Chasing Dreams (Dropped)

Chapter 187: Best Friends

It took days for Dustin and Olivia to be returned to their peak strength. The injuries Seth left behind were far too significant to be healed by conventional means.

For a week, Mary focused on her specialty, healing the wounded. With her blood manipulation, Mary could mend most wounds. Through her blood manipulation, she saved Sarah's life after being mauled by Nyssa and maintaining her life force after being brutalized by Ryota.

This time was no different.

Dustin and Olivia's bodies were in pitiful states. Olivia had a gaping hole in her stomach, while Dustin had a deep gash in his.

For several days, Dustin and Olivia floated. Remaining unconscious for the majority of the duration of their therapeutic restoration.

"Where am I?" Both of them asked. The world they were in wasn't the one they knew. The world of the living felt somewhat close, while the afterlife felt even closer.

Dustin looked around, his purple eyes dimmed with fear. "Are we dead?"

"Probably." Olivia answered callously. The last thing she remembered was Seth piercing her through with one of his iron tendrils.

"Oh no..." Dustin held his head. "What am I going to do..." He thought about his siblings and his parents. He couldn't imagine how disappointed they must be in him.

"What do you mean?" Olivia scratched her head and tucked her dyed hair behind her ear.

"My Mom and Dad. They're probably worried sick." Dustin fumed. "Destiny and Dylan are gonna kill me."

"Well..." Olivia shrugged. "They can't kill ya if you're already dead."

"Olivia!" Dustin shook his fist at her.

"What?" Olivia frowned. "It's true."

Dustin ruffled his hair and sighed. "How can you be so calm about all of this?"

Olivia looked around. For the first time in her life, Olivia felt free. She was no longer confined by the restrictions placed on her by society or her peers' judging voices. Olivia looked off in the distance staring at the expansive universe that continued forever.

"I dunno. I just expected this to happen I guess..." Olivia's voice was oddly calm. Too calm to sit right with Dustin. He couldn't fathom why she wasn't freaking out. Like him, Olivia still had a family. She had a mom to go back to. A mother who worried for her. How could she be okay with how things are now?

"You expected to die?" Dustin asked, trying to keep his questions to a minimum. He knew if he bombarded Olivia with questions, she'd get mad and ignore him.

"Yeah, more or less." She nodded. "I never understood why the other students didn't view things the same way I did? We're inexperienced kids fighting in an adults world. We were bound to die sooner or later." Olivia turned and caught her wrist. "It's actually a miracle we didn't die sooner."

Dustin felt the darkness swarm around him as if the hands of death were waiting to draw him in. He shivered and shook his head, rejecting death the same way he did several times before.

"No, I can't accept that." Dustin took off his glasses. "I refused to believe we were destined to die. Not like that and not like this..." Dustin held his head and pushed his brain to its absolute limit.

Everything was foggy. Dustin tried to remember his last moments.

He pictured Seth's face, as sad frown as cold as steel. Dustin couldn't hear Seth's words at the time, but he read them from his lips.

"When he comes you will rise." Dustin repeated and remembered a vision shortly after.

Mary came for them. She slowly rebuilt their bodies when they were on death's door. Even now, she was still healing them.