My eyes fluttered open, expecting light to pour through the curtains, but through my eyes I only saw the darkness that gloomed over the city during the night, and my employer sitting on the bedside reading a book.
"Mr. Allen?" I asked as I sat up "What are you doing here?"
His eyes never left the book's pages, and his gloved hand moved to flip the page, "I heard that you collapsed during work... I came here to apologize."
"Sir, there is no need to apologize! You did nothing wrong."
"Had I known that you were feeling ill, I would not have allowed you to stay to finish my work." slowly, he shut his book, and looked at me, "Take care of yourself. For now, I will hire a temporary substitute for you. I doubt that they'd be able to accomplish as much as you, but I have no other choice." with the book in his hand, he stood up to leave, "Goodbye, Ms. Secretary."
I opened my mouth to say goodbye, but was interrupted by the sound of the door closing softly. Sighing, I lied down on the bed. Mr. Allen was very hard to talk to sometimes, but dealing with it was part of my job. It's not like I minded it, anyways.
A colorful array of flowers caught my eye, and right next to me was a bouquet. Flowers? Were they from him? I couldn't help the smile that made its way to my lips. After all, who else would they be from?
My thoughts halted by the sound of my stomach growling. When was the last she ate? Pretty sure she didn't have breakfast this morning... or lunch. I was so hungry.
Just as if it was rehearsed, the door opened and in came a nurse with a tray of... food? Can that even be called food? I blanched when she placed it on the bed with a mini table.
"Dinner is served!" said she with a bright smile on her face, as if she knew that I wasn't going to enjoy it.
I was never picky with my food growing up, but I did dislike things. However, if it was healthy I would eat it. Even if it meant eating something that looked like a mixture of green caterpillars with ladybugs.
I was hungry anyways.
The nurse never left my side the whole time I was eating, making sure that nothing would happen to me. Was this really a necessity? I was no longer a child.
After swallowing the last spoonful of the goop, I placed my utensils back on the tray in a neat manner. "Thank you for the meal." I said politely.
I guess hospital meals were exactly like how movies described them to be.
The nurse smiled and took the tray in her hands and prepared to leave. A thought came to my mind, and I couldn't help but ask, "Um, before you go is it okay if you gave me some sleeping pills?"
The other woman furrowed her brows, "But honey, you were sleeping for the whole day."
"I-I'm just very tired..."
Although she looked a bit hesitant at first, she nodded, "Alright, I'll get some after returning this."
I sighed in relief, "Thank you."
It didn't take long for the nurse to come back with a glass of water and one sleeping pill.
"Here you go, hon. Sweet dreams."
With one gulp I swallowed, and gave the nurse a smile. With that I continued to lie down on the hospital bed, awaiting for my dream to return.
Sounds around me started to become nothing but a blur, and then my eyes faded away into darkness.
"Joke! Will you hold her properly!?" Yelled Second, whose voice was very close; maybe in front of her?
"I'm trying! I'm trying to make sure she's also comfortable, you know?" I felt two hands pushing me on my back.
I opened my eyes and saw that I was on Seconds' back, with Joke supporting me from behind.
"What are you guys... doing?" I mumbled, still tired. Both of them stopped at the sound of my voice.
"This is your fault, Second! You woke her up with your annoying bossy attitude!"
"My fault? You're the one who can't hold her properly, you want her to fall!?" Second argued as he continued walking.
"Where are you guys taking me?" I looked around and saw the same view as usual: a forest of trees, and snow. The only difference was that it looked slightly slanted for some reason.
"We're taking you to the doctor on top of the mountain." Johnny said huffing bit from the climb and from the yelling.
I slid myself off of Second's back, sparing the boy from anymore suffering. "I'm fine, I'll get better even without a doctor."
Second wasn't what you would call short, but he was still smaller by a few inches or so. Puberty had yet to give him one of those growth spurts that boys seemed to get.
"But Orphan, we're already here..." said Second as he gestured to the cabin that was just a few more steps away, "We just carried you up the mountain by ourselves the whole night after the storm stopped. You want to go home right now?"
Well, when he puts it that way it was like I had no other choice. "Alright then..."
Second and Joke held her hands and helped her to the front of the cabin, where Joker knocked on the door.
"Knock, knock!" he giggled.
From the other side, you can hear the voice of a man sounding a bit familiar, "Who's there?"
"Johnny!"
The door opened and came to the blank face of the same herbalist that I had met when I was in search of a job.
"I have no time to waste on knock, knock jokes, what do you want? I'm busy."
"Orphan is sick." said Joker with a wide smile on his face.
"Did you just call yourself 'Johnny'" whispered Second who was on my other side.
"Oh, it's you." said the doctor, he opened the door wider, "Come in... Sorry, but she can't lie down on the bed. It's already taken by someone."
Johnny and Second pulled me inside slowly and looked inside. The two boys were curious to know who was sleeping, and the three of them were surprised to see the two people. Johnny and second furrowed their brows when they noticed that the one using the bed was a severely injured girl.
