I woke with a start to darkness and almost complete silence. The only sounds came from water dripping into a puddle and the quiet breaths of people caught in the tendrils of deep sleep. My right arm itched, and I reached over absently to scratch it, but I quickly withdrew it when my fingers brushed up against something hard.
Slowly, my eyes grew accustomed to the blackness, and I was able to see what was around me. There were people in the beds beside me, and the dripping was coming from a clear glass jar on a medal stand that stood to my right. The hard thing I had felt was a tube connected to it, which just happened to be inserted into my arm. It was then I understood. I was in the medical tent.
I sat up slowly, unsure of why I had woken up so suddenly. My hair clung stubbornly to my skin like wavy vines on a stone wall, and I had to do several sweeps before it was no longer inspiring my vision. Then I remembered why I had woken up so suddenly. Henry. I had had a dream about him. A bad dream. But unfortunately, not all nightmares are just dreams.
My stomach turned with worry, and I gripped the edge of the pale blue sheets until they crinkled. I was in a bed, and I didn't remember anyone putting me in.
Arnold had said that the doctors had found him, and he wasn't responding. What if he never responded again? I had a brief image of him slowly wasting away in a bed, never to be really alive again.
Stop it! I commanded myself. I didn't know anything for sure! I could've interpreted what I heard wrong or even imagined it. Plus, just look at the messenger! It was that weird Arnold kid. He could've been making it up to get a reaction out of me. I had the feeling that he would be that kind of person who got entertainment out of the misery of others.
"Violet," a voice whispered from the dark. I couldn't tell if it had come from a boy or a girl, just that it had said my name.
I peered into the dark. "Who's there?" I called out, my voice shaking slightly.
"Violet," a different voice whispered this time. I'm not sure if it was a boy or a girl again. The sex was indistinguishable; it just sounded like a different individual.
"Violet," yet another voice whispered, and then, "Violet! Violet! Violet!" At least ten different voices joined in at once, and all at once my bed was surrounded by pale men. Each man was mutilated in some different way. All their skin was clawed up like they had been attacked by something with sharp claws, something like a griffin. They stared at me with empty eye sockets and began to paw at the sheet that was covering me with their thin, pale fingers.
I didn't even scream; I just let out a small gasp and reached over and ripped out the IV from my arm. It hurt more than I expected it to, but I gave the pain very little pause. My need to get out of this bed greatly outweighed it.
I closed my eyes, threw off the covers, and bolted out of the bed. "The moment my feet hit the ground, I stumbled, and my eyes flew open briefly to see that I was not surrounded by ten ghosts anymore, but at least fifty. Even worse, they were standing between me and the exit to this tent. To get out, I would have to get through them, a lot of them.
I closed my eyes once again and ran forward. I had the sensation of moving through something that wasn't quite air, wasn't quite solid, but extremely cold. The flaps of the tents brushed lightly against my skin upon my exit, and I found myself under the protective blanket of the night sky.
A cool breeze brushed past me, and I shivered. I looked down to see
"Honey?"
I jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder, "I turned to see a gray-haired woman clothed in a short light blue dress. The typical uniform of a nurse. What are you doing out of bed..?" she trailed off when her big, cow like brown eyes traveled down to the gaping wound on my arm from where I had ripped out the IV.
"I'm not going back in there," I said hurriedly and backed away from her when she reached for me.
She gave me a patient smile and reclosed the distance in a couple of steps, "Honey, you can't stay out here wearing that and..." her smile dropped, and her eyes fixed on something behind me. Her eyes widened in fear, and her mouth dropped into a gaping expression.
I turned around and my eyes fixed on the figure of Neeva, a Neeva that only had a right arm. He stood against the night sky with a dismembered arm grasp of his now one remaining hand.
Well, I guess the thing about my father losing his one arm had been true and not misheard or mistaken. Like me, he was dressed in the same blue cotton straight dress. Locks of black hair clung to his brow, like he had been sweating profusely. His skin was pale, a lot paler than usual. His dark purple eyes were sunken into his white face.
"In there is not the best place for recovery for people like us," Neeva said, and the nurse nodded and took two small shuffling steps backward, before turning and rushing back inside the tent.
Neeva nodded at me, "The recently made ghosts woke me up too, come, daughter," he said and motioned towards me.
"Why do you have that?" I asked and pointed to the disassembled arm in his possession. Neeva's gaze dropped to it. He closed his lips in a tight, thin line like he didn't want to talk about it, but I wasn't going anywhere with him until he explained himself.
