Young Blood (PART ONE OF THREE)

They Bury

9. They Bury

Carter was still in the infirmary, still slightly traumatized by the sight of her friend’s broken body as it smashed in to the ground before her. Oh goddess, why couldn’t she forget? She sat up in her bed and wrapped her wings around herself like a cocoon, and she ran her hand over her gray feathers longingly. The bones were still broken, and the feathers would grow back, but she missed flying already. She knew she would never fly as smoothly. And she knew she might never sleep soundly again.

She yelped from the sharp pain in her upper abdomen, and her hand instantly flew to the bandages wrapped around her upper body underneath her shirt. She couldn’t breathe too deeply without pushing her own limits. They really beat her. And she kept telling them she didn’t have the answers they needed, but no one ever listens.

A nurse came up to her and handed her a pill and a glass of water. “It’s for the pain,” She said. “It won’t work immediately, like last time, but it will help.” Carter nodded and downed the pill and half of the water.

The infirmary door swung open and a scrawny brown haired boy came in, clutching on to a gift bag like it contained his own life. He looked around the room until his eyes rested on Carter and he walked over to her. Carter rested her wings, and they seemed to disappear. “Hello, Elijah,” She said to the brown haired boy. He grinned back at her. “Good to see you.”

Elijah nodded, not saying much. He looked like he could cry, and his lip quivered ever so slightly. He sat the gift bag down on the table next to Carter. “It’s uh…it’s from Song and Vaan. They were going to give it to you but I was already planning on visiting,” He said at a volume that was barely audible. “I have a present, too.”

Carter held out her hand, and Elijah slid a necklace on to her palm. The charm was a bunch of squares all position at odd angles surrounding a tiny little red stone. “It’s pretty,” She said to him, and she reached out to squeezed his hand.

“Mandy would have loved it too,” Carter said. It was almost painful to say her name. But Carter knew it was part of getting over it. And Elijah needed comforting, too. After all, he’d spent years pining over Mandy, and he would probably never really get over her. But Elijah said nothing in response for what felt like hours. And then, finally, he said, “How…?”

Carter sighed. She really didn’t want to say. It was hard, and it hurt, and the images-they kept flashing through her head and in her dreams. But he needed to know, and it would be better to say now when she remembered the details.

“Well, we were on the mission, of course. I dunno. I called her and she was in an elevator reading this file, and then a few vans full of Agent’s started to pull up in the parking lot. She hung up on me, so I decided to hide around the back of the building.  But she had the bright idea to call me and I had the bright idea to leave the volume on my phone up and they found me.

The hit me and took my phone away, and continued to hit me. And then I saw Mandy, falling. They shot her, Elijah. They shot her and she fell three stories on to the ground and…,” She stopped as her body shook with sobs and then she finished with, “They just kept shooting. To make sure. And then they beat me, tore our feathers and broke my bones. I…”

She couldn’t speak anymore. It was just too hard. There was no way, no way she could ever forget it. And she just couldn’t tell it.

There was no way to justify Mandy’s death. No way to explain how beautiful she looked, because she didn’t look beautiful. She had looked broken. She had looked pale. And she had looked dead. There was no escaping that.

“I told her not to go,” Elijah said after a moment. He furrowed his eyebrows and the growled out of anger, then stomped out of the room.

Carter followed him with her eyes, and she felt so stupid. So helpless.

“She said they kept shooting,” Elijah said. He was so angry he’d nearly told the whole story in one breath. He couldn’t fight the fire building inside him, but he knew the worst he could do was punch a wall and end up doing more damaged to himself. He couldn’t fight. He couldn’t save anyone. He couldn’t bring her back.

Vaan hesitantly placed a comforting hand on Elijah’s shoulder, and he looked over at Song. “We should burn a shroud for her, along with the others, after the next battle.” Song nodded.

Elijah brushed Vaan’s hand away and turned away from them. “It doesn’t matter. She died so horribly.”

Song suddenly became very annoyed. “By falling and then getting shot? You think that is horrible?” Granted, it was a horrible death. But something much slower, much more repulsive could have happened to Mandy. “You know what, she’s not the only person who has died, Elijah!” He yelled before he could stop himself.

Vaan looked over at him with an expression that said, “What do you think you’re doing?”

Song walked over to Elijah and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and literally lifted him off the ground, then pushed him back in to a wall. “You’re not the only person affected by her death, and you need to realize this!” He was shouting, his fists curled up and his knuckles turning white.

“Mandy was an amazing Gifted and she had amazing powers, and we might not be able to win without her help,” Vaan added in a much calmer tone. Song nodded, “Exactly.”

He walked back over to Elijah and offered his hand to him to help the smaller boy stand. “I just want you to remember that words don’t resurrect,” Song said, “They bury.”