“Answer Call” appeared on Victor’s screen. He hesitated. Last night, Juliet had dared him to answer the first call of his shift with, “911, what is your malfunction?” but he wasn’t sure that would fly with his supervisor. He scanned his monitor. He recognized the caller’s number. He sighed and said, “911, what is your malfunction?”
On the other end of the line, Juliet smiled amidst her panic. “This is not what I had in mind,” she said. “I need an ambulance and fire and rescue to Mitchell Park.”
Victor typed into his computer and dispatched units. “What happened?”
“My cousin Ophelia and I were on a hike, and I tripped, causing her to fall over me, and now she’s impaled by a tree branch at the bottom of Stafford Hill by the river.”
“Okay. Responders are about five minutes out, but you are half an hour away from the nearest hospital. Is Ophelia awake?”
“I think so.” Juliet pulled the phone away from her face and called out to her cousin. She couldn’t hear anything, but Juliet saw Ophelia attempting to respond. She turned her attention to Victor. “She’s awake and moving.”
“Great. Where was she impaled?”
“Right thigh, but her right ankle looks pretty bad, too.”
“I will let them know. Your cousin is Ophelia?”
“Yeah. Her older sister is Rosalind, and my brother is Duncan.”
“Wow. Why did I not know this?”
“I guess it never came up.”
———
Juliet rushed over to the bright orange rescue sling. “Offie, I’m here!” She caressed her cousin’s sweat-streaked black hair.
Ophelia moaned. Her right leg was stained many shades of red and purple from her various injuries. A tree limb poked through her right thigh. The hole oozed a deep blood red. Her ankle was bright purple and swollen.
A paramedic Juliet hadn’t met before walked over to the two. “My name is Pramit,” he said. He examined Ophelia’s leg. “We can deal with the branch at the hospital, but I am going to need to reduce that ankle. It looks dislocated.”
Another paramedic carried a med bag over to Ophelia’s arm. “I have some morphine,” he said. He slipped the catheter into her elbow crease, seemingly getting a vein on the first try. He pushed the plunger of the syringe attached to the other end of the catheter. He traded the syringe for a bag of saline.
Pramit called for Juliet, “We are going to put her ankle back. Can you hold the saline up? And also probably her hand.”t
Juliet nodded and took the saline bag from the other medic. She grasped her cousin’s hand.
Without warning, Ophelia let out an ear-piercing yelp, but as soon as it started, it was over. Pramit had reset her ankle.
Trigger Warnings – Also Tagged: Collapse, Medical Devices
WC: 1078
Without further ado…
————–
“What was that?”
“What?”
“The thud at the door.”
“I don’t know. You should probably check it out.”
“Me? Fine.” Juliet got off of the couch and headed to the door of the apartment. She peered through the peephole. Instead of finding the expected head at eye level, she saw a woman’s body splayed across the carpeted hallway floor. “Anna! Call 9-1-1 and meet me out here! NOW!” Juliet unbolted the door and rushed to the woman’s side. As both Anna and Kai had told her, the first thing Juliet did was check her pulse and her breathing. Juliet placed her teal-painted fingertips against the side of the woman’s neck and held her ear over the woman’s rising chest. Pulse? There and rapid. Breathing? There and that’s all that Juliet could tell.
Anna rushed over to the scene and knelt beside the woman. Anna placed her phone next to the woman’s head. “Juliet, any info?”
“Breathing and heart’s beating,” Juliet replied as if the phrase had been drilled into her as a child. “Pulse is rapid and I haven’t checked for identifying info.” Juliet scanned the woman for a wallet or a phone. At Anna’s feet, Juliet spotted a bright blue puff–a key chain. “Anna, keys, 11 o’clock.”
Anna picked the keys up. On the ring was a tag with the number 302 on it. Unit 302 was just down the hall. “Juliet, this is our new neighbor. Can you check if someone’s home? They might have more info.”
