Out of the Darkness

194

"Is he okay?" Sam asked, with worry in his tone. "He'll be fine," the lady replied. Were they talking about me? I was fine. Just sleepy. "He's just completely worn out. What he just experienced was the equivalent to being burned alive. The last thing that I did was press a quick absorbing salve against his skin. It will help him relax and recover. He just needs rest, and hopefully some good dreams. Now, my fee?" I heard Sam sigh. I giggled again. My money was in my pocket and there was no way that I could get it. So, he would have to go digging around in my pants to find it. "No money from me," I giggled out, and tried to raise my head. "Shut up," he replied, making me laugh again. I felt great. So relaxed. My body almost felt weightless when Sam helped me stand. With the grunts he was making, it didn't seem like he thought the same thing. "You're my brother," I said, trying to put my hand on his chest, as he walked me back down the hallway. "Yeah dude, you're my brother too. Now, help me out. One foot in front of the other." I tried to concentrate on shuffling my feet down that extra long hallway, to help him. The hallway hadn't seemed that big when we first entered. "Wowow," I whispered, feeling the need to be quiet. Eventually, Sam and I made it to the car with a lot of dragging and motivation. He opened the door, then basically just let me fall inside of the car. I laughed, and tried to pull my feet inside. "Nope, not gonna nope," I said, in a sing song voice. Sam grabbed my legs and threw them over into the car. He walked around and slid behind the wheel. "I drive," I sang out, reaching for the wheel. He slapped my hands away, and shook his head. "You're gonna be annoying, aren't you? You're fucking stoned," he sighed. I just laughed. I felt lightheaded. Hell, I felt light bodied. Like I could just float away. That woman had to have given me something, because I feel stoned. Like, stupid, giggly stoned. Sam pulled the car out onto the road, and I lay my head back. The moving scenery was a little too much for me. Next thing I know, he's shaking me awake. "Wuh?" I groaned, opening my bleary eyes. "Come on. We're back at the hotel. Anna and Christine are probably back by now. We've been gone for a few hours and it's about to get dark," he replied, slapping my leg one more time before climbing out of the car. "Oh God," I grunted, and sat up. I almost felt hungover. Not the rocking headache kind of hungover, just really groggy, my body was weak, and my mouth tasted like shit. "What the hell did she do to me?" I asked, when Sam opened my door. He laughed. "She helped you, brother. Check out your arm." He helped me to a standing position, then stepped back after I was stable. "Seriously, check it out. It looks like it's been healing for a few days now. Not just a half hour or so." I rolled my eyes. There was no way that whatever she put on me worked that fast. Still, I lifted my arm and looked. If I had been a cartoon, my eyes would have bulged out of my head, right then. The wound was actually starting to scab around the edges, and the inside didn't look like rotten greenish ground beef anymore. It was almost smooth, like a couple of layers of skin had grown back. It was still red and raw looking but this was amazing! "How?" I asked, meeting his gaze with wide eyes. He grinned widely and shrugged. "No clue, but damn it, I'm glad. You're gonna make it, Colby. There will be no dying any time soon." "Wow," I whispered, running my fingers lightly over the area. This should've been impossible, but I was looking right at it. "Wait," I said, looking back up at him. "How much did this cost?" "Let's just say that your life is worth a helluva lot. I actually had to set up a payment plan. Haven't done that in a while," he replied, then started to put his arm around my waist to help me walk. "No, I'm good," I said. "Seriously, I can walk. My head is a little clearer and I feel a little better. I'm still a little weak, but I'm pretty sure that I can handle making it back to our room." "If you're sure," he said, taking a step back so that I could close the car door. I was weak, but I managed to shuffle along to our room, with Sam close by, just in case I started to fall. He ran the key car and pushed our room door open. I shuffled through, and saw Anna and Christine piled up in one of the beds, painting each other's nails and laughing. Anna looked up and met my gaze. "Colby! Oh my God, what happened to you? Are you okay?" She jumped off the bed and darted to my side, to wrap her arm around my waist and help me sit on the bed. I let her. Her closeness felt nice. I heard Sam scoff behind me, but I ignored him. "I'm okay," I told Anna. "You are definitely not okay!" she exclaimed. "You look like death warmed over, and you can barely walk!" "Hey!" I exclaimed in protest. "I do not look like death! Do I?" I looked over to Sam. He just raised his eyebrows and shrugged. I sighed. "You couldn't tell me this, brother?" "Didn't really think it was that important with everything going on," he replied. I tried to glance in the mirror that was right in front of me, without being obvious. I heard Anna's little giggle when I reached up to fix my hair. "You look good, Colby. You always do. I just meant that you look...I don't know. Tired or something. Like you've had a really hard day. It's in your eyes. Plus, you could barely walk when you came in. So, tell me what happened. Was it Lilith?" I met her gaze and saw the fear there. "No, it wasn't Lilith. It was actually a good thing. Just took a lot out of me. Look," I replied, and held up my arm. Her gently hands cradled it, while she gasped. "How did this happen? I thought- Anyway, this is so amazeballs!" She threw her arms around my neck with such force, it knocked me back on the bed with her on top of me. I wrapped my arms around her waist, and lay there, laughing.