Just Like Magic

Chapter 25 Getting Back To Him

Randalyn's POV

I try to push through the trees, boulders, and bushes along my trek back. But my legs end up getting caught in some of the tightly woven branches of this thick bush. They're both gripped tight by something inside of it, but I glance down and can't see what. So I tug my legs forward, then up multiple times, getting one leg loose but not the other. I look down again to see thorns holding onto the cloth that's restraining my leg back.

I tug my leg again, and it slightly rips the jean but doesn't let me go. So I pull my leg again, but this time with the help of my whole body and my weight behind that pull, to give it the strength and momentum to help me get all the way out.

I hear the jeans tearing while my leg is automatically let go, I yelp out in shock as I accidentally drop the bottles since I tried to protect my face and glasses out of pure instinct in the fall.

My body hates that reaction, knowing what I went through to get those, so I instantly panic. "No! Not the bottles!" I yell out, swiping to try to catch them in the air but missing them completely since I'm not the best at catching. I fell to the ground from my body leaning out, then being instantly dropped by the bush. I grunt, hitting the ground without a moments notice, bouncing like a basketball for a small moment on the dirt.

I gasp, seeing the glass bottles ping, while bouncing between the tree and a boulder. Pinging all the way down until they bounce off of one another, then hitting the ground. That sound takes the air straight from my lungs, knowing that Cass needs this, and I am doing everything I can not to let him down by being me; the clumsy, little-mess-up, can't-get-anything-right, me.

The feeling of my heart beating so rapidly against my chest plate is making it feel as if it's going to pound right out of my chest at any moment. It's mostly a reaction due to the sight of those bottles falling and hitting the top of this little slope. But it's continuing on because they're now rolling away from me and putting my heart into overdrive for doing so.

I automatically jump onto my knees, quickly crawling across the ground. I reach out, trying to retrieve them but missing. So I start inching closer, then grasping both of the bottles into my hands, letting out a sigh of relief. I hold them to my chest, knowing they are now safe and luckily not broken.

I feel weak in moments like this. Mostly from letting my mind beat myself up about simple mistakes that anyone could've made. This is the treatment I'm used to receiving from my parents, so much so that I now automatically criticize myself with anything that's not correctly done the first time around. This treatment is engraved in my brain. I couldn't do anything right for my mom or dad and was harassed for it daily.

But I can't let those negative thoughts rule me and what I do anymore. The strength I have in my heart from being here in this strange place has somehow energized the rest of my body, so I'm going to soak that in and let the positivity of the new-found strength take over.

I feel almost unstoppable, even though I have almost been stopped too many times to count at this point.. It is undeniable how this place has done something to me with all the good and bad experiences so far.. But I can't seem to pinpoint what has made this change in me. Maybe it's not just the environment but the people in it... I don't know... All I know for certain is what I feel... and it's... strength.

Oddly enough, I feel stronger and weaker at the same time. But the weakness I have for this place and the people in it is what motivates me to keep moving forward. To take that next step no matter how much every muscle in my body aches. It's what I wanted or have always needed in my life... So maybe I'm looking at this all wrong. Maybe it's not weakness but a different look on strength.

I feel like I have been brought back to life being in this place. It isn't just the scare of almost losing my life multiple times. It's also because of the push inside of me to just keep going and never give up. It won't stop from deep within my heart, sinking further, making it so it will never leave my body or mind. Giving me something to fight for, no matter how exhausted I am.

It's baffling because I always felt like giving up when I was back in my world, with nothing to live for or even want to fight for. But when I am here, all I want to do is fight for me.. the next steps in this life and... for him. I can't explain it any better than that. It's confusing, I know, because just thinking this to myself sounds stupid.. but I know what I feel in my heart no matter how insane it might seem from the outside looking in.

So, with each step I incessantly take, digging into the dirt and pushing me forward. I use it to run as fast as I can. Even though I am tripping over vines like the clumsey woman I have always been, I still feel different, stronger. My foot catches on another vine as if they are trying to stop me. I grip the bottles tight into my hands, trying to protect them before I end up breaking them.

