Chapter Nine: Healing

Chapter Nine: Healing

Evon

S**t. 

Everything hurt. So. So. So. So, much. Like it was the worse b***h on this side of the moon, like dude...excruciatingly so. Just...uggggh!

Of course that's when I noticed was that I wasn't dead.

Ha. ha...ha...wow...well...YIPPEE...yeah...

  Hmmm, I guess that probably sounds...well...granted was...maybe, just...kinda backwards, but heck, if you woke up with a flaming rod up your a*s you'd probably feel that first and think holy s**t I'm alive second. Actually you might be thinking holy s**t why aren't I dead instead if there really was a flaming rod up there. But hey, that's just a really like extreme case of...waking up to...er...pain? Of course there wasn't a flaming rod up my butt, cause that would probably defeat the purpose of healing me, but hey it's an example, to, you know, make sure you like get my pain. Cause...it hurt. Everywhere. Alot.

  I groaned. Maybe. Emphasis on maybe, there was no written or recorded proof that that actually happened and I'm not gonna give any confirmation of that here for sure. Anyway like I said. Everything hurt and I mean. Like. Ev-er-y-where. So much so that I might have let out a slightly girlish and unmanly whimper. But hey I'm not saying I did. It was just a you know, possibility. It was more than likely you know those...machines...that whir...and stuff...Yeah...Anyway!

F**k.

Maybe it would have been better if I'd died. This was worse than when I was sick. Wait..was I still sick? What? Maybe. Maybe I'm just even worse and am now at the doors of death? If so that really sucks cause like I thought death was meant to be all peaceful and s**t and this was...no...not ideal. Can't say that I'd have wished this on myself...or well...almost no one else. I could think of a few people that would deserve this but...let's not get into that. Besides, no...that couldn't be, I'd seen Julius heal people worse off than me and I knew we'd reached Julius's camp so...I guess that meant the pain meant I was alive. Great.

I groaned.

Wonderful.

I love feeling like s**t so early in the morning.

Wait, was it morning?

I cracked open an eye and instantly shut it again, letting out another groan. Good god it was bright out there, like dude, I felt like I was coming off a hangover. Another story I'm not going to go into. My head was throbbing like crazy and everything just seemed so...so...bright.

I heard something scrape across the floor and the sound of shuffling feet; I sighed then squinted my eyes open again, gritting my teeth against the pain, willing the tears to subside and for my vision to focus.

"Hey dude, you awake?" It was Dale.

I shook my head, nope, definitely not awake, just you know...alien eye syndrome? That totally exists right?...Whoops moved my head, make that...alien...face...? Syndrome?

"Dude, you're answering me, I know you're awake."

I closed my eyes again, I didn't need to look anymore, Dale's image was already burned into my skull for better or worse. I'd vote worse, who'd want to remember his ugly a*s?...That was a joke by the way. Ha. Ha. Ha? Yeah...Anyway. "Shut up, I feel like s**t."

"I guess that answers my next question."

"What?" God my voice was hoarse.

"How ya' feeling dude?"

I shot him a look, trying to glare and probably failing miserably.

He laughed. "Exactly, that's why I wasn't gonna ask."

"F**k off, this is totally, not funny dude."

"Come off it man, you know you love me." I could feel his evil grin spreading on his lips. I groaned. 

"I do not, dude I've known you since my diaper days, that's just awkward."

I opened my eyes again and this time I could keep them open, the light wasn't so bright anymore. Dale rolled his eyes, then faked hurt. "But Evon, I've loved you! What happened to all the good times together!"

"Drama queen."

"B***h."

"S**t."

"W***e."

"Queer."

"Pssh, look who's talkin'. You're the one with the man-crush."

"Ha. You're the one who blushes around naked men. You need to be more comfortable with yourself dude."

"Hey, I don't ask them to strip in front of me, besides it's just awkward, not attracted to dudes remember?"

"Yeah, yeah anyway what's up?" My eyes widened. "Holy s**t."

"What?"

"I can talk!"

"O....kay?"

"HELL YEAH B*****S! I'M BA-" I started coughing. "F**K!"

Dale just laughed. I flipped him off. 

