The Stories of Latia, Vol. 2: Demon's Curse

Chapter 17: Remedies

Chapter 17: Remedies

The Narrator

Thursday, 06/27/19

Cassidy wakes up at the crack of dawn the next morning feeling dizzy. Her head spun for a while like she'd woken up from a nightmare that she forgot about the moment her head left her pillow.

She dragged herself out of the twin sized bed she and Avery shared last night, carefully pulling her arm from around her and slowly untangling their legs so as to not wake her up.

She slipped on the pair of beige cargo pants she was wearing yesterday and her high-neck black tank top that were strewn across the floor from last night, while also picking up Avery's clothes and folding them on the foot of the bed. All except for her letterman jacket, which she throws on, leaving Avery her own dark purple sweatshirt while she ties her boots.

When she was done, she looked up at Avery, still sound asleep.

She layed on her stomach, while the thick blanket draped over her covered most of her body, all except for some of her back, her shoulders and head (of course), and her left foot poking out from the edge of it.

Her sage green hair flowed loosely along the pillow, but it was much more messy and covered more of her face than last time. From what she could see, her freckled cheeks were still a little bit red, giving her face a rosy tint that somehow made her look even more pretty, Cassidy thought.

Avery will tell you she looks best in makeup and a fancy outfit, but Cassidy would take her as she is right now, no makeup, no clothes and her hair a mess, any day.

She smiles, reaching out to run her hand along Avery's back, how she would often wake her up before, but she stops herself just before her pointer finger hits.

Her smile diminishes as she retracts her hand back to hanging limp at her side, and she starts to tiptoe over to the tent flap-door. Pulling it back and letting the sun bleed in, Cassidy takes one more long look at Avery, still sound asleep, before stepping out of their tent and heading towards Mystia's.

Friday, 06/28/19

"Have we considered some sorta surgery?" Jayme proposes, laying across the tent's floor with his legs up on the seat of a chair.

"We did an x-ray already, there's nothing irregular in her body that may be causing it," Mystia dismisses, holding her head up with her palm.

"Have we tried dietary-related solutions? Like cleanses and stuff?" Avery offers, lifting her head from the book Mystia asked her to flip through.

"That might be worth a shot."

Saturday, 06/29/19

"What do you see?" Cassidy asks Mystia, who is looking at one of her normal hairs in comparison to one of her blue hairs under a magnifying glass.

"Other than the obvious color differences, they're completely identical," Mystia says, which makes everyone huddled around her groan and step away in frustration.

"Anyone else have anything?" Cassidy asks, dropping back into her wooden chair.

They all pause to think for a few minutes.

"What about, maybe... finding It again," James offers in a monotone voice, like someone else was talking through him.

"Where do you suspect we'd find an ancient demon, James? Just walking around at night?" Avery snaps, stepping in James' direction.

"Okay, maybe not. I'm just trying to help-" James starts, but is cut off.

"Oh, are you? 'Cause last I checked you were the one who got us in this mess." Avery raises her voice. Everyone reacted to her, but Avery was the most taken aback by her own words.

"That's not fair, Ave..." Cassidy softly says from her seat, meeting her eyes while James' stare at the wooden floor.

"There is one more option..." Mystia interrupts, her words raising everyone's hopes once again. "I said before that we've seen these symptoms before..."

"Go on..." the group urges.

"A broken kingdom for an empty king... It lay just east of here. That's where you will find him." Mystia's voice shutters as she speaks.

"Find who?"

"Not who. What." A chill runs down Mystia's spine when she opens her mouth. "Den Hule Kongen."

"The Hollow King."