I fall straight to my face, hearing a high-pitched crack. I bite the inside of my cheek knowing exactly what that is, and it's the last thing I wanted nor needed to happen. I pull my face up from the ground as I look down. I reach around before feeling my glasses on the ground. I slip them back on my face just to see a huge crack in the glass.. great.. it's not like I have my spare pair here in this world. I roll my eyes and groan out as I just try not to break them more. I sit up to my knees and clean them off with my shirt. Before checking out the bottles as well and luckily, those haven't broken in all the falls I have been a part of so far.

So, with every fall that I seem to endure, the strength to push myself back up to keep going is now stronger than ever.. even with the pessimistic thoughts in my head trying to keep me on the ground.. I won't let those thoughts win by weighing me down. I can do this... For once in my life, I believe in myself, and so did Cassius, the first person to do that ever... and he needs me right now so I know I have to do this. This ends up being the most I have ever been depended on in my entire life, and I can't let him down.

I slowly stand up, mostly using the trees to keep me right side up and before I start up moving again, hopping over branches along the way. Somehow, I kept myself up and going with just the straight motivation to get away as far from the Fae and all the other dark beings around me as possible.

Of course, I have the straining thought in my mind to get right back to Cass as quickly as possible as well, I need to make sure he will be ok. but the first step is that I have to stay alive to be able to do that. So being paranoid from all the random attacks I have endured, I find myself automatically looking over my shoulder, expecting to see the fae again because I feel as if I'm being watched, but luckily for me, there is only darkness. Mostly, so I don't have to see what is really out there.

The darkness that endlessly surrounds me doesn't exactly ease my mind because I know all too well what could be out there lurking... and terrifyingly enough, I keep finding out more that's out there, without wanting to know about them. These things are stuff I have only read about, which is so much worse in person than it was in my imagination. It is scarier than I have ever invisioned on my worst day.. It has been keeping me on my toes and with my head on a swivel to try to survive this place. I'm just relieved not to see that Fae coming after me because I don't think I could have handled much more of that.

I'm just going to continue being grateful for the plain fact that I didn't have to fight anything back there, especially with no energy in my system to use and no weapons to help if I had to try.. Even though it probably wouldn't have had any effect on her with her magic. Either way, I am happy to be able to just leave that area in one piece.

But what is eating at me internally, making me look back every chance that I can get, is the nagging thought in the back of my head that there might be more to deal with after this, well when it comes to her at least. I would hope not to have to worry about anything else involving her. I don't think I could've handled more than that anyway, so I'm trying to be grateful, but I'm still terrified.

I'm hoping she won't know that I gave her my nickname and not my actual full name. I have read that in books before, and it saved the people involved, so I just hope it does the same thing for me. But this world is way more than anything I have seen and read before. So there is no way to know if this will work or not.

My pace automatically starts to pick up when I come to more of a flat area, changing from a fast walk to a jog, then a run just wanting to get out of this area and back to where I came from as quickly as I can without hurting myself more. I keep running until I see the big pile of huge spider corpses. I find my gaze is glued to them, just worried that the sound I had heard before was one of them moving and not completely dead.

I freeze while holding my breath to make sure I don't hear anything again. It's silent besides the leaves that wave around above me in the trees. I keep staring, not seeing a single movement, so I look away and observe everything around me. I wander into the space that I think I originally came from just to look all around for the sticks I left to help lead me back to him.

I keep looking around as I think I finally see one broken twig. I jog over to it and bend down to get a better look.. with footprints right beside it, I quickly confirm that it's the one I broke, so I look past it to see another one, then another. So I quickly stand to start jogging again. I stay right by the sticks as I hold the bottles tight in my grip. I keep jogging for what seems so much longer than the initial trip over to this point. I keep going until I get right back to the big bush.

I clear the sticks that I had put there to cover him up from prying eyes as I see he is still laying there but looking pale. I look around but I don't know where to take him. We are slightly hidden here, so I guess I don't have any other choice but to stay right here and hope it's enough to keep us safe for the moment.

I look down at the bottles in my hand, choosing the purple liquid first in hopes it really will help him. I set the water down to the side as I popped out the little cork. I look down at his lifeless body. This sight surprisingly scares me more than when I saw my father dying on the floor. Maybe it's because I actually care for Cassius when I lost any type of love for my father, so many years ago that I can't even remember when.

