Thirteen

It was dark and Grace shivered in the cold. Why was it so cold? She tried to think, reaching for the lamp that should be by her bed. Her hand ran into a stone wall. Moving in the bed, she realized she was naked and that the bed wasn’t hers. It was some kind of feather bed, and someone else was in it with her. Carefully, she shook the slim shoulder and got no response.

With a pop and a hiss a light flared in the darkness above her before being dropped nearby. It burned, illuminating the small space dimly and she could see she was in a stone pit with a bed and some buckets. The naked woman in the bed with her looked like Genevieve.

“Hello? Who-who’s there? Why…” The memory of the demonic looking thing pulling at her leg made her shudder. 

“Are you alright?” It sounded like… 

“Eli?” Grace clambered from the bed. “What happened? Something dragged me out of the car.... Eli?”

A woman’s voice spoke “Is she going to be ok? She doesn’t look good.”

“Who-Eli?” Grace stared up into the darkness and it spoke again exactly as before as if she were being played a recording.

“Is she going to be ok? She doesn’t look good.”

If Eli were there he would have answered or jumped down. She wasn’t sure how she knew, but she did. Grace checked on the unconscious woman in the bed. “She needs a doctor. They said she has seizures, she probably has medicines she needs to take. She needs medical help.”

“I’m not that fragile, but I appreciate the concern.” It sounded like Genevieve’s voice coming from above.

“Did you-did you record people’s voices? Wouldn’t using a voice changer be easier?”

“You might ‘see about’ doing some relaxing and resting, try to work on your health.” Eli’s recorded voice came back down to her.

Grace curled close to the unconscious woman trying to keep both of them warm. Genevieve wasn’t shivering and her skin was so cold. After a few minutes she pleaded up to whoever might still be there. “Please, she’s freezing cold and-”

A large form dropped next to the dimming flare. “She always looks awful under the glass.” The voice sounded familiar but she couldn’t name it.

“It’s freezing and she’s not, she’s not shivering.” Grace tried to drag Genevieve back toward the stone wall as it advanced. 

“I need to apologize.” It sounded like Eli again but it definitely wasn’t.

“She needs medical attention.”

It came onto the bed, surprisingly the bed didn’t shudder or creak, it only sank. A massive hand reached for Genevieve. The thing touched the woman’s face and then pulled her away from Grace. A horrible sound made her cover her ears and whimper but Genevieve didn’t move at all.

Another large thing dropped down. They began to rub Genevieve’s arms and legs as if trying to warm her. 

“If you won’t take her to a doctor, she needs a fire and blankets. We both do.” Grace shivered.

They made the horrible sounds again and there were replies from above. After a short while blankets were thrown down. They smelled as if someone had taken them out of a barn but they were better than nothing. She wrapped herself up and watched as the monsters kept rubbing at Genevieve. Some time later a bucket filled with hot stones was lowered. They were put into the bed to warm it and Genevieve was wrapped in a blanket and nestled among the stones. Grace lay close to her.

She hadn’t realized she’d fallen asleep until she woke in the morning. Dim light was shining down into the pit, and Genevieve stirred as Grace checked her for a pulse.

“Bas?”

“No, it-it’s Grace. I don’t know what happened, we…” Grace stopped herself. Stress wasn’t supposed to be good for people with seizure disorders and not only did she not have a clue what to do for the woman, she didn’t have the bag with whatever medications might be needed. “We’re going to be ok, alright? Try to rest.”

Those things would probably give the woman a heart attack if she saw them, Grace tried not to think about them but… she huddled close to the quiet woman. The thought that they didn’t seem to know about people needing to be warm came unbidden and she had to wonder if they knew people needed food.