Chapter 11

“Keno, he should be in the hospital. I’m very limited here.” I could hear Ila and Keno in the next room but still felt as though I were in a dream. I moved my arm and held back the scream that threatened to coincide with the pain I felt. No, not a dream, it was all too real.

“He was just kidnapped and tortured by a psychotic doctor from the same hospital he’d have to go to,” Keno snapped but alleviated. “Would you want to go there if you were him? Please, Ila, when he wakes up he can make the choice. I just don’t want him to wake up in an uncomfortable setting.”

“Shouldn’t fight in front of the kiddies,” Logan called into the next room from his seat next to my bed. “It’s bad for their mental well-being.”

“Well, it’s a good thing we don’t have to worry about you,” Keno replied and sat on the edge of my bed after seeing that I was awake. “How’re you feeling, Ozzie?”

I turned onto my side, ignoring the pain that ran through me from the small movement. I should’ve been glad, overjoyed to see my brothers, and I was, but after learning all I had in the past week I couldn’t even look them in the eye. Remorse will do that to a person. Mom was gone, our village was destroyed, Logan and Keno were suffering and it was all because of me.

Keno sighed, unsure of what to do. How could he have lied to me? All these years of searching when Keno knew all along what we were looking for. Was Logan in on it too or did he really not know? The one question I’d had all these years was finally answered but only opened up a whole new series of them. The truth sucked.

“Ozzie,” Ila put a hand on my arm, checking my pulse before changing the bandage on my wrist. “We need you to talk to us, honey. Do you want to stay here or go to the hospital where I can provide better care?”

It was then that I realized that I didn’t even know where I was. I found that I was in a hotel room, the one that we’d gotten before I’d been kidnapped but had never gotten a chance to stay in. I sat up carefully with Keno and Ila’s help and looked around the room. There were two beds and a door leading out to a lounge nearest my bed and a bathroom door on the other side. Logan sat on the other bed which meant that Keno was probably sleeping on a couch in the other room.

“I want to stay here,” I whispered and Ila nodded.

“Okay,” she sighed knowing that it was a bad choice but not pushing the subject further. Truth is that I probably wouldn’t be going to a hospital again for a long time, if I could help it. “Well, I ought to get more supplies then.”

“Okay, thank you, Ila,” Keno said.

“No problem,” Ila shrugged tiredly. “I’ll be back.”

“Fortunately, she’d just made her transfer days before we found you.” Keno said after Ila had gone as he rubbed the back of his neck. I finally saw the difficulty of the past week on my brothers. Both of them weren’t standing upright as they usually did but slouched a bit, Logan usually made it a point to stand as straight as possible to get his full height. Keno was slimmer as well; he probably hadn’t eaten a single thing while I was away and his hair unkempt. They had large bags under their eyes that showed their many nights of searching. “I knew you’d trust her over other medical practitioners.”

I laid back down, pulling the covers over me to hide my face. I felt the bed dip as Keno sat on the edge again. How he could still be able to sit and stay awake was a wonder to me. How he could still even care about me was an even bigger mystery.

“How did you get a signal out? I mean, your transmitter was totally busted.” Logan said and I shrugged.

“I just messed with the wires, I didn’t think it would actually work,” I muttered. I turned onto my back and rested an arm over my moist eyes. “Where’s Kotori?”

“He still hasn’t come back yet.” Logan said and I saw Keno tense up. That must’ve not gone over too great. Keno didn’t take coincidences well, as far as he was concerned, it was a myth so if Kotori disappeared the same time I did then he was immediately at the top of Keno’s suspect list.

“What about,” I paused, trying to ignore the phantom pleas for help that haunted my mind. “Lieutenant Berry and the little girl?”

There was silence in the room, it was so quiet that I couldn’t even hear them breathing but a dropped pin could be heard from the next room. Keno sighed, the designated bearer of bad news. “They didn’t make it, Ozzie. The lieutenant was killed a few days after you disappeared and the girl shortly after.”

“But,” I sat up again, this time on my own. “I could still hear them, they were still alive just a few days ago.”

“Oskar-”

“I could hear them, Keno!” I said but really I knew that he was right. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair; I really was going off the deep end.

“Hello?” A soft voice called from the lounge.

“We’re in here, Rain,” Logan said. I didn’t look up as Rain walked into the room and stood at our doorway.

“What happened?” Rain stopped in her tracks after seeing me all beat up.

“You didn’t completely fill her in, did you?” I asked and Keno shrugged.

“I didn’t know how,” Keno said and stood, all of his movements seemed mechanical, unnatural. “She’s acting as your psychiatrist, be nice.”

“I don’t need a psychiatrist,” I muttered.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Rain said, attempting to be chipper but her frown hindered her effort. Keno and Logan left the room, closing the door softly behind them. Rain walked over to my bed, sitting at the end of it with her legs crossed. She was just… watching me.

