Chapter 54: 64. Wake Up!

Rorri

 

Wake up…

 

Rorri scampers into an alley, shivering and sweaty. “You said it was supposed to rain tonight,” he says to the shadow on the wall.

The Weatherman sighs.

“Look around you.”

 

The rain pounds against Rorri’s head, making his colors run. He curls up beneath a soggy box.

“I thought I’d find you here,” the spider says, looming over him.

“Just leave me alone,” he says, shivering like a terrified dog.

“But Adar said he was making tea.”

 

Wake up…

 

“What?” Rorri says, but the tea is cold already. Adar shakes his head.

“You really ought to pay attention…”

“You don’t understand!” Rorri yelps. “The Duén-”

 

Wake up!

 

“You really shouldn’t move,” the spider cautions.

“It should have been me…” Adar laments.

 

Wake up, you stupid idiot!

 

The alley shakes. Rorri buries his face in his arms.

“But I’m so tired…”

 

*******

 

“Wake up!”

Shacia’s voice finally penetrated the barrier between Rorri’s ears and his mind, bringing him wakefulness, and the pain that came with it. He writhed, clutching his shoulder, eyes squeezed tightly shut. The cold covered his skin, but it did nothing to numb the pain shattering his bones.

“Shh, shh – stop moving,” Shacia cooed. He could hear the restraint in her voice, the softness she added for him. “You’re very – very badly injured,” she stammered. “I’m going to find a guard—”

“No!”

Rorri twisted to grab her, to stop her from leaving, but when his eyes flashed open…

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Shacia gasped. His pain faded into the background.

“What…?”

She remained silent through the seconds that ticked by, the seconds of disbelief, the seconds to realization. Rorri blinked. He blinked again. He blinked again. Rapidly, then forcefully, his breath and heartbeat accelerating with each fruitless, fluttering blink.

“I can’t…”

He tried to sit up, but the pain assaulted his arm, his chest, his side. He cried out and fell back, shaking.

“Rorri, don’t—”

He heard her dress swish as she leaned in to stop him, to soothe him. He heard her trembling breath over the chaos in the distance. He flinched as her quivering hand found his cheek.

“I can’t s-see…”

He felt for his eyes. They were still there – they moved behind his eyelids – but they were like lanterns without oil. Skies without stars.

Shacia sniffed. He could picture her face in perfect detail: the color her blood made behind her colorless skin, the way her veins forked and disappeared beneath her cheeks…

“What did you do?” she squeaked, her voice finally releasing its fragile authority. Rorri opened his mouth to speak, but the words would not bloom on his arid tongue. Tightly drawn breaths made up the rhythm of her weeping. He winced as a wayward tear hit his arm, its impact somehow more painful than every fracture in his skeleton.

“You need a medic,” she managed to eek out. “I’m going to—”

“Don’t – please don’t call for the Guard,” he begged. “Please – if you care about me—”

“Of course I care about you, you idiot!” she snapped. “Dear god, Rorri, why would you do this to yourself? Do you want to die?”

“Shacia—”

“What—?”

She stopped herself. Rorri sensed her understanding.

“Oh my god…” she whispered. “Did… Did you…?”

“I jumped,” he confessed, “but I-I swear, it wasn’t…” He gave a small, helpless sigh, tears overwhelming his useless eyes. He never knew Shacia to be rendered speechless, but for far too long, she did not speak. Were it not that he heard no footsteps, he would have feared she’d left him in that place.

“Please believe me – I only w-wanted to help, and—”

He cried out as another wave of pain hit his side, breaking his voice.

“Why won’t you let me help you?” she said, her desperation breaking through the cracks in her pitch.

“I’m a t-terrible liar…” he said, panting. “But… but I’m very good at keeping s-secrets – do you understand? If you call for the Guard, I—”

“Did you kill someone?” Shacia whispered.

“No, of course not…”

Rorri cringed. His mind’s borders blurred, like he might float away, but he fought to keep himself grounded.

“I’m not – I’m not violent,” he wheezed, his whole body tingling. “I’m just – I’m a coward, an idiot – and – Shacia, please… please, just…”

His voice trailed off into a wordless void. He knew there was nothing more he could say, no rationale which could possibly justify his foolishness. His fate was in her hands alone. Rorri whimpered as her hair tickled his neck and her fingers laced with his. She squeezed his hand, almost as if to steady herself, so cold and shaky was her grasp. In that mournful silence, he struggled to keep his focus on her touch, but his consciousness was ebbing, and though he kept snatching it back, it grew more elusive each time.

“I can’t just leave you here,” Shacia finally blubbered. “I can’t…”

His eyes snapped open as a thought struck him. She recoiled – a reaction that twisted his gut – but he could not dwell on it yet.

“Adar,” he breathed. “Get Adar – he’s – he’s good at this, at fixing – f-fixing broken… broken…”

Before he could finish that desperate thought, the bright white pain swallowed him whole. Thunder rumbled across the sky as he retreated into the Dream. By the time the rain pattered on the cobblestone, his mind was tucked safely away, though his body was exposed, vulnerable. His chest still rose and fell, however shallow, however fragile.

He heard a soft pat pat pat – the sound of Shacia’s bare feet carrying her away – but in his dream, all he could see was a floundering fish in a puddle.

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