Fire Star (a Merome story)

{chapter nine} drinking things you really shouldn't

Yo people!

I've kind of got this weird cough virus thing that's going around so if I don't update in the next week, don't worry I'm not dead.

I thought about adding Ian to the story but I don't know if its the right time yet. Some of you have been asking me on Facebook about Ashley, so she will be coming back into the story as soon as the time is ok.

Make cookies not war!

Peace out.

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SETO'S POV

It's been 8 hours since he officially died and I have been in this room for ages, mixing the potion as Jason keeps Sky occupied. I think about Ty and The fish. Where have they all gone? A nagging feeling is burning in the back of my head but I dismiss it as pointless. As my hands frantically search for ingredients I remember the legend I am studying, it can wait until Mitch is alive again. Outside, Jason and Sky are talking. The former still has his part to play and I'm still hopeful that Sky is sane enough to help him.

JEROME'S POV

There's darkness around me, blanketing, thick blackness. Somebody's sobbing in the dark. A frightened lost wail. My chest clenches and somewhere inside me I feel a tug. I try to move but the sobbing gets louder as I put my foot forward.

'Help me... Jerome...'

Somebody stirs behind me. A hand grabs my arm, it starts squeezing and squeezing and squeezing until nails rip through my flesh and I scream. The sobbing gets louder and louder. I look up as my arm bursts, the hand belongs to me. 

I jolt awake, sweat runs down my cheek. I'm still here, this stupid couch. Where are the others? I need to go. I'm sweating more. My heart. Jesus Christ my heart. 

"Jerome!" A voice calls. "Your phone is ringing!"

The sound of my ringtone floats through from the other room. I rise shakily from the couch, wobbling a little as I limp towards the noise.

I pick up the phone. Seto is calling. "You need to come here." He says.

In only a few minutes I have walked round to the entrance of Seto's cove and am leaning against the rocks. The sorcerer is rushing about frantically inside, talking to himself loudly and occasionally kicking something out of the way.

It is only a short while before he notices.

"Jerome!" Seto shouts, rushing towards me. "I need you. Seriously, this is important. I need you to think hard. What's the strongest memory you have of Mitch?"

I am startled. I open my mouth but only an 'uhh' sound comes out.

"If you think hard enough, I can extract it and use it to bring Mitch back to life."

"What?"

"I'm making a potion. It's complicated. It should give his body enough power to live again."

"Wh-"

"Think!" He yells, "Think as hard as you can!"

I close my eyes. There is a memory immediately there, swimming on the surface of my mind. The strongest one I have of him.

We are making dinner together, cold hands brushing against cold hands in the middle of winter. There is biting air there but the soup is still hot. He takes a spoonful but misses, the liquid pours onto his chin instead- and we cannot stop laughing.

"Perfect!" Yells Seto, somehow now inches from my face carrying what looks like a whisk.

I blink away tears and watch as the sorcerer zooms back into the cave and dumps the whisk-thing into a large cliché cauldron. He chants a few words in a language I cannot understand and stirs the pot three times before leaving it to bubble.

"Is it... ready?" I ask.

Seto nods. "I'm sure this is safe... but just in case it gives any unwanted side effects, I'll try a bit first."

I nod slowly in return and look warily at the cauldron.

My friend takes a small spoon from the table at the side and retrieves the liquid before feeding it into his mouth.

"Seto... Is that safe?"

There is no answer. Seto swallows.

Over the next few seconds his face transforms from one of happiness to the deepest expression of discomfort I have ever seen.

"Jerome." He says quietly.

"Yeah?"

"The potion isn't finished."

Seto splutters, eyes going wide and races out of the room. I watch open mouthed as he sprints away from me.

On the counter with the cauldron is a list of ingredients. If I can just finish what he started then I can get the potion to Mitch and-
He'd be alive again.

MITCH'S POV

The darkness surrounds me like 4 walls, if I move forwards I can see streaks of light like lines of cartoon motion. I think about the fire, the purple line of blood on my head when I'd been alive. Where are my friends?

A powerful feeling of panic hits me square in the chest. Something has changed... If I reach out... Touch the feeling, lean into it... Seto. Something has happened to Seto. 

The walls of my death-space fluctuate, something is happening. The space is imploding, shifting, changing.

Before I know what is happening, I am spluttering awake- alive- head reeling, right in the very spot I had died.

I need to find Seto. Something has happened to Seto.