not her suffering. It was the fingerprints she left all over the neighborhood, that would not be touched by her again, and the ones she did leave would eventually fade away.
He shook his head, snapping himself out of his thoughts, to respond to those messages.
If Matt wanted to call him a dick, so be it.
Now, there was one that he'd seen, but it was a rather generic message from the twin brother of one of his friends. While his friend Maya was a perfectly decent human being, he couldn't care less about her brother Samson. He seemed like a blustering idiot, and to boot, somebody whose words belonged on the front page of r/iamverysmart.
He supposed he was a bit curious about the sudden outreach, so he responded.
Then he uploaded a file. A video, by the looks of it. His previous message already put Chen in a defensive mood. How dare he?
Barely able to see the screen through his enraged tears, he somehow managed to block the bastard. He angrily shut the the laptop so that it was now folded, and placed his elbows on its surface, burying his face in his hands.
The more rational part of him was constantly nagging to go tell Maya. Call her, text her, whatever.
But he'd never be able to tell her anything. He was hardly able to breathe.
"Chen?" Dad's familiar voice was on the other side of the door. "Are you okay?"
Chen did not speak. He uselessly shook his head.