The Summoning

X - Aqua Regia

I laid on the bed watching the shadows of the trees sway in the wind. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep, but there wasn't much else to do when my whole body seemed to be in pain.

I didn't know how long I had been staring at the ceiling, listening to them get back to practice, before there was a gentle knock on my door. I sat up to see II poke his head in.

"Y'decent?" He asked and I held back a smile.

"Yeah." I swung my legs over the side of the bed, finding it useless to try and get up to talk to him. Still felt strange to be holed up in a church with these strangers, but I realized I trusted each and every one of them, despite my involuntary flinching at their fast movements.

"So, Vess needs to rewrap your hand and leg, but I figured you might want to uh.. get cleaned up first before he puts on fresh bandages." He came into the room and set a stack of clothes on the edge of the bed. "Uh," He started and I realized he was nervous. "From the looks of it, either my clothes or Four's would probably fit you best. I brought in some that you might be able to try to see if they would work for you."

It was terribly endearing the way a flush reached his cheeks.

"Bathroom's at the end of the hall. Vess suggests just being careful taking the bandages off, of course. We're gonna be in the music room across the hall." He placed his hand behind his neck, looking down. "Uh.. Okay." 

With that, he left me with the stack of clothes and a soft smile.

I took time to go through the clothes I was given and felt myself turn bright red at the sight of men's briefs. Supposing I didn't have any of my own clothes to wear, I shouldn't have been so embarrassed.

Dropping them back onto the pile, I took in a breath and craned my head back to the ceiling.

What the hell was going on?

I decided on an old Suicide Silence shirt, a pair of sweatpants and someone's boxer briefs.

I tried not to overthink it.

The bathroom was right across from the practice room and I could just barely hear someone playing a scale on the piano while the others murmured and snickered to each other about something.

The bathroom was beautiful to say the least. A frosted stained glass window took up the entire wall that the shower was on, along with a large, granite, freestanding, clawfoot bathtub. The whole bathroom seemed to be covered in the marbled granite, even the (ironic) vessel bowl type of sink. Beautiful, vibrant colors rested on the floor and the tub from the light coming through the window.

I made sure the door was locked twice before setting a towel by the tub and getting out of my dirty clothes. The bruise was much worse than I thought it was when I looked in the mirror. Purple bloomed across my cheekbone, spreading to my lower eyelid. I was suddenly self conscious. This is what they saw when they looked at me? My frizzy ginger hair didn't help things either. I looked like I just left a warzone. 

I pulled the bandage off my hand and checked the cut there. It wasn't deep enough to have needed stitches, but still needed a bit more time to heal and still hurt to flex my hand. My leg was even worse and I found that he did have to stitch it up. All things considered, it wasn't a bad wound. I grimaced at the thought of Vessel having to dig out the bullet he had set before me. 

Picking up my jeans, I checked my pockets and found the bullet still in my pocket. I set it on the edge of the sink and started the water. I was so focused on how amazing a warm shower felt that I didn't even feel embarrassed about using the men's body wash that was in there. I did happen to remember the fact that these men showered here, too, but pushed the thought out of my mind.

When I shut the water off and put the clothes on I brought in, they smelled similar to the body wash. An earthy scent with a bit of spice. 

When I limped across the hall to the music room and the boys stopped what they were doing, IV pointed to II as if to get his attention right as III exclaimed, "Ohhhh!"

I looked between them in confusion.

"It's Four!" III clapped and II bowed as if he had done something amazing. Vessel stood from the piano bench and shook his head.

"What?" I shrunk back to the doorframe to peak at each of them. "What happened?"

III waved it off before going back to his bass. "Ah, nothing." He seemed to want to leave it at that before I glared at him a moment. He shrugged, "We took bets on whose shirt you would choose."

I glanced down at the t-shirt again as if forgetting what it was before looking up to four. Vessel was gathering his medical supplies from a box next to the piano, so I limped over there to make it easier for him. "This is your shirt?"

IV shrugged before nodding.

"I like their earlier stuff, but haven't heard much of their newer stuff." I shrugged before realizing Vessel was beckoning me closer to the piano. 

Wordlessly, he gestured to the piano bench and nodded to tell me to sit. I lowered onto the bench and he sat with his legs crossed on the floor in front of me before getting to work. The stretchy sweatpants made it easier to access the healing wound and it was quick work getting it rewrapped with antibiotic cream over it. The rest of them started talking about the new music that Suicide Silence had put out and the different sound that came with it.

"They have this new song that's kinda sick." II started.

"Oh, yeah there's that song that -" III pointed to II as he remembered.

"Yeah, it's got that deep sound with the double bass." IV nodded.

"How does it go?" III asked, looking to the ceiling as if the music notes were up there.

"It's kinda like -" II answered, interrupting himself to play something on the drumset. It was so unexpected that I flinched and Vessel almost dropped the gauze he was wrapping around my leg.

"Sorry!" I shrunk back, expecting Vessel's anger, "sorry, sorry."

Instead, Vessel snapped a finger and pointed to II across the room.

"My bad!" He called back and Vessel continued wrapping before tearing the gauze and securing it. He beckoned with a hand to me and I set mine in his again to get it wrapped. We both noticed the tremble of my frame at the same time and I clenched the muscles in my arm to try and stop it.

I was watching IV tune his guitar and flinched back at Vessel as he rose onto his knees to invade my space. I tried to stay still when he laid the back of his hand over my forehead. I took in short breaths of air as I waited and mentally kicked myself when I could smell his scent. It was like saltwater and cedar. He left his hand there for one... two.. three... four seconds before pulling away and sitting back down on the floor to put away the first aid kit.

Rising from the floor, he set the first aid kit on top of the piano and took a few steps toward the others. They looked up from what they were doing and, wordlessly, all set down their gear.

They gathered closer to the piano bench one by one and sat on the floor.

"You have questions." IV started, tipping his head up to look at me. III fiddled with a frayed piece on his pants and Vessel leaned against the opposite side of the piano while two brought his knees up to his chest, tapping his feet as he looked between everyone.

I huffed a laugh before nodding with a roll of my eyes. "Yes." 

I leaned back to the edge of the piano. "Yes, I do."