"Oh, you are referring to this?" he finally said and held up the pale limb higher, "Ah, I occasionally find myself plagued with great hunger during the night, and I soothe it with the flesh of the dead."
My mouth popped open in a silent scream, and he turned his gaze to my face and caught the expression on my face. He laughed, and his eyes swept over my face, "I'm just joking, daughter, but perhaps that joke wasn't that well received," he said, slowly dropping the smile that had come with his laugh.
I placed one hand on my heart and felt just how hard it was beating against my chest. "You bet that wasn't well received! Don't joke about something like that again! But seriously, what's up with the arm!?"
Neeva looked down at the place his arm had been and then back at me. "If you haven't noticed, daughter, I am currently one arm short. A griffon consumed it while I was summing the dead with you. This is my replacement."
I gave him a knowing smile, "Haha, very funny, but seriously. What is up with the arm!?"
Neeva frowned at me, "I told you already daughter it's my replacement. I tell you no lie this time nor jokes. I made a bargain with the spirt of the body for which this arm once belonged and he let me have it," he continued "Come with me as I fulfill it," he finished and began to briskly wall away, while I stood and processed if for a coupled of seconds.
I jogged to catch up with him. It was then that I realized I was barefoot, too. I felt the blades of cool grass tickle my toes.
I was totally out of breath by the time I reached him. I mean, I wasn't in the most fantastic shape, but I wasn't a total slob. I
"So you're not kidding?" I asked slowly, the wind picked up my black curls and blew them around my face.
"No, daughter, I am not," he said and kept walking.
"So you're telling me that you are going to attach that thing to yourself and it's going to become your arm?" I asked, not believing those words even while they exited my mouth.
Neeva shook his head, "Not before I pay the price. Can you hold this for me?" he asked and held out his arm to me.
I let out a small yelp and hopped away from him, " No way I'm touching that thing," I said with utter disgust and pointed a shaky finger towards it, "I might have the ability to raise the dead, but that doesn't mean I'll be touching that arm anytime soon."
Neeva stopped walking and held it out to me, "No, I don't want you to hold it itself, I want you to hold what it is holding," he said, and that's when I noticed something was dangling from the pale white fingers. It glimmered a blue gold in the dim lighting of the moon.
I approached the arm cautiously. "You mean this?" I asked, and Neeva nodded. I reached out cautiously and grabbed it, and shuddered; it was in my own living hand. From what I could feel, whatever I was holding was on a fine metal chain on that chain was something hard and smooth.
My father withdrew his hand from my close vicinity. "Thank you," Neeva said with a completely emotionless expression and began walking again. I fell into step beside him. I balled my hand into a tight protective ball around my newly acquired object.
We drew near one of the campfires that dotted our current nighttime landscape, Neeva grabbed me and yanked me away from the warm glowing light and until my back touched his chest. He clamped a hand over my mouth, and I let out a small squeak of surprise, which was muffled under his palm.
He leaned close to my ear, and his breath tickled my ear, and I leaned away from him slightly, creeped out by our close vicinity. Technically, he was my father and the father of my new baby sister, but technically, I didn't know him well enough for him to be doing this.
"We don't want anyone to see us, at least not when we are participating in activities dealing with the dead. It makes people uneasy, and everyone is already uneasy enough."
He let go of me, and I quickly stepped away from him and turned to face him. "Is Henry dead?" I asked abruptly, and I felt the tears begin to stream down my face.
Neeva blinked at my unexpected question, "What is the meaning of the sudden question?" he asked.
"I don't know, you said something about dead, and I thought of Henry," I began to tug at my hair and began to pace back and forth on the grass, "because the thing about your arm turned out to be true, and so did the thing about mom being in labor, and Henry wasn't waking up..." I stopped when I noticed the way Neeva was looking at me.
He opened his mouth slowly, and I stopped pacing and focused my attention on him,
"Daughter, I don't know if you fully understand the extent of our abilities, but they do not include mind reading." he paused for a second, like he was trying to figure out what to say next. His eyebrows knitted together and created a crease on his forehead." What I think I'm trying to imply is that I think what you're saying out loud is probably making more sense in your head, but it is not making any sense out loud. All I was asking was if you were to try to move through here undetected..."
Neeva's head jerked up suddenly, and he stared wide-eyed into the sky, "But we do not have time for you to try to explain your words, we must hurry! If we do not fulfill this now, I cannot have this arm," he said and turned and ran, leaving me to follow behind.