Wizardess Heart And The Dark Unicorn

Chapter 29

 

The rhythm of another's heart

       I remember it being hard to breathe; it was like being underwater without gills and not having the ability to die. It was a constant pain of drowning with no relief. Well wait a minute, what are gills? What is breathing? What is death? How do I know the name of things that I don't actually know what they are? "Don't fight it..." A voice said being carried across the depths of the darkness I was in. It wasn't a scary darkness either, it felt warm and comforting and yet stern at the same time. It was kind of like I was waiting to embrace the darkness, but that didn't make any sense. Wouldn't people run from the dark nothing or was I the only one who thought that it was abnormal to want to be in it? Soon a blinding light shown all around me as I pulled my sleepy eye lids open to show a long pure white face of a horse looking down at me with kind dark blue eyes. The long sharp looking horn on his head meant that he was a unicorn, or is that another word that I'm guessing at? I moved to open my mouth to speak, but no words came out, just a sharp noise that made me cringe in pain and cower to the floor. "It's okay. You'll get your voice later, but try not to strain too much otherwise it'll be a bit scratchy." He said rather playfully that I had a hard time believing him.
I narrowed my eyes towards him in a disbelieving manner which earned me an amused chuckle. Well he doesn't seem too scary does he? "Ah, are they finally awake?" A new voice asked upon walking into the room after a door opening on the far side of the room. Who's they? I turned to look to my left seeing yet another unicorn, a smaller one, a foal. This is strange. I have an odd feeling that I'm missing something rather important, but I don't remember what it is. Every time I tried to think on what it was that I was missing the answer became more elusive to my mind.
The man that had just walked in looked older than a middle aged man with his white hair, mustache and beard and yet quite young behind it, which is curious. "She is, they boy isn't, but she looks a bit lost."
The man merely nodded pleasantly as he moved closer in a nonthreatening way. He looked concerned upon a close examination of his features. "It happens with newlings. It'll take some time for her to be able to make sense of what is going on around her." He gently reached down to pat me on the head, but I pulled back to sniff his hand. I'm not really sure why I thought of smelling his hand to determine his threat level. My eyes crossed as I inspected his hand that was down my snout, near my mouth. "First and foremost we'll need to get her up and walking on those hooves." He didn't seem particularly intimidating in mannerisms or speech, so why is he here and why did he seem so interested in our well being?
Their faces fell almost simultaneously as if they had the same thought and found it rather uncomfortable to think. Why are they so worried about getting me on hooves? That doesn't mean anything bad, right? "I'm glad that we were able to save these unicorn souls, but I wonder at what cost...." The older unicorn said his voice going incredibly soft and almost cracking. What cost did they mean? Why did they look so pained? "What about the third one?" Third one? What third one? I don't remember seeing another one around me. Why is this so confusing?
The man looked pained again for a moment before answering in a calm but strained tone. "Honestly, I doubt we'll be able to honor her for the sacrifice that she made." The man's eyes turned down towards me as he slapped a forced smile on his lips. "But don't you worry about that little one. You'll be back to where you had been in no time and with enough effort you may remember who you once were, Hayzel. After all time passes faster here than it does in the human world and we may be able to keep our promise to the one who saved you after all." Hmm, Hayzel...that felt like a familiar name to me. Was it once my name? And this promise he talks about? The one who saved me? What does that mean? I have a feeling that he wouldn't make a deal without careful consideration towards all out comes, but still, I have a bad inkling in the pit of my stomach that something was wrong, even more than they were letting on.

    It was difficult at night to sleep and even more so as the days continued seeing I slept in the same room as Kayle's double. I never though trying to make sure that Kayle would be safe before she died by having her stay with me, would back fired in my face tremendously. It's going on almost a month now and there had been no developments to the dark magic user still lingering around like an unwanted smell, none, zip, zilch, not a word or action. It was like they decided to head somewhere else to go after Kayle's death. I haven't found the will to talk to her shikigami more than I needed too either. It was bad enough that she took Kayle's spot as prefect, but she is constantly around me due to Randolph not wanting to change anything that'll cause suspicion and possibly drive away anyone looking to destroy the school. I sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time as she and her and I walked into my room. "You can't go sighing like that all the time. Your brain needs the oxygen." The sarcastic gab at me only left me more irritable, due to the voice saying it and knowing that she wasn't truly the one I was in love with. She was just trying to pretend to be her just to hide the fact that she isn't.
I can't stay near her all the time. I'm beginning to think that I'm losing my mind. "I'm going to go take a shower. Stay in the room and lock the door." I replied quickly and headed towards the bathroom. It was rude to order her around like that, but I don't think that I could get away from her fast enough. I didn't even wait for her to answer me; I just went into the bathroom and shut the door with a calm click. She didn't need to see how unnerved I am to have to be around her. It would probably end up being power for her and future jabs my way. I really don't know how much more of this I can take; it's almost too much as it stands. I let my hand slide from the doorknob after locking it and pressed my forehead to the door. This wasn't what I had expected the night I let her go with my father. I can't keep holding onto a ghost, she's not coming back to me. I have to, not I need to keep reminding myself of that.
I could hear the shikigami speaking on the other side of the door, clearly not happy about me either. "Okay, weirdo." She moved over to Kayle's bed, I'm assuming, and flopped down onto it with a grunt before letting out her own sigh of displeasure. "I'm sorry that I can't be the woman you're in love with, but I can't exactly help that either can I? If I could have died instead of her, I would have."
I gritted my teeth as my nails lightly scratched the door as my hands moved to ball into fists. Is it so obvious that I'm agitated? I used to be able to hide my aggravation to the deepest level before, but I guess this just hits too close to home and I'm stuck with being angry at all times. I moved my head to look over at the shower recalling the day that I helped Kayle at Nightingale. It was the night she accidentally admitted that she loved me, though I did trick her into it in a sense. My bathroom was a very different layout than that one they had but the tub looked quite the same, so much so I could almost see her sitting in there trying to cool down her nightly fever. To which I still wasn't getting used to it even near the end. The recollection was strong enough that the sound of the water running made it to my ears. I remembered how weak and vulnerable she looked from the over excursion of the magical use she had to use while sleeping. I doubt her body could have taken much more if she hadn't have had to die. I sighed once more as I blinked due to my vision blurring as my eyes burned and hot tears shot down my cheeks before quickly cooling and falling from my chin. This is going to be harder than I thought or originally planned.