Till the End of Time

Chapter 12 - The Storm's Aftermath

I though had other qualms rather than whose legacy Alina's buried in the darkness, Leila had woken days before me, but I wished I had first. She had experienced the worst of headaches and sickness while I peacefully was left uninterrupted with what seemed to be a never-ending slumber. She had cried and coughed, she woke in sweat and to her, death would have been a blessing.

Leila though waited for me, as the weeks dragged on all that I could see beyond the cloudy haze, was her. Still laying beside me as I slept and dreamt, exhausted to the very essence of my being. She waited as the hours ticked by and people came to check. Nothing changed for me while she drifted between closer to healthy to deathly sick.

Who knows, maybe I won't be falling in the fields but in the comfort of sheets and pillows. Something the others should have had yet they were only met with sharp stings of pain as their minds cooled and the lids shut. They had reached the curtain call, never to rejoice in their efforts or wander in the tall golden fields.

"Leila, what are you doing?" I sputtered, eyes and mind half awake, not daring try any harder to wake. She was just another colorful blob, still blobbing like when I was last awake. Her warm and honey-colored eyes bore into mine, forever unmoving as my chest rose and fell with each breath. Funny that just a puff of wind keeps you alive.

"Nothing much, just not trying to die from you know morozost. The usual," She responded, the ends of her lips curving upwards. She carefully summoned another blob, this one though was different, it was no swirl of color. A small void but not quite like the other holes I've seen in my lifetime. It had spikes and bends, curves, and lines. It was blurred but clearly well defined, a little lump of it softly nudged my cheek. I couldn't tell if were trying to get me up or just being super friendly.

"What's that? Is it a hole from um... the depths of somewhere," I inquired, slowly reaching out to brush my hand across the thing. Observing as it escaped the thing that it must have been terrified of, deciding that my hair would have been a wonderful hiding place. Leila just chuckled at my hand now paused mid-air, suspended above the space where the thing had stood.

"As if I could summon that, it just a blotch of shadow, can't you tell?" she laughed, I gaped at her face. There was no way she moved a shadow that quickly, or so much like a sentient being. I just stared at her, wondering if she would pick up the confusion upon my face. She did but instead just released a loud series of cackles. Whatever that little blob was began worming around in my hair, scared by the sudden onslaught sound.

"No, I cannot, just tell me what the thing really i- "I began, suddenly cut off by a sharp poke at my head, "Ow! Leila did you just stab me with your needles?" She just looked back up at my head, her gaze softening.

"No, but your new friend decided that your head is an appropriate spot to live," If you had a coin for every single saint forsaken time, I got more confused, you'd have at least a small stack by now. Which isn't actually that much but still! So weird that it happened so many times. Leila just burst out, nearly rolling herself off the bed and then actually falling off the bed in her fit of amusement.

"Leila! Just tell me what you unleashed upon my hair!" Leila, however, didn't stop nor did she decide to get up from the floor. Maybe to her it was akin to the bed, soft and fluffy despite it never being as such. Maybe it in her fit of hysterics she convinced herself it was just the same.

Riley burst through the door, water trailing behind her in large pillows of puddles. Her face alit with rage before morphing to confusion, another coin to add to the forever growing stack of confusion coins. She sighed at Leila on the ground, still rolling around like a pig in mud before placing the water in one of the large containers next to the door.