Gingerbread House

Chapter Thirteen: Exhaustion

Paperjam breathed heavily as his balance began unstable. He had been in the training field for a few hours, bouncing between reading the grimoires- he's pretty sure that Fresh had killed the owners of them just to gain more knowledge- to perfecting some spells that he already knew.

This sounds good, as he's reading upon magic history and practicing magic, but... He was over doing it. He hasn't been eating or sleeping much for nearly the past two weeks. He was trying to get stronger as fast as he could. He didn't want to spend too much time with the witch.

Fresh didn't like this. Maybe he should put some restrictions on the room? Yeah, that way the younger wouldn't tire themselves out too much.

Sighing some, he went into the room, just in time to see Jam fall to the ground.

"Jammy!" The older monster shouted, rushing over to them.

The ink skeleton blinked slowly, their head swimming. His vision was blurry and his breathing was hard. He didn't even realize that he was on the ground, till he noticed the blue sky.

Quickly, the blue was hidden away from him as a shadow fell around his eyes. Blinking some, he tried to clear his vision.

"M-Mr. Fresh?" He whispered, squinting at the pale skeleton. "Yo-You're here?" His voice sounded so weak and soft.

The parasite frowned deeply, carefully picking up the tiny monster and hurrying out of the room and down to the basement.

"Oh, sweetie... I should've forced you to eat something..." Fresh whispered, softly setting the exhausted monster down.

Paperjam shook his head some, but he was gone too fast. His breathing was a bit deeply, his body was starting to shake. Fresh didn't like this.

Frowning more, the parasite hurried to Jam's walk-in closet, hurrying to a more specific part of the closet. Quickly, he spoke his "magic words" and that section opened up into a small room full of glowing jars. Many, to almost all, were filled with souls. The ones that weren't filled with souls were filled with glowing liquid.

Swiftly, Fresh grabbed two jars, one holding a Green soul and the other holding soft blue liquid. Hurrying out of the room with the hidden door naturally closing behind him, he rushed to the child's side.

Jam had opened his eyes again, but they were faded and dulled. His head was hurting a lot too and he felt so weak and heavy. Had he over done it?

Fresh winced, sitting by the child's side. He then carefully opened both jars, making sure to take special care of the soul. He then slowly poured the blue liquid onto the soul.

The soul glowed brightly, magic quickly starting to drip off of it despite that, the soul's size never changing. Slowly, the liquid covered the soul completely, the color changing to a more soft green-blue color, the bright Green Soul still there.

The witch then looked to the child, who's eyes were almost closing. He didn't like this.

"Jammy, keep your eyes open. Please, just a little longer..." The parasite whispered, carefully stroking the young one's cheek.

The inky skeleton blinked some, leaning into the warmth. He then lazily looked up to the other, vaguely seeing the glowing, flaming eyes of his capture.

"You... Mad..." Paperjam whispered softly, his body twitching some at the thought.

Quickly, Fresh shook his head.

"No! No, I'm not mad at you. You just can't sleep yet... Not till I give you some medicine..." The pale monster kept his voice steady and firm. "Just one more minute." He kept rubbing the other's cheek.

Jam carefully nodded, blinking slowly. He felt so tired, he just wanted to catch up on his sleep. Yet, something was in the other's voice. It sounded like genuine fear.

"Ti... Tired..." The child's voice was starting to sound weaker and softer.

Fresh frowned, nodding softly. "You can rest after your medicine." He whispered softly.

Jam nodded again, closing his eyes. It felt better to have them close.

The witch quickly grabbed the jar before forcing his little one to drink it. The ink skeleton gagged and tried to push whatever was in his  mouth away.

The liquid was thick like blood and the when the soul finally slid down Paperjam's throat, it was like trying to swallow a gummy bear.

Fresh had to force his little one's head to be still and to continue drinking the potion, but he didn't care that he had to be rough. If he wasn't rough now, PJ might never wake up.

The ink skeleton kept his eyes close tight, trying his best to just swallow whatever was being poured into his mouth. It didn't taste bad, but it was just too thick for it to be comfortable.

Soon, it was all gone and Jam could feel his tiredness fade some along with some of the pain in his body. Begrudgingly, he opened his eyes to see the deep and worried look on the other. When their eyes met, a quiet smile appeared.

"Alright, you can go to sleep now." He whispered softly.

Fresh didn't have to tell PJ twice.