Several times I slipped during the climb, and I fell back into the abyss. It was all-consuming, and no time passed there. Nothing hurt and nothing was wrong when I was nestled down in the darkness. It was tempting to stay in there and rest. Endless rest. But something was pushing me to try the climb again. I didn’t know how long I tried to climb, but I had a sense that a million years had passed or maybe no time at all. It was both things at once.
I knew I could stay in the pit. Whatever it was, it didn’t hurt and was peaceful. But something was pushing me to climb out, so again I tried, pushing up toward the surface and the pain that was waiting for me.
With a gasp, I opened my eyes. Everything was too bright, and I squinted against the light. And everything hurt. It was a universal pain that covered every inch of my surface and bore down into me. My lungs ached with each raspy breath, and even my heart beating in my chest seemed to push pain throughout my body.
There was noise all around me, and I realized that a hand was on mine. Every point of contact was painful, and yet it was comforting. I turned my head, and the world whirled around as nausea climbed up my throat. It took a few moments to settle down, and when it did, I could focus well enough to see Bear, Badger, and Colleen. Patagonia was a heavy weight pressed into my ankle.
Bear had a hand on mine and patted it very softly. “It’s okay. We’re here with you.”
“’Kay,” I responded. It was barely a whisper, and even my voice sounded injured.
Badger retreated from the room, and a few moments later, several nurses shuffled in.
I closed my eyes and resisted the urge to slide away, this time into sleep. The void wasn’t calling to me any longer, and pain was now with me constantly. The nurses pressed buttons and jotted down numbers in a cool crisp efficiency that I found comforting. When they did touch me, the pain was almost unbearable, but I could tell that their expert fingers were doing as little damage as possible.
“Monza Ella, can you look at me?”
I opened my eyes to look at the nurse, her features swimming in front of me as I tried to focus.
“Do you know what day it is?”
I stared a bit longer, trying to sort through my thoughts. “Hold on.” I usually didn’t know the answer to the question on the best of days, and this was definitely not close to a “best day.” I took a breath and spoke so she would know I hadn’t forgotten her question. “On Monday we went to a party and were forced into Tiffany’s wedding. Then there was Tuesday with the bachelorette party, then Wednesday we had a dress fitting, so Wednesday? Is it still Wednesday?” I looked out the window, where it was dark.
“Good. Yes, it is still Wednesday. Do you remember where you were?”
I had been investigating the murder. Linda had gone to get a book and… tears welled up, and I sobbed. “Sally! Is she okay?”
The nurse’s eyes went wide, and she looked from me to Bear.
Bear patted my hand. “Who’s Sally?”
A sob racked my chest. She was so small. Could she have survived whatever hurt me? I remembered her little hand in mine. “She was next to me in the car when it happened. Is she…?”
Bear exchanged another look with the nurse. “Honey, no one was in the car with you. There was a bomb, and the car exploded. It was a miracle that you survived, but you were in there alone.”
I couldn’t control the crying. The movement was causing a pain that felt like my body was being ripped apart. Machines were beeping, and the activity around me increased. I remembered the sensation of Sally’s tiny hand in mine as the explosion roared around us.
“Put this potion on her forehead!” someone shouted.
I felt a wet compress across my forehead, and everything decreased. Every sensation and thought slowly dimmed.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I woke suddenly with the sensation that I wasn’t alone even though no one was on the couch or the chair next to my bed, as they had been when I last fell asleep. The stillness of the hospital was almost complete until I caught the faint whisper of soles on linoleum near the door.
I turned in that direction and was hit by a wave of emotions: relief, excitement, and love. A moment later, a small girl bounced into the side of the bed, and a cold tiny hand grabbed mine. It didn’t hurt the way I had expected.
“Sally!” I croaked then broke into a little cough.
“Ella!”
Linda, still hidden in the darkness, spoke. “Is it okay if I turn on a light?”
