A Chance at Magic

Empty

I fell in and out of sleep. I felt like I was drowning in sweat and sometimes I saw people or things I knew could not possibly be real. The only thing that was constant throughout the whole thing was the soft and firm hand that stayed on mine.  Yinlel.

As I drifted in and out of my slumber I saw many things and found it hard to decipher what was real or just an imagining.

I saw my mother smile at me and her hand brush my face.

"My precious Anya...my dear baby girl" she cooed to me smiling. I wanted to speak to her but suddenly she was melting. Her face melting away into a pool on the ground I screamed out as she melted away before my eyes. The pool that was my mother, the version of my mother that loved and wanted me, reformed as Yinlel in front of me. He held me and comforted my screams and sang as I drifted back into the blackness.

I was drowning again in sweat, Yelix was crying and I could not reach him when ever I tried an arrow of fire would be shot into my head. I tried once more to reach the crying baby and my arms snapped off. I screamed again and this time it was my father that held me and comforted me but his normally kind and gentle face quickly shifted to a sick and hollowed out face.

He looked starved and terribly ill. His face covered in burns. It made me cry as I head his ragged breaths. He began to shrivel away and I squeezed my eyes shut and held back my tears as I drifted out again.

Despite the hallucinations I preferred to be awake than asleep. The sleep brought nothing but darkness. Emptiness and worry. It was enough to kill a person. I felt as if I was drowning my lungs burning and my mind failing me. I hated the sleep. I would rather see the worst of things than the empty sleep.

I had no clue how much time had passed. Sometimes it felt like a few hours, other times it felt like a whole lifetime had passed by. I began to wonder if I was even alive anymore.

After who knows how long had past I began to wake without the hallucinations. I was still lost in the empty dreamless sleep most of the time but I could feel the heat begin to cool down. I became more consciously aware of what happened around me.

Then I woke up for good. I woke up to the sound of his singing. His beautiful voice. His eyes were closed and his hand was on mine. He was singing softly and holding Yelix in his other hand. Yelix was asleep and still looked ill but I was relieved to see the soft rise and fall of his chest.

I tried to sit up and Yinlel's eyes snapped open. His singing stopped and he looked down at me and smiled. The smile seemed a bit wary but I suppose I would be to if every time I saw him wake up he began screaming about something that was not there.

He pushed my back down gently and shook his head.

"Are you actually awake this time?" He asked me.

I searched for my voice but could not find it so I just nodded. His arms wrapped around me tightly.

"Oh Anya... it was terrible. I thought I had lost you. Then you kept walking in so much pain. Always screaming and crying, and then you did not wake for days on end!" He sobbed hugging me close.

I struggled but eventually found my voice. "D...days?" I stuttered in a voice that was barley a whisper.

He nodded and brushed a bit of hair that was stuck to my face with sweat away. “Yes. You fell ill about a week ago." He told me.

"A week?!" I cried in a whisper. We were taking too much time! We had to keep going!

" Shhh calm down. You need your strength. I do not think you caught the illness Yelix has but you must still be careful" He said hugging me tightly then bringing his hands cupped with water to my lips for me to drink from.