Triple Point

Chapter 84: Unspoken Secrets

Elsie

May 22, 34 AE

When loud screaming began echoing throughout the room, Elsie awoke without knowing what was going on, and before she realized she had been asleep in the first place. Still, she reacted instinctively, and when she jumped to her feet, the chair she had been sitting on clattered noisily to the floor behind her. Elsie didn't care though, and she hovered over Camilla worriedly, frantically wondering how she could help.

But Camilla looked the same as she had for the past week: unconscious, unmoving, and unresponsive. Compared to when she first arrived, her skin felt warmer and her breathing wasn't as ragged, but she still looked gaunt and frail. Elsie felt that if she squeezed her hand too hard, Camilla's bones would simply crumble into dust.

Even when the Exodos healers would stop by and assess her injuries, Elsie had to restrain herself from urging them to be gentle with Camilla, that her body might break under their ministrations. But no matter what they did, Camilla remained as still as stone, and the only thing that changed between the days were the bandages that were scattered across her pale skin, covering injuries that Elsie couldn't even fathom how they were received.

The screaming picked up again, and it wasn't until then that Elsie realized it was coming from another patient in the same room. As soon as she came to that realization, the sound of hurried footsteps rushed by just outside of the curtains surrounding Camilla's bed, and the activity caused the makeshift barrier to lift slightly with the wind. For a split second, Elsie could see one of the adjacent beds and its patient thrashing wildly around, screaming at a horror that no one else could see.

The curtain settled just as a group of metas arrived and tried to restrain the patient before they could hurt themselves or somebody else.

"Shit, not again," one of them muttered.

"We need AJ over here!" another exclaimed.

"I'll go look for her," a third replied, and their hurried footsteps rushed by Camilla's bed again as they dashed out of the room.

As the struggle against the patient continued, Elsie let out a shaky breath. It's not that she didn't feel sympathy for them, but she was just relieved that it hadn't been Camilla screaming like she had expected. Although, if Camilla remained unresponsive for much longer, any reaction would be preferred to nothing.

In the meantime though, Elsie was simply happy that Camilla's condition hadn't gotten worse like it had done during the first few days. Those times had been arguably just as bad as not knowing where Camilla was at all, since Camilla was right in front of her, but there was no guarantee that she would make it through the night. With at least that comfort in mind, Elsie righted her chair and seated herself back at Camilla's side, doing her best to ignore the screams as she did so.

Elsie was relatively used to the screaming by now, since Camilla shared a room with seven other Farallon captives and Elsie rarely left. Ever since Camilla had arrived, Elsie had stuck by her side like glue, refusing to let Camilla out of her sight again. She only left every few hours to go to the bathroom, but Elsie made sure to keep her trips no longer than a couple of minutes. Elsie knew she was being unreasonably clingy, but she couldn't help it. Not only did she not want to lose Camilla again, but she didn't want Camilla to be alone again either, especially when she woke up in an unfamiliar place.

It didn't take long for Elsie to tune out the ruckus next door in favor of focusing on Camilla and the way that her chest shakily moved up and down to show she was still breathing. At the same time, Elsie held one of Camilla's hands with both of her own, and she gently brushed a thumb along Camilla's knuckles to the beat of her breathing. She didn't know if the gesture was comforting, or if Camilla even knew Elsie was there, but Elsie didn't know what else she could do. She felt completely powerless.