Recovering (10)

My warm hand was placed against the boy's cold face. It was smoothing yet unnerving at the same time. He was alive with his weak pulse radiated from his face. I wasn't a goddess. I was asleep the entire time, not knowing what was going on. Why would he want me to be his sponsor? What did that even mean?

Before I could answer, Luke refused in my place, "my partner will not be your sponsor."

"Don't listen to him," I became annoyed.

"First, please explain what it means to become your sponsor," I smiled as I tried to get as much information as possible.

The boy showed a glimpse of his surprise as to why I wouldn't know what a sponsor was. This meant that this was another thing that only Rika didn't know again. A sponsor wouldn't be what I thought it would be, would it? It wouldn't be like supporting him through money like in my former life where the term was used?

"Do you want to go back to that room?" Luke warned me with a bright smile.

Was he serious? The boy returned my hand to me, noticing the tension between Luke and I. Luke was trying to hide everything to the very end. Up to my death, I would never know the truth until Luke would be forced to tell me. I clenched my hands into fists as I couldn't let myself be confined in that room again.

I nodded my head as I sent an apologetic look to the boy. The boy hid his disappointment like he understood the power dynamics in this room. He knew how powerless I was from that one question. It wasn't something I ever liked to reveal. I was stuck under Luke's control as long as this engagement continued. I never had the choice to act on my own.

I slumped into the sofa as Luke wouldn't let me continue exploring the room. It probably had to do something about my illness that he wasn't telling me about. I watched Shelly continuing to pour more bottles over the boy as he screamed from the pain. I winced as it felt more inhumane as time went on. The boy was never given a break to recover from pain.

"How long has this been going on?" I asked Cillian.

Cillian stood beside me while Alex and Luke went to check on the barrier. He held onto a thick medical book in one of his hands while remembering to check how I was doing every few minutes. He was probably told by Luke to watch for anything suspicious.

"Luke won't allow me to tell you," he apologized.

Before he could explain, Sienna grabbed both of our attention by shouting to Shelly, "call Luke and Alex."

I turned to the metal table to discover that the boy had lost his consciousness. But instead of appearing almost dead like before, his pulse was much stronger. He was gradually regaining his colour while Shelly smiled from his warm touch. I sighed in relief as it meant that at least one of us would survive through this.

"Is it true?" Luke rushed into the room.

Not even a minute had passed when Alex followed him inside the room. What about the barrier? Shelly excitedly nodded her head as Sienna passed her notes to Luke. She lifted up a bottle to give to Luke after he read Sienna's notes. But oddly, Luke walked towards my direction while opening the bottle.

Why did it seem he was about to use the bottle on me? I got up from the sofa and immediately hid behind it. My head throbbed from all those screams that came from the same bottle. Who knew how painful it would be this time?

"It's the last time," Shelly tried to comfort me from behind Luke.

For the first time, I couldn't get myself to trust Shelly. I could still remember the time when I was half-awake when her soft voice drifted into my ear, telling me only one more bottle. If all those bottles didn't work, it would be no guarantee that this one would work for me as well.

"Please?" Sienna cutely tilted her head from behind Shelly.

"Do this for us?" Her head popped out from Shelly's shoulder.

"Is it really the last one?" I was starting to give in from her pitiful eyes.

Both Sienna and Shelly frantically nodded their heads. I sighed as I decided to sit on the couch as Luke opened the bottle. I closed my eyes as I anticipated the pain I would encounter. But I coughed for my life, digging my hands into Luke's shirt from the pain. This was much worse than the other bottles. It was on a whole other level.

My body felt like it was taking turns in being torn apart and mushed back together. Luke's warm hands that held my back weren't helping as it meant I couldn't roll around the ground to help alleviate the pain. At this point, I was swearing to myself that I would never get injured again. I would never have to take this medicine again. I would always place myself first.

Black spots started appearing to make holes in my vision as my throat became hoarse from screaming my lungs out. Maybe it was better if I became unconscious like the boy. I let myself welcome the black spots that increased in size as I said my farewells to the world in front of me.