“Yeah.” Juliet sprinted down the hall and arrived at the door of unit 302. She knocked and got no response. So she knocked harder and longer.
A man came to the door. “How can I help you?”
“Your, uh, roommate collapsed in front of my apartment.”
“Demetra? Oh my gosh. Have you called an ambulance?”
“EMS is on their way. Can you tell us anything about her medical history? Do you want to come see her?” Juliet stepped back to allow the man to walk into the hallway. “By the way, my name is Juliet. My roommate, Anna, is a nurse. She is down there with Demetra.”
The man grabbed his phone from the kitchen table behind him and stepped out into the hallway. “Omar. Nice to meet you.”
They wandered down the hallway. “Anna, this is Omar,” Juliet said.
Anna looked up at Omar and gave a half smile. She shifted her gaze to Juliet. “Can you please grab my stethoscope, the pulse oximeter, the glucometer, and some alcohol swabs? Just grab the whole emergency kit and my purse.”
As Juliet ran off into the apartment, Omar knelt next to Demetra. “That’s a lot of things. Is she okay?” He cradled Demetra’s left hand against his chest.
“She’s alive and has no signs of major injury or trauma. I’m just not sure what’s wrong with her, and I have no clue why she collapsed,” Anna responded, keeping her voice level yet calm.
Juliet emerged from her apartment with a pink purse slung across her shoulder and the white box of the emergency kit in her hands. She passed the kit into Anna’s hands and placed the purse to the right of Anna’s feet. Juliet crouched down next to the purse. “What can I do?” Anna passed the pulse oximeter to Juliet. “Place this on one of her fingers.” Juliet did as she was told and slipped the clip over Demetra’s right ring finger. Anna pulled her bright pink stethoscope from her purse and placed its diaphragm on Demetra’s chest. She looked up at Omar. “Her breathing is okay.”
Omar nodded. “I should’ve been with her.”
Anna shifted her gaze back to Omar. She had picked up Demetra’s right hand and begun wiping it with the alcohol swab. “What do you mean?”
“Her American friends had taken her out to do something for the wedding. I can’t remember the word for it in English, but her friends insisted that I didn’t come.” Omar twisted Demetra’s engagement ring around her finger.
Juliet perked up. “The dress,” she said. “There’s a big belief here that seeing the bride in her dress before the wedding is bad luck.”
“Yes, that’s it,” Omar replied. “I am so sorry, Demetra normally helps me when I forget the words for things.”
Anna reached across Demetra and placed her hand on Omar’s. “It’s okay. You are doing just fine.” She switched her attention to the phone next to Demetra’s head. “Hey, dispatch, how’s that ambulance coming?”
A voice came from the phone and said, “About a minute. Omar, congratulations on the wedding. If you don’t mind me asking, what other languages do you speak?”
“Uzbek and Greek,” Omar responded.
“That’s really cool,” the 911 dispatcher replied. “How did you meet Demetra?”
“I’m from Uzbekistan and I went to Greece for university. Demetra is from Greece and went to the US for university.” Omar paused as sirens coming from outside crescendoed and then suddenly stopped. “We met during the summer in Athens five years ago. Demetra wanted to go back to the US to be with her friends and I was accepted to graduate school, and now we live here.”
Just as Omar finished, Kai rushed a stretcher down the hall to where the group had crowded around Demetra. Kai glanced at his radio and then down at Anna’s phone next to Demetra’s head. “Dispatch, this is medic Kai Himona, I’ve got it from here.” He shifted his attention to Demetra and grabbed the yellow backboard from the stretcher. Juliet and Anna instinctively cleared their side to make way for Kai. He carefully lifted Demetra’s side and slid the backboard under her.
Anna locked eyes with Kai. “On three?” She waited for Kai to nod in return. “One, two, three.” The two grabbed opposite sides of the backboard and lifted Demetra to the stretcher. As they moved away, Omar dropped Demetra’s hand. Anna raced back to Juliet, who had started to repack Anna’s pink purse. Anna gathered her things and took the purse out of Juliet’s hands. “Thanks.”
