The Swords of Memory: Second Chances

Chapter 8

Zara opened her eyes and was standing in the sick bay. Eli was in bed next to her, asleep. Zara hadn't had the sensation of sleep or waking up since the accident. She felt well rested though, just like she had felt well rested when she appeared home. Zara knew that the odds were Eli had done everything during the day that she had wanted to do at night. It might be best to let him sleep. She turned to leave the room and noticed that there was another person in the sick bay bed. It was Daniel. He looked pale and uncomfortable. Zara remembered what had happened the last time she had tried to heal him but felt compelled to try again. She touched his arm and started to use her power. She started to pull the damage out of him and into herself where her power could fix it. She felt the cold immediately. It was the same thing that had happened before but this time she tried to push through. She recognized the feeling of what was hurting Daniel from her old life. She wasn't a fan of becoming reacquainted with it but she felt more capable of dealing with it now, more capable of destroying it forever.

She pushed on as hard as she could but the feeling only got worse. Her power was pulling it into her but it wouldn't seem to get rid of it once it was there. The feeling was entering and filling her. She felt overwhelmed but also unable to stop. She was clenching her eyes closed in pain and concentration but tears still started to come. She was overwhelmed with darkness. She could feel it touching her inner most being, corrupting it. She pulled away but her body wouldn't listen. She was paralyzed. She heard herself start to uncontrollably sob but couldn't do anything to prevent it. She couldn't stop her power either. It was making things worse, adding strength to the darkness inside her, and it wouldn't stop. Almost in an instant Zara's mindset returned to what I had been before. She went numb, forcing all the pain and misery below the surface. She was still unable to move, but she was able to stand the pain. Her old plan suddenly seemed just as appealing as it had before.

She started to contemplate ways of achieving her goal when she was pulled back by gentle but forceful hands. She was turned around and made to face the person who had pulled her away from Daniel. It was Eli. Her earlier sobs had woken him and the sudden silence had compelled him to investigate. Finally disconnected from Daniel, the darkness in Zara began to shrink. The joy she had only recently rediscovered returned to her thoughts. She was terrified of what had happened. Especially the numbness she had felt. The pain was back but it was weakening. She relished the pain. She relished feeling anything. She started to cry again, but this time more softly. Eli pulled her into him and just held her. He didn't say anything. He knew that there was nothing to say. He had no idea what she had just gone through. The only thing he knew was that she needed someone and he happened to fall under the category of someone. He held her and she clutched back. They barely knew each other but in that moment, they might as well have been best friends since birth. Eli was her rock in a sea of pain and chaos, the only thing that she had left to hang on to. Finally someone that she could trust.

An hour went by before she stopped crying. Another before she spoke. "Eli, thank you." She wanted to say more but she couldn't bring herself to say anything else. She suddenly realized that she might have doomed him. He had helped her, most likely saved her life, and she had nearly killed him. She didn't deserve such kindness. She had done nothing to deserve it.

"Any time. Would you mind explaining what happened? I woke up to your cries and then when I sat up to see where they were coming from you were standing over Daniel crying. And you were starting to look as pale as he does."

"I was trying to heal him. I failed last time, but I thought if I tried harder..."

"How would healing him do that to you? Aaron and Garrett explained that you had a power that would heal you and that you could heal others too, but I don't understand how healing others would do that to you. Or how you have a super power."