Plague of divinity

Chapter 14

Enrick looked pretty rough the next day. His hair was even messier than usual and the bags under his eyes had grown even darker, his eyes themselves slightly pink from last night's weeping session.

He groaned when he got out of bed, he'd had another horrid dream.

He had been stuck to a bed, unable to move despite his best efforts. Flies swarmed the room, some landing and crawling upon his body as a dark figure stood over him. Watching him struggle and writhe in agony. Enrick shivered thinking back on it, taking a moment to appreciate the feeling of not being covered in insects. He had to get to work today, there was no time to waste. Before getting to work on the papers he went to check on Mags. She had been talking to Louisa when he came in. She seemed busy but he was glad she appeared to be ok for now, so he left after giving her a nod of greeting. He then went to go and check on his mother.

He found her cooking in the kitchen, occasionally turning away and covering her mouth to cough. He walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her tenderly to accommodate her more frail state, much to her surprise. "Oh! Enrick is that you? You startled me for a moment then," She turned around and smiled at him warmly with a small laugh. His arms stayed around her as he buried his face in her shoulder. She reached up and began to stroke his hair gently.

"What's this about then?"

"Hm? Oh nothing, I just wanted to let you know I love you."

She continued to stroke his hair as he held her, he could feel her smiling against him.

"Is that all you wanted to say?"

Enrick paused for a moment before speaking again.

"Hey um... I'm... sorry about everything by the way... I know how hard everything's been on you, especially in these past months and I just want to say how amazing I think you are for handling it the way you have."

His mother seemed a little surprised at this sudden confession and paused for a bit before speaking once more.

"Oh... thank you?... I have to say, it must have been quite the shock to come back to though,"

"But you were here as it happened, I just came back to the aftermath."

She lifted his head off her shoulder and held his face in her hands, lifting his face to meet her tired eyes, he looked back into them. The same eyes that had comforted him throughout the years, telling him everything was going to be ok. She had been through so much it pained him to think about and yet, she still managed to look after them both.

"Enrick, pain is pain. Losing people we love hurts. It makes no difference how we receive the news, it'll still hurt."

She brought his face closer and kissed his forehead.

"I'm proud of you. You and Mags. You both are very sure of your goals and are willing to work hard to achieve them, and I know you will. I'll be fine as long as the both of you are,"

He felt his heart grow heavy at her words. A few months ago she might have referred to all three of her children equally, but now as there are only two of them it was as if the third had never existed. It hurt knowing his brother would never be able to return to the equation. He still felt bad, he had missed so much since being gone and the others had had to suffer through it as it was happening in the moment. The sound of his mother's words validating his pain made his heart ache, she had watched his brother suffer greatly before he passed away but even though she had it bad she still cared about how her other children felt instead, even if one of them hadn't been there to witness it. He didn't want to lose her. He loved her so much it hurt to even think about it.

"I love you too Enrick."

She gave him a smile before gently letting him go to continue her cooking. Enrick lifted his arms off her and stared at her softly for a moment before leaving the room. Being around her filled him with warmth and felt refreshing but it also reminded him why he was doing this in the first place, the kind of person he was fighting for, and wouldn't stop fighting for no matter what.

Enrick went to his room to gather the papers before heading out. The weather had cleared up it seemed. He would be working hard to get through the papers, but he had a feeling it might help him come up with ideas if he sat somewhere more open than his study.

He didn't take him long, venturing into the forest before finding a nice log to sit on. He got comfortable before taking out the papers and beginning to read through them, spare paper and writing tool in hand in case any thing struck him when reading.

It was calming hearing the trees gently swaying around him, there was something about the gentle whistling of birds and chirping of insects that relaxed him. In his opinion, outside was the best place to do work, close enough to hear people and know you didn't need to worry about having to walk far when you finished but being out of sight to anyone walking nearby. It was nice and gave him a strange sense of freedom without worrying about being seen by anyone. His eyes scanned the sheets. Although it was serious work, he enjoyed the subject. He used to despise gore but when he got over it, he was able to appreciate the methods they used. He guessed it also assisted the whole reason he was a doctor in the first place. To help people.

He began to hum a little tune, his leg swaying as he jotted down anything important. There were a few things in the notes he wasn't quite sure of and so accompanied some of the things he wrote down to look into, for example some mentions of a specific room they used for experimenting on participants? Before the plague, the doctors would usually just go around to visit anyone who might have needed their attention, so it was interesting to Enrick they would have such a room. If he could find it, it could prove to be very useful for him. Enrick tapped his pencil to his chin, yes. This could certainly be useful, maybe they had some nearly finished cure in this room he could complete? It would save a lot of time after all.

As he continued to work on reading through these papers he neglected to keep an eye on his surroundings. Because of this he stayed oblivious to the person approaching. His gaze focused hard on the paper, was only broken when the man sat beside him let out a small chuckle.

Enrick nearly jumped out of his skin at this noise, dropping a couple of the papers he had been studying. His head turned quickly to the direction of the voice. He felt dread run through him as he recognised both the chuckle and the face of the man sitting next to him.

Aldrion.