Can't Escape is a blogfic by Swanfeather. It features blogclanners as humans, and was also the first modern blogfic. This is the second page for the story - you can find the previous chapters on the old page.
Chapter Ten[]
“I’m leaving.”
The dirty blonde shifted her gaze over to her friend, shaking her head sternly. “No.”
“Come on… You know I have to.”
“You don’t ‘have to do’ anything. Not without me.” The blonde never broke the glare she had on her face.
“This time, I have to go alone. No big deal.”
“I’m older than you, meaning that I can command you. You are not going anywhere without me.”
“Do whatever you want. Your command will not affect me as I’m a high position person.” She waved her hand in the air, making gestures.
The blonde stood up, facing her friend. She had a little trouble standing straight, which didn’t go unnoticed. “I’m a founder, for heck’s sake!”
She just shook her head at the stubborness. “Look, you’re even stumbling. It’s not safe for you to leave yet.”
“I’m not a baby. I can walk and I can stand and I don’t need you to change my diapers!”
“Geez, not that I’d do it anyway”, she snorted.
“You know what I meant. Now, where are my shoes…”
She grabbed the blonde’s shoulder. “Moss”, she said with a calm tone, “now is not the time. You need to rest. Don’t you remember at all what happened yesterday? You fainted! You just can’t run around now that you’re a convalescent. You should be aware of these facts.”
Moss sighed deeply. “I don’t want to miss the meeting…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you everything.”
“I was there. You need me to tell you what happened”, she insisted.
“I’ve got it all in my mind. Please, just stay here. Take care of Shivy.”
At the mention of Shivy, Moss’s gaze wondered over to the bed where the girl was ‘sleeping’. She hadn’t gotten better… at least not much. They had enough trouble already, why Shivy too? She shook her head in misery.
“Fine.”
The reply caught her off guard. What? Had she given up that easily?
“Did you just -” she began.
Moss nodded. “Yeah. Be sure to tell me everything. And by everything I mean everything– who all were there, what you discussed, what you decided, who knew what, who wanted what, what Flo’s sock color was…”
She laughed. “Promised!” Then she took a step towards the door, quickly opening it. “Bye, I’m leaving before you change your mind -”
She heard a snort before slammed the door shut, running out of the medicine house. It was chilly outside, and a bit dark, since only faint, cool light was seen through the clouds. The morning sun was climbing up, using the heavy clouds as ladders… It was pretty. Mornings were always so refreshing, cleaning minds from worries, symbolizing new fresh starts.
She was so happy because she wasn’t feeling too grumpy. The night had been stressful, dealing with Moss and a few others, and she knew she could get grumpy over staying up and wandering around the Camp.
Soon she spotted a familiar figure nearing her. She smiled as she saw that her friend was moving smoothly and without trouble.
“Morning”, she greeted the ravenette.
“The best of mornings to you too, Lily! How’s Mossie?” Shiver asked, smiling slightly.
“She’s well, but I insisted that she’d rest today.”
“That’s a wise decision! I agree, these conferences make anyone go bim bam bom. Especially when you’re still recovering.”
Lily laughed, heading towards the Tavern, Shiver right on her heels. “You always cheer up my days”, she told the founder.
Shiver bowed her head overdramatically. “Why thank you. If I can’t be memeish, then I’ll be cheering-up-ish.”
Lily rolled her eyes playfully. When they reached the Tavern, she opened the door for Shiver. It creaked louder than usual, making Lily wonder how long all of their houses would last, before they’d have to rebuild them.
As soon as they entered, a loud single cough echoed inside the dim, empty Tavern.
“Late.”
Lily glared at the cougher, Flo, who was sitting at the corner table with the rest of the founders. They all looked gray-faced in the dimness.
“I had to deal with Moss. She needed to stay there and rest”, Lily explained, like it was the most obvious thing on Earth.
Shiver grinned widely. “And I had to deal with the skeketons taking over my room’s closet, so I needed some stuff from the closest Voodoo shop, and on my way there I crashed to Gandalf, who wasn’t too pleased with me, and he had to take me to Voldemort -”
“Stop!” Flo screeched.
“What? You don’t believe me?” Shiver pretended to be hurt.
Flo shook her head. “No, that was pretty believable (compared to your previous stories), but you said his name aloud!”
“Gandalf? Oh, he doesn’t mind -”
“No, You-Know-Who!” Flo frowned disapprovingly.
“He’s dead, Flozie”, Shiver dropped the bomb.
“Not certain. You don’t know which book we’re living right now.”
Shiver was about to reply, but Lily clapped her hands loudly. “Jokes are over. I didn’t come here to discuss random City stuff”, Lily announced.
Icy, who had been watching from the shadows, motioned the two to come closer. “Actually, you maybe did. We have the City on our to-be-pondered-over list.”
Lily pulled a chair for herself and crossed her arms on the table. Now she was interested. “Should we start on that?”
“Our patients and their injuries are the first subject. Lily, you’re the one to talk about that”, Flo said.
“Well, Dew’s recovering… The wound on her back isn’t bleeding anymore. She woke up yesterday. I’ve treated her with extra herbs, and I think she will be just okay.”
Flo nodded. “Very good. How about Blue’s leg? Or Flamey’s?”
“Flamey’s leg wasn’t that injured to begin with. As Blue only came yesterday afternoon, I haven’t seen any progress yet, but I’ll check on her – all of them – when the meeting ends. I think she’s stubborn and strong enough that she could even walk with just one leg.”
“Sounds good.” Flo seemed pleased with the information.
Sunny, who had only watched the interview carefully, started talking: “Have you heard about Flamey’s pronouns change?”
Lily glanced around at the table and saw only nodding heads. “I think they announced it to everyone at dinner”, Icy pointed out.
“Speaking of dinner…” Lily muttered, “how much food did they find yesterday? How long does that amount last before we’re in trouble again?”
Flo seemed to be thinking. “They found a good amount of berries and vegetables and so on, enough to fill our hungry stomachs. Icy has worked in the kitchen with the help of a few, and has gathered all the remaining ingredients, trying to make as much food as possible out of them. I believe she’s succeeded somewhat, and we have a decent amount of food to keep us alive until we’ve fixed the problem permanently. We’ll need some people to go look for edible stuff today though, but I think that can be arranged.” Flo gazed at Icy, earning a nod.
Shiver squaled. “Holy skeletons, that was so professional, Flozy! Maybe you could actually become something one day!” she cheered.
“Thank you for your trust, Shiver dear.” Flo bowed her head. Sunny smiled widely at the two’s joking.
Icy cleared her throat. She clearly didn’t want to go off topic. “Let’s go back to the injuries that we were talking about. Dew, Flamey and Blue were okay, and I suppose Moss too, but what about, say, Wistep?”
Lily’s eyes widened. Wistep was something she definitely didn’t want to discuss. Not now. Not here. She tried to act like the question hadn’t affected her one bit. “Wistep? I think we’ve already conversed on this”, she stated with her calmest tone and shrugged.
However, Icy seemed to notice some uncertainity, hardening her eyes. “I mean, yes, you told Flo about her condition not being excellent, but you haven’t updated us on the situation for a while. How’s she doing?” Icy kept asking.
“Still the same”, Lily assured with a monotone voice.
Icy’s eyes glittered with hidden suspicion, but she kept herself cool. “And with ‘same’, you mean…?”
Lily flashed Icy a silent, almost unnoticable, warning look. “That she hasn’t changed. She’s exactly like she was when I first informed you about her recovering.”
“Not recovered more, at all?” Flo piped in. Shiver stared at Lily from the corner of her eye, clearly eager to hear the answer.
“We are doing the best we can”, Lily promised, completely avoiding the question. Flo didn’t seem to notice, though.
Flo nodded, and smiled encouragingly. “We believe in you.”
Lily glanced at Icy, anxious to figure out if the kitchen boss was satisfied with her answer. Icy’s eyes weren’t narrowed, her eyebrows weren’t furrowed, her lips weren’t curved downwards. Her outerior was just the same as always – kind and motherly – but Lily was almost certain, that the Rapunzel didn’t quite buy her explanations. Lily didn’t want to argue with the founder. How the heck was she seeing through the covers?
“Lily”, Icy said, “you would tell us, if something happened to Wistep, right?” Her gaze was just natural, but it burned on the healer’s skin.
She felt uneasy. Why wasn’t Icy believing her? Lily resisted the urge to bite her lips nervously. “Don’t you trust me?” she replied with a fake upset tone, avoiding the question in a genius way.
Icy’s eyes widened a little. “Of course I do! We all do. Sorry if I came off as rude; you just seemed a bit uncertain. I didn’t mean to doubt. Maybe you’re a little stressed with all the patients and that’s all. Besides, you have no reason to hide facts about her, right?”
Lily laughed. “Why would I? This is not a murder mystery and neither of us healers has anything to hide.”
Icy smiled. “That’s what I thought.”
Phew.
“So, you probably want to hear about the other injured ones too”, Lily continued, changing the subject as quickly as she could.
“Of course”, Sunny said, nodding.
Lily tried to recall everyone who had been healed after the storm. “Shiver, here, is I suppose doing pretty swell?” the healer glanced at the ravenette.
Shiver nodded swiftly. “Oh, I’m just splendid!”
“And… Swan is doing well too.” Were there anyone else? “Um, yeah. I think that’s all.”
“Great to hear that!” Sunny flashed a smile.
“So I suppose… everyone’s recovering?” Flo made a conclusion.
Not everyone… Lily tried to swallow the uncertain tone in her voice. “That’s correct”, she muttered, a little raspily.
Shiver slammed her hands on the table. “Woah, we’re actually making progress!”
“Don’t you dare to say that you doubted our success.” Flo glared at the skeleton.
“No, of course not. I didn’t doubt it, I was pretty certain that we would fail.”
Sunny snorted and started laughing. Flo humphed, but failed to hide the smile. “Don’t you trust us? Where’s your self-confidence? Or more importantly, Flo-confidence?” she lectured, but her eyes revealed that she was only joking.
“Flo-confidence sounds like a brand of something I would never eat.”
