Asleep *FINISHED!/COMPLETE*

*Chapter 24

Chapter 24

I don’t know how much time had passed since I last fully awoke, but I was mildly aware of the fact that I had been drifting in and out of consciousness for some time. Days, even. Bobbing in and out of the thick oily substance that held me prisoner.

At some point, though, more light started to seep through my mind. The light brought heat with it. I think.

Slowly, I started to resurface somewhat, and I could feel a slow burning warmth spreading across my skin. The warmth grew, causing my skin to grow hotter. The heat and light began to spread through my core, before finally slamming into my chest with a jarring force. Suddenly my eyes flew open and I gasped, sucking in a sharp breath. It felt as though some sort of electrical pulse had jump-started my heart, and I started to breathe raggedly as panic muddled my senses.

“Ellie, it’s ok,” someone said, but I was confused and fighting the ever growing panic, struggling to piece together where I was and what was happening to me.

I tried to sit up, but gentle hands pushed me back down.

“Lie still, child,” an older woman breathed in a thick accent I couldn’t quite place.

My eyes struggled to adjust as I took in the elderly woman standing over me. Her skin was dark and somewhat leathery, like it had seen a thousand sunrises and sunsets. As if she spent all of her waking hours outside.

Her hands were hovering over my body and her eyes were closed as she tried to concentrate on something, though I wasn’t sure what. It looked and felt as though she were searching for something… and I had the strangest feeling that whatever she was searching for, she hoped to find somewhere inside of me. I was still weak and somewhat dazed, which is what I’m choosing to believe is the only thing that kept me from jumping up and running out of there screaming.

All the while, as her hands slowly passed over me, I could feel the heat and light radiating from her palms, somehow seeming to magically soothe every sore and tired muscle within me. Including those I hadn’t even realized were aching.

A small whisper in the back of my mind told me I should be weary, scared even, but for whatever reason, those thoughts never took hold. Probably because with every passing second, I felt more alive, more awake. Whatever had been holding me under slowly started to dissipate as her hands continued to pass slowly over my body, down my legs, and then back up again before stopping over my chest.

“There is something here,” she murmured quietly, almost to herself, her eyes still closed with brows pinched in concentration.

“It’s… energy…” she paused as her hands hovered there. “Energy that is…. “ she paused again as if searching for the right descriptors, “pure in nature… white. But it’s… being attacked? By something?” Her eyes were closed tightly now and her face twisted somewhat as if she were in pain and the wrinkles on her forehead deepened.

“What do you mean ‘attacked’?” A familiar voice asked.

“Dad, what does she mean?” That same voice turned towards another man after a short beat when there was no reply.

“I don’t know son,” he replied softly.

“It’s as if there is… darkness threaded throughout, but with the smallest of strands. Something is trying to weave its way into her soul.”

The familiar voice swore under his breath before rising and pacing beside my bed.

Jase.

That was Jase.

I tried to sit up again as the memories of the last few days came flooding back. I’d escaped the orphanage. Met Jase. Found my brother. Was forgotten by said brother… and… passed out?

This time no hand pressed me down again.

As I sat up, my limbs felt looser and definitely less achey than they had in quite some time, but God, my head. It ached with a tension and tightness that felt not of this world.

The older woman still lingered over me and gave me a quizzical glance. “Are you still hurting, child?” She asked, eyebrows furrowed in concern or confusion, though I couldn’t tell which.

“It’s just my head…” I said, squeezing my eyes tight, the light making it worse.

My hands instinctively went to rub at the ache in the back of my neck. It felt as if all of the tension inside of me was stemming from my neck, likely due to the whole ‘being unconscious for days or hours’ thing. I wasn’t sure the exact time frame, but I had a feeling I had been out of it for more than what would be considered “normal,” as my life so far had been anything but.

“What is it, Elliana?” Jase rushed over to my side, using my full given name again which agitated something deep within me that I couldn’t quite understand.

“Don’t worry about it,” I snapped at him, far too aggressively, especially for someone who had done nothing but show me care and kindness up to this point.

The woman pushed her arm out against Jase, pressing the back of her hand against him as if stopping him from getting any closer, but her eyes never left me, my face, my neck.

“Lie down, girl,” she commanded, barely above a whisper.

“I’m fine, honestly, I just-“

“Shush,” she chastised. “Do as I say, child.”

“Ok…” I said, confused and mildly annoyed.

“Turn over.”

“Why?”

“Why must you question everything, pueri.” The last word was even more thickly accented and I didn’t recognize it, though the context was clear. “Do as I say.”

This time the command reverberated with steel and wisdom swarming in her eyes.

I opened my mouth to speak, feeling very uncomfortable and quite odd at flipping onto my side and then my stomach as she had ordered, but I didn’t wish to be on the receiving end of her gentle wrath any longer.

Once on my stomach, I could feel the now familiar heat again as her palms slid over me. They moved downward over my lower back, then back up again making their way to my head.

A gasp escaped her mouth suddenly, and although it was in a foreign language, somehow I knew the words were a curse under her breath.

“What is it??” Jase said, barely able to control whatever force inside that drove him, seeming itching to touch me, touch something.

“A crystal,” she breathed, barely above a whisper. “A dark crystal.”

I turned my head, craning my neck to be able to see her, only to regret it once I took in her face. The aged wisdom of a thousand suns that gave a unique beauty to her features were now darkened as her expression became weary and… fearful.