New Elysium: Weapons of War (Book 2)

One BandAid Left Behind Part 6

 "Even a well-lit place, can hide salvation
A map to a one-man maze that never sees the sun
Where the lost are the heroes
And the thieves are left to drown"   

- "It Has Begun" -Starset

The waking world had been filled with pain and harsh lights, so the dark embrace of unconsciousness had been welcome at first. That was until the dreams began. Nova dreamed in black and white, he always had - only this one, recurring dream was different. Perhaps because it was a nightmare, or perhaps because it was a memory, but it was filled with colors so vibrant that they were painful to look at.

A pair of tear-filled blue eyes. Strawberry blonde hair whipped by the wind as she stood at the edge. Goose bumps on her pale skin, and angry, dark blue lines crisscrossing all over her arms like a jagged network of artificial veins.

"Promise me... you won't remember me like this," she pleaded, "Like... like a monster!"

Another convulsion shook her body, and she cried out in pain. He stepped closer but she took another step back, toward the edge. He knew that he couldn't stop her. The first few times when he had dreamed of this memory, he had tried, but he was always too slow, just like he had been on that day.

"I don't make promises I know I won't keep, Erika," Nova replied, "I will remember you exactly the way you are now. I will never forget you, or what they did to you. And I will never forgive him for-"

"I am so sorry... it's all my fault," she whispered between pain-labored breaths, "I should have never dragged you into this."

Then she turned around and spread her arms wide, as if she wanted to welcome her death in a wide embrace. She disappeared in the darkness below the edge, while the vibrant glare of the city lights seemed to mock him in his pain and grief.

When they went to retrieve her body, the pale blue hospital gown had turned red with her blood. But when he bent down to turn her over, it wasn't Erika any longer. It was Amy. He had never realized just how much life was in her eyes, even in that pitch black augment, until he saw her like this. Staring up at the night sky now, her eyes were dead and empty, even as the neon lights around them tinged the world with vivid colors.

~ ~ ~

Slipping in and out of unconsciousness repeatedly, Nova felt his senses return slowly, one by one. First was his hearing - telling him that there was somebody else in the room. At some point, two people talked, then a door opened and closed, and something rustled close by. Next was his sense of touch, and with it came the pain. A dull throbbing sensation permeated through his head, and the rest of his body was tingling as if the blood flow had been cut off from his limbs. Last to return was his sight, but it was blurry and the lights in the room were painfully bright.

"Amy?" he called out, his voice coming out hoarse and weak, "Are you there?"

Now fully awake he could sense her presence, but most of all her worry, through their connection. At the same time, his own distress over the nightmare had his heart still racing, and so their emotions seemed to bounce back and forth between the two of them like a pinball. It sent his head spinning all over again, but at least he could be sure that she was, in fact, very much alive.

He tried to move to sit up but found himself still shackled to the bed. With a groan of pain and frustration, he sank back again. Closing his eyes again at the lights shining from the ceiling he took a couple of deep breaths to calm down.

"What's wrong, did you forget the safe word?"

He snickered at her comment, relieved that she didn't seem to resent him for the last time he had made that joke at her expense. It was Null speaking, he could tell immediately. He could also vividly imagine that hint of a grin tugging at the corner of her mouth. But he still couldn't see her clearly. He turned his head in the direction of her voice, which turned out to be a bad idea because the motion made him nauseous.