Sunny was still choking on her laughter, and Flo clearly found it hard to not join in. Icy smiled widely, and Lily couldn’t help but grin too.
“What! I just made up a fancy word and the award I get from it is a random skeleton mocking me -”
“Excuse me, you just called me ‘a random skeleton’. Extremely offensive. I’m definitely not random. In fact, I’m very high in skeletons’ hierarchy.”
Lily snorted. “How can you rank high in ‘skeletons’ hierarchy’? How do you measure the rankings? Like, is the highest one ‘most dead’.”
Shiver shifted her gaze from Flo to Lily and then back. She shrugged. “Well, I’d get high rankings with that system too.”
Sunny laughed even more loudly, Flo and Icy joining her. “You’re too funny!” Sunny managed to say.
Icy wiped her eyes from the tears that had formed from cracking up. “We’ll never become anything professional – despite Shiver’s analyze on Flo. If anyone important saw us and this meeting they’d literally kick us out.”
“I can see that happening”, Lily agreed and laughed.
Flo gasped for breath after the laugh marathon and clapped her hands. Sunny was still laughing extremely noisily, basically choking on it, and didn’t even stop when the others did. “Okay. So what we have yet to discuss? I think, the City, so – Sunny, stop dying while I talk! And did we have anything else?” Flo glanced around, Sunny slowly calming down.
Shiver shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“What about the City?” Lily asked, leaning in. This was a topic that made her curious.
Flo turned to look at the younger healer. “Isn’t it obvious? Everything that’s going on at this time seems to have something to do with the City.”
“Does the doom of the warehouse have something to do it with too in your opinion?” Lily questioned.
“Well of course! You remember the clues we found? The footprints? The humanfootprints? Yeah, I bet they have something to do with the City. Something important that we’re missing here.”
“‘We’ aren’t missing anything. You are, Flo dear”, Shiver softly said and shook her head dramatically. Flo rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out.
“Wait”, Lily interrupted, “what do you mean? How can the footprints have a connection with the City?”
Flo stared at Lily like it was the most obvious thing. “Well, duh. Footprints. What makes human footprints? Humans. With their feet.”
Lily sighed deeply. “Could you possibly explain with a liiiittle more details?”
“If you want. So, if there’s a person, who’s possibly connected with the Monsters, a person who really has fancy shoes and something that can light a whole house up, where do you think they got those?”
“The borders?” Sunny suggested.
“Yeah, like us. Maybe the person has a camp like ours”, Icy continued.
“Have you seen another camp?” Flo inquired, turning to Icy.
“Well, no, but it isn’t possible for us to know every little millimeter of this huge forest -”
Flo seemed to think for a moment. “Fine point…”
“So what you’re saying here is that the person has a connection with the City because of the shoes? Do you think they occasionally visit the City to get new fancy shoes?” Lily raised her eyebrow.
“I felt like I had a point here…” Flo muttered.
Sunny patted Flo’s shoulder. “Don’t be upset! I understand what you were going for. It’s possible that this person knows a lot more about the City than we do!”
“Aren’t you even a tiny bit creeped out that there’s another human living in this Forest – someone who definitely knows about our existence and wants to finish us!” Shiver announced with a dark voice.
Lily closed her eyes. Everything was so complicated, twists and turns in events all the time. It was causing her a headache. Why them? Why was a random forest person with fancy shoes targetting them? She felt like she could never understand. She sighed. “I don’t know… I admit it’s scary, as we thought nobody else survived from the explosion or whatever it was, but now that we’ve seen that indeed someone other than us is alive, it feels oddly natural. Somehow releaving. We aren’t the only ones left.”
“But this intruder is a hostile”, Shiver reminded.
“Are you sure? Maybe they think that we’re the bad guys.”
Icy shook her head. “I’m not so convinced about that. I felt like the person knew exactly what they were doing and to who.”
Lily shrugged. “You can’t be certain.”
“But if they’re accompanied by the Monsters, then I think that they surely know what’s against them. There’s more to this person than we’ve seen so far”, Sunny theorized.
“Remember the memory that Swan told us a while ago? About the woman?” Flo suddenly asked.
Icy’s hazel eyes sparkled with curiosity. She apparently though that Flo had an idea. “Oh, you mean the woman who harshly dragged Swan to a dreadful room full of trapped people? Yes, I do remember. I think someone made her tell us. What about it?”
“Didn’t someone have a theory that the woman in the memory and this terrorizing person are exactly the same being?”
“Wavey”, the founders replied in unison.
Flo smiled lightly. “Most likely. But what if she’s right?”
There was a silent moment, while everyone processed this theory.
Finally, Shiver opened her mouth to reply, but didn’t really succeed. “Then…. ummm… then…”
“Then this is a real mystery”, Lily stated, uneasiness growing inside her.
Sunny smiled sadly. “Oh, no, I’m most certain that this is a mystery already. I’m sure this case goes a lot deeper than any one us can see.”
Another moment of silence. All the unanswered questions lingered above them, teasing as they dashed by, grinning at their stupidity, mocking their uncertainity. They filled Lily’s ears, to the point when it wasn’t silent anymore.
“Oh dear, dearer and dearest”, whispered Shiver, breaking the silence.
Flo sat straighter, gaining back her leading powers. “Ahem. As this is a meeting, conference, breakfast chit-chat moment – whatever, we really need to make a decision. Make something happen. Change the world, you know? And as our world is just now this camp and this forest, we have to make a good one. So what are we going to do differently from this point on?”
A short, quiet muttering moment took place.
“I suggest we search for more food, at least”, Icy stated first. Flo nodded at the kitchen boss.
Sunny was the second one to suggest: “In my opinion, we should plan some kind of night guarding shifts.”
Flo nodded again. “That’s a good idea to prevent more attacks from happening. But we’re all tired now, the storm and all the injuries and food searching have taken our strenght, so I think we should wait a few days before we start with that system.”
“Is that wise? I mean, what if there’s another attack when we’re not guarding the Camp?” Lily suspiciously asked. This delay Flo was planning had some holes in it. Holes, that certain Monsters would find useful.
Flo shrugged. “I don’t think so. They just attacked. They wouldn’t do it again so soon, would they?”
“I guess not…” Lily muttered, still not completely satisfied.
“Any more ideas? Lily?” Flo continued.
“Well…” she thought for a moment. “Someone has to go look for herbs, I suppose. We’re running out with all these injuries. I can’t do it now when there’s a lot of patients, and Moss can’t leave the Camp.”
“Of course. Is there anyone who knows herbs here, other than you?”
“I’m… not sure. Let’s just put Frosty to do it.”
“Okay… but why always Frosty?”
Lily shrugged. “He’s a good jack of all trades. And he doesn’t complain. Or his complaints don’t work. Either way. And he’s helpful and likes animals.”
Flo rolled her eyes. “Are you sure you aren’t using the poor little guy? And what animals can you find there anyway. This forest is lacking animals.”
“Whaaaat I’ve never used anyone, what makes you think so? You said I could pick someone. The lucky one is Frosty. And as for the animals, there are cool bugs and spiders in the Forest, anxiously waiting for his company.”
“Love the attitude.”
Lily snorted. “Really?”
“No.”
“You hurt me.”
“Intended.”
Lily scoffed loudly. “Rude.”
“That is what hard life has made me…” Flo raspily whispered with a very dramatic tone.
“Remind me again – why’s Flo our leader?” Lily replied sassily.
Flo placed a hand on her heart. “Because I’m the best!” she gasped.
“Oh, well, then this might shock you, but -”
“Ahem.”
Lily snapped her head at the voice’s direction – Icy. She looked kind of tired. “Guys, to a certain point this was funny, but now it’s turned to unneeded teasing. I mean, I don’t want to be a party pooper, but I don’t feel like we should joke around all the time.”
Flo laid back on her chair. “You’re right. Sorry.”
Lily smirked at the ravenette. “Why isn’t Icy the boss? I mean, at least her intelligence level -”
“Don’t you dare to finish!” Flo hissed, pointing at the healer.
Lily grinned even wider. “- is above -”
“Guys! What did I just say?” Icy sighed, smiling slightly at their childishness.
“Sorry”, Lily and Flo mumbled in unison.
Sunny cleared her throat. “Where were we?”
Shiver remembered. “The plans. Herbs. Frosty as a slave.”
“Correct. Does anyone have any more suggestions?” Sunny asked, glancing around at the table.
The founders shook their heads, the lone healer included.
Flo clasped her hands together, taking the lead again. “So! What have we managed to decide? What problems have we fixed?”
None, Lily was about to blurt out. Their bigger plans seemed groggy and not too well thought out. Yes, Frosty could possibly find some herbs and the food patrol might’ve succeeded too. But the night guarding. It was just a random idea thrown in the middle of a serious converstation. They hadn’t planned it out. There was no shift schedule – heck, they hadn’t even decided when they’d start with the whole project! And, how could a single teen wandering around the dark and quiet Camp during the night even help if there was an attack? The Monsters would eat the person alive, for sure.
“Herbs, food”, Shiver listed, counting with her fingers.
“Future attacks”, Icy added.
“Not that yet”, Lily interrupted, “we haven’t decided on the shifts yet or anything.”
The boss acknowledged her complaint with a nod. “I’ll look into it”, she promised.
“You better”, Lily muttered. Her voice was almost inaudible, but loud enough to make the ravenette roll her eyes.
“Is that all?” Sunny asked, clapping her hands.
The skeleton looked around. “I think so”, she responded.
Icy exhaled deeply, letting all of her stress out. “Great! Now let’s get to more fun business. Who wants some breakfast?”
“I do!” Sunny immediately announced.
“Me!” Flo exclaimed, and laid back on her chair. Suddenly she seemed exhausted… maybe she had some stress from being a boss after all. Maybe she was more responsible than she sometimes seemed.
Lily scoffed at herself. Now she was being plain mean. Of course she’s responsible. Of course she takes care of this camp. I have no rights to underestimate her now when we really need everyone to rebuilt our lives.
“What do you have to serve?” Shiver curiously questioned the kitchen boss.
“Apples. Water.”
“Well that’s boring.”
