APRICITAS [ENG] || Johan Liebert || Monster

Chapter 22 - The Bonds

Everything seemed hazy to her and Emiko was not fully aware of what was happening. Once it seemed to her that she was awake, and then again that she was in a dream... She tried to speak... to move somehow, but she couldn't. She felt the tremendous weight of her body and was unable to break free from this state - just like in the dream from three days ago... Will she finally fully wake up and end this nightmare? Or maybe that was her final end?

Suddenly she felt someone's cool hand touch her forehead.

"Emiko?" The voice seemed to come from a distance... And although she could hear it, she was unable to react to it. A pleasantly cool hand began to caress her face. "You have a fever."

'...Fever... ahh... yeah...' Though Johan's words began to make sense to her, there was no further reaction of her body. His hand disappeared from her face, allowing the girl to fall back into a dreamland again.

The soft beeping near her head woke her again.

"Thirty-nine and two. It is a high temperature, isn't it?"

'...Will I... possibly... End up like in this dream that I had on the first day here?' Somehow, the thought didn't frighten her in any particular way. Unlike Johan, the young woman knew there was never a real end to the soul. Once it's born, it lives forever in order to develop and gain new experiences in future incarnations. She knew that even if she left this world and crossed over to the other side, she would be able to come back here again... but not as the same person...

Besides, Emiko couldn't remember the last time she was sick. As a child, she often had colds and bronchitis, but that changed later in her teens. After arriving in Germany, she didn't care for herself very much, and yet she didn't develop a cold or any other disease. If now, unexpectedly, has her body decided to make up for it all?

"Does something hurt you?" Johan's hand, surprisingly carefully, touched her shoulder and shook it slightly. The girl still lay motionless. "Emiko... can you hear me?" One of her hands was raised and a pair of soft fingers touched her wrist. "Your pulse is normal."

'As if the pulse... was related to... temperature...' If only she wasn't so overwhelmed with her condition, she would certainly smile. The girl found it strangely amusing - diagnosing her disease by the Monster. 'If only... Onii-chan was here...' The man's hand silently returned to her shoulder, on which he tightened his grip.

"I can get you whatever medicine you need." There was something in his voice that managed to catch her attention, even in her current state. Something that has never been present before... something like a confusion, maybe even... a worry? But did it matter?

'Onii-chan said... that you don't need to... cure a fever... A cold compress is enough...' Emiko felt another shake on her shoulder, only stronger this time. She let out a displeased groan.

"Just... leave..." It took a lot of effort to talk; even pronouncing those two short words had taken an incredible amount of energy from her. Therefore, it seemed highly unprofitable to her.

"No, Emiko. Get yourself together. The day before yesterday, when you drew for me, there was more life in you than today, even yesterday... You disappoint me. You wanted to prove to me that I couldn't break you, am I wrong?" The deliberate mockery in the young man's words, however, didn't manage to fully hide what it hid beneath its surface - a silent helplessness.

'...yeaaah... It doesn't matter to you anyway... I know it...'  Young Tenma just wanted to go to sleep and fall asleep... and she might never even wake up again. It didn't matter to her anymore.

"All right. Then I will give you some aspirin. It should at least lower the fever." Johan let go of her arm and after a while his footsteps began to move away from her, and she immersed in silence, fell asleep again.