***
For the next few days I tried to avoid anything that had the ability to move. I hadn't heard anything from the others, not even Sebastian. But I thought this was only because I had basically locked myself inside the house.
This phase of exile didn't last for long, though. On Saturday I got a letter in the mail from Willy inviting me to a fishing thing that very day. Apparently, it was some kind of 'Trout Derby' festival that had arrived in town for the weekend and settled down by the river.
Some utter maniacs had found themselves there as well. The whole thing seemed to be some serious business for most of them.
Nearly everyone there was from out of town. With their little rods happily swinging around they all followed the calm waters as it quietly waved around. They were even dressed appropriately in little colorful raincoats. Even Willy had one.
"Don't lean! You'll fall over." He warned and motioned me to back off from the edge of the river. I had tried to get a better view of the hook beneath the surface as nothing seemed to get stuck on it.
"Hmm, alright. Alright! I'll move." I was sure he just wanted the better spot. Just to annoy him I reeled the line back from the water with such precision it took double the time it usually took. It was amusing to watch him just stand there with such desperation.
Still, I gave it up and traveled a bit higher up in the course.
"Ah, perfect." A bit swaying to the side he pranced to the spot and muttered to himself seemingly pleased. Turning to me he pointed at the waters and stated. "It's a deep spot. That's good."
I nudged a bit closer and sat next to him. It had rained the day before and the ground was still a bit damp. Unfortunately, Willy hadn't thought of informing me about the dress code and so felt extremely unprotected.
Having to watch by as Willy dragged up fish after fish while my rod was left noticeably untouched lit an entirely new kind of rage under my heart.
Following the fish struggle against the hook's pull I slowly rotated the rod around in my hands. There was a slight red mark of blood left on the grass from the previous catch. It will probably be gone before tomorrow. They had promised rain for the night.
"Willy," I started, still deep in thought. "Do fish feel pain?"
"Hmm. Maybe a bit. Not like us, though. But they do live, like we." He wondered. His voice was steady and quiet, unlike mine, trying desperately not to disturb the waters. I nodded along with a serious frown.
Unfortunately, this made it possible for the next topic to be brought up.
Willy nudged my side a bit and asked. "Heard about your wound, by the way. Ugly business, ugly. Healed well, though?"
"It's fine." I spat. I wondered who had let the information out since I didn't remember telling him about it. Harvey wouldn't speak a word, neither could Maru. Sebastian, Sam or Abby all felt too unlikely.
Willy had already caught five tough fishes and I had managed to snap the only seam off my rod. Willy looked at my sorrowful show with amusement which only threw me off even more.
After he had let me get the frustration out of my system, he took the rod and examined the damage. It was a miracle the thing managed to stand together. Willy opened his toolbox and muttered hurriedly something to himself.
"Argh. Left me line back at the hut." He scratched his head over his little green hat. "You'll have to go fetch it. Go stop by Pierre's for good measure to get a refill on the bait."
I had been avoiding Pierre's as much as I could. Only shopping there once every other week for groceries or mostly just going to Joja for a good measure. Unfortunately, this only seemed to push the man off the edge even further.
I left the rod to Willy's care and made my way past Marney's ranch when-
"Lily!" Sam waved at me from afar. Screaming my name again he rolled closer with his skateboard.
"Nice day, huh. Perfect for skateboarding!" He kicked the board over and grabbed it up in a cool little flip. "Whatcha been up to? We thought you'd run off with Abby since we couldn't hear from either of you."
I had to explain to him what farming meant in its actual reality. But the case of Abby seemed a bit more concerning, so I asked about it.
"So, you weren't with her? Huh. Weird." Sam scratched his neck a bit thoughtlessly. "She didn't come to the band practice yesterday. Which was odd."
"Yeah... odd." I mumbled.
There was no point in lying. I had a solid hunch where she had gone off to and my heart sank. Looking at Sam as he tried to read my worried face, I couldn't bring myself to tell him. I couldn't let him down like that.
And then if I told him, he'd want to come with me. And what'd come of that? Another one hurt under my watch. He wasn't a fighter, not like the other two. I couldn't do that to him.
So, I lied.
"Uh, it's probably nothing." I shook off his questioning look, like he was the weird one here. "Pierre's gotten her grounded again or... something. I dunno. Hey, I've actually got to go. See ya later?"
"Sure, uhm. Okay. See ya."
I waved Sam off and hurriedly made my way over to Pierre's. The man behind the counter nodded me a grumpy hello and turned back to his business. When I asked him about Abby he only shrugged and mentioned something about 'the blond boy'.
That was bad. Very bad. It meant I was right. She had gone all by herself, not told anyone, and never gotten out.