“Does that mean you don’t want breakfast?” Icy asked, standing up and nearing the front counter.
Shiver shook her head furiously. “No! Of course not. Give me all apples you have.”
“Alright then”, Icy smiled, “what about you, Lily?”
The blonde sighed, and stood up too. “I’ll pass. The patients need me.”
“They just want you to get the check over with so they could hurry to breakfast”, Flo pointed out.
“Exactly.”
Icy nodded at the healer. “Okay. Good luck!”
“Luck? Why do I need luck?”
“Ahem, hungry campers? Do I really need to say more?” Icy rolled her eyes and disappeared into the dimness.
“Oh”, Lily said more to herself than anyone else, “I guess I’ll definitely need that luck then.”
“Remember to come eat something when you’ve finished!” Sunny yelled after the exiting healer. Lily waved her hand at the sunshine and walked out of the Tavern.
She breathed in and out. Okay. Patient checks. Let’s get this over with. Swiftly she made her way towards the girls’ dorms. A breeze ruffled her hair. It felt good – refreshing – after the “intense” pondering period.
Let’s see… Blue, Flamey, Swan, Dew. She gulped. And possibly Wistep. She tried to calm herself down. She didn’t want to see Wistep – no, her condition was too horrifying for her eyes to bear – but maybe she had to. Nobody should’ve touched her anyway. She hoped to leave Wistep to Moss. Moss had dealt with these things, right? She had more experience. She knew how to deal with guilt. She’d figure out how to… fix the problem. She had to. She needed to.
I hope nobody’s been curious and wondered why we secluded room six… Wistep has to stay a secret. Luckily she has only two roommates. Robbie had asked questions. Wavey hadn’t. But she probably had way more of them in her head than she let show. Sneaky girl. Knows that by asking nobody tells her anything, but if she keeps silent, the answers might come to her.
Lily had fed everyone with her most careful lies, and at least everyone’s outeriors had eaten them easily. Everyone trusts the healer , Lily bitterly thought as she opened the dorms’ door. Guilt weighted in her stomach like a big rock.
A bright voice interrupted her uncomfortable moment. “Oh, morning!” a camper, who came from room one chirped.
Lily smiled slightly at her. “Hi, Darkie. Have you recovered from the soreness that Blue’s searching caused?” she inquired.
“Yeah! My legs hurt a little, though, but nothing that bothers me.”
“If you need something, you know where to find me.” Lily nodded. “Anyway. How’s everyone else?”
“The other ones in that patrol? Kinky and Breezey?”
“Yep, that duo.”
“Oh, I don’t think there was anything that happened to them in the first place.”
“Glad to hear that.” She looked around. “I actually came to check the patients. Are they in their rooms?”
Darkie shrugged. “Guess so.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “You should know. Blue’s your roommate.”
“Ohh, if that annoyed ball of boredness lying angrily on the bed was Blue, then yes, she can be found there.”
The healer sighed. “Thanks for the ‘helpfulness’…” Lily mumbled, trying to push past the girl.
“I heard that sarcasm!” Darkie humphed, blocking Lily’s way.
“Oh, totally didn’t aim for that.”
“I heard that too.”
“Wow, really? That’s definitely surprising.”
“Sarcasm is basically dripping down your body… watch out. It’ll be fun in the wash house.”
Lily snorted at the dumb joke. “Sarcasm is my middle name”, she retorded.
“I thought it was Dawn.”
“Sherlock…”
Lily pushed Darkie’s arms out of the way and flashed a grin to show that she was only joking. Darkie rolled her eyes and muttered something along the lines “I want food”.
The healer opened the door of room one, completely forgetting to knock. “Get up, if you haven’t already”, she yelled.
A faint laugh was heard. “Wow, you seem to be really happy today!”
Lily laughed sarcastically.
“No, for real! Usually you kick our butts!” the same voice replied.
“Woah, I’m not that brutal.”
Birchy sat up on her bed. She flashed a grin at the girl. “I thought I could sleep a little longer today, but I guess not…” she mumbled and fake glared at Lily.
“Your breakfast will grow legs and walk away if you don’t go there in time”, Lily reminded.
“And where would my breakfast walk?”
“To Flo.”
“Should’ve expected that. Well, I suppose I have to get going… where were my clothes…?” Birchy stood up and walked over to the closet. Lily watched as she searched for the clothes.
“Ahem. I want to go to breakfast too.”
Lily snapped her head at the direction of the sudden voice. She spotted a familiar broad-shouldered girl, sitting on her bed, arms crossed.
Blue.
However grumpy or overly sarcastic Lily sometimes seemed, she really did care for her friends. Especially the injured ones.
“Good morning”, Lily greeted. She smiled slightly at the girl. She looked like she was doing well – despite having that annoyed expression on her face.
“Please. Save me from those vain politenesses.” Blue stared at Lily disapprovingly.
“At least you seem okay.”
“Well that’s wonderful. Does that mean that I can leave this darn room already?” Blue hissed with a toxic tone. She clearly was bored out of her mind.
“Depends”, Lily answered shortly.
“In that case – do your check on that freaking leg already!” the dirty blonde pointed at her bandaged leg that had been put on a pillow.
“Grumpy, much?” Lily smirked and stepped closer to the girl. She kneeled down and started unwrapping the bandages.
“You’d be too if someone boring trapped you in a boring room for a boring eternity. I’m so bored.”
“Yeah, that came across…”
Lily took the bandages off gently, and eyed the wound. It looked surpisingly well-healed – the blood was dry and it hadn’t swollen too much.
“Well?” Blue impatiently demanded.
“Woah, hold your horses, kid. This will take time, y’know.”
“You have no right to call me a ‘kid’. Our ages are not that apart”, retorded Blue.
“Whatever you say, kid.”
“You’re purposely annoying me.”
“Maybe.” Lily smirked at herself, keeping her eyes on Blue’s leg, washing and treating the wound with herbs and necessary tools she had brought to the room before.
Blue let out a long sigh. “I’m not dumb. I won’t step into your trap and get annoyed. You’re not that good – even though you really are annoying.”
“Test me.”
“Oh dear Reginas, I won’t. We’d be here all night.”
“Possible.” Lily tossed the bloody bandage away and tied a clean one on the girl’s leg. “Does it hurt?” she asked, finally meeting the patient’s eyes.
“No.” Blue shook her head quickly. She seemed to be sincere about the pain – for once.
“For real?” The healer had learned to question what the blonde said about aching and hurting parts in her body.
“Yeah, this time, I’m really serious. I feel nothing. Not that I’d admit if it hurt, but it feels completely normal. Now, can I go?” Blue narrowed her eyes at the other blonde.
Lily stayed without a word for a while, giving Blue false hope. “…Nope.”
Blue inhaled extremely deeply. “You – ! Do you get pleasure for your wicked soul for torturing an innocent girl, you heartless demon – !”
“Woah, calm down, kiddo. You can’t stress your leg now. It’s recovering fast – now it just needs rest. We both know it’s for the best.”
Blue glared at Lily murderously, but kept her mouth as a thin line. As much as she didn’t want to admit, she probably knew that it really was for the best. She wanted to recover soon.
She wasn’t stupid.
A door slammed shut – the door of the closet. “Okay, children. I’m leaving for breakfast. Want me to get something for you?” Birchy stood there, arms crossed – ready to stuff her stomach with totally not half raw or tasteless apples that were awaiting her in the Tavern.
“Yes, please. Bring Flamey, Dew and Swan”, Lily ordered.
“Woah, you cannibal.”
“I didn’t mean for breakfast, idiot! I need to check on them and it’ll be over with faster if they’re all here in this same room.”
Birchy rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hide her faint smile. “Hey, I understood. I’ll get them. Want me to make one of them get an apple for Blue?”
Lily opened her mouth, but Blue interrupted. “Then that one needs to be someone I can cope with. And better not bring me a poisoned apple.”
“Poisoned?” Birchy raised an eyebrow.
“OUAT”, Blue replied, like it would explain everything.
“Huh?” Birchy whispered to Lily and stared at her with a puzzled expression. The healer just shrugged. She turned to look at Blue again. “How’s Swan, then? Can you stand her?”
“Yeah. I like her.”
“Why?” Birchy blurted out. She flushed as she realised how rude she had sounded. “I mean, nothing against her, but isn’t she kinda annoying at times?”
Blue raised her eyebrow. “So? You all are.”
“And there comes the boom”, sighed Lily, more to herself than to Birchy.
“It’s because I like her name”, Blue explained and laid back on her bed.
“What do you mean?” Birchy sounded even more dumbfounded.
“Actually, I don’t like her name. It’s wrong. I don’t understand why she’s been called by her surname.” Blue shrugged, as if she was disappointed.
“Darkie forgot to tell me that you also hit your head…” Lily muttered.
Blue glared at the blonde. “Screw you. You should be aware of these things. OUAT. Emma Swan. Got it?”
Nope. “Sure.”
Someone cleared her throat. “Alright then… I’m getting the targets here. Bye!” Birchy disappeared out of the door.
“You scared her away”, Lily stated, grinning.
“Speak for yourself.”
“What? You were the one to act like a maniac.”
“But you existed.”
Lily raised her eyebrows, faint smile dancing on her lips. “Crash and burn.”
Lily sat on Darkie’s bed and looked around. The room looked exactly like the others – it had everything they needed, and only that. Nothing more. Simple, yet comfy.
“Where’s Breezey?” Lily lazily asked, trying to start some small talk.
“Went to breakfast with Goldi and Darky.”
“Cool.”
Blue didn’t seem to be in the mood to have a chat, so Lily let it go. She took over Darkie’s bed, lying down on it. She didn’t need to socialize with annoyed patients – she didn’t get extra pay for difficult customers.
Suddenly the door creaked open and Flamey slid in, making peace gestures with their fingers. “Dramatic entrance!” they announced and dabbed.
“Cool…” Lily mumbled, and from the corner of her eyes she could see Blue cringing at the dab. “At least it seems like your leg works”, the healer continued.
“Heck yeah it does! Never felt better.”
Lily smiled. “Great. Where’s the -”
“Hello world!” someone cheered. To Lily’s surprise, it was Minty. She and Swan were carrying Dew into the room. Swan had an apple in her hand.
