Darkness carved in bone

Chapter 13

Helen

Helen had been dragged through ice and fire. It was the only thought in her mind, the only truth she knew, as pain and exhaustion seemed to drag her towards consciousness. There had been absolute darkness and silence for a moment, when she had been gone. She had been enveloped in a soft and dark nothingness for a short moment, and it had been everything she had not thought darkness would be. The darkness had been peaceful and strangely filled with variations of colors that she had never seen before. It had been perplexingly beautiful and somehow her soul longed for that place of darkness. In that moment it had been as if time had ceased to exist. It had only been her and darkness, nothing else. No pain at all.

Then she had been pulled into painful and horrifying cold and brutal air that had penetrated her burning lungs. The vivid memory made her lungs ache with pain instantly in the present, as if the memory triggered the same pain in her body now. It felt like she needed to gasp for air, as if her lungs had collapsed, refusing her any air.

The next thing she remembered was that she had been melted over a fiery pit that had threatened to swallow her alive. A fierce flame had burned through her closed eyelids and blasted sharp and blinding light and warmth into her. That flame had been the utter contrast to the darkness she had experienced only moments before. It had been white and glowing, alive and chaotic, and every second and moment had been filled with pain as her body convulsed as it thawed before that molten pit.

But through it all Ten had been by her side, shielding her and protecting her. Keeping her on the side of the living, and not letting her slip into that final and unending death. She had no recollection of him, of his presence, but she knew he had been there. As if he had been the tether that had kept her from going back into that darkness, keeping her from embracing and falling in that darkness that had seemed so undeniably alluring to her.

She opened her eyes and found that Ten was still by her side, his body pressed against hers, his arms wrapped around her. Between the fur coat she was covered in, his warm body and the fire she was laying in front of, she was burning up. It felt as if her skin were plastered with sweat, and she could almost sense how her face was red and flustered from the heat. There was no indication or hint of coldness or ice inside her, as it perhaps should have been, considering she had fallen through the ice and into the freezing water.

She turned around, facing Ten, who lay there, dozing off, reacting slightly as she moved, but stayed unconscious. Her lips curled into a smile as she looked at him, looked at his face and traced his jaw and listened to his steady breathing. He had saved her, pulled her from the frozen lake, and saved her life. A different kind of warmth started spreading inside her.

But then it hit Helen; he had saved her life. And in doing so he had chosen to stay controlled. A strange disappointment came over her, of being alive. And the warmth she had felt spreading inside her, diminished.

Pain started spreading through her body, and she tried to speak, but her throat burned "Water," was all she managed to say.

Ten tensed up, his eyes flashing open before he jumped up and fetched her a skin filled with water. She gulped down the water, almost inhaling some in the process.

She sat up and leaned against the wall beside the fireplace, coughing. She looked down at herself and realized Ten had dressed her in some of his own wool clothes. The clothes hang around her slim frame, but they were warm and comfortable.

"You saved me," she said once she found that she could talk again, but there was not any happiness or gratitude in her voice, only accusation. She could feel her attitude bleed into her expression, almost glaring at him.