Aarmau: Remember Me, Remember Us, Just Remember

Chapter 14

Aph's eyes pop open and she stares at him in horror. She completely forgot to keep them hidden and with a little bit of focus they disappear. Her eyes drop to her hands and she's terrified to even look up at anyone.

Gene frowns at her, "Hey there, where'd they go? You know the cat or well the wolf's out of the bag so you don't need to hide them."

She slowly looks up and her eyes immediately move from Garroth to Melissa and then to Aaron. All of them have their ears and tail out. Aaron nods his approval and the second she relaxes hers pop back out.

She looks at Aaron and frowns, "How do they look F.C.?"

Aaron looks confused. "They look fine Shu. Why?"

Her eyes dart to Melissa who nods in agreement, "Well, last time I saw them my tail was curled in like Celestia's and my ears were stumpy with white tips. You helped me die them from white to purple to make me feel better. I'm hoping they look better."

Aaron nods in understanding, crosses over to the front door where he pulls the mirror off the wall. He carries it back to her bed and turns it to face her.

The face that looks back at her is no longer the same. She slowly reaches up to touch her cheeks. She's lost so much weight they're sunken in now and she's so pale she could compete with Zane. She looks tired.

She looks up at her ears and smiles. She's happy to see they're now fully formed and instead of the tips being white they've turn a rich amber surrounded by jet black to match her eyes. She holds her hands up in front of her, noticing how thin and delicate they look and then lifts the covers to look at the rest of her body.

Her eyes take everyone in and look to Travis, "What happened? I always wanted to be thin but not this thin."

Travis frowns, "Aph, what do you remember about the hospital? Heck what's the last thing you remember period?"

Aph's eyes study her covers as she searches her memory. She closes her eyes to focus her thoughts. "It's hard to separate what was real from what was a dream. It was dark for so long and I dreamt a lot. The red bandana, everyone was sent home, the doctors and nurses visiting all the time, the two of us talking, the constant pain...but it's all fuzzy. I think they wanted me to start moving but the pain was too much. I know I couldn't feed myself so someone else had to. I remember getting sick a lot when I ate. That stuff they gave me was sickeningly sweet. I think the last thing I clearly remember was knocking a bowl of food off the table. I refused to eat it knowing it was only going to make me throw up."

Travis looks at her in shock, "Aph that was 8 months ago. You don't remember anything else?"

Tears pool at the corners of her eyes and she searches deeper into her mind. She shakes her head, "No or at least I don't think so. Every time I dreamt I thought it was real but something would happen and I knew it was a lie. In each dream something about Irene and the Demon Warlock would come up. They wanted to know more about them, about me."

Gene tilts his head at her, "What about them?"

Her eyes dart to Gene's face and they squint as she studies him. Aaron remembers their conversation from last night and knows exactly what she's thinking. "Shu it's alright."

She turns to Aaron and seeing the understanding looking back she tries to relax. She reaches out to run her hand through Celestia's fur and lets out a calming breath.

Gene opens his mouth to ask again just as the front door opens and they watch Rowan, Sylvana, Eric and the nurse from last night step into the room. All of them look to Aph's bed and Sylvana cries out to see that she's awake.