Separian - Book 1

Chapter 7

The bed beneath me was not soft. Not like I remembered it. Then again, I'd been in it for three days straight, so that might have explained the majority of my discomfort. Discomfort or not, the same feeling was back as the last day I could recall. My arms felt like cinder blocks, as did my legs. My head hurt most of all. By default that would force everything else to ache on some level. A calm breeze flowed in through the window and I struggled to find my blanket over the rough surface of my mattress. No doubt I'd kicked it off my bed during the night in an attempt to cool off. Luck was not on my side this morning. The blanket I wished I could reach was nowhere in reach. Forcing myself to find it would have only put me through even more discomfort. Still, I would be warm if I did.

Something slick ran over the side of my face as the sun peaked through my window; Jetta's not-so-subtle indication that it was time for me to wake up. I quickly raised my hand to shield my face and turned over so that she didn't have access and continued to relax as best I could. But now that she was awake, falling back asleep was going to prove more difficult than waking up and dealing with the day.

So I reluctantly forced my eyes open and tilted my face away from the mattress and to the other side of the room. But where my forest green wall should have been, I found a forest; tree tops practically grazing the sky up above. Again, the slick object touched my skin, this time passing over the back of my head, but it wasn't moving like Jetta's tongue. It felt, if I had to guess, like it was stroking my hair rather than licking it. I removed my idle hand from my side and turned my entire body so that I could see what was touching me. Where I expected –hoped was more like it- to find Jetta, an excited ball of black and white fur, waiting to pounce the moment I made eye contact, I found a woman. A blond-haired, blue-eyed woman. Simply laying there.

Her expression was soft, a flawless smile slipping in to cover her face. Her eyes were fixed on me, with what I could only interpret as 'compassion' filling them. But who was she? And why- better yet, how had I ended up in bed next to her? As I thought more about my situation, and what existed around me, I tracked my body from head to toe, slowly. For starters, I was not wearing a shirt. My sox were not on my feet. I could feel my pants, thankfully. They were on but there wasn't a shred of fabric separating the rough-cut denim from my bare skin.

I thought for a moment of all the possible scenarios that might have taken place before this one and froze with horror. Had I...?

"There is no need to worry," she whispered softly. "You are safe." Well that was a matter of opinion. I didn't know exactly how 'safe' I was, being in a place I didn't recognize with a woman I didn't know and a body so exhausted that I could barely amount an appropriate physical reaction to the shock I felt. I found my eyes attracted to a spot in the center of her figure that did not appear to match the rest of her colour. I'd been fighting to keep my eyes on hers for as long as I could but through the corners of my vision I could see her skin from the neck down clear as day. I could only surmise that she was about as clothed as I was. All bar one spot. The center of her body appeared red. Fighting my better judgment, I took a quick look at the distortion that had me so intrigued.

She was bleeding. No, it was worse than that. Her entire rib cage had been ripped clean through. The bone was clearly exposed, the muscle shredded, and there was a constant yet erratic ripple running just below the surface of what little tissue was left. She grabbed my hand and rubbed the back of it like Sarah used to do to calm me down. I'd just been thinking that that's what I wanted. Sarah. Here. Rubbing my hand exactly like this woman was doing. Attempting to wake me up from whatever nightmare I could not shake. It was then that I noticed my hands were coated in the same colour as her flesh.

An acid flavor built up in my throat and drove its way to my mouth as I forced myself to swallow before the feeling was on the floor in front of me. But it was too much. I gagged as the disgusting taste shot right back to where it had been and protruded from my mouth onto the ground beside me.