Sometimes It's Even Darker

Chapter 2 - Tinnitus Sanctus

Her fear disappears initially when she realizes she has a mission. She usually calms down when thre's something to focus on, so her heart slowly stops tussling like a bird in the cage and Aethernia takes a deep breath in her lungs. Wall of rain looks terribly and she starts to worry how she'll take Tobi home. She grasps his wet, cold clothes and tries to drag his motionless body up the bank. First trial ends with a fail, Aethernia curses and grasps Tobi's clothes again. 
Suddenly the light comes from the sky, dazzling and frightening. The eery noise of thunder deafens her for a while and she can do nothing but curl up and wait. Instincively she hides her face in his black dirty jacket and gives him a big hug. Her first observation is that Tobi is trembling. When she touches his face she can feel the hot even through the mask of water. 
„Damn, he is really ill. I have to go, no matter what.” she thinks and looks up at the sky, smelling smoke in the air. She realises that this horrifying thunder she heard a few seconds ago hit an old spruce on the top of the bank. The tree silvered into parts and started to burn, but the curtain of water falling from the sky automatically quenched the fire. 
„I will manage”, she thinks and drags Tobi's body up the bank again. This time she does a little bit better, even though she still has tinnitus in her ears. Aethernia knows the storm is here right now and it's only God's will to let them stay alive.
„I will manage”, she thinks again, snorting and panting. Her hands used to be very weak when she was a child, but when she 
escaped to the forest she had to learn some things. For example, hewing wood with an axe was difficult only at the beginning.
She finally stands on the top with Tobi lying at her feet. Another thunder hits, a little more leniently than the previous one when Aethernia hugs Tobi again. She has to speak loudly, the rain is too strong and her words perish in the noise of downpour. The fear appears again.
-Hey, wake up. You have to help me. Please, help me or we will die. Both.
He moans, but Aethernia isn't satisfied with this answer at all.
-Tobi- she says more distinctly – Help me. I will take you home.
He moves almost impereceptibly when he hears his name, but Aethernia knows she will need more to wake his consciousness.
-Tobi! - she screams, afraid of her loudness – Help me, for Gods's sake!
She feels his hands clenching on her arm and strange emotion appears in her soul. Something relief-like, she doesn't really know. She lifts him up, but it's a big struggle for her. Fortunately, he doesn't overbalance. He can walk a few meters with her till he falls again. Aethernia lifts Tobi one more time, shouting louder and louder:
-Come on! Tobi, wake the fuck up!
He opened his eyes for a while, but she's aware he doesn't know what is going on around him. She doesn't care as long as she doesn't have to drag him along the rocky road to her house. 
Tobi falls next time right before the door to her place. Aethernia snorts furiously and opens the gates. She tries to put Tobi on the floor softly, but she lost her power and he plumps onto the floor with a noise. 
Aethernia closes the door fiercely. Suddenly the rain becomes quieter and she can finally hear her thoughts.
„I left my hyperitum and basket on the road”- speaks the first one.
„I have only one bed”- whispers the second one.
„There's senseless german vocalist in my home”- shouts third one, the loudest.
She laughs hysterically and hides her face in her hands. She has to play latest Avantasia CD before she dares to approach to the intruder she brought to her home herself.