Monster (Ryeji)

That thing is a killing machine pt.2

Yeji's thoughts were all over the place. There lay Ryujin. Her Ryujin. Tucked up under the bedsheets, seemingly sleeping. Wrapped in all kinds of bandages and tubes, an oxygen mask over her face and several machines beeping in the background.

"I don't understand." The nurse then spoke, turning to glare at Yeji. "You...?"

"I can explain." Yeji waved her hands in front of her in an attempt to stop the nurse from doing anything unhelpful.

The nurse's eyes suddenly looked Yeji up and down sternly. "What is your name? I'm going to have to report you."

Well, that was the unhelpful thing Yeji was trying to avoid.

Diving forward, Yeji grabbed the nurse and quickly put into a headlock, squeezing just hard enough against the struggling woman's neck to make her pass out. As soon as the woman had collapsed, Yeji raced over to Ryujin's side, desperately shaking her and praying she would wake up.

To her joy and relief the younger girl's eyes fluttered open as she groaned.

"Ryujin!" Yeji whispered, "Ryujin it's me, wake up."

"It's the middle of the night, go back to bed Yeji." A grumpy Ryujin groaned, turning over and burying herself under her sheets.

"But the moon!" Yeji half jumped on top of the other girl in her excitement, "It's golden."

Ryujin gave a small humph but didn't reply. However, after hearing a small whine and knowing exactly the pouting expression Yeji was pulling, relented and threw back the sheet dramatically.

"Golden moon?" She eyed Yeji sceptically.

"Yes!" Yeji singsonged happily, grabbing Ryujin by the hand and rushing her up the ladder near the back of the small house, out onto the roof.

Ryujin shivered slightly at the sudden temperature drop from under her sheets to the cool night air, but suddenly forgot about the cold as soon as she looked up at what Yeji was gleefully pointing at.

"See I told you!"

Ryujin gaped, "It's huge!"

"It's special! We need to make a wish together." Yeji pleaded.

Ryujin rolled her eyes. They both knew she didn't really believe in that stuff. But looking at Yeji's beaming smile illuminated by the strange golden moon, she knew she couldn't say no.

"You have to say it in your head though." Ryujin added.

"Of course you do, silly. Otherwise it won't work." Yeji replied, tightly squeezing her eyes shut and clasping her hands together. Ryujin smirked at the sight but dutifully did the same, the silence of the night settling over them both. At first Ryujin struggled with deciding what she should wish for, and briefly opened her eyes a couple of times to check if Yeji was done, but the older girl seemed to be reciting a book's worth of information at the moment and made no sign of being done. Ryujin sighed and stared. Yeji really was beautiful. And that's when it dawned on her.

Her wish.

It made her stomach twist into knots and goosebumps speckle her arms. Maybe it was that the cold was finally getting to her.

'I wish...' Ryujin said in her head. 'I wish she would see me... the way I see her... But if she doesn't,' she quickly added. 'Please make it hurt less when I look at her.'

Ryujin opened her eyes again and suddenly there was Yeji staring down at her with a worried expression.

"We need to get out of here. Are you able to move? Shit, I don't even know if I can unplug you from all this." Ryujin's eyes followed her as she frantically fiddled with the various tubes and machines that Ryujin suddenly realised were surrounding her. Where was she?

She looked around and noticed the curtain and sat up slightly, wincing and noticing the swathes of bandages covering her head, right arm and all over her right shoulder and chest.

"What... where am I?" She asked slightly worriedly as vague memories flooded back into her head. The battlefield, the mud, the explosion, Yeji carrying her... "The enem-" Yeji's hand suddenly clamped over her mouth.

"Shhh. We're in the enemy hospital."

"Hospital..." Ryujin glanced around again, this time noticing a lady, presumably a nurse, lying face down on the floor. "But if this is the enemy hospital that means..."

Ryujins eyes widened as she desperately clawed away at the bandages covering her.

"Careful!" Yeji tried to stop her, "What if you hurt-"

Ryujin gasped, stifling a cry when she saw it. Cold, hard metal embedded in her skin just over her collarbone. The skin around it red, raw and ugly.

"No no no no..." she mumbled, uncovering more and more metal over her arm and down the side of her neck, until she realised. "Yeji..." her voice wobbled, "Yeji my shoulder..."

"Leave it." Yeji whispered, placing her hand over Ryujin's. "We can look at it later but right now..." The older girl glanced around, ears trained on any footsteps that might be threatening to walk towards them. "We have to get out of here before someone finds us." She looked back at Ryujin again but her friend was simply sat, staring at her own body, lower lip trembling slightly. Had she even heard her? "Ryujin-"

"I'm a monster." The girl in bed suddenly choked out.

"No, hey, don't say that." But Yeji finally looked at where Ryujin's fingers were holding back some of the bandages and a chill rocketed down her spine. It was everything they'd been warned not to let happen. She shook her head to stop her thoughts from sucking her down into despair. "Can you stand?" She asked. But there was no response. "Ryujin." She spoke more firmly. "Can you stand?"

Ryujin's head finally snapped up towards hers. "What if they can control me now? What if I've become part of their army?" She said, wide eyed with fear. Yeji didn't think she'd ever seen her so afraid. Yeji clenched her jaw shut. She didn't know what to answer. So instead she began carefully unhooking Ryujin from the various machines connected to her. Praying it wouldn't set off any alarms, or worse send her best friend into some sort of cardiac arrest.

Once she had finally, safely, shut everything off she threw back Ryujin's sheet and grabbed her trembling hand. "Come with me." She squeezed her hand and for the first time Ryujin properly looked at her and after a pause silently nodded.

Yeji snatched up the access card from around the unconscious nurse's neck before pausing and looking down at herself once more.

"I'll just be a moment." Yeji said, quickly stripping off the gown she was wearing and exchanging it with the nurse's uniform. Slightly too small for her, but hopefully no one would notice. Dressing the nurse up in the gown and managing to lift her into the bed with some help from Ryujin, she then ducked out into the corridor, stopping to look both ways before creeping down it with Ryujin in tow.