“Crashed into Minty on the hallway. She volunteered to help”, Swan explained, as the two placed Dew on Birchy’s bed. The girl groaned slightly, but seemed pretty well.
Lily nodded. “I’ll check on you now. Sit down.”
She began her process of changing bandages and applying herbs and all kinds of medicine that were necessary. Minty stayed to help – she apparently wasn’t hungry. With her help, the job was done way quicker than Lily had thought.
By the time she had finished on Dew, she was already exhausted. All this time I’ve gotten away easily, and now it’s backfiring. No serious injuries in years and boom – suddenly the medicine house is full. “Is the bandage too tight?” she asked Dew after tightening the bandage around her torso.
“Oh, no. It’s good.”
“And you’re feeling fine overall?” Lily was sceptical about her condition. Like, she almost got pierced after all. Would she really get away with it without any huge injuries?
“Yeah, I think so. But my legs feel cold – almost numb.”
This didn’t yet shock the healer. “That should be understandable. You lost a lot of blood, after all.” Maybe if I rub them they’ll warm up.
Dew had a white skirt, so her legs were mostly bare. Lily started massaging them. Dew let out small hissing.
Lily was alerted. “Does it hurt?”
“No… just feels a little nasty. I think they’re sore.”
Lily nodded slowly, and moved down Dew’s legs with her massaging. When she reached her ankle and the foot, Dew’s hisses died down. Phew. So it doesn’t hurt too much. She continued rubbing her foot. The feet felt most cold.
Dew sighed. “Thanks. The massaging felt good.”
“Huh?” But I haven’t stopped yet.
“You could’ve massaged my feet too, though. I feel like they’re the most numb.”
Confusion filled Lily’s body, as she raised her eyebrows. What was she talking about? “I haven’t finished… I’m massaging your feet all the time.”
Now was Dew’s turn to be bewildered. “W-What? I can’t feel anything.”
It was like a cold slap on her face.
‘I can’t feel anything.’ Feel anything. Anything.
Lily felt like she had swallowed a pile of snow – her stomach was frozen like a wintery lake. Not Dew too. Her hands were trembling as she took a tighter grip on the girl’s feet, trying to warm them up.
“Dew.” Her voice was shaking, and she couldn’t help it. She squeezed Dew’s feet as strongly as she dared – but powerfully enough to make the girl’s skin turn pale. “Can you feel my hands touching your feet?”
Dew shivered, as her eyes were filled with fear. She didn’t know what was going on, but it clearly didn’t look good. Her voice broke when she whispered: “No.”
Lily tried to swallow the panic in her throat. Her heart was racing. She felt like dying. This is not happening. This is not happening. It’s not. Not. It can’t. Can’t. Ever. She released her grip and took deep breaths to calm herself down.
“L-Lily. What’s h-happening?” Dew’s voice trembled more than her body – which was almost impossible.
“Move your feet. Toes”, Lily ordered with an ice cold tone.
Dew’s eyes were wide. “I-I can’t! They’re too n-numb!” she panicked, starting to gasp uncontrollably. “Lily, what is this? What is going on? Oh my god, am I dying?” The last sentence made tears form in her eyes.
“No.” She’s not, Lily tried to assure herself, not as long as I’m here.
The room had fallen dead silent. Flamey looked like they had seen a ghost, staring there with fear evident in their eyes. Swan’s jaw had dropped, like she had been about to say something, but then didn’t and forgot to close her mouth. Minty was gasping like a fish on dry land, and Blue stared at the girl with wide eyes, a half eaten apple on her hand, not showing any emotion besides a small hint of concern.
“Lily”, Dew whispered, too afraid to even wipe her tears. “Save me.”
It felt even worse than if Dew had told her to finish it all. ‘Save me.’ But what if I can’t? I already failed once. I could fail again. I will fail again. I’ll end up ruining her too. She’s going downhill, and I can’t save her.
Dew took the healer’s silence as a no, and bit her lip. “I’m screwed, oh god. Oh god. God, no. At least tell me what’s wrong. Why’s my leg numb? Why don’t I feel it? Why is it so cold?”
As cold as the rest of this world. Good peope aren’t rewarded with good things. Lily inhaled. “Can you walk?”
“N-No. You saw yourself. Minty and Swan carried me in.”
“Can you move your upper legs?” There must be a way…
Dew lifted her knees off the mattress, showing that her upper legs worked fine. Her feet hanged from them lazily, like they didn’t belong there, like they were dead.
What maybe was a flash of hope in the blonde’s eyes disappeared quickly. It was replaced with something worse – realization. “Oh my god, Lily. Are my feet -”
Here it is. The end. The truth. The doom.
” – paralyzed?”
Lily didn’t say ‘yes’. She didn’t want to admit it. She felt like if she said it aloud it would become more true. “It can be temporary”, she reassured, but it sounded as weak as a mosquito far away.
“It can? ” Her voice was anything but hopeful. “Can? Hah! Don’t you understand what this means? Don’t you? It means I can not ever walk again. I can’t run in the Forest. I can’t swim. I can’t do anything. I can’t live! My life is ruined! I’m doomed to lay in my damned room for the rest of my miserable life! I can never be happy again. Never!”
Lily couldn’t breathe. It sounded even worse when it was put that way.
Minty gulped. “Calm down, Dewy. It’s gonna be alright”, she tried to reassure, “you heard what Lily said, it can be temporary -”
Dew let out an unamused laugh. “Lily? What Lily said? She can’t save me. Tell me, Lily, what happened to Wistep? Where is she? Nobody can’t go to her room – not even her roommates. Don’t think I haven’t noticed how anxious you healers get when somebody mentions her. She’s dead, isn’t she? You couldn’t save her and just hid your mistake. And you can’t save me. You’re worthless!” she screamed, venom dripping from her tongue.
It hurt more than being stabbed with a sword.
“D-Dew, I’m sure that’s n-not the case -” Flamey began, but was cut off short.
“She’s correct”, Lily announced slowly, no matter how much the words pained her when they escaped her mouth. She neared Dew until she was standing right in front of her.
Maybe Lily expected Dew to look victorious after the confession, instead she was absolutely horrified. “Dead?” she stuttered.
“No”, Lily mumbled, “worse.”
Dew’s eyes were on fire. And it wasn’t a nice little fireplace kind of fire – it was inferno. “You – you liar!” she yelled, and slapped Lily on the face.
Gasping, Lily stumbled backwards. She touched her cheek. It felt warm under her fingers. She glanced at the others for – support? Understanding? Help?
However, she got none of those.
Blue looked like she would attack Lily if she came closer. Hurting her friends wasn’t something Blue tolerated, and she’d punish the guilty ones if she got a chance. Minty, who was sitting next to Blue’s bed, stared at Lily with wide eyes and flinched when the healer shifted her gaze at her. She’s afraid of me, Lily realised, feeling sick.
Flamey glared at Lily disapprovingly. Wistep was their good friend, and they would not let anyone who hurt her get away easily. Lily bit her lip, and turned to look at Swan. The newcomer hadn’t known Wistep too well yet, heck, she had only been at the Camp for – what, a week? It felt like forever, years, ages, decades. And yet the girl was narrowing her eyes angrily at the healer she had previously respected.
Then Lily realised something that basically snatched her heart out of her chest, crashed it and jumped on it until it was in pieces – small, unnoticable pieces, hard to collect and glue together. She realised the truth. I deserve this.
She took in a deep breath as her eyes got wet with tears, glittering as brightly as the pieces of her heart. I deserve all their hate.
At that moment she knew she wasn’t welcome anymore. She turned her back on her former friends, not even trying to explain. She had no explanations. Nothing could justify what she did – what she and Moss had hidden. She speed walked to the door, and looked at the campers one last time before exiting.
Their stares hadn’t changed.
“I’m sorry”, Lily whispered, gulping her tears down. “I’m so sorry.”
Her words got no reaction.
She slammed the door open and ran out, just to crash into Wavey. She could’ve tripped if Wavey hadn’t caught her arm. Lily quickly tried to wipe her tears away.
“I heard everything”, Wavey quietly said. And that was enough to make the tears flow down again.
And again, she didn’t try to explain.
“You need to take me to her, Lily.” The sudden request caught the healer off guard. She looked up from her hands to see what emotions the girl’s green eyes held. Judgement, for sure. And betrayal. Anger. Fear.
However, she only saw curiosity. And sadness. Unbelivable sadness.
“She was your good friend, wasn’t she?” Lily quietly asked. The use of imperfect made the girl flinch. “Yes. We’re roommates. And I’ve known her for so long. I… have a feeling that we knew each other when we still lived in the City”, Wavey mumbled. She obviously refused to refer to Wistep with ‘was’.
As much as Lily wanted to ask if she was mad at her, she didn’t. She just grabbed Wavey’s wrist and sprinted towards room number six, Wistep’s room.
Wavey’s room.
When they reached the door, Lily grew hesistant to open it. Was she just going to show Wavey what she had carefully tried to hide? Screw me. This moment had to come someday – sooner or later, but the healers couldn’t have hidden it forever. The truth had to be revealed. And that moment was now.
Taking in a deep, shaky breath, she pushed the door open. Wavey was standing right on her heels. She peeked over Lily’s shoulder, curious and hesistant at the same time.
“Look, Wavey. Look, and see the horror I’ve created.” She pointed at the bed Wistep was ‘sleeping’ on.
However, Lily didn’t look there. She knew how Wistep was. Pale. Motionless. Like a freaking corpse.
She heard loud gasping coming from Wavey. “Oh my freaking gosh. Oh gosh”, she repeated. It was rare to see this something from under the girl’s usual, calm shell. “What has happened to her?” she whispered.
When Lily didn’t respond, Wavey turned around. “Lily, what is wrong with her? What happened to her?”
Lily gulped. “She’s…” She couldn’t force the words out of her mouth.
“Paralyzed?” Wavey guessed, trying to sound calm – but Lily saw through that.
“No.” Lily gaped on air like she was dying. “Braindead. Because of me.”
Chapter Eleven[]
“You killed her?”