“Please do.” I blinked into the sudden brightness though it was just the light from the bathroom that barely illuminated the room.
Sally was dressed the same as the previous day, and there was not a scratch on her face. She studied me as closely as I was doing to her. She brushed my face. “I knew you weren’t dead because I could have found you then, but not everyone that is not dead is okay. Are you okay?”
I found her speech to be a bit confusing. “I will be. I am glad to see you. I was really confused and thought you were in the car with me.”
“Oh, I was! I helped protect you, but we have to go now.”
I looked from her to her mother. My addled brain just wasn’t understanding what she was saying. “Where is Bear? Can you explain this to him?” Where was everyone?
Linda grabbed a bag and put it on the foot of my bed. “We waited until everyone left, and now we need to go. Here is the book you were looking for. Ned was a bad man, though I’m not sure what he was up to. He knew that I was hiding from Sally’s dad and used that to make me help him with the books. I am sure that car bomb was meant for me, and I am so sorry it hurt you. Sally did what she could, but in her state… well, I am sure you understand.” She was edging toward the door, dragging Sally behind her.
“I don’t understand.”
But before I could say any more, they were gone, Sally waving excitedly while Linda looked each way down the hall, like a victim in a slasher movie keeping an eye out for the killer.
In the silence afterward, it was hard to understand what had happened. It was made even more difficult as sleep was pulling me under again. Maybe it was a hallucination or a waking dream. I yawned and surrendered to the night.
When I woke up next, I didn’t have the loss of time that I’d had before. I knew, on some level, that time had passed. Patagonia had shifted to my right hip, and she slept deeply.
Dr. Trout was next to my bed in a chair, and Bear hung out near the door, but the others were gone.
She smiled. “How are you?”
I tried to smile, but half of my face felt thick and lazy. It refused to move the way I wanted. “I’m fine.”
“You aren’t yet, but you will be. You are already looking much better than when they brought you in. Gave me a real fright. I thought we might lose you. That rune really saved your butt.” She gestured to my arm.
I lifted my left arm to look. The bracelet from Thomas was gone, and the skin where it had been was blackened. I let my arm drop back to the bed. The effort had been overwhelming.
“And what did you have on your right side? I didn’t find any evidence of a rune, but something blocked some of the damage. Combined, they were enough to keep you from being ripped apart. Whoever built that bomb is going to be pretty surprised that you lived.”
I remembered the small hand holding mine, and tears welled up again.
“Whoa. It’s okay. I am a bit worried about a head injury. Bear told me that you were worried that a little girl was killed. I went and visited the car myself to see how to treat you. I can assure you that no one was killed, and no one was in the car. Vanessa was injured just a little. She’s down the hall, and once we are done speaking, she can come see you. The only other person was a woman in the apartment complex who sustained very minor injuries but didn’t need treatment. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” But the truth is that I didn’t understand. Everyone was so sure, but so was I. But I was in my old mindset. I hadn’t even considered magic. If Dr. Trout said no one
was killed, then maybe there was hope. “You are sure?”
“Yes. It was just you in the car. And we are thankful enough that you survived. It really was a combination of the rune on your left wrist and whatever was on your right, but it was still touch-and-go for a while. You had a very good doctor.” She gave a little laugh at her joke.
Colleen came into the room, and after greeting everyone, she turned to me. “Ella, how do you know Linda Harris?”
“Wait, how do you know about Linda?”
“I ran into her a little bit ago in the parking lot. I eventually got out of her that she was here to see you, though she tried every lie in the book first.”
It hadn’t been a dream. “And you saw Sally, too?”
A pained look crossed her face. “Ella… Sally’s been dead for years.”
I looked up at Colleen and decided I needed to sit up to talk about this. I poked at buttons on the side of the bed until Dr. Trout came over to adjust the bed.
The movement made me a little nauseated but not nearly as much as just turning my head had before. Whatever magic or medicine they were using was very effective.
