The Hidden City

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Please, please help Rem! It's my mother, she's shaking and screaming, I don't know what to do!" A voice rang out from behind Rem's door. He recognized the voice instantly. It was his best friend, Luca.

Rem and his mother rushed to the door to meet a crying boy. His face was as red as a tomato and wet as the rain in the month of Avril. He blubbered about his mother and how they were just playing a game of échecs when she started shaking and screaming gibberish. Rem almost couldn't believe what Luca was saying until he was dragged to Luca's house to hear the screams.

Luca bounded up his stairs and into his mother's room, Rem close behind. He gasped at the sight. Luca's mother was shaking on the floor, her eyes glowing green and yellow, her mouth open to speak but not moving, however she was screaming words. "Where are the sounds coming from?" Rem wondered. There wasn't a possible way Luca's mother could be speaking at the moment, unless something magical was interfering. Magic was a big part of their lives, as they were witches. Rem started to wonder if one of the spells she had done backfired.

Luca's mother suddenly stopped shaking, laying still on her bedroom floor. Her sick body started to turn back to it's normal colors, instead of vibrant shades of green and red. She sat unconscious, just breathing and her body relaxing on the floor. Then Rem saw a slug fly out from her throat, then another. Until she was puking and coughing up slugs by the second. Luca sobbed harder, and not bearing to look at his mother instead buried his face into Rem's shirt. Rem simply stood in place, not fully comprehending what was going on. What was happening to Luca's mother?

"L-Luca, come on bud, I'll get the doctor but you can't be here right now," Rem suggested, pulling Luca to the door.

"O-okay," Luca stuttered, "But c- But can we come back l-later to see if shes a-alright?"

"Of course. She'll be okay," Rem soothed, but he hardly believed the words himself. How could a woman cough up slugs and turn red and green? Rem wondered if it was the sickness that was destroying their pack advancing, or a spell seriously backfired.

Rem picked up Luca and carried him out of the house. He knew he would be reacting the same way if his mother started shaking and coughing up slugs. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her glowing eyes and colors start back up again.

Rem set Luca down, and instead grabbed his hand and ran with him to the doctors office. He hated being outside with it dreary, cold, and wet, but right now he needed to help Luca's mother. He saw the doctor outside, just about to leave and go home.

"Wait! Doctor Kyne! We need you!" Rem shouted in his loudest voice, almost dragging Luca by how fast he was running now.

"Rem!" Dr.Kyne shouted back, "What is it, boy?"

"Luca's mother! S-she- I don't know what she's doing! You gotta come see!" Rem tried to explain, completely out of breath.

"Alright kid. But if this is a prank I'm going to tell Alpha Black about this. Just because you're our future alpha doesn't mean you can prank me," Dr.Kyne scolded, heading back with Rem and Luca to the house.

" 'Course not sir! Rem would never! She's shaking and turning all these colors and coughing up slugs!" Luca explained, looking at Dr.Kyne with pleading eyes.

Dr.Kyne only raised an eyebrow at him, until he saw the flashing red and greens coming from the upstairs window.

"Well my gods! You boys should've told me sooner!" Dr.Kyne shouted, rushing into the house to see Luca's mother.

Rem wanted to roll his eyes at Dr.Kyne, but with Luca sobbing and the time that it was, he decided against it. He didn't want to seem rude when he would be the future leader of his community.

"R-Rem can w-we go somewhere el-else?" Luca stuttered, trying to compose himself to stop crying, but alas, he was doing a miserable job.

"Of course, but we will come back here in 2 hours, I can't be gone from this too long," Rem explained, rubbing Luca's back to console him, "If this is what the sickness is growing to I need to be here with our people,"

Luca nodded and walked off with Rem. They went immediately to Rem's house, as he said they would be safe there and it would be quiet and calm for Luca. They entered the house, with its warm and cozy feel instantly lightening their spirits. Rem went for the kitchen to find his mother weeping at the table.

"Luca, you know where my room is right? I don't want you around anymore sadness today as you've already seen enough. Go up to my room and wait for me to fetch you alright?" Rem commanded, pointing up the stairs to where his room was.

"Okay Rem. Thank you so much," Luca happily agreed, hugging Rem before rushing up to his room.

Rem turned to his mother, "What's wrong Ma? Did Luca's mom scare you?"

Rem's mother nodded, "Yes! She was coughing up slugs for gods sake! What if this is what happens to your father? To you? What if this happens to Grandma and Grandpa and-"

"Ma- stop! You're only worrying yourself. Only Pa is the one who's sick, you don't have to worry. Why don't you go upstairs in your room to calm down and compose yourself and I'll make you some tea?" Rem suggested, rubbing his mothers back to console her.

Rem's mother nodded, heading up to the room Rem's father lay as well to calm herself. Rem sighed as he looked around the kitchen. How many of their objects had become infested with the germs of this sickness? He looked at their half-eaten dinner left alone, and was now cold.

"What a waste," Rem said, picking up the bowls and scraping the contents out before putting them in the sink.

Rem headed up the stairs to his room, where he knew Luca would be waiting for him. Instead of hearing the calming silence of his house, he heard Luca's sobs. Rem rushed to his room and saw Luca bawling on his desk chair.

"She's dead! I saw the doctor take her out of my house on a stretcher! Sh-she's dead!" He sobbed, getting up and hugging Rem.

"It'll be okay Luca, She's not in pain anymore, I promise She's up in Niohwen now, with our god Phidmir. She's not in anymore pain," Rem consoled, rubbing Luca's back to calm him.

"What if she went to Yavara? Oh what if she went there? I don't want her to burn!" Luca cried, even louder now.

"Luca, she was an amazing person who donated every Friday to charity and took tremendous care of you. She always made sure everyone had food, even if they weren't her kid. She was an incredible mother and friend, I promise she's not in Yavara,"

"I wish this sickness would stop! It's taking too many people!" Luca shouted, banging his fists against his head.

"Luca! Please, don't hit your head. I want it to stop too, and I promise I'll make it go away!" Rem cried, embracing Luca in a hug.

"Y-you promise?"

"I swear to Phidmir and Niohwen I will stop it,"

Rem decided, while sitting there with a grieving Luca and the sky sad with tears, he would find a cure for the illness that was taking away his people, and save them from dying, he swore he would find a way to cure it until his dying breath.