Crow Forest

Chapter Sixteen

Parker opened her eyes. She felt sore, as if she hadn't moved in hours. A beam of warm sunshine was coming through the window and shining above her. She lifted her hand and reached to touch the sunlight. Dust particles danced around her hand. It was warm and comforting. Parker then remembered what had happened last night. She shot up, and her eyes darted around the entire room. Not to her surprise, she was still in the mansion. Lucky for her, though, Robyn wasn't here, which gave her the perfect opportunity to escape.

Parker's heart sank as the door across the room swung open, and Robyn walked in. He didn't notice her at first as he tightened his leather glove. Then, he stopped in his tracks and looked up to see the girl was awake. He gazed at her for a few seconds before moving towards her suddenly. "Good, you're awake... we can begin then", He hummed, clapping his hands together very enthusiastically, making Parker jump.

                                                                                          *

Parker's eyes scanned the room. She wasn't expecting Robyn's office to look exactly like a regular doctor's office. She was thankful at the same time that it wasn't as strange as she had imagined it to be. She had thought there would be more human corpses and animals strung around the room or at least one bloodied chainsaw. Instead, Robyn was standing near a bench. He was busy mixing a small bowl full of a strange unknown substance.

"W-what is that stuff?" Parker stammered, trying to prevent herself from gagging from the putrid smell. Robyn stopped mixing and turned to face her. He then approached her very quietly and was inches away from her face. Parker shrank back in fear, "Boop, " he said, pressing her nose slightly. Parker jumped in, surprised and pulled herself back. "You need to calm down", Robyn laughed, almost enjoying how jumpy she was. He then returned to the concoction he was mixing. Parker rubbed her nose. She hated when people did that stupid boop thing to her.

"... It's a medical cream called Embrem. It allows me to access the deeper layers of tissue and bone with my magic," Robyn explained. "You have magic?" Parker hesitated. "Yes! Of course, I do!" Robyn responded. There was a small silence that followed after that. "Okay..." Parker hesitated. "You're taking this rather well", Robyn hummed. "Is... is it painful?" Parker hesitated. "The Embrem? No, no, definitely not! I've used this many times. It's not painful in any way," Robyn reassured with a slight chuckle.

"How do I know you're not lying? After all, you could easily be some deranged psychopath planning to chop me up and send parts to my family," Parker mumbled quietly. "Biting your arm was a ridiculous thing you did. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to amputate. No hope for that," Robyn laughed, reaching for a small vile of golden liquid. Upon noticing dead silence, Robyn whipped around to see the blood drained from Parker's face.

He quickly placed the golden liquid down and rushed to grab her hand. "I was joking, I was joking. Don't pass out. You're fine," He quickly reassured. Parker took a deep breath. Her head felt dizzy. "I'll have to stop with jokes, don't I?" Robyn hummed, squeezing Parker's hands. She glanced up at him and gave a slight nod. He pressed her hands again, then turned and returned to mixing and stirring ingredients.

"My leg was sore... I needed to concentrate on something else to move... so I bit myself," Parker said quietly, sinking a little on the examination table. "It's just lucky I was around to help you when you got injured; otherwise, it might have been worse for you", Robyn admitted. "Worse?" Parker hesitated. "Hush now", Robyn hummed as he placed the concoction next to Parker. "Lie down", He instructed, waiting patiently.