The Four Dimensions of Corey Emerson

Eight of Clubs

            “Alice… Alice… You are loved… You are loved… Aliceeeeeee…”

            My eyes shot open. I was staring at tarp. Large, beige tarp; sun was desperately trying to sneak through, and wherever light did shine, it was not on me. I smelled spring; the birth of spring, like the snow had just finished melting. The air was thin and cool.

            I couldn’t move, but I didn’t try very hard to, either. Turning my head to my right, I saw that I was what seemed to be like some sort of triage-tent thing. People were running around, calling to each other in different languages. I looked to my left. Anthony Pine was asleep on the bed next to mine. For a second, I thought he was dead; there was no life to his face. His cheeks were hollow and his arms were smaller, as if he hadn’t eaten in a week. I reached my left hand out, and poked him; I still couldn’t move my body. I could only move my left arm and my head. Pine didn’t budge.

            “He’s heavily sedated,” a voice said from my other side; my head shot over and I saw a familiar face.  “He should be waking up real shortly.” It was Knox. I gasped, and tried to roll over and get away from him but my body prevented me to. Knox smiled at me, and sat down on the empty bed to my right.

            “I can’t move my feet,” I huffed.

            Knox shrugged. “I didn’t drug you-.”

            “I’ve been what?!” I kept trying to move my body; only my left arm was flailing in the air. I tried to hit Knox with my only available extremity. It wasn’t working.

            “Just calm down!” Knox laughed. Half of me was filled with hatred towards him and the other half was filled with wonderment. I knew he wasn’t dangerous, but something inside me wanted to punch him then kiss him then punch him again.

            I heard a cough that made my heart jump. It was Anthony Pine. He was awake.

            “Where’s Bran?” I asked Knox.

            “With Skape,” Knox replied, standing up and going over to Anthony Pine; I turned my head to see the elf sitting up.

            “Skape,” I muttered to myself. “I’ve heard that name before…”

            “He’s kind of like the lord of our village. He’s taken care of us… If you’ve heard of him, it’s probably from his valiant efforts to revive our specie.”

            “No…” I muttered.

            “What do you mean, ‘no’-?!”

            “No, I mean… Emerson had told me about him… Claudius Skape?”

            Knox laughed so loud, it sounded forced sarcasm. “Oh yes, Emerson!” He cried. “When I first saw him in Camp Pine, I’d forgotten what he looked like… He’s lucky I did, or I would’ve killed him right there. He deserves it.”

            Two things stopped me from going after Knox. One: the fact I couldn’t move any part of my body. Two: I believed him. Then I remembered. I tried to look down at my right hand. To my surprise, my arm was no longer bloody and torn apart, but the initial burn on my wrist remained.

            I sighed. “Can I get up now?”

            A nearby woman (who I guessed to be a nurse), put her hands over my body. Her palms glowed red and my body began to heat up and my limbs softened. Without speaking, the nurse just smiled and walked away.

            I sat up, staring at my wrist; the burn was darker, now, and more prominent.

            “Bran told me that Emerson gave that mark to you,” Knox said, crossing his arms.

            Anthony Pine was now awake to hear the whole thing. “He hurt you?” He sat up.

            I stood up, almost stumbling onto the two men. “Since when do you care?!”

            Pine didn’t answer. I knew he didn’t care, but whatever he and his father gave up keeping me safe, I owed them my life… My     eyes suddenly widened; so did the elf’s.

            “Where is he?” Pine said.

            My eyes fluttered and I was speechless. I had no idea. “We saw you in the cage and I assumed he was dead…”

            Anthony Pine stood up and shook his head. “He-, No-… Athos was in rehabilitation before they put me in that cage. He’s in an underground holding cell, if you didn’t take him when you rescued me.”

            I stood up, stumbling against one of the posts holding up the triage. I looked out into the sunlight to see large bonfires lit in the heat of the day, surrounded by only a hundred, if not two hundred people; two hundred innocent people who didn’t deserve to die. “You said he’s underground?” I could hear Anthony Pine nodding. I also heard him stand up and walk next to me, leaning against another pole. I tried to remain calm. “Knox, how many days have I been asleep?”

            Knox shrugged, “One.”

            “Okay,” I turned to Pine. “I don’t know if you saw it or not, but I flooded Camp Pine… It’s nothing but a huge lake of mud. I really doubt anyone survived, but if you say Athos Pine is underground, there’s still a slight chance he could still be alive.”

            Anthony Pine suddenly became all jittery. “You’re right… Okay, okay. First I need a party to come with me-.”

            “Skape will most likely give you three of his finest scouters,” Knox offered.

            “And you can take Lark or Remus if you want,” I added. I didn’t really know either one of them and I wasn’t too comfortable with hanging around people I didn’t trust. It wasn’t so much Remus as it was Lark; I felt Silvius sent one of his men along simply to spy on me.

            I didn’t get to tell Anthony Pine I was grateful for what he and his father did for me, taking me in. He was already consulting with Sir Claudius Skape and took three Reliqui scouters, heading for Camp Pine. Just my luck, he took Remus; Juniper was upset and as was I. Lark made me feel uneasy.

           

            Later that day, I went up to Bran, who had finally left his meeting with Claudius Skape. “Bran, I got thinking,” I muttered as I blindly led the bird to a cliff, where we sat down. I peered over the edge as Bran pushed rocks over the mountain with his beak. “Bran, where are we? I mean, what Dimension are we in?”

            “Four,” The bird replied.

            “What does Four hold?”

            “Well, the Demons, who are now simply known as the Fire-Conjurers of the Reliqui, Ghosts, Werewolves, Wolves, Wolf-Demons… nasty creatures… Witches, Ghosts, Vampires, Doppelgangers, and somewhere around here are the Forty Forbidden Souls.”

            “Wait, you said Werewolves?”

            Bran nodded. Then he smiled. He knew what I wanted to do, and he resented it, but deep down he knew that it was a brilliant and horribly risky idea.