"Well, I'ma go tell Julius you're awake. He's gonna wanna check on you again."

I nodded. "Fine dude, cya later."

Dale grinned and I grinned back, slapping his back in a hug. "It's good to have you back." He whispered.

I chuckled. "It's good to be back," I smirked, "though ,you know, I was only gone a day."

"Darn, maybe I should've waited a little longer to find you."

"Shut up you a*s."

Dale laughed. "Cya dude."

"Tell Julius to bring me more morphine!" I called out.

Dale left and I sighed, a small smile tugging on my lips. Ah. Home sweet home, the place you never really miss until you think you won't ever be returning to it and then...well, you just can't have enough of it. Right now I'd gladly lay my a*s here in a swath of blankets then be out there in the unknown gathering some rocks. Even if they were the thing that let us to stay here without having to migrate. I was just so....comfortable, or rather...comfortably uncomfortable. Still hurt like a b***h. God this sucked. 

But it sucked so good.

Ha, that sounded dirty. 

I looked around my surroundings; I was in the infirmary, well that...that was an easy thing to guess, where else would they have put me? The closet? That's child abuse! The room was white, which was also to be expected, it seemed like the standard color around here. It was either Julius's obsession or it was a phobia for every other color in the spectrum, either way, everything was white and it was bright and I was hooked up to a bunch of machines that I couldn't tell you the name of if you'd asked me a hundred times, took a break came back after giving me a bunch of books on medical equipment and asked me again. Nope, it just wasn't happening, medicine was not my area of expertise. Remember, me marine bio and geology dude. Nothing more. Nothing less.

I sat up in the hospital bed (good god it was the softest thing I'd ever felt in my life) and let out a breath. I. Was. Bored. Dale had left what, a minute ago? I glanced at the clock in the corner of the room, yep, one minute had passed. Much too long to have me just sitting here and doing nothing. Don't they know all the bad that comes when I'm able to just sit and think? Nothing good ever comes from that. It's what makes those "horrible" pranks that Julius thinks are just so immature. Ha! It's genius is what. He better be glad there're no banks anymore or I'm sure I'd have robbed one by now just out of sheer boredom.

With Dale of course. Can't forget Dale.

I tapped my finger against the sides of the bed. I wished I could get up, walk around, stretch, all that stuff, anything but just lay in this darn bed. It was a freaking prison, but I knew if I tried anything before Julius looked me over he'd skin my hide, and yeah that wasn't something I was particularly looking forward to.

I glanced at the ceiling. One sheep. Two sheep. Three sheep. Four sheep. Five sheep. Six sheep. Door opens. Seven sheep. Eight sheep. OH! I brought my attention back to the space in front of me.

"Ah, my wonderful little rock bug! How are you feeling?" Julius strutted into the room, his famous smile plastered on his face, the one that just drew you in and never let go. The one that persuaded everyone to join his little escapade to begin with. You just couldn't say no to this guy. "I trust you're feeling very alive at the moment?"

"If that's what those aches mean, then yeah," I croaked out. "And that."

Julius tapped his chin, busily looking at some of those mysterious whirring machines and checking numbers and measurements and all that shiz. You know, the stuff that went way over my head. "I see, I see, I should probably up your caduceus dosage." He snapped his fingers. "Akkie, can you tell me the readings over there?"

"Akkie" (Achilles) made a face, the scar on the side of his face making his grimace even more menacing, pushing himself from the wall he had taken residence against (how the heck he'd managed to just...appear like that scared the s**t out of me, the dude was a freaking ninja), he hated being called Akkie, it was too "cute" for his tastes, everyone else knew better to call him either Akes or his full name, Achilles. But hey, he was Julius's right hand man, that charismatic dude had saved him just like he'd saved all of us; if anyone was allowed to call him by a pet name it was Julius. So he sucked it up and moved on, it's not like it was something that was catching on.

Akes walked to the other side of my bed and began exchanging numbers with Julius, numbers and readings that went over my head that the latter would nod his head to and go "Ah! I see!" every few seconds. Honestly I wondered if Akes really knew what half the stuff he was rambling out meant. I guess it wouldn't surprise me if he did, it would make sense if Julius was teaching him stuff, everyone likes an informed leader or...er...leader to be. At least that would explain away part of the time the two spent locked away in there little hut of magical mysteries.

