BAM - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Through her eyes, I saw my body go limp and a pool of blood formed underneath my face.

“Brianna!” Ayra shrieked.

She tried to hurry forwards, toward my body to help me, but the leader grabbed her and, though carefully, dragged her with him.

Jason walked over to my body. There, he lifted me from the ground and carried me in his arms, leaving a bloody trail because of the blood that dripped from my hair.

The other hurt ones were lifted and carried or held upright.

Moira was grabbed as well, but she didn’t let the Guardian drag her with him.

“I’m sorry, but could you please let go of my arm?” she asked him. “First of all because you’re hurting me and second, you’ve got both my friends, one of whom was protecting us. So, it’s just plain reckless to try to escape and I’m not so stupid as to try, because I know you’ll catch me. And on top of that, I won’t leave my friends. So, please, let go of me.”

He let go of her and she walked calmly beside him, not even glancing around for an escape.

We were taken to a private airport and there, we boarded one of the Academy’s private jets.

I knew that in this hurt state I shouldn’t leave my body without spirit because then the healing would take much longer. So I returned to my body, with difficulty though.

When I finally got into my body, I was overwhelmed by the excruciating pain. My eyes flew open and I screamed in agony.

Everybody around me jumped in surprise and looked my way, but I barely noticed it. For a second, I saw that outside the plane, everything was black. I must have been searching for my body for a couple of hours. But then I was hit by another wave of pain and I couldn’t focus on anything but the pain.

My hands automatically went to my head, but they were being blocked. The Guardians had chained me to a chair with handcuffs. I broke free of them, and while bringing my hands to the back of my head, I dropped of the chair and doubled over on the ground.

All the while I was screaming from the pain.

But I still had my connection to Ayra and Moira, and though that, although it was like I was inside a bubble, I heard Ayra argue with some Guardian. Well, she wasn’t really arguing. She was yelling in despair.

“Please! You’ve got to let me help her! I can help her! I have the ability to heal! Please, let me help her! She saved us over and over again! She killed every Paha we came across! She took care of us for five years! Let me help her!”

“No. We’re nearly at the Academy. The doctors there will take care of her.”

“How can you be so cruel? She never did anything to hurt us! She protected us! I owe her my life, several times already! I must repay her! Please! If she would be a member of your family, you’d want her to be helped as soon as possible, right? She’s almost the only person I have left in this world! Let me help her!”

It was then that another wave hit me. I couldn’t focus for a minute or two.

But then, when I could focus again, Ayra was sitting in front of me. Apparently, they’d come to an agreement.

Softly, she placed her hand on my shoulder. To keep myself from hurting her by shrieking even more, I quieted and gritted my teeth together to keep from starting to scream again.

“Bri, you’re going to have to take your hands away so that I can look at your head, please.”

I did what she asked and when I saw my hands, I saw that they were soaked in blood. I didn’t really understand where it came from at first, but after a few seconds something clicked in my mind. It was my own blood. I had reopened the wound on my head.

Meanwhile, Ayra placed her fingers on my head, as softly and carefully as possible.

But no matter how carefully she touched me, it still hurt. So, I flinched away from her hands.

“I’m so sorry!” Ayra said.

Then she touched my head again, and even though it hurt, I stayed put.

“It’s a very big wound. There are two large cracks crossing each other. Furthermore, your skin has split in several more places. Those small wounds look a bit dirty but otherwise they look fine. The cracks however don’t look so good. They’re not in the right place, so I’ll have to set them. It’ll hurt even more. I’m really sorry.”

I nodded to tell her that I understood what she said. I couldn’t really open my mouth to tell her, because I was sure that if I did, I’d start screaming and thrashing again.

“It’s going to take a lot of energy, and I don’t have enough to spare right now. So, I’m going to find someone who’ll help me. I’ll just be a moment.” She stood and left.

A minute or so later, she returned with Moira, Jason and some other Guardian. And with them came the leader.

To Moira, Jason and the other guy, she said: “Okay, you’re going to have to touch me to send me all the energy you can spare, because it’ll be too hard to do it without touching. You’ll feel drained and sending the energy may upset your stomach. If it comes to be too much, just let go of me, and the connection will be broken. While touching me, you’ll probably feel my heartbeat but also the pulse of the magic that flows through me. And if a light should appear, don’t turn away, it just means that she’s healing. Then, could you please place your hands on my back and keep out of my way?” Then she made eye-contact with me. In my eyes she saw the gratitude. “Oh, and she wants to thank you for doing this,” she told the others.

“It’s no big thing,” the Guardian said.

“Bri, this is going to hurt a lot at first. Just try to hold still. I’ll heal it as fast as I can. It’ll hurt longer if you move, okay?” Ayra said.

I nodded again.

Carefully, she placed her hands on my skull and then in one fast but firm push, she set the cracks.

It hurt like hell.

I lost the little control I’d had over my shrieking. I screamed so hard they had to cover their ears.

“Ayra! Please!” I screamed.

I knew I’d hurt her ears, but I seriously needed her help. I couldn’t heal myself when I was in such a bad shape.

With difficulty, I clenched my teeth together and dug my nails deep into my legs to relief some of the pain in my head. I’d be able to heal that later. First I needed my skull to start growing back together.

Ayra took her hands off her ears, motioned the others to send her energy and she put her hands back on my head.

After about ten seconds, I felt the pain grow. Healing wounds and bones was a complicated thing. To heal something, you needed time. During that time, it would keep hurting. Speeding up the healing process meant shortening the time it could hurt. But the amount of pain would stay the same, so instead of hurting a little for a longer time, it now hurt intensely for a short amount of time.

Then, in front of me, I saw a little light hovering in the air. It was a white light, but the core was pitch-black. It distracted me from the pain. I knew it came from Ayra and me, it said something about her healing me. But why was the core black? What did that mean?

A minute later, I noticed that the pain was now bearable. That meant it was almost healed. “Ayra, that’s enough,” I told her. My voice sounded steady again, but a bit tired. “It’ll heal. This is fine; it doesn’t hurt so much anymore. Thank you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. It’s a bit weak still, but the bone is reattached. It’ll heal more quickly now that is has.” The Guardians would feel better if I was a little weak still.

“Okay.” She stood and as soon as she did, so did the others.

Slowly, I got up as well.

As soon as I was upright, the world started spinning. I quickly grabbed hold of the person closest to me to steady myself and I waited until everything stayed in the right place. Then I let go of the person.

The person actually turned out to be Jason.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” he asked as soon as I let him go. The other looked just as worried.

“Too much blood loss. Everything’s spinning,” I told them. Then I turned to the leader who’d stood by us all the time. “You wouldn’t happen to have sterilizing alcohol, a sterile needle and an AB-negative blood bag, now, would you?”

“No, but we do have a couple bottles of blood in the mini-fridge. Would that do?”

“Yeah, it would help a bit.”

He left to get them.

“Thank you,” I told him when he returned and handed me two bottles.

I emptied them and then I sat down.

My head still hurt, but the world was no longer spinning.