Juliet followed Anna back to where Kai had stationed the stretcher. She kissed Kai on the cheek and was promptly cut off by Anna.
“I’ll brief you on her situation en route,” Anna said to Kai. “And thanks for the ride to work.” She turned to Omar. “Omar, you can come too.”
“Okay.” He joined Kai and Anna as they wheeled Demetra down the hall and to the ambulance.
Additional Tags: beating, kidnapped for ransom, blindfolded
A/N: Back again! This is the event that kickstarted my journey both into whump and my dive into the Naruto fandom. I’ve made so many good friends in the past year, and I hope to continue to cultivate those friendships and make new ones in the year to come.
I consider this fic to be in the same Verse as Found Family, but there are no references to the a/b/o dynamics present in that fic, so it can very well stand on its own!
(feel free to comment or message me to be added to the tag list for this event!)
Hōki has been so careful, at the behest of his parents, to keep his ability to himself and his teammates. He needs to have sightlines, and he’s done his best to make sure that Sai-taichou, Hako, and Renga also know that he won’t be as effective without being able to see, at least for the first few minutes of engagement. Sai-taichou told him it wouldn’t be a problem, as he and the others would only be going on intelligence-related missions and engagement shouldn’t ever be a problem at their current level.
Tell that to the three shinobi currently walking him through some fortress somewhere; with the blindfold, Hōki can’t see where they’re going and is relying on the two men holding either of his arms to lead him through without tripping.
He just hopes that Hako and Renga got out alright. He stayed behind to engage and make a distraction so they could get away, overestimating his own abilities in the process. Getting caught wasn’t the plan. He’s supposed to be their team captain now, and they’ve discussed what to do in situations like this… hopefully, they’ll stick to it and go back to Konoha to get backup.
Caretaker could hear them in the distance, trudging through the trees with little regard to the noise they made. The far away - but not far enough - stampede of boots on fallen leaves and the piercing snap of sticks. Their volume wasn’t a good sign. Just what had made them so confident all of a sudden?
Sensing their slight distraction, Whumpee squeezed Caretaker a little tighter. They receieved a gentle hand on their head in return but it did nothing to soothe Caretaker’s small, injured companion; they trembled all the same.
CW: Creepy whumper, some gore, conditioned whumpee, recapture (lmk if I missed anything)
*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*
Caretaker turned on the tap and sighed. Their reflection on the bathroom mirror showed just how tired they were. Ever since whumpee returned, they hadn’t been able to sleep, too scared of whumper kidnapping them again. The last time they tried to take a nap, the image of whumpee bloody and bruised flashed over and over again in their head until they decided to spent another night living on caffeine.
They turned off the tap and slid the toothbrush back into the case. Perhaps they should try taking a sleeping pi– a dreadful scream hit them, accompanied by a muffled plea. They turned around so fast that they nearly slipped.
“Whumpee! Are you okay!” They wrenched the doorknob and bursted into the room.
“Don’t move, caretaker. Unless you want whumpee to get hurt that is.”
The sight that met them was enough to send chills down their spine. Whumper had whumpee against the wall, their casual hold around whumpee’s neck keeping them off the ground.
“Don’t try anything. Slowly and quietly kneel down, your hands behind your head.” Whumper tightened their grip, earning a whimper from whumpee.
Caretaker seemed to have forgotten their voice in the bathroom. Trembling, they got down.
“Good job, caretaker. Now, would you like to play a game? It’s called caretaker or whumpee. One of my personal favorites actually.” Whumper smiled, sickening caretaker to the bone.
“P-please!” Caretaker’s voice returned, desperate and shaky. “Do anything to me. Just- just don’t touch them!”
“I didn’t explain the rules yet, did I? You won’t be the one to choose. Whumpee will be the one doing the honors.” Their grip abruptly loosened.
