1

     My hand found its way to my face as I sighed heavily. “No, Mike,” I mumbled, letting go of my face as I pointed hard at the numbers on the page. “Four multiplied by seven isn’t 25,” I said, looking down at him as his tiny orbs stared up at me in wonder. “It’s 28,” I finished, trying my damn hardest to keep my tone sweet and my volume down. As much as I hated doing this, I also hated losing my patience with him. It wasn’t his fault.
     As his eyes continued to search mine in confusion, I felt my heart break slightly. “W-What? Millicent...” he mumbled, his own voice quiet. The shyness was obvious in him; he was always like that. He even seemed slightly embarrassed at the fact that he couldn’t figure out the answer himself, and I sighed gently.
     “Oh, you’ll get it. Don’t worry, Mikey,” I continued, before biting my bottom lip and extracting the hand that was pointing to his math sheet to bring it up to his head. “Hold on, I have to go to the washroom, ‘kay?” I asked quietly, ruffling his hair with a toothy grin. When he returned it, I pushed myself up from the emerald-colored couch and walked slowly in the direction I knew the bathroom to be.
     Finally reaching the bathroom, I let out a heavy sigh before entering it, the sterile floor gleaming up at me. Closing the door and sighing once more, I leaned my back against the big wooden door, before reaching into my jeans pocket.
     Damn it. I must have left my razor back at home, or in my backpack. I made a mental note to find it as soon as I had the chance. I guess my pocket knife will have to do, I whispered in my head. Swiftly sliding my hand into the pocket on the front of my sweater, I let my fingers wrap around the cool, metal object.
     Pulling it out, I carefully flipped open the silver piece of heaven. Rolling up my sleeve, I inhaled slowly, the oxygen suddenly feeling heavy in my filling lungs. Pressing the tip of the knife against my skin, I knew it wouldn’t do much with a weak little pull.
     So, in an attempt to feel the way I always really want to, I yanked the metal hard in the opposite direction of the way I put it in. My skin split instantly, the warm liquid gushing out from inside of me, the blue tint immediately glowing a deep red.
     The air I didn’t even realize I had been holding exited my chapped lips in a hard wine, my eyes squeezing shut in pain. I had always been careful of where I cut, but I probably should have paid a little bit more attention this time.
     Unbeknownst to me, I had sliced the big vein through my wrist. The cut was jagged, deeper than I thought I could manage. The blood poured from my wound, the vein screaming at the wound just as much as I was. “M-Michael!” I yelled, watching the room spin.
     To this day, I’ll never know if it was spinning and if my breathing was slowing from the panic or the loss of blood. I’ll never know truly how much I lost, either, but I knew it was a lot. Quite a lot... The red substance pooled on the previously pear floor, before I fell right down to it, vision fading to black.
                                                                                                    ~📏~

     Eventually my eyes opened slowly, for the millionth time as I drifted in and out of consciousness. This time, rather than staring at the closed wooden door, in the midst of the blur in my vision, I could make out a small child. He was wearing a blue t-shirt, an alien depicted on the front, and green shorts. All I could do in my current state was wonder what he was humming. Every sound at that point was making my eardrums feel like they were going to explode. But that humming... I could have sworn I had heard it somewhere before.
     Hm-hm-hm, hm-hm-hm, hm-hm, hm, hm, hm-hm...
     “Millieee~” I heard the young boy say, his voice echoing as the humming stopped. I looked up at him, eyelids heavy, as he pointed to what I guessed to be my arm. He’s so pale... I thought, although I soon after realized that I probably didn’t look much better myself.
     “What’s going on?” he asked quietly, cocking his head to the side slightly. I twisted my body slowly so that I could attempt to heave myself off of the floor, but it soon became apparent that I couldn’t. The blood below me felt sticky, and I felt my breath slowing once more. I thought it should have been quickening, and I fought to make it do so, but it was no use as I fell hard against the tiles once more.
     “G...Get help, M-Mike...” was all I could manage, my chest rising and falling heavily, but not at all quickly against the flat surface. I helplessly lied there, small whimpers rolling off of my tongue as I watched the world above me twist and turn.
     The last thing I heard before slipping back into the land of darkness once more was the quiet hm, hm-hm-hm, hm-hm of Michael, the sound retreating, just as his tiny feet were.