The Coven

Chapter 9

Lilly stared at Mason’s back, she noticed in some spots the skin had even begun to boil. Gently she touched the skin, his winced away though that movement also hurt him because he moaned. “What’s...wrong?” His voice was so strained.

“It’s a sunburn, a really bad but nothing life threatening.” Sunburns couldn’t kill you, right? What could she do to help him? Clearly he was in pain, though he was trying to conceal the fact she could hear him trying to muffle his moans into the mattress.

“This is good.”Lilly moved closer to his head, did he just say good? What was good about any of this? They were stranded in the woods, a psycho was out there somewhere, Mason was overcooked and out of commission. There was nothing good about their situation. “This is good.” He muttered again, he turned his head to look at her. God his eyes were so beautiful.

“What is good about this?”

He smiled, maybe he was becoming delirious? Mason let out a low ragged breath and collapsed against the mattress, his eyes closed. Lilly looked at his back again, it looked so painful. She remembered two summers back when she went to Cuba with her family. Her back had been so burnt that she couldn’t leave the hotel room for the entire week and Betty, Lilly’s real mother, had had to apply aloe to Lilly’s skin every hour.

That’s what Mason needed! Aloe! Lilly jumped up, knocking her knee into the wood of the bed. Wincing she limped to the door, it was still pouring outside.

“Don’t go.” She looked over to the bed, Mason’s eyes were open again and he was looking at her, “Don’t go out there it’s out there.”

“I’ll be a minute there’s something in the car I need.” Hopefully some crazy hooded psychopath wouldn’t be jumping out of the bushes at her. Pushing open the door a gust of wind blew the rain into Lilly’s face but she pressed on, running across the muddy ground to her car.

Fumbling with the keys before she was able to open the door, she found her satchel on the floor. The fabric was soaking wet and she wouldn’t be surprised if her phone was destroyed. There was a boom of thunder so loud she screamed, slamming the door behind her as she darted across the mud safely arriving in the cabin.

Mason was half up, his cut open shirt hanging off him. Lilly ran over and put a gentle hand on his shoulder easing him back down to the bed. “What are you doing getting up? You can’t move your back.” She shook her head, boys are not always the smartest.

Mason let out another long breath, “Heard you scream.”

Wait, he was getting out of bed to save her? Screw just getting out of bed the boy could barely move yet he wanted to help her. How...dashing. Lilly thought he may actually be a knight in shining armour.

Going into her satchel she brought out the giant bottle of aloe. “Mason this is probably going to hurt like a bitch but it will make you feel better.” She thought she heard him mumble what, but she squeezed some of the contents onto his shoulders. He shuddered. Slowly and carefully she massaged the gel onto his skin. His breathing was even has she went.

She would ask him how he was doing he would grunt but not say anything. Lilly kept going applying the gel down his back. When she was done she took a step back to admire his now shimmering and greasy looking skin. “Does that feel better?”

He nodded once and made a sound like ‘mhmm.’ Lilly pulled a chair from across the room and sat down beside him, resting her muddy feet on the bed. Hopefully Cleo would use some sort of power to clean this place up when they left in the morning.

Her eyes began to droop as she waited for the sun to rise. She ended up in a weird state of consciousness; she was sleeping but felt awake, as though she was aware of everything around her. In her weird state she replayed the entire encounter with the hooded figure over and over. Whatever it was could have killed them but didn’t why?