Saxifrage Fire

0014

The gunshot and splattering of her mother's blood startled her awake and she sat up, her vision a blur, her heart racing. She looked around the little cave of a room where there was a bed and nothing much else and felt an emptiness begin to grow inside her chest. She reached up and touched the bandage around her head, remembering the pain of yanking out her Anti-Suppressor. 

She set her burned feet on the stone floor and grimaced. She lifted one up to study the bandages- some blood leaked through creating flowery designs on the white cotton wrap. Without warning, it struck her that if she shone a blue light on her skin, it would light up with bloodstains of her own, and her mother's blood. She grabbed her sheet and started to scrub at her skin, but she imagined it smearing, soaking into her, never to be cleaned. She glanced back at her pillow, considering laying back down to sleep, but saw that it was stained by her charred hair. She pulled a braid around- it was half the length as before and breaking apart like burned wood.

The door beeped and she looked up to see Alex stick her head inside.

"You're awake. Can I come in?"

She nodded.

Alex stepped inside, her hands in her pockets, her eyes red from crying, and stood awkwardly for a moment.

"Umm... are you feeling okay? Can I get you anything?"

Alethea studied her posture, expression, trying to translate the Koro signals to her Sera mind.

"You couldn't sleep?"

Alex shook her head and bit her lip to keep it from quivering.

Thea grimaced.

"I am... sorry."

Alex barely shrugged.

Thea scowled, recognizing her sister's behavior as entirely too familiar; she was acting like she was Sera again like she had to control herself in her presence. She considered what to say- that she wasn't like she was before? Like she didn't have to tiptoe? All verbal attempts sounded stiff in her head, and according to Kaleo, her smiles were that of nightmares. She sighed.

"Would you help me with my hair?" She asked, cradling her burned braid.

Alex's eyes lit up.

"Yeah! Kaleo gave me a kit he uses for Kamaya- I'll grab it from my room- there's a locker-room down the hall."

Thea smiled realizing she'd struck the right nerve.

Alex held her arm helping her along on her burnt feet down the stone hall. It was quiet save for the hum of amber lights that ran along the jagged wall.

"What time is it?" Thea asked.

"About four in the morning- I think."

Thea barely nodded, watching her feet as she tentatively walked on her toes to keep from touching the burns to the floor. A wave of dizziness took her, and she stumbled.

Alex steadied her.

"Your form is a little off," she teased.

Thea shot her a look.

"You're one to talk, Miss tripping toes."

Alex laughed.

The locker room was gray and plagued with white lights that lined the ceiling. The air was cold against Thea's skin as she undressed cautiously as if any tug or jerk might shatter her bones. She sat half-naked on the counter as Alex changed her bandages on her larger burns then encased them in plastic wrap.