Chapter 9

The darkness was slowly fading away as I wished it to. I felt my eyes slowly peel open, bright light blasting into my vision. "Oh Isla! You're awake!" The brunette nurse, Bertha, stated.

"What happened?" I ask, rubbing my eyes, but I felt a hard cloth around my left hand, I look at my palm, or, where my palm is supposed to be, but saw a cast covering it.

"You ran away, The King brought you back." I furrow my eyebrows.

"Why am I not dead?" I ask bluntly.

"We do not know for sure, you've been asleep for two days."

"Two?"

"Yes, there's a cart of gifts and cards from everyone, hoping you will recover. You are really loved here Isla." I smile and laugh.

"A cart?" I suddenly double over and cough, little drops of blood appearing on my hand. Probably remnants of the blood that is still in my lungs.

"Here." Bertha says softly, handing me a glass of water and a white cloth.

"Thank you." I tell her, taking a sip of the water and wiping my hands and face from the blood. I took another sip and laid back down, my head now pounding for some reason. I lay a hand on my forehead, trying to ease the throbbing, but that did nothing.

"So I've really been asleep for two days?" I ask her again.

"Yes, well technically two days and a half, it's an hour till dinner."

"Wow." I close my eyes and slowly sit up again, trying to ease the pain.

"Are you okay?" She asks, holding onto me.

"Yeah, I just have a horrible headache, I can't see clearly either."

"You might have an Ocular Migraine then."

"That makes sense." I whisper, pinching the bridge of my nose and trying to control my short breaths.

"Put this on your forehead." I hear. I was handed a cold compress, and I immediately place it on my forehead. "Thank you." I tell her, still doubled over from the pain.

"Lay back down and try to sleep again, that may be all you need to overcome whatever this is."

"Yes ma'am." I say sarcastically, saluting her while leaning back down. As I lay back down with the cool compress, the real hospital doors slam open, hitting the walls beside it with a loud bang. "ISLA." I hear individual young voices yell. I open one eye to see the siblings running at me with concern. "Are you okay?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Did you die?"

"Did you see a bright light?" The last two were obviously from the twins. I smile at them.

"I'm alright, I'm not dead, or did die." I tell them with a smile on my face, my eyes under the compress again. I suddenly feet a sharp wack on my arm, I look at Amalie's angry face. "What was that for?" I demand.

"For scaring the ever living daylights out of me!"

"Well I'm sooo sorry." I tell her, my eyes now covered again.

"You should be, why did you even run? You know you would have died!"

"Well I wasn't exactly thinking now was I?"

"Why did you even run!"

"I though I was going to be killed!"

"My brother cares for you enough he would never hurt you!"

"How was I supposed to know that!" I yell, sitting up again before Bertha pushed me back down from my left.

"Open your eyes! He's never been to dinner with the maidens before, he never talked to the maidens before, he's never really asked about the maidens before."

"Wow, I feel sooooo special." I drawl out.

"Bubba hasn't ever liked the girls before." Jacob tells me softly. I look down to see him staring down, his head resting on the foot of my bed.

I snort. "Like? He most likely wants to kick me out after what I did last night."

"He went after you, he was the one to find you and bring you back!" Laden tells me.

I furrow my eyebrows, closing my eyes, trying hard to remember. I see a unfocused huge shadow in front of my vision. I remember passing out and being picked up.

"So he did." I mutter.

"Why did you run away Isla?" Jacques asks me in a quiet voice. My heart immediately melts and I just had to answer honestly.

"I don't know Jacques. I knew what would happen, but I got....scared, thats the only word I could put a name to my emotions." I tell them, pulling the compress down, it covering my now throbbing eyes.

"But Valakia's never get scared." Jacques tells me.

"My ancestors also have never faced a curse that could kill them at any moment. We can't fight through this scenario."

"Well why not?" Laden asks. I make a face and look in his general direction. "I mean, you need to fight to break this wretched curse." I look back up at the ceiling, understanding his words.

"I don't know how. I can't think through this, I can't fight with my fists through this. I haven't been trained to do this."

"You can't be trained on everything. You have to learn from experience and figure stuff out on your own." Laden tells me.

"Who told you that?" I ask him, laughing.

"You did."

I stay silent, remembering when I told him that. I shouldn't have said such wise words to him. I smile at them, even though they couldn't see my eyes, they knew I was genuine.

"How do you suppose I am supposed to 'break' this curse?" I ask them. I could feel their excitement radiate off of them.

"First step, you are to have dinner together and alone, we will eat an hour before you will, so that you do not have to worry about us and you can bond." Laden tells me.