Whumpee fell down with a thud, gasping for breath.
“Whumper! Please!” Caretaker’s vision was clouded with tears. “I’m begging you! Let me–”
A sharp cry rang across the room as whumper slammed their boot into whumpee’s back. Ignoring caretaker’s protests, whumper yanked up whumpee’s head by the hair. “You seem to have forgotten what I taught you, whumpee. Truly disgraceful. Screaming? Did I give you permission to do that?”
Through tears and pained breaths, whumpee shook their head.
“You’re supposed to apologize.” Whumper slammed their head into the ground. Once. Twice. Thrice. More. More. Once more.
Caretaker’s eyes fell to the floor. Their throat felt hoarse. Their body weak. The sick sound of whumpee’s face hitting marble. Over and over. And over. Again. And again. They couldn’t take it anymore. “Whumper, please!” They cried out again, only to be ignored. Their face burned with guilt and shame. They had promised whumpee that they would never let whumper near them again. They had promised themself that they would kill whumper as soon as they would catch sight of them. Yet, whumper was right there. In front of their eyes. Why… Couldn’t they do anything about it?
After a length of time that felt way too long, the dreadful sounds stopped. Caretaker forced themself to look back up.
“Choose, whumpee.” Whumper breathed in their ear. Caretaker’s insides squirmed. “Should I hurt you or caretaker?”
“Me.”Caretaker flinched. Their face was bloody, burning with pain. Yet not a hint of hesitation crossed their voice.
“Very well. You’re too good, whumpee.” Whumper stood up, leaving whumpee motionless on the floor. They were soon face to face with a stunned caretaker. “I have a little something for you.”
A sharp sensation at the back of their neck and caretaker fell to the ground. Whumper stood back up, pushing caretaker’s head to the side with their boot, giving them a full view of whumpee.
“Let’s begin.” They walked back over, unhidden malice dancing in their voice. “Once I start, I won’t be able to stop, alright? Are you really sure about this, whumpee?”
“Thank you for giving me another chance, sir. I couldn’t be grateful enough.” Their eyes were blank and empty.
Tears streamed down caretaker’s face. There was nothing they could do but watch. They had failed to keep their promise. They had failed to protect whumpee.
(This series is created from the prompts given by @summer-of-whump) (Also, Shea is pronounced [shAY])
CW: Child whumpee, kidnapped, ‘it’ as a pronoun, head injury, child abuse, manipulation, fire, lightly implied burns, implied death
Shea screamed, covering his head as flaming debris fell nearby.
“Shea!” The boy looked up to see his mother running towards him. She scooped him up into her arms and ran.
“Momma, what’s happening?” Shea squeaked, hiding his face. “I’m scared!”
“It’s going to be okay, baby. We just need to get out.” His mother’s voice was calmer than it was a moment before, although it still held a note of panic. “You remember the fire drills? It’s just like that. It’s going to be okay.”
Shea dared to peek back at the community. The fires were everywhere. People were running, some flying. To Shea’s horror, several people’s wings were actually onfire. His own mother’s wings were blackened in places.
“Momma, what happened to your wings?”
“Don’t worry about it baby— I’m fine. Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”
“I’m okay.” And Shea hid his face again as his mother continued to run deeper into the forest.
Only a short couple of minutes had passed when Shea felt the unmistakable feeling of rising in the air. It didn’t feel like flying, however— the incline felt sharper. His mother screamed and held onto Shea tighter.
Shea tried to wriggle free of his mother’s hold to see what was happening. “What?? What’s happening??”
Cruel laughter broke out from the trees around them and Shea managed to catch sight of the net surrounding him and his mother before his mother managed to pull him back against her, shielding his eyes. “Don’t move.” She whispered, her voice breaking.
Shea stopped moving, confused. He felt his mother pull her wings to surround him.
“Well would you look at that? We actually caught one of them!” Someone said from the ground.
