Oriehn

Chapter 29- Alice

Chapter 29- Alice

I could tell that pale moonlight filtered in slowly to the room, illuminating the dust floating in the air. I fluttered my eyes, unable to open them, or roll over. Fading in like music, soft voices and the quiet, yet consistent beep of a heart monitor.

"Sin, we shouldn't be here. What if the wardens find out we are not in our cells? They will—" A feminine voice pleaded.

"They will what?" A baritone washed over me, familiar in it's undulations. "Beat us bloody? Threaten to harm our kin? Kill those who have already lost their immortality?"

I tried to move my fingers, to somehow signal that I could hear them, and that I could understand. Nothing. My body would not do as I willed it, and I was left to depend on my ears to understand what was going on in the room.

The silence stretched thin, and I found myself drifting back into unconsciousness. It came snapping back, still not enough for me to move, when the man continued, softer, as if defeated. "They already have. They can do no worse. You and I both know that death would be a relief to anyone trapped within this cement cage."

"Sin, then why are we even still here? We have been able to come and go as we please for months now, without a trace left for the wardens. Why do we not just leave, escape with as many survivors as possible?"

"You know why, Drai; you are welcome to leave. But I?" Fingers brushed softly over my forehead, trailing down to my lips. "I must stay."

"With her," She sighed. "You said yourself that she is a traitor to the blood."

His breath washed over me, warm and soft. "She tried to save us, Drai. You were there," The warmth left me, as I assumed he distanced himself from me. "She was only misguided earlier. Despite everything, all of the evidence, I do not think that she ever truly believed she was Oriehn."

"What is to say that has changed? We could wait her for three more months, checking on her nightly, until she wakes up and alerts the wardens of our escape."

"She laid down her life like an Oriehn. Before I left her, bleeding to her death in an abandoned hallway." He grit it out, as if the sentence left a bitter taste in his mouth. "She took the bullet that was meant for me. I will not desert her as I did then, Drai. It is wrong to even think of it."

"Our people are dwindling away!" Emotion swallowed her words as the trailed off towards the end. "The longer we allow them to stay unnecessarily, the more likely they will become mortal, become—"

"Human?" He interjected once more. "Like me?" Footsteps echoed past me, "Like you, now, Padraigin?"

"I am not human!" her voice cracked. "I will never be like those monsters."

"Nevertheless, we will die, just like them."

I tried to open my eyes, to see his expression, to comfort Drai, anything that would not involve me lying on a cot like a corpse and listening to a conversation I could not add to, like a ghost.

I managed a groan, low and mewling, turning my shoulder and tangling the cords of presumably glucose supplements.

"Alice?" Drai called, and I sensed a weight on the bed, a hand on my side. "I think that she is waking up, Sin."

"Then we need to leave."

"Leave? Were you not the one pining to be at her side when she woke? To assure her of how you fe—"

"Yes, Drai, yes I was," He rushed out hurriedly. "I still am. I wish I could, I mean. But if she wakes, the machines that she is attached to will alert the doctors and wardens on patrol in the corridor."

"Then we need to leave," She agreed, squeezing my hand one last time. "Do you think she can hear us?"

"I don't know," he paused, "But if she can, she knows where to find us— in the cells— when she wakes."

"And she knows that the lives of our people depend on her actions once more," I heard the shifting of a grate, the silky shifting of clothing on metal, and then silence. It seemed to be the only thing that I had an abundance of, these days.

Steadily, I strained my eyelids, open and closed, open and closed, until the white clad infirmary came into view, and I sat up in the cot, blankets pooling around my waist as the heart monitor let out a series of alarms.

I arched my back, staring at the ceiling. A vent, hidden slightly in the corner, opened up into my room, and for a split second, I had thought that I saw a shadow within its depths, I leaned in to stare into it, and discern any figure inside, but my gaze was broken when the door to my room swung open, blocking my view.

Dr. Prose stood in the frame, healing bruises surrounding his neck, and a look of relief painted onto his face. "She is alive!" he shouted back into the corridor, garnering the attention of whoever was standing in the hall. He crossed over, patting my hand, untangling the glucose drip. "Miss Proctor, you gave us quite a scare."

"H-how to did you find me?" I licked my cracking lips.

"I didn't. A warden did, searching for the escaped Oriehn vermin." He leaned against the wall across from me, waiting for the other doctors to arrive. "Unconscious, head cracked along the temple and a gunshot wound to your chest."

"D-did I," I hesitated, eyes wide. "Did I die?"

"We had to revive you twice while you went under the knife," he furrowed his brow in concern. "And once, while you were in a medically induced coma."

I fell back against the pillows, exhaling heavily. "That is...extensive."

"Indeed." He chuckled softly. "I will allow the doctors to examine you, and then more rest for you," He paused. "You can never be too careful, you know."

I nodded gratefully. "Thank you."

He nodded back at me, then exited the infirmary, and the surgical team came in, checking my vitals and the row of neat stitches crossing just under my collarbone, crossing over my mark.

I traced them softly, after they had all left, and the lights had been turned off. I was surprised to find myself saddened by the fact that it was marred by what would heal to be a gnarled scar. As I leaned back to let my consciousness drift once more, Drai's final words ricocheting in my ears like a bullet.

Once again, the fate of the last of the Oriehns was to be carried on my shoulders.