The Phoenix Curse: After - Part One

by D.R. Johnson

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  Dawn was shining through the windows when I woke again, and I doubled over with severe stomach cramps. I was barely able to grab a bowl before I started throwing up everything I'd ever eaten and then some. Tears were streaming down my face from the effort by the time I was done, and I slid the bowl away and collapsed back on the pallet.

  It took a few minutes for me to recover. Once everything settled, I felt better than I had for hours, even though the fever still gripped me. I sat up to check on Becky. She had been still on her pallet while I was puking, and that worried me. I crawled to her, moving her to see if she was okay.

  She rolled over, listless at my touch, and began whimpering and shuddering in convulsions. I dreaded doing it, afraid of what I would see, but I forced myself to pull her eyelids open to see if she had turned. Her irises were still a beautiful, light blue.

  I heaved a sigh of relief but that was short lived. I didn't know what else I should do.

  Her whole body was shaking and spittle foamed at the corners of her mouth. I pulled her against me and held her, rocking her as she shook. My tears landed in her soft blonde hair, and whispered comforting words to her, hoping she could hear me. I was so scared and helpless. There was nothing else I could do for her. The turn was going to happen soon but a part of me wished she would die of the fever. I wished again I had the strength to end her pain.

  It could have been hours or it could have been minutes. My only sense of time was the sun steadily growing brighter through the windows. She finally stopped her violent shaking and drifted in and out of fevered dreams. I didn't have the strength to keep holding her and had to ease her down to rest against my side.

  Every now and then she would call out for her mother or father. Sometimes she would just scream. She was never lucid, and I cringed knowing this is what I would be going through in a few hours. Again, I wished for the strength to kill us both.

  Drifting in and out of sleep, the sickness grew worse. I was unable to keep myself awake to watch over Becky. Something inside me thought that if I stayed awake to watch over her, the inevitable wouldn't happen, but I didn't have the energy to keep my vigil.

  I was dreaming fever dreams, and during the short periods of time my mind was able to reconnect with the waking world, it was difficult to distinguish reality from dream.

  I was at a wedding. I was in a tux, standing as Seth's best man beside him at the altar. I could hear the wedding march playing, and the pews full of red-eyed dead-brains stood up to honor the bride as she appeared at the end of the aisle. My father was there, leading her alongside him. The veil covered her face so I couldn't see who it was, but I knew it was Ali. We waited for her as the song droned in the background, and she was walking so slowly. The dead-brains moaned and clawed at us, but they were chained to the pews.

  When Ali finally reached us, Seth smiled as he lifted her veil to reveal her red eyes. I screamed as she lunged forward, her teeth sinking into Seth's throat. Blood sprayed everywhere.

  My screams woke me, and I felt I was being smashed by Ali's dead weight on top of me.

  No, not Ali. Ali's not here. Ali left me. Did she die? Did she turn too?

  I pushed Becky from my side, trying to check on her as I did so, but immediately lost myself in the fever again.

  Now I was walking in a field of wild flowers, and Ali walked beside me. She was telling me things I needed to hear, important things, but the wind stole her words. She was trying to tell me how to save Becky. I was pleading with her, but she seemed unconcerned. When Seth appeared in the distance, Ali started running towards him and I screamed for her to wait.

  I ran after her, calling out to her, but she was too fast. Ali looked over her shoulder at me and I could see fear in her eyes. Why was she so afraid? I looked to Seth for a clue, but he was as frightened as she was. His terrified eyes were glued to me.

  I tried to call out to them, but it came out as a growl. Ali continued to run to Seth as he waved her on, and I realized they were running from me, but why?

  Because I wanted to kill them. The need to catch them and rip them apart drove me on. When Ali tripped in front of me, I fell over her instantly in a rage. She turned to fight me off...

  But it was Becky I was staring down at, not Ali. Becky's panicked and pleading blue eyes were staring at me in horror. We were in the restroom in Bobby's Bar and Grill, and it was me that was trying to kill her.

  I screamed in outrage and terror at what I had become and jumped away…

  Falling backwards from my pallet onto the restaurant floor. The rough fall jolted me out of the horrible nightmare. I was crying, sobbing, wanting it all to end, but I didn't have the strength to pull myself off the dusty floor.

  I managed to raise my head enough to see Becky's lump under the blankets. She was so still, and I was so afraid and so… angry! I needed to check on her, make sure she was okay, give her all my life force and will so she would make it through this. She would be missed. There was no one left to miss me, but I couldn’t. I remained weak and helpless.

  By strength of will alone, I rolled to my stomach. Resting there for a few moments, I summoned the energy to drag myself toward the pallet. I had only fallen a few feet away, but it might as well have been a mile. With one last burst of energy, I pushed myself forward as far as I could, and was able to reach out and touch Becky's leg.

  That's as far as I made it when I fell into a swirl of fever dreams again.

  Hours later, I was in the same position. The sun was already high overhead, dimming the light that was coming in through the windows. I was soaked everywhere, and for a moment I thought I had knocked one of the water pails over.

  Then I realized it was sweat. I was sweating everywhere, profusely. My fever had broken. I was still extremely weak from the sickness, but the nausea was gone. I reached for Becky, the hope blooming in me that she was okay too. My hand only touched empty blankets, and I raised my head enough to see the pallets. Becky wasn't there.

  Blinking in confusion, I didn’t know what to think. The brief hope I felt was rapidly disappearing. How could she have had the energy to move anywhere on her own? Then I remembered how I had ended up in the floor and thought maybe she had moved during her nightmares.

  I gathered my growing strength and looked around at what I could see of the restaurant floor. She wasn't anywhere.

  Panic bloomed in my chest when I heard footsteps coming from the other side of the restaurant, from the other side of the big glass dividing wall. Looking under the table legs, I could see Becky's white sneakers and blue jeans as she stopped in front of a table. The sound of clattering dishes followed, making a clunking sound, as they were set.

  I swallowed hard, trying to clear away the dryness in my throat and pushed myself up to a sitting position.

  "Becky?" I called to her softly. She turned at the sound of my voice, facing me. Her red eyes stared through me.