“Who are you people? What do you want?” Shea’s mother’s voice sounded harsh and a little scared.
“Damn. Its wings must’ve caught fire. This one’s as good as worthless.” Another voice said.
“Best to just leave it and check the other traps. If we don’t catch anything else, this one’ll have to do.”
Shea heard footsteps begin to walk away. “Momma, I’m scared.” He whispered and the footsteps stopped.
“Shhh…” His mother held onto him tighter.
“You got somebody else up there?” One of the voices asked.
Shea’s mother didn’t answer.
“Cut it down. I think I heard something.” The person said and the footsteps came closer again.
Shea’s mother was trembling now, whispering prayers under her breath.
There was a sudden drop and the net hit the ground with Shea and his mother inside it.
Shea couldn’t understand what happened next. There was movement, his mother was yelling, squeezing him so tight he could hardly breathe. One of the other people yelled for her to let go. The next thing Shea knew, someone was pulling him away from his mother. He kicked and yelled, trying to hold onto her, but they were separated a moment later.
“Shea! Shea, you have to get away— you have to run— Shea—” One of the other people— Shea could see now that there were three— hit his mother over the head and she closed her eyes. When they let go of her, she fell to the ground.
“Momma!” Shea screamed, struggling to get away from the person who was now holding on tight to his arm. “Momma— Let me go! I want my mom!”
“Now this one’s worth this whole trip. Its wings are perfectly intact and it’s only— what— seven years old maybe?”
“How old are you, kid?”
Shea didn’t answer, tears streaming down his face as he tried to pry the person’s hand off his arm. “Let go!”
The person holding Shea slapped him hard across the face and Shea stopped for a moment, shocked. No one had ever hit him before.
“You were asked a question, brat. How old are you?” The person demanded.
Shea’s lip quivered as he tried not to cry harder. “I just want my mom— Why did you hit me? It h-hurt!”
“I’ll hit you again if you don’t answer the fucking question.” The person threatened.
“I’m six years old.” Shea whimpered, shielding his cheek with his free hand. “Please don’t hit me again— It really hurt!”
“Just do as you’re told and I won’t have any reason to hit you, now will I?” The person started to pull Shea away. “Come on. We can check the other traps once we get this one secured.”
“No!” Shea started to pull again. “No— I want my mom!”
“Shut up!” The person yanked Shea by the hair, making him scream. “If you keep trying to make things difficult, I’ll pick you up and fucking carry you. Just walk. Your mom isn’t going with us.”
Shea stumbled as they tried to keep up with the fast pace of the adults. He didn’t want to get hurt more, so he had stopped trying to get away, but he was still crying and yelling for his mom by the time the person let him stop walking. The person tied up Shea’s hands and tied them to the outside of a cage.
“Somebody has to stay with this one while the rest of the traps are checked and it’s not going to be me. We won’t get paid if I get annoyed and kill the brat before we make it back.” The person said after they finished tying Shea up.
“I’ll stay with the kid.” One of the others said. “You two go check traps and come back with the rest of the group.”
The other two nodded and left into the woods again.
“Hey, kid.” The person who stayed behind crouched next to Shea. “What’s your name? Did I hear your mom call you Shea?”
Shea nodded, sniffling and trying to wipe his tears off his face.
The person nodded. “Good to know. Sorry about Thorne. He really doesn’t like kids. Or the Winged. Or honestly really anyone. He shouldn’t have hit you.”
“What did I do that made him a-angry at me?”
“Literally anything you would have done except for coming with us quietly would have made him angry. None of us expected that from you. You are just a kid. And we aren’t taking your mom with us.”
“Where… Where am I going..? Why can’t my mom come with me? Who areyou?”
“My name is Jade. Your mom burned her wings in the fire, that’s why she can’t come. We’re only taking people with complete sets of wings. Seeing as your whole little village just burned down, we’re giving you a new place to live. Aren’t you glad?”
“I-I just want my mom…” Shea sniffed again.