It was like all the walls in the room were about to collapse on her.
Lily looked down, guilt radiating from her like raging waves. “I guess you could put it that way…” she whispered, pained to admit it.
“But… how? Why? When?” I had theories, but this definitely wasn’t one of them.
Lily groaned loudly, and buried her face into her hands. She sat on a bed, and stayed completely silent for a moment that felt like forever. “Sit down”, she sighed, “this isn’t a short story.”
Wavey obeyed, placing her butt on her own bed, never breaking the view to the healer. She wasn’t really sure what to feel – I mean, she had just found out that her roommate was braindead, the healers had been hiding it all the time, and that it was their fault. Her mind was utterly dumbfounded, but she was eager to hear the truth.
Lily wiped a few tears away from her eye corner. “It all started on the day when the storm occured. The day when Wistep came back… or more like fainted at the edge of the glade after Maple had spotted her. She was on the brink of death – admittedly, she was horribly injured.” She took a deep breath.
“Me and Moss tried. We really tried. Tried and tried and tried. If that wasn’t trying I don’t know what is… We really tried to save her, but… her condition was unseen. Even Moss had never encountered anything even close to as frightening as her wounds. Her back was bleeding a lot, but with hard work we got it under control… But then we realised the pulse was very weak. She wasn’t conscious and it didn’t look like she was going to be. Even with no terribly bleeding wounds her condition worsened with every passing second and her face and skin turned paler and paler as all the life began draining from her. It was horrifying, to say at least.”
The blonde paused, trying to bring herself to reveal the biggest secret – the secret the healers had tried to hide, a secret so horrible that it couldn’t even be told to the founders.
“There was only one way to save her. It was a questionable way, and so dangerous that we knew nobody would approve us trying it out.” Lily’s voice was like granite, stone cold, unbreakable – but that was only the outerior. She was completely teared apart on the inside.
Wavey nodded as the healer stopped again, hesitant to say anything that would prevent Lily from continuing.
“We… we had to find the Death Trap.”
“What is that?” Wavey blurted out before she had time to stop herself.
“It’s a plant…”
A plant?
Lily shook her head. “A terrible, terrible plant. A herb – medicine – that can either save you… or destroy you.”
At that moment, it all cleared to her, as if dust had been wiped off her unexistent glasses just with a snap of fingers. Wavey took a deep breath, trying to contain herself. “And in Wistep’s case…”
Lily nodded, her eyes darkening, as tears began streaming down like glittering pieces of clear ice, like a beautiful, sad waterfall. “It was the latter for her.”
“But…” Wavey opened her mouth, but couldn’t bring out words that could express what she felt.
Lily’s eyed were apologetic when she continued. “We knew it was horribly risky… But time was running out. Her life was dripping away like sand through our fingers. She was a living hourglass. That lead us to our decision – Moss went looking for the Death Trap.”
“Hold on – how did you know about this plant? As far as I know, there’s no medicine guide books here.” The curious side of Wavey took over.
“Moss knew about it. She had studied the subject back in the City, I think, or she just remembers every plant she’s read about. Either way, it was our only chance… that unfortunately became a failed chance.”
Wavey shook her head. “A failed chance? Lily, it was so much more than a chance. It was a life. She’s gone. It was a failed life . She was a person you let down.”
Lily clutched the hem of her shirt anxiously. “Y-You don’t understand… Imagine yourself in my place. But you have every right to be mad at me so if you wanna kick me or strangle me you can go ahead.” Lily looked down at the floor. Wow, does she really think I would do that?
“Lily”, Wavey began, “I’m not going to judge you. I’m not here to blame you. I’m not the one to tell you if you did the right choice or not. It’s not my decision to make. It’s not other campers’ decision, not the founders’ decision, and not even Wistep’s. It’s yours. So if you think you did the right choice, then you did, even if the consequence is this. If you feel like this was the wrong choice, then it was. Then you can feel as bad as you want. But please remember, I’m not judging you. I’ll help you. I’m here as a comforter. A friend. Because we still care about you, even if you caused her death.”
Lily’s lips were curled downwards, and she was shivering. “Wavey…” she mumbled, “are you really not mad at me? Not displeased with me? Not shaken? At all?”
The weird thing was, Wavey wasn’t really sure. Truthfully, she wasn’t happy with the situation, and she did have an opinion on whether the Death Trap was the right thing to do, but that wasn’t important now.
She felt overall confused with her feelings. She had just been told that her good friend and roommate had died. Why wasn’t she crying already? Why wasn’t she sitting by the body, frustratedly trying to find a way to save her?
Where were her feelings?
There was only an empty spot, a void of loneliness and blankess inside her. Something, that numbed everything away.
Shock. That must be it.
This time, she didn’t mind.
“I…” Wavey began, but the end of the sentence wasn’t anywhere in her brains to be found.
Lily swallowed back her tears, letting out a bitter laugh. “I knew it. You’re angry like the rest of this Camp. You’re just pretending to care.” Despite the bitter tone, the blonde didn’t look the least bit surprised or shocked.
That is not what I meant. “No no no, you totally misunderstood, it’s not that I’m angry, it’s more like I’m shook -”
The healer raised her hand, signaling her to stop. “Don’t. Pretending only hurts me more.” She shook her head, smiling sadly.
“Lily.” Wavey stepped closer, but Lily backed away. This is all falling apart. “Believe me when I say, I’m definitely not pretending anything! You have to trust me, haven’t you known me for a long time -”
“Stop!” Lily screamed so loudly that it made Wavey flinch, so loud that she was sure even Wistep heard it. “You don’t understand. None of you understand! Do you realise how horrendously difficult the choice was? Do you, really? None of you actually do.”
Lily stood up from the bed she had been sitting on, glaring at Wavey furiously – the girl wasn’t aware of what she was mad at, herself or Wavey. Or life. “Imagine. You could possibly save someone you deeply care about by using a risky way. There are two choices – one, you don’t try, which for sure causes their death. You make them die naturally. You’ll be forever haunted with unawareness – would the risky way have saved them? What would’ve happened if you did that? And you’ll never know, it makes you more and more pained with every passing day until you can’t take it anymore.”
She took a step closer, holding her finger out, pointing at the multicolor-head. “Two – you try with the risky way. It’s a fifty-fifty chance, a battle of life and death. It’s all matter of luck. If they survive, you’ll be seen as a hero – as someone who saved them, somebody who’s celebrated and complimented for doing the right choice. You’d be happy with yourself. But the darker side of that is, if they die, you’ll be forever glared at. You’ll always be snickered about for doing the risky, terrible choice. You’ll live with guilt – you killed them. Everyone will always see you as a murderer – everyone. No matter if you prove otherwise, it’ll never be forgotten.”
Lily breathed loudly, her face glowing with regret, grief and anger – at herself, Wavey, or everyone. Her finger was only inches away from the other girl’s face. “So tell me – which one you would have chosen?” she hissed.
Wavey lifted her eyes from the healer’s finger, meeting her eyes. She returned the hard look, but tried not to look accusatory. From deep down she found the answer, she knew what she would’ve done, but that wasn’t something she wanted to say aloud. Not that she could help herself.
“You’re right”, the very dark haired blonde responded slowly, “I don’t understand what you’ve gone through. And I won’t. I never will. But let me just tell you this” – she grabbed Lily’s pointing finger and squeezed her hand around it – “I think I would’ve done the same thing.”
Her confession made the room fall silent. It was like the curtains had been put down. The crazy show was over. The change in atmosphere was almost touchable – it felt like the air had become easier to breath, easier to be in.
Now was time for something else.
Lily’s lips were trembling as she tried to reply. Wavey wasn’t certain if she had expected a witty comeback or a mad yell, but lucky for her – it was neither of those.
She crashed onto Wavey, trapping her into a tight hug. After a short, bemused second, the older girl hugged her back. “I didn’t want this to happen”, Lily whispered into Wavey’s shoulder, as her tears soaked her black hoodie.
“I know”, Wavey managed to mumble. Lily was basically choking her, yet she didn’t mind. “Calm down. It’s gonna be alright.”
The healer couldn’t stop sobbing. “It’s not. Nothing’s alright after this. She’s gone. She’s gone, Wavey…”
Wavey bit her lip. If Lily continued like this, she would start crying too. Now was not her time for it – she’d grieve later. “Not completely… she’s still breathing. Her heart is still beating. What if… this is temporary too?” As impossible as it sounded, it could be – did the healers actually know everything about the deadly plant?
Lily sniffed. “Being braindead isn’t temporary, and you know it very well. Stop with the false hope… She’s dead and nothing will change that. We’ll just need to – need to -”
“Need to get through this”, Wavey finished. “I’ll help you. I’ll help everyone. We’re all going to need that help. Don’t worry – everything’s going to be okay.”
Lily released Wavey from the hug, and backed away. Since what had felt like forever, her face broke into a small smile. “Thank you, Wavey, thank you really -”
Wavey responded with the same kind of smile. “No need to thank me. This is what I’m made to do – along with theorizing, fangirling, being smart, friendly, Wave-y and hundreds of other things.”
Lily didn’t say anything, just wiped her eyes on her sweater’s sleeve.
“Now”, Wavey began again, “take it easy and tell me everything. Right from the start. We have to get this info.”
Lily stared at nowhere for a while, before sighing. “Okay, then. Where was I?”
“Moss went looking for the plant…” the girl recalled.
“Oh, right. Everyone had gone to sleep, and when the darkness had fallen Moss sneaked out. I would’ve done it for her, but Moss was the only one who knew where to look.”
Lily fiddled with her fingers. “She spent such a long time there… I was already getting worried. It was close to dawn when she arrived, carrying a strange-looking plant in a small box. I tried asking her stuff like where she had found it and what took her so long, but she just hushed me and commanded to get to work. Apparently she had ‘wasted precious time’. So we began working, squeezing the liquid out of the dubius plant, preparing the deadly drink for poor, poor Wistep…”
She seemed to be on the verge of tears once again, but this time she wasn’t letting them flow.
“Hold on”, Wavey interrupted. Something about the story didn’t make sense. “If you created the ‘medicine’ together, and Moss was the one who went looking for it, what makes you the guilty? Why do you think that you and only you are the reason for her death?”