“Linda Harris was the woman at the explosion.” I hesitated on what to say next. Linda had asked that I not tell anyone about Sally, but this wasn’t just random strangers. I trusted these people with my life. “It was her daughter that I thought was in the car with me. Actually, she was in the car. Sally said she tried to help me but could only do so much in her condition. What is going on?”
Colleen frowned. “Sally must be a ghost.”
Dr. Trout shook her head. “I didn’t realize you could talk with ghosts.”
“I didn’t either. Colleen, how do you know Linda?”
“It was years ago. She got pregnant with a married man and was hiding out. I never found out who he was, but he must have been really powerful. She really believed he would kill her if he found out about the pregnancy. I wanted her to leave, but she felt she needed to stay. When Sally was about eight—”
She cut herself off and turned away to compose herself. She took a deep breath and turned around to rush out the rest. “Linda and Sally were in a terrible car crash. Linda was sure that someone messed with her car, but really there was no proof. Linda was hurt badly but nothing compared to Sally. It was only a small consolation that Sally didn’t suffer. It all happened so fast. Linda called me in hysterics from the hospital that night. Sally was in a coma for three days until she passed.”
Dr. Trout brought over a box of tissue to Colleen, and Colleen took a moment to wipe her eyes and compose herself. “Linda was inconsolable during those three days, then… she seemed to get a handle on herself. When Sally actually passed, Linda barely reacted. I thought that maybe the grief had become too deep and she went into shock, but I suppose in retrospect it is obvious that Linda did something to free Sally’s soul from her broken body. I should have suspected something, but it was all so awful. Then after the funeral, Linda disappeared. This happened a few years ago—the last time I was here for any significant time. I needed a break afterward and went on the road.”
I thought of the cold little hand in mine, and a tear trickled down my face again. “Poor Sally and Linda. Is it hard? Making a ghost, I mean.”
Colleen sat down in a chair, looking exhausted. “Frankly, I didn’t think Linda had it in her, either the knowledge or the power, but love and fear will push you to do things you otherwise couldn’t. And it must be using up a lot of her energy keeping Sally here.” She rubbed her temples as though a headache was coming over her.
I brought a tissue to my face, and something in the movement caused a shooting pain through my arm. I flinched hard, and that caused pain to shoot all across my body. I tensed against the pain.
Dr. Trout moved to my side in a cool, efficient manner that was still incredibly fast. “Relax. Breathe through it. Breathe.”
I took some shaky breaths, and the pain started to subside. After an eternity, the pain no longer controlled my body, and I was left weak. “Ouch.”
“Yes, ouch.” She pressed the button to recline my bed. “I think we have talked enough for now. No one else was hurt. No one died. That is enough for now.” She stated it as a fact, and no one dared to disagree.
“How is Vanessa?” I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t asked sooner.
“I’ve had better days,” came Vanessa’s voice from the door. A few seconds later, she wheeled over to the side of my bed. “I finally convinced that prison guard they call a nurse to let me come over and see you.”
Vanessa was in a wheelchair, with both legs heavily bandaged and one arm wrapped from the shoulder all the way down to her thumb. She had a scrape across her face and a black eye that wasn’t in full bloom but was already pretty scary. The vessels in the white part of her eyes had burst, and the whites were a solid red. One eyebrow was gone. Her head was wrapped, but I could see a bit of singed hair sticking out. The strands were contracted and brittle, dusting down onto her hospital gown like brown confetti.
“Oh, Vanessa, you look terrible,” I blurted out before realizing how it sounded.
She snorted. “If you think I look bad, then I have some bad news: you look twice as bad.”
I raised a shaky hand to my face. I already suspected that I was in rough shape because of the difficulty I had speaking, but what I felt was not even the shape of a face any longer. It was lumpy, swollen, slick from abrasions or crusty with scabs. The face I knew was hidden beneath a mask of skin that I could barely even feel. My lips were swollen and would make a reality-television star jealous with the sheer volume they had. When I ran my hand over my forehead, I felt mostly smooth skin.
