A Far Leap Into the Fog: short story

Pg 8

As Willow says her introduction to Hunter she places her hand on my shoulder and I blush lightly as I duck my head.

"Well just know that your friend hit me."

Hunter's voice was spaced with bitterness and I clench my hands as I could feel Willow tighten her hold on me. I knew where this was going, but it still didn't ease me and so I grabbed Willow completely as I dragged her into her lab that she had built in the sewers to remain from curious eyes and wandering ears.

Willow had lived in these sewers long before the outbreak and was the closest thing to family besides my siblings. She had always looked after me as though she was my mother, even though she was a few months younger than me, and it only made me appreciate her more as I knew she didn't have an easy life. Her background is murky as swamp water and I could only hope that one day she would let her past remain in the past as she moved on with her life and become a happier person.

I let go of Willow as I had pushed her near her table of a cure. She was working one and she faced me and gave me her right palm as she put her dagger back into her pants pocket.

"Вы хотите, чтобы я вылечил этого ублюдка? Вы, должно быть, укусили его по уважительной причине, так что скажите мне, почему я должен его вылечить."

I look at her held out hand as I give one look to Hunter, who was coming in the room, and I let out a sigh.

'Он человек, Уиллоу. Он не такой, как мы, он действительно заслуживает того, чтобы жить.'

Willow's gaze softens at my words and she looks at Hunter before nodding at me.

"Хорошо, но только потому, что он не кажется таким уж плохим человеком. Иди отдохни, и я приготовлю лекарство."

I nod my head at Willow's command and I walk away from her as I go to the small cot that she has in her lab and I lay down on it as I curl up and close my eyes. I was exhausted and emotionally drained from today. I can only hope that Willow and the Hunter won't get into a fight.

I could hear a faint conversation happening as my eyelids were closing and my breathing started to even out. I tried to listen to the conversation but the words were blurred and slurred together. They weren't making sense to me and before I knew it my body felt heavy as I succumbed to sleep.

When I awake in my dream world I'm met with familiar faces of my parents, but I walk past them and I'm met with my siblings' faces and I stop and stare at them. They were born in a family of lies and a family that was so invested with their secrets that they couldn't see who they hurt on the way. I was much like my parents in that way and it made me sick to my stomach to know that I was my parents' child. That I was their blood, their kin. I run past my siblings and I smack into something hard. I put my hands on the object and when I pull back I am met with my worst fear. I backed away from the object but I was pushed right back into it. A scream threatens to break loose and I shake my head but an unknown force makes me look into the object. The incubator and I see a small boy hooked up to wires and tubes as his face was contorted in pain.