Mission: NYX || ONC2023 Shortlister

Chapter 11: Time To Play

Once Anthea removed her hand from Greyson's forehead, Lucinda placed a new damp towel on him. He flinched, which seemed to be the only reaction he could muster for the past five days. She placed a new box of tissues on her nightstand, and his arms immediately attempted to reach it and grab one. When he still couldn't reach it, she grabbed one for him instead. But even after he blew his nose and tossed the tissue in the garbage bin, he still breathed through his mouth when he lay back down.

She took a clean handkerchief from her nightstand's drawer and wiped his nose. It was runny already.

"His fever should have gone down after three days," she said as she placed a hand on his cheek. "But it just looks like he's getting worse."

"Does he have any allergies?"

"Just pollen, but we haven't visited the rooftop garden in a while."

"And it didn't rain the past few days, either. Did he eat spoiled food?"

She shook her head again.

Anthea took a deep breath, and a long sigh followed afterwards. "I know what's wrong with him, then."

"What is it?"

"Stress and a trauma response." She took off her gloves and placed them in her pockets. "I don't think it's a surprise when I say that kids getting sick because of stress is normal in the DUO."

Anthea placed one hand on Greyson's chest, then the other held one of his hands. At first, she was quiet as she closed her eyes. But once she took a deep breath, her hands glowed in a soft green color, just like her irises. Strings of light swirled around her arms before swirling his own.

For the first time since he got sick, Greyson took a deep breath. And when he exhaled, his lips curled into a soft smile. The dark circles under his eyes were still there, and his nose was still red and runny, but the smile on his face made him look more relaxed despite his current state.

Lucinda sighed, and a weight she never even knew was there finally left her chest. "Stress and trauma response," she repeated.

Anthea nodded. "Since my healing doesn't do anything physically, there's a chance that he's going to go back to feeling sick again. But if you keep giving him the same medicine he's been taking, I'd say he'll be okay after tomorrow or two days."

"But he wasn't overworked. I made sure he wasn't."

"Stress isn't necessarily because of being overworked. If something's bothering him, then it'll stress him out. And most, if not all, the time, something mentally can affect you physically. Like in this case, people get sick. In other children's cases, trauma or stress can make them lose the ability to speak, even. Maybe it's only when they're stressed, maybe it's a permanent thing. Our brains can even develop a defense mechanism that makes us forget our trauma. Different people have different reactions."

"I see," was the only thing she could muster. Anthea was most likely still talking, and she felt her mouth move to reply. But she couldn't hear what any of them were saying.

Her mind returned to what happened five days ago. To the time she killed someone in front of Greyson just to make sure that he wouldn't get hurt or taken away. To the way she let her body move before she could think rationally, and the way she didn't even bother looking at him as long as it meant killing that Underworld member.

She gritted her teeth and hung her head. Lucian's and Poseidon's words and voices echoed in her head, repeating the same things they had been telling her over and over again.

What if Nyx's game involves Chuchu getting hurt? What if the game would affect him? What if one of you has to die? More and more 'what ifs' piled in her head. And as much as she wanted to push them all away, they rooted themselves in her head, digging themselves deeper and deeper until it was starting to hurt.