Purple Roses

Chapter 9 - Oscar

I slowly begin to open my drowsy eyes. I feel confused, in pain and a bit lost. I lift my arm to see my hand bandaged. I look to my left and I see Luca sitting there on his bed.

"Oh, finally you're up!" He chirps, "My dad really roughed you up, didn't he..."

It all comes back to me in a moment... the king, well, he did this to me. I think, looking at my hand.

I can't believe we did it though, and all for those two things... the crystal and... James... James?

"Where's James?" I query

"In the spare room, now his room." Luca replies, "Don't worry he's fine, although I think he's having a bad reaction to the new environment, seems very feverish from all the sniffles I can hear."

"Ahh- that's not good, you should go check on him in a sec." I say, with Luca nodding in return.

I look at the digital clock and then ask, "how long was I out for?"

"A few hours, it's understandable though, your asthma was going through the roof, and you were bleeding a lot, so we think it must have been a combination of that and also shock." Luca replies.

"Let me guess, mum told you all that." I laugh

"Possibly." Luca chuckles

I hear the door crack open, and I see mum walking in.

"Oh, thank the stars you're awake, love!" Mum rushes to me, hugging me.

"I'm fine, honestly, it's all fine." I reassuringly reply

"Gave me a bloody scare, though!" She replies, "at least you're alright."

I just nod.

"Oh, Luca. Can I ask for your help?" Mum turns to Luca.

"Sure? What's up?" Luca responds.

"James has come down with a fever, but he won't let me go near him to give him medicine or even check his temperature. The poor guy is absolutely terrified of me, won't let me go near him, let alone give him medicine. Could you perhaps give it to him, and maybe try and tell him that we're not trying to kill him?" Mum asks, with a hint of laughter at the end.

"Oh, sure!" Luca says. "Yeah, sorry he's so hesitant, he hasn't exactly had the best experience with well... people." He laughs, turning to leave the room.

As we leave, Mum then turns her attention to me.

I look at her, with a stare that is ready to be ripped apart by words. She sits down on the little desk chair next to our beds.

"You... you did a good thing for everyone." Mum starts, "was this whole thing your idea?"

I sheepishly nod. "I may have had an influence on it."

"Oh, Oscar... what is it with you and danger?" She asks, "You put yourself at risk to help others, but one day I fear you will fly too close to the sun."

"It's okay..." I reply, "we are never going back, we have everything we need."

"Yes, but... you do realise how serious this is. The Prime Minister is going mad right now, for the second time in a month or so. Same person." Mum tells me

There is a long and silent pause.

"The... the worst bit however..." Mum hesitates

"What?" I ask

"You could have died!" She says with worry. "You all could have, look at your hand, he wasn't taking any mercy... if you'd made a wrong move... or taken the wrong step... I..."

I hear mum cut her words off, as if she's holding back tears.

"It makes me sick just thinking about what could have happened." She replies. "Just promise me this... you will never go back there... please."

"I promise... I won't ever go back, and neither will they." I say to her

"Thanks Ozzy." She hugged me. "I don't know what we'd do without you."

As she leaves the room, I sort of realise the impact of what just happened. I took on the king and survived, but at the same time I put myself and everyone else at risk. At least it's over now; we have James, and we are one step closer to possibly restoring the correct orbit... I just hope this little prophecy is true.

Muffled conversation fills the corridors outside for a moment or two, before Luca walks back in.

"Sorry about that, just sorting James out." Luca says to me.

"No worries, is he alright?" I ask.

"Yeah, he just had a bit of an episode, woke up feeling really ill in an unknown environment, and he forgot where he was for a second." Luca tells me. "I went to go in and surprisingly Mabel was in there talking to him, she calmed him down by showing him some of the stuff she made in her engineering room, I think like a wooden sword that turns into a shield or something like that."

"Mabel? Helping people?" I laugh. "Wow, that certainly is surprising.

It's certainly very nice, though, if only she could be the same with me.