“So, you’re a psychiatrist now?” I said.

“That’s what I’m going to school for,” Rain replied. “I’m getting pretty good at it.”

“Right,” I said and then waited for her to continue. We sat staring at each other for the next few minutes in total silence until I was fed up with it. I cleared my throat. “What are you doing?”

“Waiting for you to relax,” she said. “It’s just me, Ozzie. Keno told me that the man that did this to you was arrested and then committed suicide in his cell a few days ago. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

I turned away, trying to block the image of Hayek. The demon’s no doubt helped him, yet more blood on my hands. I looked up to see Rain’s look of concern. I didn’t really know the extent of her abilities, I didn’t know if she needed contact to see anything or if she could feel my emotions just by sitting next to me. Then again, I didn’t think you needed to be psychic to see how broken up I was.

“So,” she sighed. “Are you able to talk about what happened?”

I felt my grip on the sheets tighten painfully just thinking about what happened. Rain put her hand on mine and I was brought back to reality, away from the pains of memories.

“I take that as a ‘no’,” she said and gave a reassuring smile. “That’s okay, I have another method.”

“Why do you need to know?” I asked, pulling my hand away.

“Because,” she crossed her arms. “Then I can have a proper talk with you, know what you’re going through, and your brothers want to know. You were gone, Ozzie, you could have died. They just want to know you’re okay after what happened.”

“What’s this other method?” I asked, relenting.

“I take a peak through your mind,” she shrugged as if it were really just that easy.

“No,” I refused immediately.

“I’m not going to look at anything except the last week.” She assured.

“No.”

“Why not?” She asked with offense. How was I going to explain this? How could I tell her that the reason she couldn’t go through my mind was because I didn’t want to see her repulsed and disappointed look afterwards. I didn’t want her perception of me to change like I knew it would.

Finally I sighed and touched a hand to the burn on my chest before looking back at her. “What do I do?”

“Get comfortable,” she instructed and propped up the pillows to allow me to lean back. “Now just close your eyes and relax.” 

I watched her for a minute suspiciously but eventually followed her orders. As soon as my eyes were closed, I felt her touch her forehead gently against mine. I took a deep breath to calm myself when a sudden warmth did it for me. It started as just the spot where our foreheads met but it soon spread out to the rest of my body, all the way to my fingertips and toes. It was a comforting warmth, soothing, as if all the worries I had were just taken away.

My thoughts became jumbled, a murky mess that I couldn’t even sort through. The events of the passed week passed by at lightning speed just so I could barely make out what it was. There was, however, one thing I was able to grasp from the rest, one memory that I was able to pull from the stream of thoughts and keep for myself. I focused on it, kept it at bay because, as I had said, I didn’t want to see her look of disgust.

I opened my eyes to see that it was now evening and I was alone in the room but I knew that someone would be in the next, there was no way Keno would be leaving me unattended so soon. There was a bowl of soup, a slice of bread and a cup of water sitting on the side bed and for the first time in days I was actually hungry.

“That’s all I saw,” I could hear Rain’s miserable voice in the next room. “You’re lucky he’s as stable as he is. Some of the things that Ozzie’s been through...”

“So he is stable?” Logan asked after Rain had trailed off.

“Not completely,” Rain sighed. “He’ll get better over time but he definitely needs to rest. Not just physically but mentally as well. And, there’s something else.”

“What?” Keno asked with concern.

“Well,” she sighed. “It’s hard to explain, it might be nothing but it’s never really happened before.”

“What?”

“It was, I don’t know, a jump.”

“A jump?” Keno said.

“Yeah,” she said uneasily. “I was watching one part and then it completely skipped to another. I think he was holding something back, hiding it from me. Does he have any psychic abilities?”

“No,” Logan and Keno both said simultaneously.

“Well, he can sense demons and monsters but that’s about it.” Keno explained.

“He definitely hid something from me,” Rain said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t find everything that happened.”

“It’s alright, you helped us out a lot as it is.” Keno said. “Thank you. We’ll pay for your train tickets too; I know they’re hard to come by in Sodgrove Valley.”

“Actually, I’m staying here to go to the university, thank you though. I should be going, goodnight.” Rain said. “Oh, and he’ll have a slight headache when he wakes up but that’s normal.”

“Okay, thank you,” Logan said. There was silence in the next room before they walked into the bedroom.

“You’re awake,” Keno said after turning on the light. “Ozzie, are you-”

“Good evening,” we looked over to see our favorite illegal immigrant at the window smiling at us.

“Kotori?” Logan glared as the Sa’harielan climbed through. “Where’ve you been?”

“I had matters to attend to,” Kotori shrugged and then looked at me. “What happened to you?”

“Long story,” I muttered.

“Oh,” he stretched. “Where do I sleep?”