"We will have the staff push you two together as often as they can." Amalie says.

"Go to Bubba's secret garden!" The twins tell me simultaneously.

"He has a secret garden?" I ask them.

"We're not supposed to talk about it." at the word 'talk' Laden throws a look at the twins.

"Hey, it's not like I'm going to tell anyone what you kids tell me.

"Kids?" Amalie and Laden yell.

"Well yes, compared to me, you all are kids."

"That's because you're OLD!" The twins yell, giggling.

"Oh really?" I smile, ripping the compress off of my head, sitting up and getting out of bed to chase them. They scream and giggling, starting to run away.

As soon as my feet hit the ground, I collapse, holding the nearest thing to me as a support, which was the foot of the bed, I clutch my head, squeezing my eyes tight. "ISLA?!" I hear the siblings all yell, coming up to my side, helping me back on the bed. "I'm fine, just got really lightheaded for a second." I say, rubbing my forehead.

"What does lightheaded mean?" Jacob asks.

"Its where a whole bunch of blood rushes to your head and you get all fuzzy, in this case, the fuzziness was too much and my body decided to fall!" I tell him in a joking voice, subconsciously letting them know it wasn't a big deal.

"That sounds like fun!" They both say. I smile at them, admiring their innocence.

"I thought you didn't want to become old? You get fuzzy when you get older." I tell them with a smirk on my face.

"No!" They scream and run off, their arms flailing above their heads. Me, Laden and Amalie all start laughing our heads off, "Drama queens!" Amalie yells after them in a laughing tone.

==

The kids and I have been talking and having heart to hearts for about two hours when all of the sudden Bertha kicked them out, saying that I needed 'rest' I had been trying to sleep for hours it seemed like.

So clearly, me being me, when I could never rest, so I slowly got out of bed, trying no to make a sound to wake the night shift nurses up, and walk around the wing, exploring the dark and silent hallways while the sounds made me turn and look every time. I see a bright light coming through the curtains from all of the windows on my right side, the ones facing east, I peel back the gold curtains, thinking the sun was coming up, but it was only a glowing orb, so bright I had to squint my eyes. I orb became smaller the closer it floated towards me. I tilt my head curiously with scrunched brows. I see a shape inside the glowing yellow and orange bulb, it was small being, it was walking forwards slowly, as if the shape was controlling the orb. I back up as the orb touches the glass pane. The light was way to bright to handle. The shape inside put their hands up, then clenched their right fist, hitting the orb once, the glass pane seemed to shimmer, while the orb peacefully glided through it like the glass was water. I back up so much that my back was against the wall, I couldn't move anymore back, The orb stopped in front of me, and looked into my eyes. I squinted, trying to at least try and protect my pupils from the light invasion.

The shape inside banged its first again, and the orb swallowed itself into my skin. All the air in my lungs was thrusted out, a burning warmth entered my body, the light diminishing. I sucked in as much oxygen as I could and collapsed, putting a hand on where the orb entered my body. It was still hot to touch.

I looked behind me to see if the orb simply passed through my body, but no, there was no trace. I lightly place my head to the cold tile of the floor, trying to calm my breathing. "What just happened?" I mutter to myself, trying to make sense of the situation.

I squeeze my eyes shut as a wave of nausea passed through my body, my mind was thrusted into an unfamiliar scene, and the hallway was extremely light, as if it was day, but it had familiar boys running through the same hallway I was currently collapsed in. It was the twins, Xavier and Zander, running after each other, Xavier had something in his hands, and while Zander was chasing after his older brother he was screaming for him to give 'it' back.

"Boys." Came a calm but strong voice. I turn my head to look at the Queen at the end of the hallway. "Mother!" Zander whines. "Xavier, give your brother back his toy." The Queen reprimands.

"Yes mother." Xavier states, throwing his head down in shame, passing Zander his toy that he had took.

"Xavier, you are going to be King one day, maybe act it Little One." Act it? I think, He's like Five in this memory!

"And Zander, Man up or run to your father, I'm not the one to whine to if you can't fight your own battles." That was harsh.

"Yes mother." They both say, their heads hung low, their voices quiet.

The queen walks passed them with her head held high. 'They're her children! They're not supposed to be people she overlooks!' I think.

The memory was thrown out of my head and I came back to the dark same hallway. I slowly crawl, trying to get back on my feet, the nausea now diminishing. I rub my temples and start walking back to the hospital wing, taking a cool compress from a box that sealed to keep the cold in, it was a very smart invention to keep things cool.

I lay back in the bed, a now, cold compress pressed to my forehead.

Slowly, but surely, I slipped into the darkness of sleep.