The healer looked away, clenching her fist. “We’re getting there.”
Wavey nodded, signaling her to go on.
“On the same morning… After we had driven you out of this room to sleep elsewhere. The morning after Maple had dozed off on the windowsill. The morning after Moss came back herself. I don’t understand how she had the energy to stay awake… Maybe that’s the reason why she put me to do it.”
“She went to sleep and let you do it?”
“Not quite… She passed out. Exhaustion.”
“Passed out! She left on a long journey the next morning! She went looking for Blue after she had spend the night out and then fainted, and later passed out again! Why did you let her go, for heck’s sake!” Now Wavey was angry – pissed, at least. Health wasn’t something you played with like that!
“Relax! Nobody knew she had been out all night. She could have been busted! Besides, she said she wasn’t feeling tired…”
Wavey snorted. “She said.” She shook her head. “Don’t let her pull any risky moves again. Passing out two times during the same twenty-four hours doesn’t sound good.”
The healer pulled her hair. “Don’t put any more guilt on me! I didn’t know she accepted, okay? I would’ve done something!”
“Okay, okay, okay. I believe you.” Wavey didn’t want to break the walls of sanity and calmness Lily had built not too long ago. “Let’s keep our previous topic. Why do you blame yourself? If Moss made you pour the medicine down Wistep’s throat doesn’t make you ‘the only guilty’.”
“Oh”, Lily mumbled, “that. Part.”
Wavey nodded slowly, patting the blonde’s shoulder reassuringly. She understood how hard it was to say it aloud. “I’m not judging”, Wavey whispered, reminding Lily before she could forget and flip out again.
“Before Moss went to get some sleep – faint – she accompanied me and barely-alive-Wistep in this very same room. We were both frozen on our spots, our mouths shut but minds screaming. Neither one of us communicated, voiced our doubts and fears – but they were distinctly in the air, clear enough for both of us to see, hear, feel. I don’t know why Moss came. She said she was just checking to see if I ‘did it correctly’, but I think she wanted to… be there in case it failed. Be there to see the last seconds of living Wistep, if she died… and that ended up happening.” Lily’s voice faded away.
“I have no idea if it was the lack of sleep or what made her so doubtful and paranoid, but she got totally out of hand. She absolutely flipped. Out of nowhere, she began screaming, not necessarily to me or herself, or anyone, but she kept shouting about how cruel the world was and how we were playing with fate… I tried to calm her down, but I didn’t know how to because she’s never like that. When she started going on about how we were killing Wistep, I had gotten enough. I was already feeling guilty, broken and nerve-wrecked, and I didn’t need any more blames – I had gotten enough from myself.”
It took Lily a moment to bring herself to continue.
“So I pushed her away. Kicked out of this room. Slammed the door close right before her eyes. Didn’t let her back in even when she screamed. I hoped she’d stay out and go somewhere to get sleep. She probably wandered over to the medicine house and fainted there. I should’ve cared, but… I was way too frustrated.”
Lily’s eye glimmered in the dim room. “I had the glass in my hands, and I pondered whether I should throw it out of the window or commit the risky act. Well, I didn’t ponder too long… I gave up on doubting and crying and hopeless what-ifs, I wanted to act, do something for once! Try! Help her!” She was panting, but not because of the sudden out-burst. Because of the memories.
“I opened her mouth – gently, I might add, not forcefully – and poured the liquid into her throat. I made sure she wasn’t choking on it and that she would swallow safely. And that was the only part that succeeded with the certain medicine… It didn’t take her long to start – y’know – acting the wrong way. She wasn’t… reacting to me. You know what I mean, right? The thing they do with unconsicouss patients and such?”
No. “Yeah.”
“I – I began to realise. It had been a fifty-fifty chance, and the outcome was on the wrong side of the fifties. Wistep was dying inside. Literally. Even if I had the possibility to stop the life from draining from her, I couldn’t have done anything. I was completely thunderstuck. I don’t think I would’ve been as shocked even if Wistep had stood up and punched me in the face. The walls were collapsing. The roof was falling. My whole life was crashing. Just with that one, failed medicine attempt, my existence was ruined. And it’s all my fault.”
The tears were brighter than diamonds – and probably than their future too.
Thinking of talking in the situation made Wavey uneasy. The room had suddenly become darker and oppressing to be in. Despite that, her mind was bubbling with questions that she needed to voice. “How did you know she was dying… inside? How did you recognize that Wistep is braindead? Are there… signs?”
She felt uncomfortably much like a reporter.
“H-her eyes… they were dying down. The color was fading. The shine in them got bleached out. The life was draining away. Don’t question me, I’m more sure than I’ll ever be. Her brains are locked away, shut down, taken out of the game. They don’t work now, and neither does she.” Lily smiled sadly. “This is where our lives have come to. Doom. And there’s no going back.”
The emptiness inside Wavey wasn’t only her rumbling stomach.
“You don’t look sad”, Lily suddenly noted.
“I am, trust me”, Wavey sighed, “it’s just as if I don’t have any tears to let down. There’s a barrier inside me. I took the responsibility to find out what had happened, I took the stress of it because I wanted, and in the middle of that there’s no place for grief. But now that I know… the barrier is only starting to move away. Right now – I think I’m just empty, numb.”
The blonde stared at Wavey, eyes clouded with mixed emotions. “I want that feeling… that numbness. To save me from this he -”
The door crashed open loudly, making Wavey and Lily jump in surprise. They snapped their eyes at the direction – who was the one barging in? Flo? Icy? What would they say when they saw Wistep?
“Lily, oh my goodness, it’s Shivy again! She’s still saying the same -”
Moss halted in her tracks, staring at Wavey wide-eyed, shock and fright painted all across her face. “W-what are you doing here?” she spluttered.
“I know everything”, Wavey very un-discreetly stated, staring bluntly back.
“U-um, what? Lily, what is going on?” Moss glanced at her healer friend, scared to hear the reply.
“Long story short, Dew got paralyzed and made me tell her the truth, then she slapped me in the face and I ran into Wavey, who demanded me to explain.”
“What in the aussies’ name!” Moss screeched. “Just this once, I obey and stay in the medicine house and all this happens!”
“Calm down”, Wavey reassured, “I’m not judging. I was curious. Nothing more.
Moss made blank, doubtful eye contact with the girl. “And now that you know… What are you going to do?”
She didn’t seem to be afraid. Maybe she had known that this moment would come. Perhaps she was prepared.
Perhaps she accepted it.
“What do you mean, exactly? I think, we need to tell the others -”
Moss raised her hand to signal her to stop. “Of course. But that wasn’t why I’m asking. The question is – what are you going to do when the secret is out?”
“Me?” Wavey pointed at herself. “I don’t know – don’t the founders decide or -”
“No,” Moss interrupted, “what are you, all of you, going to do? To us? Kick us out of the Camp? Lock us somewhere? Punish us? Because I don’t think we’ll get away easily.”
Wavey shook her head. “Absolutely and totally no. Nobody is going to abandon you. I’m sure we can make an agreement – I’ll take care of it.” If I can have any affect on the decision, that is… There was no way they would punish the healers the hard way – let alone kick them out!
“We deserve to be left alone, abandoned…” Lily mumbled from the shadows.
“No you don’t. Moss, you’re a healer plus a founder – you’re trusted, and if the founders make the decision, your opinion will most likely be included. Taken in conclusion, at least.”
Moss nodded slowly, a blink of hope flashing in her eyes. “We’ll solve this like adults. Do this like professionals. I’ll explain them the facts and reasons behind our decision, then the campers can vote on what to do. If a punishment has to occur, I’ll suffer it meekly and with bravery.”
“That’s the spirit!” Wavey smiled. She hoped there wouldn’t be a punishment, but she wasn’t sure if she could affect the decision much.
“I’m actually doing it right now”, Moss suddenly said. Lily gasped – she was still in shock and not capable of handling big secrets being revealed. “I’ll take care of Lily here and then comfort Dew – you have to tell me what happened, though. But you need to look after Shivy for me, Wavey”, Moss continued.
Had Shivy woken up? When Mos had dashed in, she had mentioned something about Shivy, though. “Of course. What should I do?”
Moss glanced at Lily, and motioned Wavey to step out of the room. Wavey obeyed, and Moss closed the door behind them.
“I don’t think Lily should hear this yet, so I thought it would be best if I told you this privately”, Moss explained, earning a nod.
“If you didn’t know”, Moss began, “on the day when Shivy was found, she became conscious for a short moment and muttered that she ‘wanted to go back to the silo’.”
Huh? Back to the silo? What on Earth would she do there? Did she forget something?
“And as I was waiting there in the medicine house for the meeting to end and Lily to come back and inform me how it went, Shivy gained consciousness. All of sudden. Without any warning, she just began huffing and sat straight up.”
“That’s just odd”, Wavey mumbled. Her thoughts began running in her head, forming strange and blurry ideas.
“She wasn’t clear-headed, though. She wouldn’t answer my questions or drink the water I gave her. She said she couldn’t. She acted overall weird… not herself, might I say. Angry, and frustrated, as she murmured quiet words and sentences. I couldn’t figure out what she was rambling about, but I caught a few words – something along the lines of ‘needing to go back to the silo’.”
“The silo again?” I need a theory.
“Yep”, Moss puffed, “it’s worrying me. I think she hit her head or something.”
Wavey started to get an idea of what she was needed for. “And you need me because you’re afraid that she -”
“That she will try something idiotic like running away to the silo.”
“Gotcha. I’ll go immediately.” Wavey nodded and prepared to dash off, but Moss caught her arm. “Be… careful. She’s not herself”, she mumbled, her gaze wandering away. Wavey gave another nod, releasing herself from the grip and approaching the dorms’ door.
When she stepped out, she was greeted with chilliness of the wind. It dug under her skin, even though she was wearing a hoodie, and a small glance upwards revealed that it was going to rain. Drizzle, probably, since the storm had taken all of the moistness that could become rain and get poured on their heads.
