VENEFICA

[09] The Elves

Volk ordered half of the infirmary to be converted into an operating theater. All objects except for Lily's recovery bed and a small folding table were moved out to make room for the ever-growing number of bedside nurses and onlooking professors ready to step in at a moment's notice. The extra beds, side tables, and carts were stacked in a makeshift heap in the right-wing. The curtains were closed and the doors to the main infirmary were locked. A substitute emergency nurse's station was being set up in the hallway outside, in case any student needed medical assistance. 

Two men, looking like they were somewhere in their late 30s, hovered their hands over Lily. The shorter of the two nodded to the taller. The pointed tips of their elven ears started to wiggle the more they stood by her side. It was a nightmare haunting the girl into a never-ending sleep. This wasn't the first time the duo exorcized a nightmare before. It was a detailed process that could only be completed by elven kind—their unique biological ability to induce a trance-like state at will made them perfectly adept at entering other people's minds—and only if the patient was willing to face the threat head-on. Most of the time, those infected become forever trapped in their own thoughts, too scared to wake up. Millenia ago their services were booming with inquiries as nightmare-creatures ran rampant through the hills and meadows of the Earth. The actual creatures seemed to have died slowly over the years, or so many had thought. It had been at least a century since the last report of a living nightmare.

The taller elf pressed his palm to Lily's forehead, his silver irises clouding over as his body stiffened. The tips of his ears twitched—a telltale sign of deep trancework. His consciousness slipped into the void of Lily's mind, navigating the darkness where her trapped thoughts drifted like echoes in a cave. It wasn't until he heard Lily's whimpered thoughts in the distance that he realized the peculiarity of her situation. "Dear, you must go back in there and conquer it. It's the only way you'll be free from this." He said. His voice rang throughout his ears.

Lily froze. But, I don't want to go back! Her emotions amplified as the foreign thoughts infiltrated her space.

"Listen to me, Lily, right? There're people who are waiting for you to come out of this. You gotta go back in there and stand up to it. Once you do you'll be back to normal."

"Who are you? Go away!" Lily pushed the voice farther out into the darkness, hoping the void would make it leave. "I'll never be normal. Not anymore," she refused.

The man awoke back in his physical self beside Lily's bed. "She ain't budging." He scratched his chin and shook his head. "You, boy, you're the brother, ey? Over here." He waved his hand to Thomas who was standing on the sideline biting his nails. "She ain't listening to me. Reasonable. She don't know me. Now, she might listen to you." He led Thomas to a spot near the top of Lily's bed. "I reckon you never done a mind-dive before?"

"Good." The elf clapped a firm hand on his shoulder and shoved him forward. "No time to hesitate. Go."

Darkness.

Thomas' body shuddered as his mind plunged into Lily's subconscious. The void stretched endlessly, but he could feel her presence—a fragile wisp curled in the black.

"I'm better off here, where I can't ruin it," she murmured, her voice fragile, breaking at the edges.

"You don't ruin everything, Lily." Thomas' voice rippled through the darkness, his words cracking the silence like lightning.

Lily clenched her fists, her whole being resisting. I can't. I won't.

"I ruin things too," he continued. "But I refuse to let my past define me. And you need to do the same."