the unknown space

chapter 7

I woke up, my sight was still fuzzy. I could barely breathe without pain shooting through my chest. My shirt was replaced with bandages across my chest. I looked at my surroundings and noticed I was by the stairway. To my right was the doorway and I could see Karen sitting on her knees. The monster was on the ground, his head detached and black ooze was everywhere. I assumed the ooze was the monster's blood.

"Karen...'' I whispered. I got up and slowly made my way over to Karen ignoring the dreadful pain I felt. "How did you?" I asked, looking at the head of the monster, its long scaly tongue was sticking out.

"Evander! Lay down! You are in no condition to be moving!" Karen said looking worried, I wanted to tell her I was fine but I couldn't because I knew I was not. I layed down slowly. Karen started again, "It's nearly impossible to injure myself with my own magic, once you were in here and unconscious I went into the room with the monster. It had torn away all of its chains and was able to roam freely throughout the room. I was able to use all my magic without worrying about missing and hitting something or someone important. The creature quickly fainted. Then I remembered what you had said about killing it if we had the chance so that's what I did." She looked away from me and focused on the ground instead.

"Thanks, For once you actually did something useful," I continued before Karen could respond, "Okay, when do you think we'll be able to move on?" I asked.

"You were hurt pretty badly. I doubt we can move on until you are good enough to walk. We obviously need to stay here and rest for a while, I will have to get food and water." Karen said.

"No," I responded. Karen looked at me like she was about to protest but I didn't give her the chance. "Have your lizard go get food and water for us. You are going to stay here, it's not like you could get out of the tunnels anyway. By the way, where is Dart?" There was the sound of tiny claws on a rock and I turned my head to see the colorful lizard squeeze out from between a crack in the wall.

"Dart isn't trained," Karen said.

"Well then we move now. We can't last long down here so it's time we get out. I have a feeling the only way to do that will be to get through this maze and hopefully there aren't anymore challenges. Can you help me walk?" I asked.

"Fine," she sighed, "But don't blame me when your wound starts bleeding again." I rolled my eyes.

"Don't worry, I won't complain. I mean you already do that enough for both of us," I snapped and looked at Karen, she seemed hurt by what I had said. I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything. Slowly Karen walked towards me and bent down, pulling me up she had me lean against her. I felt guilty for what I had said.

The next 10 minutes were silent until Dart spit acid on my boot burning my skin.

"Ow your lizard just spat on me, I don't know why you have that living unicorn barf," why do I keep on saying mean things? I don't mean any of it but it's almost like it is being forced out of me. A squeal interrupted my thoughts, I looked down to see Dart skid across the ground.

"Evander!" Karen yelled, "You kicked Dart!" I looked at her and it was like I couldn't control what I was saying or doing.

"That piece of trash deserved it. Teach your pet how to act around others because otherwise I'll-" I was screaming out of control. I felt Karen's hand slap across my face.

"What is wrong with you?" She asked.

"I do-" before I could finish the sentence I felt something choking me, but it wasn't Karen. I tried gasping for breath but my lungs wouldn't take in any air. I fell to the ground.

"Evander!" Karen yelled as I struggled to breathe. I start to cough and blood comes out, lots of it, "I'm going to have to remove your bandage. I think it has something to do with this," Karen lays me on my back and starts tearing off the bandages that wrapped around my waist. Blood gushes out, and soon I'm laying in a puddle of red liquid. Karen inspects the wound for a second before stumbling backwards with a slight gasp. "There's something in the wound," she said.

"Take it out then," Karen hesitated, "Now!"

"I don't know how to do this, I might make it worse. . ."

"Stop being so useless and just take the thing out," I yelled, weakly coughing up more blood.

"I don't have any tools though," she protested.

"Then just use your hands." Karen reached over to me, tears filling in my eyes. Her hand reached into the wound moving my flesh away, causing more blood to come out. It felt as though the pain was splitting my whole chest, I was yelling in pain, it was unbearable. Karen grabbed something in my chest but it wasn't the object she was aiming for.

"AHHHH KAREN! THAT WAS AN ORGAN! YOU IDIOT!" I winced at the excruciating pain that coursed through my body. "KAREN I WILL KILL YOU! YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT!" Why am I saying these things? I would never say this.

"I'm-I'm-so-sorry," Karen's tears were falling into my wound. The salt made it feel like acid. Karen moved her hand around, causing more flesh to shift. I felt her hand bump against something in my chest. "I-I think that I f-found it," she said, grabbing the foreign object. I felt her try to slide the object out of my chest. It had moved a bit before getting stuck. She tugged it gently causing me to wince but it didn't budge. "I think the objects stuck," Karen whispered. "I'm so sorry," before I could respond I felt Karen grab the flesh surrounding the object. "I'm going to have to open the wound more to get this thing out," I braced myself for more pain about to coarse through my body. "One, two, three," Karen tore the wound further open and ripped the object from my chest. I screamed in agony, the blood loss caused me to pass out.