Destiny Island

Chapter 57

Swirling darkness. Strange separation between who she was and who she is. A feeling deep in her bones that something is wrong. Her body feels like a volcano building up the pressure, getting ready to erupt.

She is burning up. It feels as if her skin would melt at any moment. If she were to stroke her skin, she thinks it might peel off.

Morbid curiosity prompts her to do exactly that, and to her utter horror, a huge piece of her skin peels off. It makes a silent squishy sound as it falls to the ground. The rawness of her red muscles staring at her feels mocking as if they were laughing at her misfortune.

She wants to scream, to throw up, to faint. Her body settles for throwing up.

At first, huge amounts of partially digested food come out, but soon enough, something different happens. She starts coughing and choking. Something is lodged in her throat, and she can't cough it out.

Before she realizes what is happening, she feels something squishy in the back of her throat, something soft and slimy.

Thinking it was probably what got stuck in her throat, she starts coughing more forcibly. All her strength and effort goes into getting that out of her body, whatever it is. It hurts doing so, but she is determined not to give up. Something in her mind is telling her that if she were to get that out, she would be okay.

Soon, she can feel the obstacle moving, and to her horror, she discovers what it is. Part by part, her whole lung starts coming out of her mouth. All she can do is keep coughing, getting it out.

"How is this even possible?" She wonders terrified.

"Shouldn't I be dead or something?" Jade thinks.

Still, she is very much alive and in more pain than she thought possible with blood dripping out of her mouth as if it was the honor guard that failed to protect her lung from its premature demise.

Something feels odd to her, well odder yet than coughing up one's lung. There is a certain sense of familiarity, a deja vu.

When she finally stops heaving long enough to be able to think, she realizes what's so strange about her current situation.

She has been there before, not to that place, but to that moment. Some things were different, worse, but the general feeling of utter disgust is the same. Even the sensation of coughing things up is a familiar one, but slightly modified.

Then it hits her. Ever since she was a child, she has had a recurring nightmare in which she would cough up neverending strings of wool. No matter how hard she tried to cough it all out, she never succeeded.

"That must be it! This must be a nightmare! But why does it feel so real? I've had a similar nightmare before, but this one is so much more intense, real. I have to remember why. I know the knowledge is here. I just have to remember." Jade says tapping the side of her head.

Fighting with her own body, with her own traumatized mind, she finally remembers what happened before.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted that witch! She must have put something in our food to... to do what? To make our nightmares worse, maybe make them feel real? But if all this is just a horrible nightmare, all I need to do is wake up." Jade thought.

That was easier said than done. The nightmare had her trapped. It felt as if she was swimming in poisonous syrup, trying to reach the surface. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't swim up where she knew fresh air awaited.

She tried driving her nails deep into her skin since that often helped her awaken when she had nightmares in the past, but this time, it wasn't enough. Her old tricks didn't work on the magically enforced nightmare.

She brought her brain on the edge of exhaustion fighting to get through. Although the process was slow and painful, it was worth the effort.

Finally, after a period of long physical and mental struggle, she was able to see a glimpse of the world as it was. Her eyes managed to flutter open for just a second, but that was enough to give her an idea about the direction she was supposed to follow.

After countless attempts, she was finally able to open her eyes and keep them open. Her eyelids were still dropping, trying to trick her back into sleep, but she managed to stay awake. It took Herculean strength, but she did it.

Once she got her bearings in the waking world, her eyes surveyed her surroundings, and although she found it odd, scary even, that there was a sleeping Ci Nada in the room, she concluded that she was in no immediate danger. At least she hoped that the dark fairy wasn't faking sleep.

Still, her eyes moved slowly, looking around trying to further assess their situation. They lingered on Royce since he looked worse than Ignacio and Amber, who just seemed to be in deep slumber.

Royce's face was red and sweaty. When she touched his skin, she could feel it was burning up. That came like a slap to her face and it was the one thing that woke her up immediately.

But what was she supposed to do? She wasn't the one with healing powers. It was impossible for her to instantly make him feel better. Instead, she hurried through the house, carefully avoiding Ci Nada's slumbering figure, and into the bathroom where she found what she was looking for.

She filled a bucket of water and gathered a few towels before hurrying back to the bedroom. The moment she reached Royce, she put the wet towels on his body hoping to lower his temperature and cursing herself for not knowing anything about first aid.

"Royce, wake up. Please wake up. You have to be okay, you have to! You can't go out, not like this. Come back!" Jade said as tears trickled down her face and onto Royce's burning body.

Her muddled mind was working so hard to figure out what she was supposed to do, how she was supposed to help him, that she didn't hear anything. All she could do was worry about what the right thing was to do.

Should she run out and try to find some help? Should she help him in some way? Maybe she should try and use his powers to help him? The last option sounded ridiculous even to herself, but still, she tried to think of something, anything.

Since she was so lost in her thoughts and worries, she jumped up when there was a sudden crash in the house. She suspected it was the front door being violently opened, or destroyed and all she could think was that she had to protect Royce.

He was sick and weak, even if he was awake, she was sure he couldn't deal with any additional danger that could be coming their way. However, she was there to protect him no matter who or what came their way.

What she saw shocked her more than anything she could have imagined.