“I know it’ll be hard for a while, but you’ll be okay. After all, you’re just a kid. You’ll bounce back fast. Don’t worry about your mom. She’s going to be okay too. She just can’t come with you.”
Shea fidgeted with the ropes around their wrists in silence as he and Jade waited.
At last, there were several footsteps. “Jade. The fires weren’t really a great idea, it turns out. Most of them died or have incomplete sets now. We did find this one, though.”
“Is it alive?” Jade stood up and Shea tried to look and see behind them, but the ropes wouldn’t let them turn that far.
“It’s alive, but injured. I don’t know if it’ll live, but it has a complete set, so it’s at least worth a shot.”
“Fine. Put it in the cage. I’ll get this one in.” Jade came back to Shea and untied him from the cage, leading him around to another side. “Get in.” Jade said, opening the cage door.
Shea hesitated.
“Shea,” Jade said softly. “You need to get in before Thorne decides to see what’s taking so long. As long as you listen to me, he won’t hurt you again, okay?”
Shea nodded quickly and Jade helped him into the cage.
After Shea was in the cage, a girl was put in as well. She was sleeping and there was a big bump on her head. “Aubrey?” Shea whispered, sitting next to her.
“Do you know her?” Jade asked.
Shea nodded. “Sh-she’s my cousin.”
“Her name is Aubrey? Do you know how old she is?”
“I think she’s…” Shea thought for a minute. “I think she might be twenty?”
“Okay.” Jade nodded, closing the cage door. “We’re going to leave now, okay?” Jade didn’t wait for an answer as they climbed into the car.
The cage sat on the bed of a trailer and Shea was startled when it began to move.
Aubrey’s eyes opened a little. “Are they gone?” She whispered.
“Aubrey! You’re okay!!”
“Not really.” She muttered, closing her eyes again. “Are they gone?”
“Um…” Shea looked at the car. “They’re in the car. They said they were taking us to a new home.”
“This is really bad…”
“… Why is it so bad?”
“Shea, if they take us somewhere outside the forest, you’re never going to see your mom again— if she’s even alive still. They started…” Aubrey coughed. “… They started those fires. Half the community is dead and the other half will never fly again. We’re probably the only two people who made it out alive with both wings.”
“… How did you get hurt..?”
“I… I don’t remember. Something probably fell on my head. I don’t know. Maybe I fell from somewhere… All I know is my head hurts and I’m really dizzy and it’s getting kind of hard to breathe…” Aubrey opened her eyes and looked at Shea, undoubtedly seeing the worry in his eyes. “I’ll be okay, short stuff. But we really have to get away from these people if we can.”
CW: Child whumpee, fever, character death, dehumanization
Shea and Aubrey didn’t get a chance to escape before their captors stopped the car and hauled them out of the cage. Aubrey couldn’t stand, but the people knew she was conscious now. They carried her, grumbling the whole time. Shea walked with Jade, who held his hand as they walked up to a huge house with an oak door.
Thorne knocked on the door.
After a long moment, the door opened to reveal a tall man who looked about the same age as Shea’s mom. Maybe in his early thirties?
“Back so soon? And with two, nonetheless. But what’s wrong with this one?” The man approached Aubrey and Shea shrunk away when he got close.
Thorne shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe she tried to fly away and fell. Figured you might want her anyway. If not, we can deal with her.”
The man was quiet for a moment. “No. I’ll take her. Both of them have full sets of wings?”
“Yep.”
“Bring them in and I’ll get you your money.” The man led the way back into the house. “You can put the girl in there. Bring the boy.”
Jade and Shea followed the man into a sitting room. It was bigger than any sitting room in the community had been. He looked around with wide eyes.
“I trust that you were able to keep Thorne in check?” The man asked Jade.
“For the most part.” They shrugged. “The kid had a bit of… an experience. But he’s not hurt, as you can see.”
“Good. Come here, boy.” The man sat in a large chair and motioned for Shea to come over.
