Edogon -- Revised (2018)

Chapter 21: Lament

Avery

Everything that happens next is a mosaic of confusion and franticness.

One moment I'm there, holding onto Dune's wounds for dear life. Willing the bleeding to stop as his breathing becomes quieter and quieter. Until all I can hear is my own raspy breath.

Then suddenly Javier's there with Lunara and another nurse, and they're taking me away from him. In my haze I fight them, not seeing their faces. My eyes only focused on the blood surrounding me. The crimson rivers that I need to staunch. Kicking, screaming words I can't even hear, my eyes never leave his form as he slumps down onto the stretcher.

"Avery, Avery!" I'm forced to look away from him as Lunara takes my face in her hands, her grey eyes boring into me.

"I need you to calm down. Take some deep breaths, come on." Lunara's voice is soft, coaxing. But I can barely string together two steady breaths with the panic rising within me. My throat constricts so tightly I feel almost like I'm lost in space without oxygen. I gasp heavily, my eyes watering and my brain feeling fuzzy as the pressure increases at my throat.

"We've got to get him to the operating room now. Lunara, you got her?"

"Yeah, go."

And like that my attention is snapped back to the moment, I wheeze in the air and follow Javier.

Lunara grasps my wrist, pulling me back towards her.

I turn to look at her.

"Let me go." I whisper. She shakes her head at me and pulls me into her suddenly, wrapping her arms around me.

"Javier will take care of him, Avery. But you'll be of no help to anyone in this state." Lunara tells me. I push weakly against her shoulders, trying to separate us. I don't want comfort right now. I don't want petty words to ease my conscience. I only want...Dune. His solid presence, the way his touch can cool my agony like water running over a burn. And right now I'm scorched, burning from the inside out with memories and fear that are bubbling through my surface, waiting to explode like a volcanic eruption.

"I have to go with them." I say, my voice is almost begging.

"Why?"

"Because—because he can't be alone, Luna. Not like this." The words come out as if I'm parched, patchy and shaky. Lunara's grip on me tightens and she begins to stroke my hair, easing me into her.

"That's not the only reason, is it?" Lunara's question is tentative, gently probing. But it opens a flood of tears that I'd been trying to keep down. I look at my hands on her shoulders, slick with blood. Stained a deep sangria red.

And as I look at them in this moment, blood caked into all the edges and crevices they transform into someone else's blood.

"Listen to me Avery, you can't come with mommy."

"But—"

"No buts, sweetheart."

She looks past me, to the person behind me.

"You know what you have to do?" She asks them, her hand clamped over a wound on her stomach.

"Yes, I know. Don't worry, it'll be taken care of." The person behind me answers. The woman nods and reaches out a bloodied hand, taking mine in theirs for just a moment before turning and leaving.

"Mom!" I call out after her retreating form, limping away from me.

"Shh, everything is going to be alright." The person behind me whispers, and I'm turned to face them. When our eyes connect my mind goes blank and the next thing I know I've awoken outside an outpost on a planet, abandoned. With blood on my small hands, blood that I don't know who it belongs to...