Reflections of Light

Heads Or Tails

There was a dull, constant ache behind his eyes. Slowly, he drew in a ragged breath; his throat burned, the back of his nose and mouth painfully raw.

"Wha's... Goin' on?" He slurred, struggling to blink the haze out of his eyes.

Her face appeared like that of an angel through the mist; diamond tears glittering in her eyes even as she smiled with pure burning joy, taking his hand lovingly to lead him safely back to the earthly plane.

"You're awake." Nyx said happily, her soft voice a soothing balm for his pains. "How are you feeling?"

Slowly, he struggled to sit up; pushing himself up on his weak hands as she reached to help him; closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose as the ache objected to the change of position. "Not good. What happened?"

"You were really not well." She told him. "Evelyn says you rejected the blood. It just started coming out your nose, and it wouldn't stop! You were practically choking on it- it was awful!"

"Fuck." He swore, dropping back against the pillow. "So it's all gone?"

"I'm sorry."

He gritted his teeth, making a noise of aggravation; before lifting his head and bashing it back against the pillow repeatedly, yelling his frustration at the ceiling as she hurried to stop him out of fear he'd cause himself harm.

"Evelyn said she'd work on it." Nyx said in an attempt to soothe his agitation. "I wasn't sure if it's such a good idea to keep going though. Oh, I was scared something awful when it happened!" She covered her mouth as a small, whimpering sob escaped; and suddenly he could see she was barely holding it together, only putting on this mask of calm for his sake. Reassuringly, he squeezed her hand; the other one drawing down from her face as she smiled softly at him.

"Where are we?" He asked, changing the subject as he slowly began taking in his surroundings.

"The Institute." Nyx said seriously; then, she chuckled. "Quite honestly, I don't think they can make head or tails of you at the moment."

Weakly, he joined in her laughter. "Well, I'll count that as a win."

***

"I hate you." He told Evelyn bluntly.

"Of course you do." Evelyn replied with a tone as if she were speaking to a petulant child, as she removed the needle from his arm.

"You come along and you stick needles in me and you're supposed to make it better, but you don't, you make it worse."

"Not all paths are easy." Evelyn said simply.

"You're trying to kill me." He declared.

Evelyn pressed her lips together into a thin line. "Now why would I do that? I'm a doctor; you wanted me to help you, remember?"

"Because you don't want me with your daughter." He said with conviction. "And... You'd probably get rewarded for it."

Knowing there was no way of arguing him out of his opinion and no point wasting his energy on this debate, she turned back to the job at hand. "I'll be expecting a full apology when you don't die."

***

"Oh no. If you drink anymore coffee, you're going to give yourself a literal heart attack." Maddie said, taking the cup away from Nyx much to the girls objection.

"I think that's her third cup an hour and a half." Alec contributed. Both he and Maddie had designated themselves to keeping an eye on her, which to be fair she didn't mind that much. Although her opinion was rapidly changing on that at the current second.