Jade gave Shea a small push forward and Shea reluctantly went over to the man.
“Do you have a name?”
Shea nodded and tried to say his name, but it came out as a squeak.
The man laughed. “It’s okay. You don’t need to be scared of me as long as you know how to be respectful. What’s your name?”
“Sh-Shea…”
“Shea.” The man repeated. “Nice to meet you. And what’s that girl’s name. Do you know?”
Shea nodded again. “H-her name’s Aubrey. She’s my cousin.”
“How old are you and your cousin?”
Shea looked back at Jade, nervous.
“They’re six and twenty.” Jade said. “Shea was separated from his mother. Her wings were burned.”
The man nodded. “Thank you, Jade. You can rejoin your group. I’ll be outside in a moment.”
Jade left the room and, for a moment, Shea thought about following them.
“Shea,” The man said, calling the boy’s attention back. “You can call me Master Wilson. I have a son who you’ll meet shortly, but it’ll have to wait until I can settle things with Jade and their friends, alright? For now, why don’t you join your cousin and keep her company, okay?” Master Wilson led Shea to the room where Aubrey was and let him in.
“Shea?” Aubrey sat up a little from where she lay on a bed when the door closed. “Did they hurt you? Are you okay?”
“I’m okay. Master Wilson is really nice.”
“Who?”
“The man who answered the door.”
Aubrey looked angry suddenly.
“A-Aubrey..? What’s wrong?”
Aubrey looked conflicted for a moment, then her expression relaxed. “It’s nothing, Shea… Don’t worry about it. I… I’m sorry I couldn’t help you escape… Do you think you’ll be okay here..? At least for a little while until I… Until I can figure out a way to get us both out?”
Shea nodded.
The door to the little room opened once again as Master Wilson entered. “Hello, Aubrey.”
Aubrey glared at Shea, making him flinch. “You told him my name?”
“He asked!” Shea said, getting defensive.
Aubrey closed her eyes. “S-sorry. I’m not mad at you, Shea.”
“Well aren’t you motherly? It’s nice to meet you, Aubrey. You may call me Master Wilson.”
Aubrey glared past Shea. “If you want me to call you ‘Master Wilson’, you can call me Queen Anwyn.” She threw the blankets off. “You’re not my master and I’m not some pet for you to own.”
“I’m afraid that’s where you’re wrong. That savage behavior is a perfect indicator of exactly what your kind is like. You’re nothing more than an overly intelligent parrot.”
“And you’re just an overly fat snake.” Aubrey spat, standing up. As Aubrey stood, her face paled.
“Aubrey? Are you okay?”
“I-I’m cold…” Was all Aubrey said before she collapsed.
Master Wilson managed to catch her before she hit the floor. “She’s burning up.” He set her back in bed.
Aubrey’s eyes fluttered open and she tried to push him away. “D-don’t touch me…” She slurred.
“You have a high fever. Now is not the time for arrogant pride. I’ll fetch a doctor. Shea, stay with her and don’t let her get up.” Master Wilson left the room and there was a soft click as he locked Shea and Aubrey into the room.
“He’s getting a doctor? Are you sick?” Shea jumped up and sat on the edge of the bed.
Aubrey closed her eyes. “I-I’m fine… I’ll be fine…”
“You don’t soundfine.”
Aubrey didn’t answer.
“Aubrey..?”
No answer.
“Aubrey..?”
Again, no answer. She was asleep.
A long time passed as they sat in that room, waiting. Aubrey only woke up a couple of times. Every time, she seemed less and less awake. Finally, she fell asleep and wouldn’t wake up again, no matter how many times Shea called her name. No matter how much he cried or shook her. He was scared. She looked pale. Even more pale than she had before.
Eventually, the door opened again and Master Wilson came in with another person.
The examination didn’t take long. Aubrey was dead. No one cared to explain what happened to Shea. All he was told was that she wasn’t coming back.