“On the floor,” Keno muttered before walking into the lounge for the night.

 

I awoke with a start several nights later. My heart was racing and I was in a cold sweat, it was dark in the room which made me believe that I was still in the dank cell at Hayek’s. It took me several seconds to realize that the blood-curdling scream that I thought had woken me was actually just part of my imagination. I had had the same dream ever since I’d come back a week ago.

In the dream I was back at Hayek’s but I’d managed to get out of my cell and I was running down a long, dark corridor. I heard someone call my name followed by weeping; thinking it was the small girl, I ran towards the voice but it wasn’t the little girl. It was my mother.

“Dear,” she wept. She was covered in blood and burns, ash and tears, she looked up at me but turned away. “How could you do this to me? I was only trying to protect you!”

“Mom,” the tears were running down my cheeks now. “I didn’t- I didn’t mean to.”

“How could you?” She repeated and held out a hand. I went to grab it but she just got father away, I tried to run to her but it was no use.

“I’m sorry-”

That’s when Keno and Logan appeared. They were also covered in blood but it didn’t seem to be bothering them, not as much as it did me. They never said anything in the dream, just stared at me with condescending hatred. Mom continued to weep while they continued their glare until they all finally faded away seconds before I woke up

“Ozzie,” I was now able to see as the sun started to rise and looked over to see Logan in his bed, still half asleep. “Are you okay?”

I hugged my knees to my chest and buried my face in them, turning away from him. I heard the groan of springs as he sat up in his bed.

“Ozzie?”

I was able to walk around on my own now and went into the bathroom to get cleaned up. There was no way I was getting back to sleep now anyway. I stood in the shower, just letting the water hit me until it ran cold and even then I stood there.

When I came out there was a pile of new clothes on my bed. I picked up the plain, black long sleeve and felt the soft cotton.

“I know it’s not much of a birthday present,” I looked up at Keno. “But you needed new clothes.”

“My birthdays a few days away,” I mumbled and he gave a small smile.

“I know,” he said. “Rain wants to make you a cake.”

“No thanks,” I said and started to get changed.

“You can be the one to explain that to her, then,” Keno said, seeming to be a little disappointed. Suddenly I felt a firm grip on my upper arm as Keno turned me to look at the scar forming on my chest. “Ozzie!”

“It doesn’t hurt,” I muttered and pushed him away but still he looked at the inverted cross. The look on his face said it all, there was no doubting that he knew all about this and had failed to mention it. He knew what the burn meant, maybe he would talk to me about this whole thing now.

“That doctor was a quack,” Keno whispered so quietly that I barely heard him. He didn’t know if I knew and he would remain in denial about it until I said otherwise. He was going to keep this to himself, he was still going to lie to me.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “He was.”

“I’m so sorry,” Keno said and I turned to look at him.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sorry, Ozzie, I-“ he paused. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t protect you, it’s my fault this happened to you.”

“Keno-”

“It was my job to protect you!” He said and sighed. “And I’m sorry that I couldn’t save mom.”

“I don’t blame you,” I said quietly as I put the shirt on gently. “For anything.”

“I’m going to go for a walk,” Keno said as Logan walked into the room. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”

I tied my hair back, ignoring the fact that Logan was watching me and I sat on the bed to pull on my boots as Logan sat beside me.

“Rain says that you were hiding something from her,” Logan said and I looked at him as I tied the laces.

“How so?” I asked. “I was unconscious while she was reading my mind, she could’ve looked at my whole life and I wouldn’t know.”

“She said there was some kind of… jump. Two events that didn’t exactly fit together.” He explained.

“I blacked out a lot, Logan,” I said. “She was probably only looking at the things that I saw and that was one of the times I blacked out.”

“Right,” he shrugged. All of a sudden, we heard the front door of the hotel room slam and Keno burst through the room. “That was quick. Keno?”

Keno didn’t look at us but stormed into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him. Logan and I slowly looked at each other.

“What’s up with him?” Logan asked. I saw movement in the next room and my hand slowly moved to my gun under my pillow. Logan, seeing my finger twitch, had his hand on the hilt of his sword in seconds. At the first sign of the intruder, I had my gun pointed at the doorway, ready to fire.

“Ozzie, wait!” Logan grabbed my arm as the man came more into view. He was tall, just as tall as Keno with long blonde hair that reached between his shoulders. Cheerful violet eyes that I’d only ever seen in a photo gleamed at me.

“Hey, boys!” He had a rough, calm voice as he held up his hands, signaling peace. “Long time no see!”

“Dad?” 

Author's Note

Okay.. so I lied and posted another update... There may be another one.. but I'm not too sure. I just like to keep you on your toes I guess :3

The picture was (once again) Drawn by my sister.. It can be found with the graphic novel representation.. Aw.. they were so cute when they were little in the days where Logan's hair was blonde :3