Light in Dark Places

Chapter Twenty

Joan waits for her sister to come through the door.

She's sore. Her neck throbs, her face throbs; she feels bruised in places she doesn't remember getting hurt. She's never been injured like this before. Other children would come in with broken arms, legs, fingers, but never her. The most she could boast before now was a bump on the head, when she fell during recess once. These kinds of injuries—these battle wounds—they're not something that people like her experience.

(Except for that time that Misery attacked, she reminds herself. Except for that time when you were injured in an irreparable way. But that doesn't count. That didn't hurt, and besides, you woke up).

She's never been injured like this before, and she wants her sister. That's what stands out the most—she misses her parents, but she wants her sister here. That's been true since she was very young. Whenever she was hurt or sick she never went to her parents first, she went to Seung-ri.

So she waits for her sister to come find her. She knows that Seung-ri will come, because that is what Seung-ri always does, but she wishes her sister would come faster. She has been alone and scared for far too long and she's ready to go home now.

Benedict is asleep. Or at least, his eyes are closed and his breathing has evened out. He doesn't make any sounds when he sleeps. Joan's never been around such a quiet sleeper. It's a bit unnerving.

In her hands she holds Her Only Wish, which Mills had returned to her after the—attack. The letter is still tucked inside. In the long silent stretches of waiting for Seung-ri, Joan knows the easy thing to do would be to fill in the time with reading. She's opened the book a couple of times to try, but she can't concentrate. She has too many things to think about, but she doesn't seem to be thinking about anything. Her brain feels numb, too overburdened with thought without the energy to actually think.

She waits for Seung-ri.

*

It's a relief when the door opens and her sister finally appears.

"Seung-ri!" Joan says, jumping off the chair to greet her sister. "Are you OK? Did you catch him? What happened?"

"I'm fine," Seung-ri says, hugging Joan back in that reluctant way of hers. The embrace is quick, as Seung-ri pulls away to search Joan's face. Her lips tighten the longer she looks.

"It's—not so bad," Joan says, sensing her sister's anger. "Did you end up catching him?"

"We can discuss this later. I'm going to take you back to my room on base, OK?"

"What?" Joan cries. She has every intention of revisiting that we can discuss this later brush-off because she's absolutely not going to let this one go, but her more immediate concerns catch her attention. "We're staying here? Why can't we go back home?"

"It's just—better if we stay on base, for now. While we still process things."

Joan wants to protest this, but Benedict rising from the bed catches her attention. "What about Benedict?"

"He can sleep here for the night."

"But—"

"You'll see him in the morning. We'll figure things out then."

Seung-ri already turns to leave. Joan sends a parting good-bye look in Benedict's direction and he half-heartedly waves a few fingers at her before flopping back down in the bed. Joan rushes to catch up with her sister.

"Seung-ri, what happened? Who is Creosote? What's happening right now And the Misery—?" she swallows, almost too scared to ask her next question, "The Misery Touched you, didn't it? Why didn't the Misery—"