Not Gonna Die (A Skybrine Fanfic)

|Chapter 14| Locked away

I went to the dentist about an hour ago and I had to get my gum numbed because I was getting a filling. So now it feels like I have no cheek and only half of my mouth smiles. I'm finding it very amusing.

Anyway, ONWARDS!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

          The world was bright, very bright, even behind his tightly closed eyelids. His whole body was shivering uncontrollably despite the warmth spreading from his chest all the way to the tips of his fingers and toes and the heaviness he could feel on him that some functioning part of his brain recognised as a blanket. The pain made his brain hazy and made it hard to breathe or even to think. It stabbed through his chest, arms, legs, neck; every part of his body seemed to ache with an unknown pain from inside. He desperately wanted to sleep, but the pain prevented it, jolting him back to reality every time he almost slipped off. Time stretched out until he felt that there was no outside world, no one else in this existence except for him and this constant pain.

          Something warm touched his shoulder, something that felt like a hand. It gave him something to focus on that was not the pain he felt or the struggles of breathing. A sound, blurred and static, came from a distance. It took a lot of effort for him to finally hone in on it, to make it clearer before he heard the male voice, low and deep, but not uncomfortably so.

          "Where does it hurt?" the voice asked patiently, most likely saying the words for the dozenth time.

          "Everywhere," Adam mumbled, his mouth barely moving, his eyes still closed to cut out that horrible light.

          "Okay," the voice said gently. "Can you figure out where it hurt the most?"

          "I don't know," he said after a pause. The pain was easy to focus on and his chest constricted so that he struggled to breathe for a moment and his head seemed to be connected to him via a thin string. "Chest. Head."

           The hand moved from his shoulder and came to rest on his head. Warmth seemed to flow from it and it pushed back the pain for a second before it came thudding back. It stayed there for a moment and Adam had the strangest feeling that it was gently sifting through information. Then the hand moved to his chest, feeling his heartbeat and shaking breaths, his constant shivering. It moved to hold his wrist lightly with two fingers. Adam could just feel his pulse beating rapidly against the fingers, beating in time with the throbbing pain.

          "It's almost as fast as mine," the voice murmured, speaking as if to himself.

          "Is that bad?" another voice asked. Unlike the first voice, this one was slightly familiar, although it took several seconds for Adam's aching mind to realise that it was Ty's.

          "Considering that my resting heart rate averages at around the peak a normal person's heart can go before giving out, yes, it's bad," the first voice said.

          "Do you know what's causing it?" a female voice asked. This one took longer for Adam to place, meaning that he missed the man's response. A hand gently opened his eyelid and he violently flinched as the light flooded in, stabbing at his eyes before the hand let go and he saw darkness again.

          "He didn't have magic before?"

          "Definitely not," a fourth voice said, one that Adam knew to be Seto's. "And no magical heritage, from what we know."

           "What kind of things could he do?"

           "His magic was yellow," Mitch said, his voice more boy-like than Ty's or Seto's. "It was like Seto's and he could heal himself too." Then, after a moment: "Quentin told me, just before we left."

          "He could also create fire," Seto added. "Real fire."

          "But it was yellow," Ty said, "like his magic."

          "Teleportation?" the first voice asked.

          There was silence for a minute but then another voice, lower than the first, said "Maybe. I didn't see it, but I heard it. There was a thump and Adam looked dizzy and... I don't know, it just seemed... off. He had a headache too." Something in Adam's mind said that this was Ian.

          "Sounds about right," the first voice muttered. "That's what usually happens when you teleport, you do get a bit of a spinning headache." The hand was now resting on Adam's neck, warm and steady.

          "It's just like your magic, right Hero?"

          "Sounds like it," the first voice said in a puzzled manner. Adam's tired mind didn't quite make the connection that this voice was Hero, or the significance of that name. "The fire and teleportation give it away, and the eyes are a good indicator, but... I'm not entirely sure. It doesn't make much sense, and it doesn't explain how he got it."

          "You two definitely don't have a child or anything, right?" Seto asked.

          "I haven't had any kids," the first voice said firmly. "And before you ask, my brothers have also had no children. There is no way he's gotten this magic from me by descent."

          "Can you heal him?" Mitch asked. "Or make him able to control it without being hurt?"

          Someone sighed and the hand left Adam's neck. There was a shuffling noise like someone was standing up. "I'll do some research," the first voice said, "see if I can find anything. But I've never seen anything like this before, especially with magic as close to mine. Until I get back, keep him out of harm's way and as comfortable as you can. He's in a lot of pain and his heart will become weak with it pumping as fast as it is."

          "You don't mean he's dying, right?" Ty asked quickly.

          "If he's not now, he will be soon," the voice said darkly. "I'll be as fast as I can, but I don't know how long that will be."

           The voices faded back to buzzing and static as Adam's mind slipped back slowly towards unconsciousness. Strangely enough, the fact that he might be dying didn't seem to be scary or even mildly worrying to him. It was hard to think with this constant throbbing in his veins, chest and head. It persisted with him right until he slipped into darkness again.