Bane

October 3, 1993

8:00 PM

Karen sat beside David's hospital bed. From time to time his pulse quickened, as shown on the monitors. His eyes moved beneath his eyelids, as though he were dreaming, but when she touched him, held his hand, or kissed his cheek, kissed his mouth, or cried over him, nothing happened.

He was supposed to stir under her kiss, eyes flutter open, and he was supposed to sit up; to tell her he was hungry, and ask for something to drink.

"You need to wake up, Baby."

David lay there, dreaming whatever he was dreaming. She thought of her conversation earlier with Suheila, and wished she understood what the hell the girl was saying. She thought of Cameron, and then Gina - and Gina's expression today at lunch. She wondered how she would feel if David loved someone else than she, and if he did, what would she do?

What could she do?

Poor Suheila was raised in the stories of Cameron Dean, and Cameron Dean had no idea she existed... meanwhile, she and David were lifelong friends from birth - cousins if you wanted to be gross about it - and they were soulmates. When in the company of the other, it was impossible to say where one began, and the other ended; they could finish one another's sentences, or sense in one another trepidation. They schooled together, and had David not been hurt, would have completed their advanced education together.

David twitched, and Karen took his hand in hers, and closed her eyes, holding his hand to her cheek.

(...if she dies, I hate you...)

Karen opened her eyes. She was certain she heard it - a voice - a whisper echoing through the quiet room, but it was only she and David. Her pulse quickened, and the hairs on her arms stood on end.

Outside the hospital room, outside the window, she heard something like a faint screech in the distance, a sound she found unfamiliar, and unsettling.

(...I don't think you're generic.)

"Hello?"

Silence, but the steady rhythm of David's heart as translated through the cold beep of a machine.

Karen would burn Driftwood to its foundations, given the opportunity, destroy every last standing building, and lay the woodlands to splinters if she thought it would return David to her side. She would stake her territories, and build their home from the ashes where once a city stood, and challenge anyone who threatened what was hers.

That was the expression on Gina's face today, at lunch.

The girl wasn't a bad person. Older than she by two years, older than Cameron by one... but she was strong, and fast, and smart. Had she been given the rites, and blessings, she might give Karen a run for her money.

Maybe.

"David. Oh, David. Wake up."

(...if she dies, I hate you...)

Karen stared up at the ceiling, wide eyed, slid from his bedside to her knees, and prayed. "Dear Lord, we have only ever served your House. We bear your blessings, live, and die for your cause. Bring my David back to me, because..."

Karen listened to the stead beep of the EKG.

"...because if he dies, I hate you."

✟ ☧ ✟

10:00 PM

"What's wrong?" A very tired Karen walked out to meet with Bart Walker on his back porch. She felt the subtle surprise in him, though he did not show it. Karen took careful barefoot steps across the deck. The wood deck was rustic, smoothed out sanded logs, planed down to a flat surface.