Wavey was breathing in and out, relaxing for a moment, when suddenly the door opened again behind her. She twirled around, just to get astonished by a familiar figure.
“Moss? Did you forget something?” Wavey frowned at the sight of the healer.
Moss ignored the question. “I need to ask you something.” She looked paranoid all of sudden.
“Okay…?”
Moss glanced hastily around, before speaking: “What do you think of… life? More specifically… our life here? Is it all vain? Are we wasting our youths here, in the middle of nowhere, not even trying to explore the world and get out of here?”
Wavey stared at her, wide-eyed. Why was she talking about something like that? She didn’t know how to properly reply.
“I mean, is this right? Are we supposed to stay in the woods and live here? Don’t you wanna know what our past lives were like? Aren’t you interested? We should – explore. Go.” Moss shook her head from side to side, looking absolutely out of her mind.
She’s in shock. She’s not thinking clearly. I have to handle this like a grown-up. Wavey patted Moss’s shoulder reassuringly, smiling kindly at her. “I think we’re just splendid here. Not vain at all. Look at what we’ve accomplished. Our lives are here. Nowhere else. Past is in the past.”
Moss looked down. “I don’t know… That seems true. But I’m scared of this life. After what happened to Wistep, I don’t want to see what will happen to the others, if the Forest treats us this way.”
Wind blew the strands of the theory fanatic’s golden hair on her face and eyes, until a dance of dark blonde and purple blazed before her eyes.
“You’ve become… different. You were crazier. You didn’t care about these things. What put all this thoughts into your mind? What made you like this?” Wavey softly asked, strange emotions swirling inside her.
A short film played in the healer’s eyes with the speed of light, telling a story, showing everything she had experienced on the day when she had begun to see the world like this.
“I spent the night in the woods”, she whispered, “the whole night. That opens anyone’s eyes.”
Standing there in the whistling breeze, they pondered the words that were stated, as the grey skies mirrored their dull moods.
The blonde founder broke the silence soon after the quiet moment had begun. “You know what they say? When somebody fails, looses, makes a mistake? They say that you can’t have it all. But I feel like I have nothing. At all. You can’t get everything, and that’s true, because good people can’t get anything.”
Bewildered at the sudden outburst, Wavey stared at Moss weirdly. She felt like the exact opposite – in her opinion, they were lucky. “But we’ve gotten a lot! You have a lot! Your friends – you have us! We have food and water. We have a working system that keeps us alive. We have this camp. We have happiness.”
“That’s the point. We have everything we need, but at the same time we have nothing. We’re stuck here in an enormous forest, unaware of everything, living in what you could say is ‘happiness’. But what you’ll soon realise is that it’s only the outerior. We feel happy, and we even think we are, but the truth lies much deeper.” She lifted her eyes up to stare at the grey clouds. “It’s already starting to show. What happened to Wistep is the first step towards our doom. And it was only a scratch on the surface.” Now she turned to look at Wavey straight in the eyes. “So as you can see, we really have nothing.”
“We have many things. Look, we survived from the explosion, when millions of people didn’t. If that isn’t having something , be it luck or anything, then nothing is. Moss, the biggest thing is that we got through it.”
“Through? Oh, Wavey, we definitely haven’t gotten through it… We’re not even in it yet.”
Moss was gone in a blink of an eye, with her mysterious words and dark, foretelling thoughts. Wavey didn’t dash after her. She didn’t want to know what she had meant, she had had enough of the drama. She wasn’t feeling like theorizing, and when Wavey’s sick of theorizing, then it had surely gone too far.
The clouds didn’t have many tears to shed – it had only been a couple of days since the storm – but they gave their best shot. The small drops of the drizzle added on to her pain, stinging like needles as they hit her skin. She was haunted by the horrifying future Moss had foretold, and what would happen to Lily of course, but what pained her the most was the fate of her good friend. The death of Wistep. Now she felt the truth everywhere, she felt the reality – and it hurt more than the rain.
The tiny drops were like small knives, and still managed to wet her clothes completely. But Wavey didn’t care – she let her own tears blend with the rain.
****
“What’s wrong with you?”
A rude, annoyed-sounding voice made her halt abruptly right after she had closed the door and entered the big room.
Such a heart-warming welcome.
“Um, excuse me?” Wavey peeked around, frowning. “Who’s there? You, Shivy?” But that was nothing like Shivy.
“Shivy? Yeah, that’s me. And could you explain me what’s going on?”
Wavey looked around in the room. The beds, shelves, chairs, little jars with plants and herbs in them – everything – seemed to be in one piece, nothing was shattered, thrown around, jumped on –
“Hello? Are you awake?” A nasty voice cut off her thoughts.
Shivy, or what Shivy now was, sat on the second bed of the room, wearing clean, new clothes and a pissed off expression.
Wavey snapped her eyes at the blonde. “Oh, morning! Afternoon. Midday. Whatever it is now.”
“It’s afternoon. About one or two or even three o’clock I’d say. I’ve kept track”, Shivy announced, staring at Wavey with a look that made her uncomfortable. “Anyway”, she continued, “could you possibly shed light on this and explain what the heck is going on.”
I get the feeling she doesn’t know me… Or doesn’t like me. Oh my, she might’ve actually hit her head!
“Don’t you remember? You went looking for the group that had gone to the borders, but got attacked by the storm. You disappeared, and yesterday you were found, lying next to the silo in the woods, unconsciously.” She better remember. I’m not up to dealing with memory loss at this rate.
Shivy’s mouth formed a small ‘o’, as she let out an understanding noise. “I think I recall… but the silo, hmm…” she mumbled. Her eyes glittered with strange emotions that Wavey couldn’t quite understand.
“You do? Let’s test that, then.” Wavey stood up straight, looking down at the older girl, not really sure if she should smile, frown, be happy or suspicious. “Who am I? Do you know?” Now let’s see how okay she actually is.
“Of course I do.” Shivy moved her eyes up and down, from the girl’s toes up to her head. Wavey had an unpleasent feeling of being scanned. “Wavey”, she simply said, a strange look of victory plastered on her face.
For some reason, Wavey wasn’t able to feel joy. Sure, it was a great thing that Shivy still had her memory. And yes, Wavey was relieved. But as stated before, she wasn’t in the mood of feeling a bunch of emotions. She rather stayed numb. She was very aware that pain was necessary for everyone and needed to be gone through, but this time, she had to keep strong. Not get distracted with emotions. Not now. Not soon.
Later.
“Great”, Wavey monotonely replied, “keep it that way.”
“What way?” Shivy raised an eyebrow.
“That… remembering way.”
Shivy stood up from her temporary bed, walked past Wavey just to jump coolly on the other bed, sitting down as she flipped her hair.
Show off, much? Wavey rolled her eyes imperceptibly. Yep, Shivy’s brain was totally damaged. Then she grimaced at herself. Better not make any brain damage jokes anytime soon.
“So, girl”, Shivy began, resting her head on her hands as she lied on the bed, “open up that lil’ mouth of yours. I wanna hear what you have to say – why am I locked here? Because I was unconscious? That’s why I can’t leave?”
I still get that weird vibe from her. Especially from the way she talks. “You’re not locked here. You were injured, so the healers fixed you. Recap again – the group found you unconsciously lying on the ground right next to the silo. Remember? Just told you.”
Shivy’s face was the definition of realization. “Oh. Oh! OH!” She began smiling. “Now I remember. Everything.” She had a peculiar, mysterious glint playing mischiefously in her eyes.
Wavey raised her eyebrows. The information made something buried deep under the numbness flinch. “You do? Everything? Well, that’s great!” She flashed an only half-faked smile. Better not ask her about what happened at the silo yet. I feel like it’s not the time – I have to care for her health and be discreet.
“Yeah…very great”, Shivy mysteriously mumbled, leaving Wavey with a small theorizing urge, but she let it go. Well, partly. What’s going on…? I feel like, something other along with hitting her head happened at the silo, but she doesn’t remember it. I need to keep my eyes open.
Shivy stared at the wall behind Wavey for a while before hastily snapping her had at the multicolor-head. “So, if I’m not trapped here, I can leave now, right?” she asked, eyes sparkling.
Wavey shook her head. “Nope. You have to stay here until you’re properly healed. Moss and Lily are the ones to talk about that.”
“But that means I’m trapped here.”
“It doesn’t.”
“It does. It’s just a nicer way to put it.”
“But you’re not okay.”
“I am okay. Nothing can hurt me.”
Wavey rolled her eyes. “Sure. Now take a deep breath, sit down, take it easy, enjoy my company.”
Shivy narrowed her eyes as she crossed her arms. “Why are you here in the first place?”
“I was sent here by Moss, to be your -” watchdog “- companion. So you won’t get bored.” Or get any crazy ideas because of that condition and strange behaviour.
Shivy raised an eyebrow. “Why do I get the watchdog vibe?”
Don’t read my mind!
Wavey shrugged. “I don’t know. Why? You’re the one getting that vibe here, not me.”
“Well someone got sarcastic.”
“Learned it from you”, Wavey sassily responded, making Shivy stare at her incredulously. The girl with dyed hair quickly flashed a small smile. Cut off the sarcasticness, Wave. As she’s not acting like her ordinary self, I gotta be kind and show her that I’m a friend and not someone who ‘trapped’ her here.
“So.” Shivy’s suddenly started sentence pushed Wavey’s thoughts away and caught her off guard. “If I can’t leave, how are we going to spend the day?” the injured one asked.
That’s the spirit! “I don’t know – whatever you want to do! Are you hungry? Thirsty? I can go fetch you something”, the golden haired girl suggested.
It looked exactly like lamps of realization were turned on in her eyes. They glittered with satisfaction of coming up with an idea.
Before Wavey could question, Shivy spoke: “Actually, I would want a cup of tea -”
“But that’s kind of hard to make -”
“- or any kind of herb drink. I feel like it’d… energize me. Don’t the healers have all kinds of plants here? Surely some of them can be used in a drink.” Shivy glanced at her watchdog with hopeful eyes.
“Uh, well, Icy has most of the spices and flavouring stuff in the kitchen, I can go and ask her if it’s okay to borrow some… I don’t think it’s wise to start a bar here when we have no idea which herb is which.” I know for sure that I don’t want to accidentally drink tea made of the Death Trap.
