And There Was Another✔️

Chapter 14: Leaving Taris

Seth thought the darkness would be total, would be an escape from the pain.

But then he opened his eyes again and found himself lying on a table, immobile, and it was not the table Nova had set him down on.

There was a light on, to his right, angled down at him, and everything around him was thrown into deep shadow.

He had been here before...

It was a place of terror. A place of cold living fear.

A place of pain.

A face swam into view overhead. A man's pale, gaunt face, with eyes of scarlet. He reached out and Seth flinched, but the man paid him no heed. Instead, he tested the restraints that currently held Seth's wrists and ankles against the table.

He wanted to speak, to beg, or demand to be let go, or say anything.

But his words died in his throat.

The man with the gaunt face disappeared and Seth heard nothing. The man moved without a sound. He swallowed, testing the restraints. He had to get out of here, somehow, someway. His parents had to be looking for him...

The man returned. He had a small blade of some kind in his grasp now. He raised it, mouth closed in a gentle frown of concentration.

He began to lower the blade toward Seth's stomach...

Seth started to scream, words tumbling out of his mouth and he began to thrash about, trying desperately to escape, begging the man to stop, promising anything.

Blade met flesh.

* * *

Somehow, when Seth snapped awake, thrust violently back into the land of the conscious, he managed not to scream at the top of his lungs.

Probably what helped was the fact that his whole body hurt, and he was groggy and disoriented. And he recognized where he was. Seri's medical shack. And as he settled down, he heard something nearby: breathing. The soft, steady, quiet respiration of a sleeping person. Seth looked around and saw Nova lying on a mattress on the floor beside him. He frowned, staring at her prone, sleeping form. Why was she here? Surely she had better things to do, or at the very least a better place to sleep. As he was thinking this, she took in a deep breath suddenly and opened her eyes. She rolled over and locked her beautiful blue eyes with his.

"You're awake," she said.

He nodded, uncomfortable, the blind terror of his nightmares still clinging to him. "Um...how long have I been out?" he asked quietly.

Nova sat up and stretched, then got to her feet. "It's the next morning from last night," she replied. "I'm not sure how long it's been since I fell asleep, but Seri and I worked on you for several hours after I got you back...how much do you remember?"

"Enough," Seth replied.

She frowned, then suddenly moved across the room, rummaged around for a moment, then came back and pressed a canteen into his hand.

"You're dehydrated," she said.

"Thanks," he replied, and drained the whole thing. Coughing, he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and set the canteen down. "Where are we at with the ship?"

"It's basically ready," Nova replied. "Yex came back not long after we got you back when he hadn't heard anything from us for what he considered too long, given that I couldn't go."

"I'm sorry you had to come get me...did anything happen while we were gone?"

"No, we got lucky. Everyone's still okay. But Yex took the part and left immediately. He told me that the ship should be at least flyable today. Yesterday, people started asking questions, and I finally shared the plan with the whole group. Everyone is in line with this plan. In fact, they've all been preparing, packing their stuff. They're excited."