She was beautiful dark haired woman sleeping peacefully on top of the only available bed. She was wearing ripped clothing that looked to be a very expensive gown before it was tattered. Another thing was that she was covered in scars and bandages.
The doctor led Orphan to a rocking chair and brushed the small dust off of it with his hand, "Sit here, let me take a look." Joker and Johnny sat me down on the chair and backed away enough for the doctor to take a look.
Was he a doctor or a herbalist? Maybe both?
As he observed her condition, Johnny was staring at the man wearing leather. His bright eyes strayed from the man's face all the way down to where his daggers were sheathed.
"You have a lot of weird customers, don't ya, herbalist?" laughed the boy. Orphan noticed the man twitch at Johnny's comment, making her nervous.
"Herbalist?" wondered the man. His voice was smooth and silky, and he spoke with a confident air around him.
“Doctor, Herbalist. Meh, I’m the only healer in this town so multitasking is something that I have to do.” Said the doctor nonchalantly as he placed his hand on the woman’s forehead. “Why don’t you boys sit down over there while I take a look at her?”
“Alright!” yelled the jolly boy as he skipped over to the extra chairs. The other boy was just silent, but he let out a smile at the other as he sat down right next to him.
He placed his palm on my forehead, "You're a bit hot... are you coughing a lot?"
I shook my head, "No, not really."
"This is just a regular fever, I suppose." He went to his cupboard and took out a small sack of... I don't know. "This is the medicine I made for things like this. Drink it every day for a week and you should be fine. Just to make sure, I want her to stay here for a day for me to monitor her condition."
"A day?" Second frowned and crossed his arms, "Are you sure that's necessary? Also, how much do we need to pay you for the medicine?"
"It is necessary. You never know if it ends up being more serious than just a regular fever, and for the medicine don't worry. It's free."
"Free!? Why?" yelled the man with the dangerous daggers.
"She was supposed to start working for me today, but I guess it's can't happen because of this. I'll just take out the money from her paycheck." well in a way, it's still not for free. "You boys can go back now. I've seen you wandering around with others, I'm sure that they need you too."
Second thought about it for a while, and then nodded, "Joke, you stay here with Orphan. I'm going to go back to the cottage."
Johnny straightened his back and saluted, "Yes sir!"
"Wait, don't I get a say in this?" I was supposed to be the adult in this situation.
"Thank you, Mr. Doctor. Joke, take care of Orphan." without any reply to me, Second ran outside the door and made his way down the mountains with a speed that should be considered dangerous. I made sure to take note to tell him to be more careful next time.
"Orphan, look out!" Yelled Johnny as he jumped onto my lap, to which I responded with pain.
"Urk!" I held in my cry of pain as I wrapped my arms around the twelve year old, "Johnny... p-please don't do that again." for a boy his age he should be too old to be sitting on my lap, but because of what he's gone through I will forget about it for now.
"Your brother just told you to take care of her and here you go trying to kill her." said the doctor, "Don't injure the patient, boy."
"How about Rehenna? How is she doing?" I almost forgot about the crazy man with knives in his hands as if he was ready for murder.
"Relax. I just treated to her a few minutes ago, it's not like she's going to suddenly die." said the nonchalant doctor.
Orphan watched as the man huffed, and turned away. He was sitting right next to the bed right on the floor, and was leaning against the wall. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes.
"So cool!" Orphan saw the man jump in surprise when Johnny popped up right next to him, and she was surprised herself. She didn't notice him wander away. Johnny's eyes were sparkling as they observed his daggers, "They are like... so sharp and so shiny!"
With a smile, the man nodded and ruffled Johnny's hair. "Yeah, shiny, right?"
Johnny nodded, and said, "My big sister always carried around daggers like that, but they don't even compare to what you have. Are you some rich prince, or something?"
Orphan looked at them both nervously, "Johnny, come over here." she heard the man chuckle. To be honest, she didn't really trust him, and having Johnny hang around him didn't really do well for her heart. "Come on."
"Aww..." Johnny groaned and went over to where she was.
Orphan caressed Johnny's hair fondly, a smile graced upon her lips. Johnny was such a sweet child.
Johnny laughed and held her arms as he jumped up and down, "Do you know that I don't get sick a lot?" he said in a low whisper as to not disturb the one sleeping on the bed.
Orphan giggled and said, "Oh, really?"
Suddenly, the man doubled over in pain, clutching his head. His sudden movements making Johnny yell, "What's going on!?" he was scared as he held on to Orphan. She pulled Johnny closer to herself, and gulped. This wasn't good.
The doctor was immediately by his side, trying to see what's wrong. "Hey, where does it hurt!? Calm down, it's alright! Tell me what's wrong!" but the man wasn't responding.
He was only screaming as pain ripped through his mind, and the three of them weren't able to do anything about it. It didn't take long, but he finally blacked out because of the pain.
ns 15.158.61.50da2
