When Given a Lemon

Part 24

There isn't much I can see with these thick roots in my way, but from the little I can, the creature is no longer in view. The area is no longer choked with an ominous presence.

It must have gone. Wherever it went, I cannot tell. But thank all eleven devils it's left.

Of my companions, they are also hidden from view and it is very difficult for me to turn to see any further. I can only hope that they are okay. Flashes of what had happened pass behind my eyes and I think of Bill and feel sick, worrying over whether he still draws breath. As for mine, it hurts to breathe in deeply so I am stuck making shallow gasps, the harm my body has faced makes it all the more difficult. It makes me wish I could pass back out.

I spit more bark and blood out, coughing the stubborn parts from me, which is excruciating, when I hear a strangled voice.

“Keenah? Keenah!” The sound Lemon emits rings through my head, pained and hopeful, sharp and agonizing, causing tremors of pain inside my skull. Their face suddenly appears way too close to mine, enough that their spit and tears land on me. “Holy fuck! You're alive!”

“So are you,” I groan, though it pains me to do so. “I… can't move.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” they hiccup, biting their lip before saying, “l-let me, let me get h-her— uh, let's get uh, this off of you. Then I can help you up, okay?”

“Her?” They bite their lip again, only nodding this time. With shaking hands they gently push at something. I somehow note their tears as they try to slide the wet, heavy pressure until it slips off of me, instantly enabling me to take a deeper breath, one that makes me shudder. Then they slowly help me by turning me onto my side, facing away from whatever had been on me.

I immediately see that I am covered in gore. It's sick, and full of chunky debris that reminds me a little of that soldier we had had to retrieve the pieces of. I'm confused. My head is still foggy, so I can't discern how that soldier has somehow wrapped itself around me. Their bones should have already been burned and the ashes sent home. Why were they all over me? How did they get here?

I try to swivel, which causes a lot of unexpected and excruciating pain throughout my body from my back to my neck, making me gasp in shock from the intensity. I squeeze my eyes shut. Wishing I could separate myself from this horrid reality.

It hurts to breathe even shallowly positioned like this, but I can't sit up or even move for that matter. So I try taking slow, and very short breaths again but it does little to help. I'm afraid to reopen my eyes now that I'm aware of what is all over me. I'm afraid to see who is all over me. I had instantly thought of the soldier, and for a moment I believed that was who I was covered with, but that's impossible.

Whatever it is that has now soaked through all the layers of my clothing, turning me into a hot, sticky mess, I was afraid to guess at.

Slowly I make myself turn further then ignore Lemon insisting I lie still while I wait for the shocks from my movement to subside a little before I force my eyes open and come to find Saiya…

My pained breath catches.

…Her bloody torso laying next to me. With her head snapped backward at a bizarre angle, making it impossible to see her eyes, her hair is matted with dirt and blood, and stinking tendrils of pink are splayed out along the ground where her legs should have been.

Why doesn't she have legs?? Where could they have gone?? My brain momentarily scrambles for answers until I realize what I am actually looking at.

I choke, suddenly needing to expel anything I had even thought of eating over the last week. Each clench of my muscles incites more agony sparking through my body but I can't stop the upheaval until it is done releasing every last bit of bile my body contains.

Lemon did what they could to untangle the parts of her from me that had adhered themselves as the blood started to congeal between us. A fact that only makes me more sick.

“It's okay, Keenah, it's okay. I've got you now…”  they go to pat my arm but their hands are red and matted with filth that tips me over the edge.

My vision suddenly burns and my head feels too hot, once again making me dizzy, unfocused, and nauseous. I gasp and cough but am not able to get enough air, causing the panic to worsen. Lemon takes hold of me tightly by the shoulders forcing my head into their neck so I can't see or smell all the death around us as much, but I know what's on me, what it is. What it was. Who. Who she was.

I can feel it.

Sticking to me.

Saturating my everything.

Burning my skin like a liquid fire; I'm immersed in it and it's hot and terrible.

I don't know how long I am trapped like this, with Lemon holding me in place as I fight for control over myself; for understanding of how and of why this could have happened to us when horrors like this aren't supposed to exist outside of books.

What was that horrid monster? I shiver with thoughts of that eye stalking us, afraid it will reappear within the trees at any moment.

Time began to lapse again and I am unsure of anything that transpired during that time but it felt like a milenia had passed before I could take a more normal breath, before I could once again recognize the breeze against my skin, ruffling my hair. But even this was tainted with thoughts that every sticky, painful, heavy or broken part of me is covered with what is left of her, of Saiya.

I wasn't feeling the wind, but residue of her flesh being nudged by the wind.

I pulled away from Lemon to see I have coated the skin of their neck in my snot and tears, and her blood. It must have been a long while that I had stayed in the crux of their neck because we are no longer alone out here, when previously I'm sure that we were.

Others have somehow joined us. I can't tell if they are locals or fellow soldiers, or a mix of the two. Their hands are pulling at us, trying to get me to move, to lay down on their stretcher so they can carry me away but I don't want to move, I don't think that I can. I feel stuck here, like her body has glued me to this place and I can never get free from it.

More join in to help despite my shouts to put me down when I am hefted up onto the cold, angry fabric. They shifted me with the help of too many hands that I can feel grabbing onto me, trying to hold me in place but it's only making my panic worse.

I must be flailing but despite how much suffering it causes, I can't seem to make my body still. I can hear Lemons' voice, somewhere in the distance, wrought with pain. I can't think of why they sound that way. My mind is flickering. Has the creature come back? I hope not, I don't think I can fight another like this. I fear that no one here can.

Even with all the added bodies surrounding us now, we wouldn't stand a chance.