We Are The Cure : The Plague Doctor's Tale.

Chapter 18

This night Rosalynn had a dream. It was pretty similar to the one she had in Castleton but this one had changed setting. She was standing on the one of the Edinburgh streets wearing her plague nurse clothes. There was no living soul on the street and the silence was almost screaming in her ears. Then she noticed a shadow which emerged from the darkness of the lane. At first she didn't recognise the shadow, but soon she realised it was her mother again. Her facial expression didn't change, it still remained neutral, maybe indifferent? Rosalynn couldn't tell which emotions her mother was experiencing. She tried to speak to her but as previously she couldn't say a word. Instead, her mother spoke to her. "Lavender" she said and Rosalynn woke up drenched with sweat.

"Lavender?" Rosalynn asked herself confused. "Why lavender?" 

With a difficulty caused by her aching chest she sat on the edge of the bed and started thinking intensively about her mother's bizarre message. Lavender is a very good herb which kills all the bacteria and helps the body to relax. What did she mean by it? Should I brew a lavender potion?Or did something bad happened to Agness? At least it was her who ordered the lavender potion before she started her journey with Doctor... 

It took her a while to notice Doctor sitting on a chair with his head tilted back. Initially she got scared as she thought he was dead but then she realised that actually he was sleeping. It was easy to asses by the lack of response to her question and the rhythmical rise and fall of his chest. 

After few attempts Rosalynn managed to stand up and slowly approach Doctor. She took a closer look at Doctor's mask and noticed there were visible numerous scratches on it. It was clear that he rarely took it off.  She wondered how a person could sleep wearing such mask and thought it would be beneficial for him to sleep without it. Not thinking much about potential consequences of her doings, Rosalynn carefully touched the beak with both her hands and wanted to lift it up a bit but suddenly Doctor grabbed her hands. She squeaked with fear and tried to step back but his grip was too strong.

"What are you doing?" He asked sharply, and quickly stood up still holding her hands.

"I wasn't sure if you were still alive. You weren't responding and-" She started explaining herself but he interrupted.

"I do not approve of such behaviour and you know that very well. This is my last warning, Rosalynn." His words sounded gravely and his grip tightened on her hands. 

"I-I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to offend you in any way." As he saw how scared she was Doctor released her hands and was about to go outside when he remind himself of something. 

"Are you still experiencing the pain in your rib cage area?" 

"Uhm, yes. It hurts a lot when I move." She was massaging her wrists which turned light red from his grip.

"Then do not move. And help yourself with the ointment from yesterday."  Then he left her alone in the room. 

She knew that actually she shouldn't have been even thinking of doing that but still didn't really understand why. Rosalynn was aware of the fact that Doctor wasn't taking his mask off very often and now she was believing him that the sleep was no exception from his rule.

The more she was thinking about this situation, the less she understood why did he acted in that way. She was aware of the reason why he was so reluctant about revealing his face but she couldn't tell whether it was more the plague doctor code or his own rule that disenabled him from that. All in all she felt rejected again and this feeling was more painful than the ache in her chest.

Meanwhile, Doctor was standing right behind the door confused, angry, shocked and... He couldn't name that emotion but he had a feeling as somebody was squeezing his chest. It was similar to suffocating but more from his inside rather than from his respiratory tract. His heart was pounding and the breath was much faster than usual. Maybe that was another emotion similar to anger? But anger does not feel like that. It took him a while to calm down and go down to bring breakfast for them. 

When he came back with a wooden tray with breakfast, he noticed that Rosalynn was lying in the bed covered with sheet up to her head. She didn't want to look at him, even though he put the tray on the table and invited her to eat. Of course, he was still mad at her but he knew that breakfast was a very important source of energy which is necessary for a human body in order to function properly. 

Initially he thought that probably the pain in her chest was too great for her to move but as he was getting closer, Rosalynn seemed to hide her face from him. 

"Rosalynn? Didn't you hear that I have brought breakfast?" No response. "Did you use the ointment?" Again no response to his question. "Are you even listening to me? And for God's sake, take this sheet off your face." As he took away the sheet he saw her face. It was all red with tears. When she saw him she started sobbing which soon turned into weeping. "Hey, what is the matter?" Confused and shocked he sat on the bed. He was no longer feeling anger. 

"It's nothing." She said that looking somewhere else but not at him. "I just... I just felt like crying. That's all."

"Is there any particular reason behind that? Is it because of the pain? Let me examine-"

"No, it's not the chest!" She raised her voice unintentionally. "Do people always cry because of the physical pain?" She asked rhetorically and Doctor nodded. "It's not always like that, Doctor. Sometimes it is something that is inside that hurts."

"Do you have any internal pains then?" She looked at him confused and tried not to burst into laughter as his response and the grave tone of his voice combined together were hilarious. 

"Erm... The internal thing that is hurting right now is my feelings, Doctor. My feelings are hurt."

"But feelings are not a part of the human body." He crossed his arms. "It cannot physically hurt."

"Well, it's hard to disagree but they are a part of a human being." She looked at him. "This mean that when you feel hurt you experience pain in form of sadness, for example. Sometimes people feel disappointment or anger-" She hardly finished the sentence when he interrupted.

"Following your thoughts it means that I am hurt as well as my disappointment and anger are immeasurable at the moment."  He tilted his head to the left. She was a bit confused but he was right. She hurt him as well and she hasn't thought of that. 

"You're right. You're hurt too. We are hurt, I mean, our feelings are hurt." Rosalynn saddened and sighed. She didn't know what she should do but soon she thought of something. "Do you know, Doctor, what are emotions?"

"Emotions? I have heard of them but they remain enigmatic to me." Doctor touched his beak in thought.

"Why is that?" She carefully got up from lying to sitting position. 

"I was never expected to feel emotions..."

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Author's note:

Hi there guys! Recently I've been thinking of posting more chapters a week, and believe me, I did my best to do so, however, due to my tight time schedule it was impossible (since I'm writing each new chapter few hours before posting it, yeah even this chapter, it's 19.11 right now, 10:19 PM CET). 

And yes, someone may ask "So hey, why don't you hurry up your lazy ass and write few chapters in advance?". So here I come with the answer: Much as I would love to write more I'm simply not able to do that. I mean, I am but the quality of the chapters would be lowered and the length would be shorter. And I don't want that to happen as I would like this piece remain somehow meaningful. 

So, I'm asking you guys whether you would be satisfied with a Q&A time concerning the characters and the plot of the novel, or whatever you want? It would be posted on the last Friday of the month starting from this month. They will be answered on 24th of November :)

Stay in good health and take care!

~ Line