Silver and Green with Envy: A Sebastian Sallow Story

Chapter Thirty-Seven

~~~Sebastian

Neither of us said a word as we walked through the halls and up to the seventh floor. My chest hurt, my mind wanted to ask a million questions, but they'd have to wait. A sense of dread had crept into my bones and I was trying and failing to prepare myself for whatever we found.

Xander paused in front of the door for a long moment, just staring at the handle for what seemed like forever before opening it. Moonlight beckoned me forward, and he motioned weakly for me to go inside.

I looked down as I walked in, forcing my face straight after crossing the threshold. Two people stood there, waiting for me.

Natty and Poppy, on a rug stained nearly black.

Poppy was sniffling, holding Elena's coat. It was singed and ripped and bloody. She noticed I was staring at it and immediately threw it onto a chair and out of sight.

Both of their eyes were bloodshot, their cheeks tearstained. They had their own wounds, but they were covered in far too much blood for it to just be their own.

So. Much. Blood.

Blood that was on my hands.

They hurried over to me, pulling me into a tight hug before I could slump to the floor. I still did.

I sobbed. I choked.

I screamed that it should have been me.

It should have been me.

I was about to break my vow just to join her.

I'd have dealt with any other punishment for everything I'd done.

But I couldn't deal with this.

Once again, in a misguided attempt to help, I'd gone too far.

But this time, it cost me so much more than I could have fathomed.

The person who stayed.

I wanted to rip away from Natty and leave. I had someone to kill. But from the hall leading to another part of her room, Professor Sharp appeared. His clothes also had blood on them and he was holding a bottle of something. There was a rag over his shoulder I thought was red in color, but it was soaked in blood as well. His voice was soft, and surprisingly not angry as he spoke. "Mr. Manx, did you happen to omit a critical detail to Sebastian here?"

Xander wiped at his eyes and took in a deep breath. "...Not out of cruelty, I just...didn't know if it would still be true by the time I got him up here."

Sighing, Professor Sharp wiped a tear from his own cheek and then looked at me. "She's alive, Sebastian. Barely, but alive. If they'd have been a minute later in getting me..."

I heard nothing else that was said, tearing away from the girls and past Professor Sharp, into the adjoining room.

Elena was laying there, on a hospital bed someone must have conjured. Pale as death himself, wearing nothing but her small clothes, her hands folded in front of her, and her eyes closed. I fought down the need to be sick. She didn't look alive at all.

But then her chest moved as she breathed, just the tiniest little bit.

I moved closer and to the side, seeing three massive, immense claw marks that spanned from her right hip bone and across. I could still see the muscle inside.

Professor Sharp walked up to the other side of her, gently lifting her head and parting her lips to trickle a potion down her throat.

"...They were all the way down to the bone. I fixed them as best as I could, but with the amount of blood she lost, it'll take a few days to see if she comes out of it. Magic can only fix so much..."