𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

viii ━━ i took the miracle move-on-drug (the effects were temporary)

01. chapter eight

━━━━━━━━ ( 💫 ) ━━━━━━━━

𝐖𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍 front of "the big house." it didn't look threatening, just a four-story manor painted baby blue with white trim. the wraparound porch had lounge chairs, a card table, and an empty wheelchair. wind chimes shaped like nymphs turned into trees as they spun. on the highest gable, a bronze eagle weathervane spun in the wind.

travis led me in through the front door and into a room with a label that i failed to read. i assumed it said 'infirmary' when i entered the room because the walls were lined with hospital beds. midday sun poured in through the windows, making the place a little less scary.

a girl with short ginger hair, dyed with a shock of bright green on the ends, materialized in front of me. her pretty blue eyes shined and freckles dotted her cheeks.

"hey!" she said, then she seemed to notice the watered down blood that soaked my face and the wound along my hairline that had caused it. "oh, gods! we gotta get you cleaned up."

she gestured for me to follow her. i thanked travis for the half-tour and followed the ginger girl to a hospital bed. she instructed me to sit down and started rummaging through a desk.

a boy sat behind the wooden front desk of the infirmary, flipping mindlessly through a book or magazine. he was african-american, with a braided sort of hairstyle that looked like a double helix. he was wearing a doctor's shirt with black jeans which had me seriously questioning if i should trust these teenagers to tend to my wounds.

kayla returned, her hands full of wipes, cotton balls, gauze, bandages, and some sort of food. she set up her supplies on the bedside table.

after she cleaned my wound, i felt much better. for starters, i no longer looked like i had just emerged from a muddy swamp. also, my wound hurt a bit less after being clean and bandaged.

kayla patted my knee as if i was a child who was just given a check-up at the doctor's office. she removed her gloves and threw them in a trash can. "all fixed up!"

i stood up and wobbled slightly. kayla handed me a small plastic cup. i took it from her and looked inside. what was inside of the cup looked like ambrosia salad, but frozen and in cube form.

"ambrosia cubes," kayla told me. "eat up. you'll feel much better."

i looked at her skeptically, now extremely unsure of the ability of these teen doctors. despite this, i took a cube from the cup and placed it inside my mouth.

the flavor was not at all what i had expected. it tasted like my favorite drink, visináda. i thought of my childhood, sitting on the beaches of athens with my father, sipping the red cherry drink.

it was a bittersweet feeling.

warmth radiated through my body, sending a unexpected shockwave down my spine. my face felt hot, but in a good way. the throbbing of my forehead subsided to dull tapping.

"much better," i said gratefully.

kayla beamed. "let's get this tour started then."

kayla gestured for me to follow her out of the infirmary. as we passed the desk where the boy sat flipping through his book kayla said, "be back, austin. just giving this newbie a tour."

"keep her away from any cliffs," the boy, austin, chimed from behind us.

"don't mind him." kayla led me out the doors of the infirmary and out of the big house. "he's always making witty comments. but seriously, don't go near any cliffs, like ever again."