Phantom in Memory

Ch 1 Page 3

The next morning, around two in the morning, I was awoken by insistent tapping at my window. When I finally rolled over, and looked, I involuntarily shrieked, unconscious of moving until my back hit the wood floor my room was so graced with. I fumbled with the window latch to let Phantom in, very cross.

"What in the name of holy Rhinne are you thinking, waking me up like that at such an hour?!" The thief did not look well, and I noticed the red staining his coat. I got up, telling him to stay there, and rushed to the bathroom, grabbing the medical kit in the cabinet and rushing back just as quickly without waking anyone. I knew for sure though that Afrien would be stirring due to my alarm and current anxiety.

When I returned to the room, Phantom was half-conscious, well more than half of his suit reddened. I had to cut it off of him to be able to even have a chance of getting to his wound, on which I applied several herbal salves. He kept trying to shift away, so I was forced to sit on him to prevent him getting any further injuries. "Will you sit still?" He whined half-heartedly in response. I gritted my teeth in half-anger and half-exasperation, and managed to get him to lean forward off the wall so that I could wrap the bandage about his middle. It took a few minutes, but I managed it. By the time I was done, he'd grown unconscious due to blood loss. I laid him down in my bed, covering him up, before grabbing my coat, and walking to Luminous' room.

Knocking on the door, I mulled over how I was going to explain this to him. Luminous opened his door, clad in only a pair of baggy pants. I hesitated, my cheeks growing a little warm. "Would you mind if I stayed in your room for tonight? An...unexpected guest arrived, and I'm making him stay in my room."

"Alright, but you do know how hard it is to get Anra to believe me?"

"Of course, which is why I'm telling her exactly what happened later." Luminous had me sleep in the bed, and he slept on the chair, curled in a blanket. I felt guilty that he should do that for me, but fell asleep too soon to tell him how much I appreciated it.

In the morning, I woke before Luminous--odd, as he was always the first up--and went back to my room to check up on the thief. He was still unconscious, and I took the moment to change the bandage, crusty with dried blood. Whoever was good enough to catch and hurt the Master Thief, I hoped, would not be on the side of the Black Mage.

After I did this, I got dressed in the bathroom, and joined the rest in the kitchen. Aran was again making pancakes. He noticed something about my appearance, and asked with quite the worried expression, "Are you alright, Freud? What happened?" I sighed.

"Well...I suppose one could call it a long story."

After I finished recounting everything that had happened, he was quiet. "Well, I suppose I'd have to give him a pass for becoming one of us. I mean, he did save your life, and you're the one person holding this whole thing together."

"Despite the fact that that is terrifying, I suppose it is true...and thank you, for giving me your honest opinion." I smiled at him. He gave me a half-smile back.

"Well, I don't think we should let him join. But given that he swears to help us and not make it worse for us, I'm in." Anra had walked in halfway through.  "That's two for, if Phantom promises." I smiled a bit more. "Hopefully I can convince the rest this is a good idea."