“Come onnnnn”, Shivy whined, “I know there’s a drawer on her desk for herbs used in refreshing drinks and such. The more medicine than spice type of herbs she hasn’t taken to the kitchen. It wouldn’t hurt to use some… Pleaseeee?” Shivy showed her the puppy eyes.
Wavey hesitated. I can tell you those puppy eyes have no effect on me… But that drink might actually help with her condition… I know Moss or Lily wouldn’t be mad, but….
Shivy kept pleading and pleading, telling all kinds of assuring facts and how she had heard the healers talking about the herbs inside that certain drawer, how they were very edible and energizing and all. Soon it had gone to the point when Wavey had had enough. “Fine”, she hissed, “just cut out the pleading.”
Shivy clapped her hands excitedly, and rushed to the desk, starting to go through the drawers. “Geez, you’re supposed to make me feel better but you don’t even wanna make a drink for me”, Shivy sarcastically laughed as she began doing something with the herbs she took from the drawer.
“I’m a person who considers everything well”, Wavey reminded.
“Oh yeah, so you even consider every spoonful of soup you’re about to eat?”
“No. I don’t want to get poisoned or kill the one I’m supposed to be looking after just because we drank tea.”
Shivy laughed. “That’d look awesome in a gravestone. Cause of death: drank tea.” She laughed some more, never leaving her bar area.
“That’s not something to laugh about, death is a serious thing, y’know.” One more mention about death and I’m dashing out of the door. She bit her lip. The image of dead, pale Wistep was still too fresh in her mind, making bitter taste find its way to her mouth.
Shivy turned around, holding two cups of what possibly was herb drink in her hands. “I bet you won’t die after drinking this.” She walked back to Wavey, sitting down next to her. “Really, I promise you won’t die.”
Wavey took the cup, examinating it in her hands. The liquid was greeny brown and had parts of leaves and herbs floating in it, but it didn’t look disgusting. She sipped it – it was kind of bitter – earthy, but it wasn’t bad. It really felt refreshing – just what she needed. “Of course I trust in you – I didn’t actually think this drink could kill us if you were so sure about the safety of the herbs”, Wavey let out a short laugh and poured the rest into her mouth, enjoying the leaves tickling her throat. “So you promise I won’t grow a horn now? Turn into a frog?” Wavey jokingly asked, grinning at the other girl.
Her mood was rudely crashed down and into pieces.
“Oh no, I can’t promise that nothing happens… just that you won’t die.” Shivy’s smirk resembled Chesire Cat’s creepy grin.
It could’ve been a joke, but judging from the way Shivy announced it….
Wavey was dizzy from the events already, so she couldn’t quite catch what the girl was aiming for. She laughed joylessly, a hint of nervousness present in her voice. “You make that sound really creepy”, she remarked with uncertain playfulness.
Shivy’s face was frozen, like a rock – without any emotion, she stared at the younger girl with her multicolored eyes. It seemed like all of her Shivyness had drained from her, and she became… something unfamiliar.
“Sleep well”, that someone muttered, but Wavey couldn’t see her anymore – everything had started to blur out – from the edges of her vision, weird colors came to take over her eyes. The world became a foggy, shaking dream. The television with the colorful movie playing was broken, and the harsh reality took over – all the grey shades and dark truths were present, the true colors of the world were shown to her.
Panic rushed through Wavey. Usually she was calm in serious situations, but this was absolutely horrible, consuming, a true nightmare. She couldn’t move, her body was glued on the bed, and her brains were numb, so she couldn’t even come up with a quick plan.
She tried to scream, but there was nothing to yell to – just darkness, nothingness. Her lids must’ve been closed, she couldn’t tell anymore. Shivy, what have they done to you? Brainwashed? Then a painful, frightening idea crashed into her head, shattering her heart and feelings into even smaller pieces. What if she has always been like that? She was never Shivy. She was like a… double agent.
After that, she didn’t even want to gain her consciousness back.
***
Her finger.
There was something soft under it.
It had the sense. It wasn’t numb anymore.
She tried to control it, tried to bend it. It worked – it bent. The other fingers… they were starting to work too.
Then her hand. She lifted it weakly, feeling a small burst of happiness in her stomach as she felt sensation rush through the hand. Her both hands.
Her both arms gained their senses too. The same with her toes, feet, legs…
The feelings were beginning to return.
The world was still dark. Her mind was still pretty blank. She couldn’t quite recall what had happened – but it certainly wasn’t anything nice.
She gently shook her arms and legs on the soft surface, the fading numbness tickling in them. She tried to open her eyes, but her lids were too heavy. Neither did her head lift itself from the mattress.
Groaning with her dry throat, she began blinking. Everything was colorless and blurry for a while, but soon she started seeing faint colors… and brighter colors. The weak outline of a room formed in front of her, making her squeak at the brightness. There were too many colors, too many things, too much to remember –
Remember…
She shot up from the bed like a lightning, her body protesting aggressively.
Shivy.
Every corner of her body ached, and the numbness tickled all across it. It felt like she was being stabbed with thousands of small draggers. Her head was unbelivably dizzy, her vision had black stripes running across it whenever she turned her head too fast, her limbs were trembling, and a bunch of other bothers. Wavey wasn’t going to let them take the best of her. This Shivy-brainwashed-intruder was tresspassing on their safety-zone.
Wavey had to act. Now.
She stood up feebly, but gained her balance relatively fast. She exhaled and inhaled slowly to calm herself down, and then she dashed for the door. Her legs were weak and shaking, but her determination was driving her forwards.
It was already darkening outside. The sun was – most likely – going down, since the clouds had begun to turn more black instead of their regular light grey or white color. The drizzle was gone and the air was also much chillier.
I slept nearly the whole day. Shivy could be anywhere by now.
Nobody was outside. Not a single person. It almost gave the picture that the Camp was abandoned – which of course wasn’t the case. Maybe they were at the dorms, maybe they had been told about… Wistep. Maybe they were grieving. Crying their eyes out.
If I was an intruder or a brainwashed person following somebody’s evil orders mindlessly, what would I do and where would I go? Her brains weren’t yet thinking properly, her mind was still clouded with the heavy sleep, but the question was incredibly simple – she was quite sure she knew the answer.
The silo.
If Shivy mentioned the silo multiple times, with the context being her needing to go back there… Then why the heck wouldn’t she want to go there now that she got the chance?
Wavey glanced around before feebly starting to make her way towards the Forest. Do I know where the silo is? Wait, I do. I was one of the first ones to visit it… But do I remember how to get there? Gathering all of her courage, energy and determination, she took off and began moving ahead with a swift pace. She didn’t dare to run in her unstable condition, but she surely made it up with a well-thought-out walking pace and the calm determination.
As she had dash-walked for a while she was reminded about the long way ahead of her. Could she take it? What would she do if she found Shivy, anyway? Now was too late to turn back. She had to come up with something… At least she had time.
She had never been out this late. Even if it wasn’t night yet, the sky was darkening with a warning speed, and it became even more dangerous to wander around in the Forest. It wasn’t safe to be out in the woods alone in the daylight, so how the heck would she be able to survive at night, alone, in a hazy condition, chasing after an extremely dangerous person that they knew nothing about?
Was it wise? No.
Was it something Wavey would normally do? No.
Did she have any idea what was coming? No.
Was she willing to do it? Yes.
Could it end her? Yes.
But she was most definitely going to do it.
Whatever the ‘it’ was.
Soon the darkness fell even more notably. It felt like she was in a lightless tunnel. Like there was an enormous black blanket wrapped around every tree – everywhere she went there were always darkness, shadows and shades hiding behind every corner, making her rush around almost blindly. How could she ever get to the silo if she couldn’t even see the ground under her feet?
Luckily, she wasn’t dumb.
She recalled that when she first visited the silo they had followed the River’s coast line – not seeing it at all but hearing the streaming water somewhere near.
And that was her trick this time.
Wavey didn’t have time to groan because of aching parts in her body, even though after speed walking for a good while she was most certain that there were these kind of spots on her. She was too determined to feel – she had felt enough already.
The Forest was creepy, to say at least. Every crackling and snapping branch and leaf under her shoes made her fear-level rise drastically. Every time wind whispered behind a tree she jumped in fright, imagining a Monster or armed Shivy-intruder dashing from behind, tearing her into pieces. Every time a shadow grew taller she got alarmed and was ready to smack something. Every time a dew drop fell on her skin she prepared to defend herself.
And every time, she balanced her calmness level fast and sangfroidly.
Her hair got glued on her sweaty face. She wasn’t sure why she was sweaty – it was horribly cold, the early night air brushed on her skin like a cold shower. And the breeze wasn’t helping. At all.
She wasn’t physically capable of this kind of marathon so soon after waking up from heavy, unnatural sleep. That truth was written all over her body – she felt it in her burning lungs, heavy breathing, aching limbs, tired eyes. She was sure she would collapse to the ground at any second.
Despite her physical self not being able to cape with the long journey, her psychical self was very ready for whatever would come. She was filled with determination like stated many times before, she even had faint ideas of what she’d do if she ran into Shivy. She was sure that her decision had been the right one. Chasing after Shivy was the right thing to do. Right?
If I catch her, I must not hurt her or attack, I have to –
A crack.
Wavey halted instantly, frozen like a rock.
There had been many cracks, many rustles, many snaps, crackles, whooshes, buzzes, noises and voices along the way, but this was something different. Something unordinary.
It wasn’t a crack the wind made. It wasn’t a crack her feet made. It wasn’t a crack a squirrel made.
It was a crack a living being made.
Suddenly the breath got caught in her throat. A moment ago it had felt like she could pant forever, but now there was no way she could force anything out of her mouth. She completely froze, being locked on the place she was standing at, her eyes franctically searching for any sign of movement from the shadows.
She almost felt a stare burning on her skin. She almost heard someone panting behind the bushes. She almost knew she was going to experience something unexpected – even tragic.
Unluckily, she was right about that.
A horrible, crushing smack of pain on her head.
Then the world turned black.