Gold And Coal (Ryden AU)

1. 8 ◇ Wonderful Life

The next time I woke I felt like I was truly awake again. My head was still pounding, my throat was sore and my whole body ached, but I was awake.

I shifted my position slightly, so that I was lying more comfortably when I remembered where I was.

My eyes fluttered open and took in the dimly lit room I was in. There were a couple of pictures hanging on the walls, but it was too dark for me to see what they resembled. The room was quite big, at least for my standards and Brendon was sitting cross legged at the foot of the bed I was lying in, staring at me intently.

"You're awake," he stated. Then he sprung up and rushed to the door, repeating the sentence in a louder tone.

A couple of seconds later an elderly woman hurried into the room and to my side, pressing her hand to my forehead.

I shied away from the contact, not being very appreciative of the touch.

"It's alright," she smiled at me kindly and approached me yet again. This time I let her lay her hand on my skin, though I still didn't like it.

"It has gone down, sir, but he should still rest for a while. A bath would help, I'll bring a cup of tea up in a second," she said.

I watched her leave, propping myself up a little.

"You could have died! Why would you go out in the condition you were in?" Brendon sat back down on the bed and glared at me as he lectured me.

What condition? I was fine. Well, fine compared to my normal conditions. My bones ached, and ok, maybe my throat did feel a little more sore than usual, but that wasn't a big deal.

Brendon sighed as he took in my confused expression and stood back up. "How about you go take a hot bath, scrawny?"

A... bath? I blinked. That was a luxury. Never had I even dreamed of it. All the water I had was the one coming from above, but a bath was a whole tub full of water, and not just any water, clean water, and warm water.

I snapped out of my dreamy thoughts as Brendon laughed and stared at him, bewildered.

"You look just like yesterday when confronted with that plate of food," he explained.

Well, a poor boy like me wasn't used to all this, aftet all.

I scrambled out from under the cozy sheets and shivered at the loss of warmth.

When I got up, I swayed slightly, blinking feverishly to try and regain my eyesight, but when I attempted setting one foot in front of the other, I somehow toppled over in a complete different direction than I had intended on going.

Brendon caught me before I could hit the floor, but I clicked my tongue in frustration, because I hated feeling so helpless and dependent.

With the help of the smaller, I managed to reach the 'bathroom', which was covered with white tiles, and there was not a speck of dust to be seen.

Brendon pushed me down on a chair and turned on the water of the bathtub.

"Wait here for a moment, I'll get you some new clothes," he ordered and dissapeared.

Meanwhile, I inspected the room further. There were two fancy looking sinks in the far corner and a door, which separated the toilet from the rest of the room.

In the center stood the bathtub, which was now steadily growing fuller with hot water.

And right infront of me, something I had chosen to ignore up until now, were three large mirrors plastered onto the wall.

As I looked at myself, a feeling of deep disgust crept into me. I was filthy. The shirt I was wearing, having been white originally, was now almost black. The only pants I possessed were in a similar state, with black smears covering it in numerous locations.

My hair looked worse than I had imagined. Though I cut it myself regularly to prevent it from covering my eyes, it limply fell from my head, covered in dirt and grease and probably stuff I really didn't want to imagine right now.

What shocked me the most however, was my skin. My whole face was covered in dirt and dust, and so was the rest of my body.

I touched my face in disbelief and was so distracted with staring at my reflection that I didn't notice Brendon reentering the room until his was standing right infront of me, preventing me from seeing the mirrage.

"Here," he smiled and set the clothes and a towel down on a table next to the bathtub.

I blinked at him, wondering how he could look at me without flinching. How he could bear to touch me.

After an akward silence which was caused by my disbelieving stare, Brendon cleared his throat and gestured at the tub.

"Maybe you should, you know, rinse yourself before actually taking a bath."

I nodded, staring at my filthy hands.

"Well, I'm gonna wait outside, call if you need help," he awkwardly continued before exiting the room.

Why the fuck would I need help. I'm not a child.

The moment the door closed I ripped of my shirt and pants and threw them on the floor, throwing my socks down beside them. I then carefully stepped into the bathtub and hissed as the hot water made contact with my skin.

It took me a while to get used to the temperature, but soon I was sitting in the hot water, feeling the warmth seep through my skin and into my body.

I took Brendon's advice and pulled out the plug of the tub, so that the dirty water would flow out.

I then helped myself to a brush and a bar of soap laid beside the tub and began vigorously scrubbing my skin.

It took quite a while for me to feel absolutely clean and my arms felt exhausted from the srubbing.

As I dried myself of with the towel, I caught a glimpse of my appearence yet again.

I wrapped the towel around my waist and took a step close to the reflection.

For a second I wasn't sure if this was real. The man staring back at me couldn't be me. I barely recognized myself.

My pale, milky skin was visible. My hair loosely fell down, a few strands standing up.

To say the least, it took me a while to take in all these new features.

Yet one thing still bothered me about my image. The problem was, with all the dirt gone, there was nothing left to hide my bruises and scratches. My whole torso and arms were a dark shade of purple, and the rest of my body didn't look any better.

I hurriedly put on the clothes Brendon laid out for me and was relieved when they covered up most of my wounds.

He had given me loose, black pants which somehow fitted me quite well, and a white button-up shirt, which loosely hung of my shoulders, leaving a few dark mars on my collarbones for plain sight.

After unsuccessfully trying to adjust it so I could hide them, I finally opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom.

~ never give up, it's such a wonderful life ~