The deathly regents

Chapter Six

The boyhood friends

Hope

Bouts of hysteria and nightmares had happened every day and night, but with time they'd become a less frequent thing. The days I'd spent in the healer's abode I'd been under drugs and had not always distinguished dreams from the real life. Lewis's parents had visited me four times, and all those times I hadn't been capable of saying anything intelligible because of sobs or meds. Jacob and Laura loved me as their own daughter. My mother-in-law had retired two circles ago and had now a lot of free time, so she'd offered to live with me for a while after the discharge from the abode until I could get used to living alone. A saint woman.

When I woke up, my head was splitting. The nurses were watching the television in the hall. The baritone of Jeremy Cloud–the governor of Ranita–broke the silence. Still half-sleeping, I heard him talk about the terrorist attack and the funerals of those who'd died.

... The funerals of four hundred people who had been killed during the university invasion were held today. I offer my most sincere condolences to the families of the victims. No one can imagine the horrors that they endured. This is the loss that leaves an enormous hall in our chests forever.

But we need to be strong at this difficult time. The Protectors have already established the identity of the attackers and started the investigation in the case of organizing a criminal group and committing a terrorist attack. The one of the shooters who survived will be interrogated soon. He will be punished as he deserves, I can promise it...

Apart from the hissing speakers of the TV and annoying sound of rain drops against the glass of the ward windows there was something else. Light sniffles. I'd say female ones, but not Laura's. She should be with Jacob at Lewis's wake now. The nurses never slept in the rooms with patients.

"Is anyone here?"

My question woke up the sleeping woman.

"Hope," I heard her call my name and turned my head toward the familiar low voice.

"Ralody?"

"Yes, sweetheart," she stood up from a chair or something like that with a creak, "Hope, thank Ranita." She embraced me, what hurt me a bit, but I didn't care. Ralody was alive. I sobbed and hugged her back. The slight luscious sillage remained on her skin. Something was wrong, but I didn't know what exactly. She felt differently. She'd lost some weight and was now spindly, yes. But... her breast. I didn't feel a touch of it like before.

"Ralody," I gasped, "Lewis...". I couldn't say that.

"I know, sweetheart, I know." A hot drop sneaked under the synthetic rob and immediately turned cold, running down my back. That was what tears felt like. I'd already forgotten it since I'd lost the privilege to cry.

"I..." I gasped again into her bony shoulder, "I couldn't even bury him, Ralody. I'm stuck here for ages. They didn't allow me to leave the abode." My abdomen was on fire from the sobs of sorrow.

"Shh, my girl," her hand was patting my head, "I know, it hurts so much."

"I won't handle it. I can't. I don't know how to live without him."

"I'll be with you, Hope," she whispered into my ear, losing another drop. "I don't think Lewis's ever mentioned me, but we were really close once. I miss him too, sweetheart."

The back of my rob had soaked up liters of Ralody's tears before we two threw our grief out.

When our pulse stabilized, I pulled back a little, suppressing the pain, and groped her wet face with prominent cheekbones and wide jawline. I cupped it on both sides and brushed my thumbs back and forth. She smiled mildly, and it broke my heart. I'd been so absorbed by my woe that I forgot the last time she'd talked to me was the moment when the followers of the Reunification cult had taken her behind the plastic door of the assembly hall in the university.