The Him

Chapter 5: The Cobblestone Rose

Mae shook me awake.
"Time to go sleepy head," she said softly. I sat up and put on my suit.
"What's your code name?" I whisper sleepily.
"Silent Dust," she replies handing me an energy drink. I smile and take a sip as we walk back upstairs. I spot someone who looked a lot like Finn sitting in the hallway, all alone, with his head on his knees.
"I'll be right back," I say to Mae. I wander down the hallway and sit down by Finn.
"You okay, buddy?" I ask rubbing his back. He looks up at me. There are dark rings around his eyes and a tear slips from his cheek.
"Ash, I c-can't help but think t-that Jasper being infected by the Special One, was our fault," Finn mumbles. I take his hand in mine. It's cold, really cold. I pat his hand gently.
"Don't worry, Mae WILL find a way to cure him, now why don't you get some sleep," I smile, leading him down to the basement. When I get to Mae's lab, she has her backpack on and she's smiling that cute smile she always does. For a second with both stand there, staring at each other. Then Mae flicks a strand of her strawberry blond hair out of her face.
"We should get going," She says sucking in a breath nervously.
"Y-yeah," I say, eyeing the hair covering her neck. She saw me looking at it.
"Asher, you really want to know?" She sighed. I nodded slowly. She lifted her hair up to show a horrible burn mark, leading all the way down to her shoulder.
"W-what happened," I gasped. She sighed.
"I don't know, it was a normal day in my lab and I was testing antidote and then I felt a burn on my neck. I looked at it and saw I somehow spilt some fire aspect potion on it, I screamed until Blake came and he swore to God that if he found the person that had done that, they'd be killed," Mae stammered. I ignore the bad language and I wrap my hand around her back.
"Blake really seems like a savage guy. C'mon, we better get out of her if we want Jasper to . . ." I trail off, not wanting to say anymore. Mae nods. We walk out the door and Mae shows me her map.
"We will head south to go to Dorothy Forest. You with me, Scrappy?" Mae asks giggling a little at the name. I nod.
"Alright Commander SD," I joke. She smiles at me, like she's never smiled before, and she gives me a little shove. I shove her harder and she shoves me right into the bushes. I run after her and she laughs as we roll in the grass. But our fun stops when we come face to face with Dorothy Forest. It's not like a normal forest, it's all . . . dead. Mae hesitates before walking in, and I follow behind her.

"What exactly do we have to get from here?" I whisper.

"We need to find the witch's hut and pay her something for the Cobblestone Rose," Mae whispers back.
"But what?" I wonder aloud.
"I have the perfect idea," Mae says and she sits down, I sit beside her. She pulls out a rose, well more like a dead one from the ground and hands it to me. Then she reaches out of her backpack and hands me a vile named Cobblestone Paint. I nod to her and spill a drop on the rose. It immediately becomes heavier and there is a cobblestone design on it.
"How did you make this potion all by yourself?" I ask. She smiles.
"Well I am the smartest scientist in the world, according to you and Blake," She smiles, pulling her hair over her burn mark. I reach out my hand and tuck her hair behind her ears.
"This makes you look like a true hero, kinda like Meagan," I tease guestering to the burn mark. Mae smiles and stands up.
"Let's hurry and trade the witch for the REAL Cobblestone Rose, before the time runs out," Mae says hurrying ahead, "and remember to let me do all the talking."
We got to the hut. It was fairly small but she might have put a spell on it to seem it's smaller, but it was actually really small when we went in.
"Who dares to come in my hut without permission?" A scratchy voice asked behind us.
We turned around and saw a beautiful woman standing in the doorway.
"I said, who dares to come in my hut without permission?" She yelled.
"Dorthena! We have come to offer a favor," Mae replied.
"Ahhh. You have come again, Silent Dust. You have asked me for many antidote ingredients, now what else do you need?" Dorthena yelled.
"Remember what my brother said? You owe us a lot and now you have to repay us," Mae said harshly.
"Yes yes I remember, but I don't remember Howling Knight this short, ya?" Dorthena patted me on the head.
I opened my mouth to talk but Mae interrupted me. "This is my friend, Scrappy."
Dorthena eyed me. "Well, hello Scrappy. I see no need for you here. Shooo!" She yelled.
Just then, a little girl about the age of 5 ran in. "Momma! I found a Darolin flower!" She jumped up and down excitedly.
"Good job, Diane, now go find another extravagant flower dear," Dorthena picked up the Darolin flower.
"Dusty!" The little girl supposably named Diane yelled when she saw Mae.
"Hello Daniey," she picked Diane up and swung her in circles while Diane laughed super hard.
Dorthena smiled. "Fine, you have yourself a deal, but the boy has to go."
"Can I play with him, Momma?" Diane asked.
"Fine, go! Now, where is Momma's bag?"
Diane and I went outside. "So what do you want to do? We can do Witches Wickets? Oohhhhhh! Let's do Broom Vroom!" Diane yelled.
I laughed. "Can we do something at least I know?" I asked.
Diane stop doing everything and looked at me. "You must be Asher."
I looked at her startled. "W-wha? No! I'm n-not Asher," I stammered.
Diane laughed. "I know a liar when I see one. Don't worry. Mae told me everything about you."
"W-what? I thought her name was Dusty," I asked confused.
"I have to act like that in front of my mom. She's harsh, but I like her. Me and Mae send notes to each other about what was happening. She told me loads about you," Diane laughed.
"How did you know Mae?" I said.
"Well, once my mom's hut caught on fire. Blake and Mae was nearby and saw the fire so they ran towards it. My mom was out but I wasn't. I kept screaming and screaming until I couldn't anymore. Mae heard me screaming and went in. I was unconscious at that time. Mae told me that she found me but then she saw a black figure and he hit something on her head and she fell unconscious. When I woke up, I was outside. Loads of people were trying to get the fire out. I saw Blake with Mae and I ran towards them. I saw that he was crying and he saw me and hugged me too. He explained to me that the doctors said there's a half a chance she might wake up and another chance she might die. So I followed him to the hospital where Mae was and helped calm him a little bit. I wanted to go home but during that time, I found out that Mae tried to save me so I stayed. She was in a coma for 8 months until she woke. I never knew what happened to Mae but Blake was super protective after that day, but once Mae told me about how she got a nasty scar on her neck. She said that after 2 accidents, Blake had never been his happy, cheerful self and had been his grumpy, snappy self ever since," Diane finished.
"Wow," I finally said when she was done. So that's why he's never happy.
Just then, Mae ran out of the hut and ran towards me. "We have to go," Mae yelled breathlessly, "Dorthena's mad."
Just then, we heard a scream from the hut.
"Go! I'll distract my mom!" Diane hissed and ran in the hut while we started running.
"What happened?" I asked when we were far away as possible.
"Dorthena didn't let me have the original Cobblestone Rose so I had to steal it and replace it with the fake one. I think she figured out I stole it. Well, I won't be visiting her for a while," Mae gasped.
"So what's next?" I slumped down next to a tree trunk.
"The Unthinkable Bile," Mae slumped down next to me, "but first, I need a break."