It's a Long Way Down

Chapter Thirty: Sickness

As the temperatures began to drop at the church, Sodo started to tell Ember to make sure she stayed warm, since fire ghouls can't handle the cold too well. He helped Ember by bringing her into town and buying her warmer clothes, making sure to get the thickest jackets available.

As the snow began to fall around the church, Ember developed a small cough, nothing anyone paid any mind to until it started getting worse on stage.

As she finished one of her solos, she walked towards the back of the stage, going into a cough attack. Rain, who was close by came over and asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah," She said between coughs, soon having them subside. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just need some water."

Rain didn't look convinced, but walked away, going to Aether. She walked backstage quickly, pulling down her mask as she took a drink of water. Ember made her way back on stage, playing the rest of the set with less coughing.

The next week was when it got worse. She started getting cold. The coughing got worse. She never wanted to leave her room. Sodo had been busy with Copia helping with songwriting, so he had no idea what was going on, rarely having the time to even come back to the hall of ghouls to sleep.
Swiss came in to check on her one day, asking, "You okay? It's not normal for a ghoul to get sick."

"I know," She said in a rough voice, "But it's still possible."

"There are only 2 things that make a ghoul sick. They're close to death, which considering you're still young, I doubt that's the case or..." He trailed off. Another question quickly popped into his head, "It's never been this cold for you, has it?"

She shook her head, making his eyes widen in realization before he told her, "I'll be right back."

He quickly left the room, soon coming back with Aether and Rain. They were speaking in hushed tones, but from what she could make out, Aether said, "She could die."

"Has anyone told Sodo?" Rain asked. Swiss shook his head, "The door was locked and they can't hear anything from outside so yelling was useless."

They looked over at Ember as she shivered. Aether quickly told Rain, "Get all the blankets you can find. Swiss, find all the heaters in the church, we need all of them. And hurry. We need to make her last until we can get him in here."

The two ghouls quickly left as Aether walked to her fireplace, lighting it up. He soon walked over to her, pulling the blanket over her shoulders saying, "Try to heat yourself up, Ember."

"I-I c-can't," She shivered. Aether let out a sigh, crouching by my bed, "Ember, I really need you to try. Please."

She let out another shiver before trying to use her abilities to heat herself up, just to end up with a cough attack. Rain came in in the middle of it, handing Aether a blanket, who put it over her, Rain soon put another over the top of that one. Aether told Rain something before leaving, Rain quickly took the other ghoul's spot, moving her hair out of her face, "Ember, I can't lose you, can you please try to heat yourself up again?"

She shook her head, her body starting to tremble. The water ghoul put his hand to her forehead, quickly pulling it away, "You're freezing Ember. Why didn't you tell us anything before?"

"T-tell you w-what?" She let out between chattering teeth. He sighed and said, "Anything. That you've been feeling bad. That you were losing your abilities."

"N-not your bu-urden to b-bear," She told him. He shook his head this time, "You're our family, Em. Any of your burdens are our burdens. We help each other. What happened?"

"S-Sodo-" She tried, just to break into another coughing fit. Rain asked her, "You want us to get Sodo?"

She shook her head, "N-no. I'll b-be f-fine. D-don't both-ther him. He's-s busy."