by Joni Bing
****
I woke up breathing like I'd been choked. Another nightmare. I'd been having them for awhile, but this time I actually remembered it after waking up. It was the memory of the gun being in my pocket earlier when I spoke with Reno, only this time I wasn't so lucky. A bullet tore through my thigh. But it wasn't the actual shot that scared me, it was the color of my blood and the way it gushed out. Black and thick like bad ON car oil. Almost like what Lary made me drink when I-
I felt my back and looked at my fingers. No blood. I looked down in my bed sheets. No new blood. I felt my back again and traced the shiver of jagged scarring across my back like a four winged dragonfly. Those were common where I was from, but I hadn't seen one yet in Borealia.
“Hey, you alright, Bleu?”
I looked up and found a surprise. Mar.
“Yeah...kind of. How did you know I woke up?”
“I was having a Heine in the kitchen and heard you breathing hard.”
Maybe the Central Union study about our nation's hearing was right. I heard myself barely breathing.
“You want me to get Lar?”
“No, Mar, really I'm fine. I'll just...sleep now.”
“Alright, I'll be outside in the sitting room.”
I nodded and rolled back over to sleep.
“Oh, and Bleu?” I opened my eyes, and turned back over to look up at him. “Reno told me about your plan. If you need anything, I got your scarred back.”
I smiled and after five minutes of staring at the rotting wall in front of the bed, I fell asleep for the night with tears of joy on my face. Maybe life with the boys wouldn't be so bad. I thought. I hoped.