"Okay then, well, you'll be fine." Julius proclaimed after a good five minutes of prodding and adjusting and relaying stuff with Akes. "Here take this." He handed me some random liquid in a small cup from the medicine cabinet, I drank it quickly. Caduceus. I shivered, god it was tart. I handed back the cup. "You're free to go, just don't do anything stupid." He turned to Akes. "Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

Akes rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Julius nodded his head, satisfied, and began removing me from all the many monitors that he'd strapped me to. Honestly were any of them really necessary? I mean it's not like we always had them, why waste all that time with it? Once finished he shooed the both of us out of the room, the taller brooding blonde (ha ha ha alliteration), walking slightly faster than myself.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked when I made to step around him.

"My room?" 

"Fine."

I glanced at him. "You know you take your job way to seriously dude, I think you know the chances of me doing anything right now besides sleeping is like beyond unlikely."

He just scowled in response. Isn't he a talker?

"Sooo...where're the others?"

"The ones that came with you?"

"Yeah."

Akes shrugged. "Probably in Julius's suite. If not, I don't know. Don't care."

"Well aren't you a ray of sunshine?" I grumbled to myself. Was it really so hard to have a conversation with the guy? The dude knew all the tricks to making talking as short as possible. It was seriously annoying. I was a sociable dude, I didn't do the whole silence is golden shtick. Silence is f*****g stupid is what. That saying is utter bullshit. 

He just grunted in response.

"Anyone ever tell you that you're an a*s?"

He glared. "No, it never came up."

"Oh that's too bad, might've saved you some friends."

He smacked the top of my head. "Shut up."

I glared and rubbed the back of head. "Aren't you supposed to be like watching over me or something?"

"That didn't hurt."

"F**k you, a*s."

We rounded a corner, one that looked exactly like the one we had just walked down. 

"Ooo, is Evon back?"

"Sounds like it, brother."

"Think we can get him to help us with our newest 'project'?"

I looked around, confused. Where the heck were those voices coming from?

"I don't know looks like he's got a watchdog on his tail."

"Ooo, you mean Akkie? He's just an over aggressive puppy!"

I snickered, Akes glowered, that just made me laugh. "All right come out you two."

"Uh oh, he heard us!"

"Is the mean puppy gonna try and eat us?"

"Yes." Akes smirked when two gasps could be heard.

"Maybe we should run."

"Yes brother, maybe we should, or, or, or, or-"

"Calvin, Hector, get out here," I looked around the hall, trying to figure out where the two troublemakers could be hiding. "Where the hell are you two anyway?"

One of them snickered. "Behind you."

The other followed suit. "Beside you."

"Above you."

"Below you."

"TADA!" The two exclaimed in unison, seemingly jumping out of thin air.

"S**t! Dude..s, don't do that!... How did you do that?"

I looked down at the two ginger twins standing in front of me, each one wrapping an arm around the other's shoulders, Calvin and Hector, also known as Dante's little helpers, or the spawns of Satan, or the little devils, since they were the only two that seemed to understand half of what he told them...and of course they gave him hell while doing it. It was kinda sad really, that the only two who could help repair this place were two ten year olds who could make more gizmos than half of us combined. When you realize that, is it really any wonder the two survived in the first place?

The two boys were twins, identical, (dear god could you ask for any more trouble?) but thankfully we could tell them apart thanks to a bunch of accidents that, for better or worse, made them easily identifiable. Calvin was the one missing a tooth in the front, giving him the adorable incomplete smile of youth and wore an eye patch over his  right eye; he was burned by acid a few years back and was blinded by it. It wasn't a pretty sight, we were lucky to save his face.

Hector on the other hand had one green eye and one blue eye, something funky happened with some chemicals in the air and fucked with it. As far was we know the only thing it did was change the color and hopefully that would be all it did; I'd hate for him to have some sort of problem in the future because of it.

"Invisibility cubes! See?!" Calvin exclaimed thrusting his free hand out and showing off a little cube.