“My eyebrows are gone.”
Vanessa nodded. “And I think your hair is too.”
Dr. Trout sighed. “But she is alive and healing well, and that is what really matters.”
“My hair?” It had been down to my butt.
“You still have some. And frankly you should be focused on the fact that you are alive. Vanessa is hurt pretty badly, and she was probably thirty yards away when the explosion went off. You were probably inches away. So let’s just focus on that. Now, everyone, out. It’s time to rest.”
She grabbed the back of Vanessa’s wheelchair and rolled her to the door.
Everyone said their goodbyes as they left, and Dr. Trout turned off the lights as she closed the door. I had so much to think about that I thought I would never fall asleep, but even as I thought it, I slipped into a dreamless sleep.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I slept through the night, only coming to consciousness a few times when the nurses checked on me and administered medicine or magic. They checked my vitals, asked me how I was feeling, then allowed me to slide back into sleep.
I fully woke up long enough to eat breakfast, which was made up of things that required no chewing: applesauce, oatmeal, Jell-O, and juice. Everything had a lot of sugar in it, and when it hit my bloodstream, I felt a bit stronger.
I celebrated with a post-breakfast nap, but already I was feeling different. My sleep was punctuated by dreams. Silly, light dreams, like shopping for cucumbers but only finding watermelons or jogging with Patagonia then forgetting where our car was parked. They were mostly noticeable in how mild they were, probably a protection from the dangers I had survived.
When I finally awoke from my morning nap, I had the sensation that someone was in the room, and not just because Patagonia was standing on my chest and staring at something I couldn’t see.
I pressed the button to raise the bed, and as I slowly sat up, Vanessa came into view. Her wheelchair was abandoned, and she was stretched out on a couch under the window. She didn’t notice me, as she was deeply engrossed in her phone.
I stretched my arms over my head. It hurt, but not nearly the breathtaking amount it had the previous evening. Already my injuries were feeling older, and I was getting the itch to move. “You are looking a bit better.”
Vanessa jerked around t
o look at me. Her black eye was in full bloom, but the scabs were already starting to look more healed. “You’re awake. I thought you were going to sleep the day away. They already checked me out. I’m just waiting to take you home.”
“I can’t believe how much better I feel. I guess it wasn’t as bad as I thought.” I reached down to scratch behind Patagonia’s ears and took the moment to stretch out each leg. Sometime during the night, they had removed the catheter, not an enjoyable experience, and now I felt the urge to use the facilities. “Can you help me to the bathroom?”
Vanessa hopped up then winced. She hobbled over with the help of a cane that was a better fit for a geriatric patient, and once I had my bed adjusted, she put her free arm around me to help me wobble to the bathroom. “You do realize that an overnight stay in the hospital is basically unheard of for a mage. You know what they say: what doesn’t kill you puts you in a hospital for a few hours.”
I chuckled then clutched at my ribs. “No, I hadn’t heard that.” I grabbed onto the safety bar and waited to sit down until Vanessa tottered out of the bathroom. We were close friends, but some things were still private.
She stood with her back to the door, which she left ajar, and spoke back over her shoulder to me. “You gave us all a really good scare. I was pretty hysterical when I woke up in the ambulance. I was sure you were dead. I will never forget the sight of that car exploding. Never.” Her voice was haunted.
“I know what you mean. I thought a little girl was in the car with me when it blew up, and I was pretty inconsolable.” I finished and washed my hands at the sink, pausing when my sight started to fade from light-headedness.
I breathed slowly until my vision was clear again and I got a good look at myself, something I had avoided. I looked about how I felt: puffy, covered in multicolored bruises, and like I was having a really, really, really bad week. Scabs were in their final stage due to a mage’s accelerated healing, especially with all the help I had from potions, and the bruises were in full bloom. The right side of my face was slightly worse than the left, but neither was great.
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