Gardens For Guardians

Chapter 8: Calm vs. Bruno

            A brown cloud of dust kicks up into the empty air. Then another, and then another. Calm keeps Yoku fastened to her back, securely gripping his blue arms with her hands. To her right she sprints beyond a big, painted sign that says: "Welcome to Crescent Village." She briefly closes her eyes and releases a subtle sigh of relief between rhythmic pants. "You see that?" she says to the boy hunched over her back. He doesn't respond. "Just hang in there, Yoku. We are almost there!" Calm says, feeling desperate to reassure him. The dirt road underfoot is marked up by the presence of them both. With every desperate step in her dash, the bottom of her shoe propels off a clump of dirt that forms into a haze in the wind. The spots where her feet touched down replace the displaced dirt with an imprint of her sole. Between the footprints are drops of green blood. It streams out, thick and gunky, from the boy's punctured neck and flows viscously along the sleeve of Calm's shirt. It drips and drips and drips and drips, but she doesn't notice.

          Warm sweat streams down her face from her forehead. Beads catch hold of strands of her hair and follow them down where they fall to the ground. Her face is taken over by a bright red hue. She has no free arm to wipe it away, and no time to rest under a tree in the cool ocean breeze. One of Yoku's arms slips up over her shoulder, her hand unable to keep it held. His body falls away slightly from her own. The sticky substance from his skin has made it hard to hold on for such a long period of time. She slows to a halt and readjusts Yoku by throwing back her hips and thrusting him once more on top of her shoulders. The she grabs his arm again and darts off. "Almost there. Hang on."

          "Help!! I have a serious emergency here!!" Calm screams out loud as she busts through the doors of a hospital. She tumbles weakly to the side of the room toward some empty chairs, her feet crossing over one another in a struggle to keep composure. A nurse hurries over as Calm drops Yoku onto one of the seats and Calm nearly faints onto one beside him. His head dangles to the side and his eyes remain shut, blood keeps trickling out and puddles up on the chair. The nurse jogs nearby and then stops in front of the two, she nonchalantly address them with nothing more than an "Oh." Calm breathes deeply, lifting her chest as she fills with air and exhaling to decompress. She looks up to the nurse and asks, "Will you help him?"

          "Ummm, well I don't-" she says then turns to look at the man working reception who gives her a shrug. Looking back at Calm and the wounded boy, she continues, "Is he going to be able to pay?"

          "Pay?" the thought never even crossed Calm's mind. Yoku coughs and wheezes a little bit. His eyes open once more, and he shakes his head slowly. "Okay, then I'll pay for him! Please, he needs help right away!" she begs with the nurse who looks down at the two with lips pursed. "I'm really really sorry, we can't allow that. A Human isn't allowed to pay for the services of an Other," she tells them. Calm glances over at Yoku in disbelief, who shakes his head even more weakly. Now she gets it. Yoku wasn't telling her he can't pay. He was signaling that it's pointless.

"So, what then? Is he supposed to just sit here and die‽ This is a freaking hospital!!"

          The woman bends her knees and squats down to face Calm more closely. She whispers to her, "Look, if he can't pay then you have to go. We can't have someone dying at our entrance." She even says it with a smile on her face, like it's some act of kindness she's doing for them.

          Calm slowly shifts her head down and runs her hands through her hair. She grips bundles of the purple strands and pulls at them. "SHAHHHHHHHH" she screams with tears storming down her cheeks. Her feet stomp wildly against the pristine floor which she stains with dust from her shoes and a torrential flurry of tears. When her legs come to a stop and the loud banging ends, she lifts her head up and cocks it sideways to face Yoku. She looks ugly, her red-hot cheeks stained with sweat are now drenched in her sadness. Mucus drips from her nose and she wipes it away with her arm. "I'm so sorry, Yoku. I couldn't save you. I wasn't there for you. I didn't do a damn thing!" He gazes back at her. Through the tears, sweat, snot, and heat she has a bright smile on her face. With just the very last bit of his remaining life, he tells her "Neither one of us did anything wrong, Calm. We didn't rot the world." She holds onto his hand, despite the sliminess, and chokes up, gasping for breath while nodding along with his words. She squeezes his hand tightly and he passes away.