Hearts of Darkness, Part XIII

When he caught up to Jarvis again, he was back at the bus stop, waiting. David wondered how long the other man had been coming to grips with the things that David was suddenly wrestling with. And even then, how had he.

“I spoke of us, but,” Jarvis said, staring straight ahead. “I understand your kind to form groups. Packs.  What I learned from dying is the trouble with moving one finger one inch when not motivated to do so. However speaking is the most difficult part, as if telling secrets long after were the most impossible thing in all of this.”

David watched, as Jarvis spoke. His chest was inert. His words did not disturb the air at all. It was almost as if he were moving his lips, and thinking his thoughts loud enough for David to hear.

“When one has spent so much energy and focus in existing, to take lives to extend one’s own, everything else going into that becomes less complicated. I have never heard of one such as you, alive, and alone. I suppose your decisions will be difficult.”

David said nothing. He waited with Jarvis in silence. And when the bus came, he boarded in silence, and sat in silence. His stop came up first. On the ladder of society, Jarvis’ residence was nearer the bottom, as close to the bottom as Walter Lancaster’s was to the top.

“Would you mind if I came by every now and again?” it was the question David had been saving up all his energy to ask. He wasn’t very involved with any process to mine out what else he wanted to talk to Jarvis about. But the man had used the word us.

“Do as you wish,” Jarvis said.

David nodded. It was a cold response, but it was also a consistent one. He stepped off the bus, and watched as it rolled off toward the Barrow. That was the first on the list of places his co workers told him not to go. That was where Jarvis could be found.

Drained, he laid on his bed as soon as he was back inside his apartment. He didn’t bother with his shoes, or this time, even checking his messages. What to do with forever. An eerie question. He was deeply, deeply glad that he did not have to be burdened with such. Only tomorrow. Which was plenty heavy enough.

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