I take his face gently into my hands while turning his face up. His mouth is still slightly open. So I take advantage of that as I pour the purple liquid in between his open lips. I notice it drain into his mouth and wait for a moment to watch for any instant reactions.

I hold my breath in anticipation, but nothing happens, which I guess is good.. Because if it was bad for him, I bet it would have had an instant reaction. I feel my head automatically nodding as I lean in, gently laying my head on his just internally begging for something to happen. I was hoping it would be an instant fix for him since this plant supposedly has magical properties and is able to heal.. but maybe this stuff takes time.

I need to try to be strong for him no matter how sad this sight is.. It's not the end for him, and hopefully, this is the turning point for him to get better. So I need to stay positive and strong for him since he can't do it for himself at the moment.

I nod to myself, taking the bottle of water given to me and pouring some of the water over his head to clean off all the blood and figure out what wounds he has. I grab the little bit of cloth I set up on the side to clean his whole face up, since I can't tell how many wounds he really had on his head. Most of the cuts are small, so they are easily cleaned up, but the biggest issue and the most worrysome looking one is the one I think he aquired against the boulder to stop us from rolling.

There is some dirt and sticks in his wound, but that issue is easily solved as I pick every last piece out that I can see. I do it meticulously to not disturb or hurt him worse than he already is. I look over the open wound again, not seeing anything else, so I put the cloth over it as I wrap the rest of his head up to hold the cloth there.

I can see there is some water left, so I decide to just pour the rest of the water into his mouth as well, making sure he does not spit it out. I sit there staring down at him, just hoping for an inkling that he is ok.. But nothing happens as I sit there and wait, not knowing what else to do.

The cold of this sunless place is getting to me from just sitting here and not moving around as much as before. I stand up and wander around, gathering some branches, and they feel dry, so hopefully, it will be enough to set on fire. I pile them up and start this long process again, trying to use the rocks I found on the ground to create a spark and hopefully fire. I keep trying to rub them together quickly. Making some sparks, but they disappear just as quickly as they were created. So sadly enough, it's not enough to make a fire. I try to consider all the other options that have.. But it's not much, since I don't have the taser or my knife anymore, so I can't use those.

I keep looking around until I see Cassius' wand still in his hand. I crawl over to him and slowly pull it out of his hands, and maybe I can use it like he did to make a fire. I hold the wand gently in my hands as I trace my fingertips over it, just feeling every last little line and bump that has been engraved into this wand. I don't know how wands work, but I know from some movies that people have used each others wands, and they still worked.. but the issue is that I don't know how to use one, and I definitely don't know any spells.

I stare at it in my hands until I start to see Cassius moving.. Maybe shaking is the better word for it. I scoot closer until I'm right beside him. Maybe this is the plant working.. I inch closer as he starts to shake even more. I reach over, gently pushing the hair out of his face and noticing he is sweating. He is still pale and now profusely sweating, which might mean he has a fever. I lightly touch my inner forearm to his forehead, feeling the heat onto my arm. I pull him over to me as he shivers, looking as if he is freezing. Maybe this is the cold sweats.

I reach into my bag and don't find much for thick clothing. So I take my jacket off and drape it over him. I keep pulling him onto me, trying to use my body heat to heat him up. It hurts my ribs to do all of this, especially the pressure added to them from his weight, but I would do anything to make sure he is ok.. So I'll just deal with it because he is hurting probably more than I am for trying to save me, so I feel it's the least I can do.

He keeps shivering as he lightly says, "Randy..." I shush him lightly as I rock us slowly to not just sooth him but myself as well. "Shhh.. I'm here, Cass.. I'm here.. Don't worry... I'm here.. you're ok." I try to coo him with my lulling voice, but I can't tell if it's working or not. I keep rocking him in my arms with his head now on my chest, and my jacket draped only slightly over his torso. I keep having to adjust it for him, but he is so much bigger than me that it's only working slightly.

His head turns to the side with his nose on my chest as he finally calms down. He is still shaking, but he looks as if he is snuggling into me, and hopefully, my body heat is enough for him right now. I rub my hand over his back as I keep watch and hopefully give him the time that he needs to heal.