An Entity Within | Stephen Strange

3 - Commotion

Tessa had a restless night, full of tossing and turning as the dull drumming in her head carried on well into the early hours of the morning. She threw the covers off her as her body continued to warm to a more-than-tolerable heat as she clutched her head, burying her face into her pillow.

"Jesus, please, give me a break..." She breathed to herself weakly.

Let me out.

The young sorceress' eyes shot open at the sound of the voice and she sat bolt upright in bed, looking around her room for the source of the unnerving whisper. But no one was lurking in the dark of her room. Peeking out of the curtains just above her bed, she saw no one outside either – unsurprisingly when she was two floors off the ground. Her head throbbed again, and she winced, running her hand through her hair and tugging on it as though that would help to relieve some pressure but, just like the painkillers, this did nothing to ease the pain either. Tessa glanced at her clock and saw that it was already three o'clock in the morning. Groaning quietly, she gently lowered herself back down onto her pillow.

She prayed and silently begged for the migraine to be gone by morning.

* * * * * *

"Tessa? You up?" Came the shout of her Uncle Marcus as he gently knocked on her room door.

The sorceress cracked an eyelid open and removed the duvet from off her head, looking at the door with dread. While the pain had eased, it still hadn't gone fully much to her dismay.

"Yeah! One moment." She called back to him as loudly as she could manage, throwing the duvet off her legs again.

Tessa put on her forest green tunic as swiftly as humanely possible before traipsing over to the door and opening it, offering a tired smile to her Uncle as she let him into the room. Silence flooded the room as she made herself and her Uncle a cup of tea. She knew what her Uncle would say but she had felt far too cooped up in her room this year and, while uncomfortable, Tessa still wanted to train. Again, no one would stop fighting you just because you had a headache coming on, would they? Therefore, the best thing for her to do would be to fight through the pain – with the pain – which should help her build some sort of resilience to it. If she was going to continually have these migraines for the rest of her life, then she had to learn how to live with it rather than yield to it. Mastering one's pain would be a strength in and of itself and surely an invaluable skill in combat.

"Headache's gone if you're wondering." Tessa said as she turned to give Marcus his cup of tea.

"Thank you." Her Uncle watched her carefully as she leant against her chest of drawers, "How sure are you?"

"Very."

Marcus approached her curtains, "So you won't mind if I – "

As he had let a blinding shard of sunlight into the room, Tessa squeezed her eyes shut, "God, Uncle, shut that please!"

Marcus let the material go from his fingers, staring at her, unimpressed, "The one thing I ask of you is that you don't lie to me about your migraines."

"They're just migraines." Tessa shook her head, "It's not like it's going to kill anyone."

"But you're clearly in agony."

"And? Some people have to live with pain on a daily basis and they still continue with their lives. And what do I do? Bow to it every time."

"We're not training when you're unwell."

"I'm fine – "

"What was the pain like yesterday?"

"A solid eight."