"We were finishing them while Dante was away, he was totally surprised right Cal?"

"Oh yeah! We scared the bijeebus out of him! He was all  '¡Ah! Hijos del diablo!'"

"Yeah yeah! And then he tried to throw a wrench at us!"

"And then the holy water!"

"Oh! Oh! And then the salt ring!"

The two looked at each other, mischievous grins on there faces. "'Gingers have no souls!'"

I rolled my eyes, sure sounded like something Dante would do. True god fearing Catholic he was. It was a wonder he put up with them at all. "You know he doesn't mean it right kiddo's?"

They nodded. "Oh we know."

"We just like messing with him, right Hec?"

"Yep!"

"So! Evon can you help us? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

"Pleasssssseeeeeeee?"

"Pretty please?"

"With a cherry on top?"

"And whipped cream?"

"And blueberry ice cream?"

"Shouldn't the ice-cream have gone on before the other stuff?"

"Shut up," Calvin hissed loudly, acting like we couldn't hear him. "We're trying to persuade him to help us remember?"

"Oh yeah." Hector hissed back.

I grinned and placed my hands on top of their little heads, letting out a small chuckle. "I'll see what I can do ok?"

The two beamed at me and high fived each other behind their backs. "Yes! Score!"

"Now get lost," Akes growled menacingly, though we knew he wasn't serious, he couldn't hate the kids and you could see the smile struggling to turn up the corners of his lips. It was like they said, he was just a giant puppy underneath it all. Of course getting him to show that he wasn't an a*s was a bit of a challenge, not many could bring that out of him.

"Okay Akkie," They said in unison, laughing at the irritated look on Akes face before running off hand in hand, disappearing halfway down the hall. Oh god those two were a handful.

We continued to walk, Akes an annoying presence in the back of my mind, one that just wouldn't go away.

"What do you need from your room?"

"Dude, it has a bed, I plan on sleeping."

He grabbed my arm, "No, we're going to Julius's room."

"Why?"

"Dale's there."

"So, I'll see him when I wake up."

"Just come on, I'm sure those people are freaking out."

I scoffed. "It's not like we're gonna kill 'em."

"They don't know that."

I groaned. "Fine. Let's go reassure the saviors man."

Akes nodded in approval and we doubled back, passing a flustered looking Matthew, our designated researcher, his boxes currently floating in the air, and his glasses askew on his face.

"Calvin, Hector cut it out, you know Matt's a scaredy cat."

They giggled, "Okay Evon!"

The boxes dropped to the flow and Matthew nodded in our direction, probably trying not to have a mental breakdown and find a logical explanation for what had just happened.

"Invisibility cube," I called out to him as I was dragged to Julius's suite.

"So what do you think of them?" I asked as we approached the door.

Akes was silent for a moment. "They seem like good people, though the pale one has issues."

I scoffed. "And you don't?"

He glared and pushed open a door. "Get in there."

"Yeah yeah," I opened the door.

"-o who's Angie?"

I looked in the room, Sally and Victor were currently interrogating Nicoli, they didn't look particularly threatened. They seemed pretty at ease to be hones, though Nicoli looked a little uncomfortable at being put in the hot seat.

"W-why do you ask?"

"You kept mumbling her name in your sleep, so who was she?"

"Uhm she was...my uhm...sister," He rubbed the back of his head and looked away embarrassed.

Akes froze behind me. I glanced at his face, he looked freaked out. "Nicky?"

 His voice was shaking and barely over a whisper, but we all heard it. Everyone looked at us. Nicoli had a look of confusion on his face, one that morphed to surprise, realization, and finally, strangely enough, horror.

"Alex?"

Author's Note

CLIFFHANGER!!! WHATCHA THINK?

Reviews

[Writer #00]

First: W#00 must point out its flaws because it's my favorite Evon chapter so far and must be PERFECT *O*~!:

"...away in there little hut of magical mysteries."

[Writer #00]

WC killed my review, ate it, and regurgitated what was left. : (

[Tsukin Archangel]

Lol I'm assumin there was more you wanted to say? lol I don't really know how to respond to something incomplete