Slowly, Sarah’s eyes opened. Sunlight blared through the windows, sending rays into the room. She sat up, not feeling the agonizing pain in her back. Her muscles didn’t ache either.
Her eyes darted around the unfamiliar room. Oh no, she thought. Am I in a hospital?
Well, it didn’t look like a hospital. She had never been in one, but it didn’t look like a hospital in the books she read.
Her eyes landed on a shelf, it had tons of bottles filled with different colored liquids.
Potions maybe? But where did this stranger get potions from? And who was this stranger?
She pulled the covers off herself and felt the cold air run through her skin. She dangled her feet off the bed, trying to ignore the overwhelming frost from the air. Wondering if she could stand, she lightly placed her feet on the floor, putting full weight on them and stood.
How? How could she stand? Every time she woke, she couldn’t carry her full weight on her legs until minutes later. Who was this stranger? Why did they take her here. And how was she standing?
She walked barefoot over to the shelf, taking a bottle off it and read, Macrokine. What was a “Macrokine”? Was it some type of animal? The bottle was filled with a translucent white color. Raising it to eye level, Sarah tilted it so she could see what it did. The liquid was thick but not so thick that it stuck together. The estimation was about two seconds before the liquid reached the other side.
She lowered the bottle and looked at the other ones. There were different translucent colors. Blue, purple, pink, all labeled differently. She looked back at the bottle in her hands. Macrokine. What was that?
“Curious one, eh?” a man said.
Sarah jumped from his deep voice and almost dropped the bottle. She turned around and saw Malaki leaning against the doorway.
She didn’t even hear him open the door. Was this some type of magic?
She gazed at the bottle again, “What’s a ‘Macrokine’?” She held the bottle out to him.
Malaki looked at her then at the bottle, standing back up and walking over to her. Every step made her heart beat faster. She didn’t know why... This feeling was unusual to her. Until finally, he stood in front of her. She had to tilt her head back to look at him.
He lightly took the bottle from her hands and studied it. Then he placed it back on the shelf and looked back down at her. “Macrokine is a painkiller.”
“What is a ‘pankiler’?” she asked.
“Painkiller.” He chuckled. “Have you not heard of medicine?”
She shook her head, her hair sending spirals down her face.
Malaki stared at her in amazement as if he had never heard of someone who’d never known of medicine.
Realizing he didn’t know what to say she asked, “Is it like a potion?”
“Similar.” He looked down at her arms. “Medicine is created by humans. Potions are mythical.”
Surprised, Sarah realized she just hinted that she was a magical being. People at this time must have not known that her race existed.
“Can I look at your wounds?” he asked.
She glanced down at her arms, there were gauze wrappers taped to them. She didn’t even realize they were there. “Yes,” she said finally. Then she walked over to the bed, her light footsteps creaking the floor, and sat down.
Malaki lightly grasped her wrist and took off the tape, revealing the deep scrape wounds on her skin. She gasped. “Why do they not hurt?”
He completely peeled off the gauze and opened a drawer next to her. “Because of the painkiller.”
“Do you hate witches?” she blurted out before she could stop herself.
He didn’t even move an inch in surprise, he just pulled out clean gauze bandages and tape from the drawer. “No.”
She stared at him as he placed the gauze on her wounds and held them in place as he unwound the tape with his mouth.
That was odd... people her time hated the thought of witches... because Sarah was born in 1780.
“Why?” she asked because she couldn’t help it.
Malaki stopped and for a moment, and she was afraid if she went too far. “I cannot hate something that there is no knowledge of.” He looked up at her. “That would be unrealistic.”
Did he just say, “no knowledge of”? So... was he hinting that her race could exist?
Malaki carried on with taping up her wounds. There were three scrape wounds on her right arm and five on her left. He patched them up with no problem, she didn’t even feel the pain as he lightly pressed on them with the gauze. Painkillers were a lifesaver.
When he finally finished, Malaki placed the gauze and tape in the drawer and leaned back looking at his work.
He sloped forward and tugged at her bandages, checking to see if they were secure.
“Does it feel okay?” Malaki asked, still tugging at the bandages.
She looked down at her arms and turned them around once he let go, taking in the sight of all the wrappings on her arms. “I don’t feel a thing.”
He chuckled. “That is the painkillers.”
She looked at him. He was grinning, staring at her arms. “Mal?”
He looked up, clearly surprised she called him that name. “Are you alright?”
“Yes.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Why did you save me?”
He looked at the floor and blushed. She scanned him, tilting her head in confusion. “Because—” he pushed air out of his lips, “because you were so nice to me. No one is nice to me.”
She stood up and kneeled down next to him. He peered at her, his gaze pinning her in place. Her face started turning red as it heated and he sat up and gripped her shoulders.
“Are you getting another fever?” He scanned her, concerned.
She shook her head. “No. Why?”
Sarah saw him blink, studying her for a moment. “Oh, nothing.” He let go of her shoulders, making her stomach churn. “It’s fine.”
“Where did you learn to patch up people like that?” she asked him.
He looked at her for a moment, then realized what she was asking. “Oh, I went to school.”
She looked around. “Do… you live alone?”
His eyes hardened and she shrank back, worried that she got him angry. He wasn’t looking at her, though, he was looking at a picture frame on the wall next to the window.
She turned around and looked at the picture, there were four people in there. A tall man with wavy brown hair and a woman that was slightly shorter than him, she wore a dark dress and a light colored bow on the collar. There was a girl in the picture as well, she couldn’t have been more than eight or nine. Then there was a boy, about six, Sarah could tell it was Malaki.
“That was my family,” Malaki said. “They died about a year after that picture was taken.”
Sarah turned and saw the look on his face. He was angry. Oh, god. He was furious. How do you comfort someone that was this angry? She knew the wrong thing to ask was “how did they die,” so she didn’t.
She looked down at his hand as he stared at the picture, his fingers were gripping the floor, knuckles turning white. She read this calming technique in romance novels so she decided to try it.
Sarah placed her hand on his, his skin was warm, it calmed her. Why was this calming her and not him? But at the last minute, his muscles relaxed, and she looked up and saw him staring at her.
Malaki’s gaze wasn’t hard anymore. It was as soft as a blanket. His grey eyes looked warm and she wanted to be lost in them for ages.
“Here,” he said, breaking the silence. “You should go back to bed, you’re still healing.”
She let him hold her hand lightly as he stood up, he helped her up and guided her to the bed.
Lightly, he pulled the blankets over her. She stared at him as the warmth consumed her entire body.
“Go back to sleep,” he said calmly. “I’ll check on you soon.”
“Did I say something wrong?” she asked.
He smiled. “No. I just want you to be healthy. So please, go back to sleep.”
She watched as he walked over to the door, stepped out, and lightly shut it behind him, leaving her alone.
She didn’t want to be alone, she wanted him to stay. Why didn’t he stay? Sarah stared up at the ceiling, sighing in annoyance. It took a couple of minutes, but she was able to close her eyes without them wanting to stay open, checking the door for Malaki to come back in. It was weird... She was in a complete stranger’s house... She was supposed to be scared, but she wasn’t... Was this a bad sign? Eventually, she found herself fading into the world of black.
ns 15.158.61.39da2
