City of Fire and Ink

Who Wants Popcorn?

Inez was passed out by the time I finished making the soup. I'd come home to her collapsed in a corner, her brow feverish with sweat. Anxiously, I put my ear to her chest, listening for her heartbeat. My first worry was Tigris. All the victim's I'd visited told me their heart was sprinting, pounding and pounding and never stopping. 

Inez's heart sounded regular to me, but I set a timer on my implant and checked the numbers just in case. bum BUM, bum BUM, bum BUM.  The rhythm of her heart was the only sound as I waited in dead silence. Finally the timer rang and I sighed in relief. 67 bpm. Completely normal. Inez might have been horribly feverish, but at least it wasn't Tigris. 

"Wha. . .wha are you doing?" Their voice was slurred as though they'd been drinking, but I couldn't smell any alcohol on their breath.

"Checking your heartbeat. I want to make sure it's not Tigris."

"You have the cure," Inez batted at me with her sleeves.  "Is fine."

"Yeah, well I'd prefer you don't get it either way. It's nasty."

"Like beets." Inez hated beets with a passion. They liked to say that they would rather eat a handful of yeonghan infested dirt than eat a beet.

"Just like beets." I adjusted my position so that I could loop one arm around their shoulders. "Can you stand?"

"Of course I can stand." She made some flopping motion that I assumed was attempting to get up, then promptly fell back down. If I wasn't right there to catch her, she would have landed in a heap.

"Ok, I'm carrying you to the bedroom."

"Nooooooo." They gargled.

"No?"

"I'm perfectly fine."

"You can't talk or stand, and you're sweating like you just ran a marathon. You look just fine to me."

They scowled at my sarcastic tone. "You not scary to me. Even when you're covered in blood." Their face fell. "Oh no. Did you get hurt?"

"No baby. This isn't my blood."

"Good."

"I should have washed off before I came here. I don't want to scare you."

"Like I said. You not scary."

"Good."

"Wha?"

"I never want you to be scared of me. Now come on, let's get you into bed."

Inez hung like a rag doll as I lifted her up into my arms, carrying her into the bedroom so I could place her gently onto the bed. I knelt down to start unlacing her shoes, but Inez pushed me away. She was fairly strong, but whatever she had come down with sapped her strength so that it was no more that a tap. The glassy tone of her eyes broke for a few seconds for me to see genuine panic. 

"What's wrong mi amor?" 

"Too tired."

"I know, that's why I'm putting you to bed. Have you drank any water?"