On my way-out Pierre shouted behind me. "Tell her to come before dinner if you see her!"
With a hasty nod I skipped out of the store and back to the farm. I managed to grab the sword and some rope. Once I was sure no one was looking, I ran up the mountain until the restless lake came to view.
The girl could be anywhere, which was the worst of my worries. I could search for days in the dark dungeons and still be unable to find her. And for all I knew she could have already been there for days.
Badly swearing my throat off I traveled down floor by floor with the broken-down elevator. Screaming my lungs out every time the thing came to a stop, I hoped she could hear me and respond.
The elevator only had access to every five floors, which meant that if she had gotten stuck on any of the floors in between I would have no idea about it.
The floors from the level 80 on I searched especially carefully. I had to hurry past most of them because each one was absolutely riddled with monsters and most of the time, I ended up just following my own voice.
"Abby!" I yelled for the hundredth time and once again got no response. "Abigail!"
She wasn't there. With every floor I crossed my heart beat a little bit faster. My head began to grow so foggy it was hard to realize where all the attacks were coming from. And they were coming from everywhere.
The slimes dropped down from the ceiling, the shadows split into creatures. Some ugly bat managed to scratch my cheek as I went to kill it and the blood ran down and soaked through my jacket.
If it hadn't been for her flashlight I wouldn't have found her. It lay a few feet from her and beamed a golden ring against the back wall. The girl was unconscious, but breathing. There was no apparent physical damage to her.
The light had saved her.
She was pale and her skin felt cold to touch. I could only imagine what had attacked her. I decided it was easier to drag her down a few layers than carry her up, so I carefully raised her on my back and found the elevator a floor below.
Coughing out blood that tried to flow past my lips, I crammed us both inside and pressed the highest button before anything else could find us. Abby leaned her whole weight on me, and I tried to get a reaction out of her.
Once talking didn't help I tried to shake her. I was hazily aware that it probably wasn't the best thing to do, but I couldn't think of anything else. I thought of splashing water on her, but I hadn't brought any with me. Thankfully I didn't seem to need it.
"Oh, hey." She yawned. "Why are you here?"
"You're an idiot." I whispered to her. "Why did you go alone? You could've died."
"I wanted to go again, but Seb still had his leg locked up and you didn't want to." Her hair was wet and slimy. There wasn't much blood, only some dried on her shirt hem and even that didn't seem to be from her.
She sniffed and wiped something off her forehead. "I'm really tired."
When the elevator reached the top, I brought out my phone and called the number I had been planning on burning off.
"Harvey speaking."
The line died the second I got my message through. I only had to hope he had heard enough to realize how much we actually needed him.
Abigail was just about awake, and I kept her talking just in case. She had no strength to move on her own, so I had to support her as far out as I could reach. This effort only got us over to the Carpenter's shop.
I helped her lean against the garage door and banged on the front door in hopes that Maru had already gotten home.
"Oh, hey! Come in-" Robin greeted me with a warm smile that quickly found a slight edge of worry in it.
"Hey, uhm. Is Maru here?" I kept my distance and refused to look her in the eye.
"Yes, um." She turned back over to the hall. "Mary, dear. Can you come here for a sec? Honey, have you been crying-?"
"What?" I wiped my cheek and found out that it had turned wet. I brushed the rest off with my sleeve.
Robin thankfully forgot all about it as soon as she noticed the quickly moving figure in the distance. "What's Harvey doing here? Maru, do you know anything about this?"
Harvey had brought a first aid kit but after quickly assessing the situation noted that it wasn't enough and that she'd have to go with him to the clinic. Maru went with them with no questions asked.
I admired that in her. How ready she always was in any situation. Abby was in safe hands with those two. Nothing could hurt her anymore.
Robin insisted I get inside even after I stated I was just fine to go home. She brought me a warm blanket and a set of old clothes I could change to after showering. I sat in the kitchen with a box of tissues and clean bandages.
"Is Sebastian home?" I asked a bit awkwardly. I couldn't decide where to lay my hands and just let them hang over my lap. I hadn't realized before how much pain I had been in. Maybe it was the adrenaline that was wearing out, but it had become a bit difficult to breathe.
"No, dear. He went to Sam's for some music thing. He shouldn't be too long, though."
I nodded. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel. I couldn't point out if I was sad or worried. It was all mixed around and covered under a thick layer. It felt rude to ask but it would've been much easier for Robin to just tell me how I should deal with it.
"You must be in shock. It's understandable." Robin calmly sat down next to me with another cup but instead turned the chair to face me. Slowly swirling the coffee around in the mug, she blew it a little and spoke. "It's not like every day that you see your friend in such a state. It's tough."
When I stayed quiet, she continued. "She's gonna be alright, though. I'm sure of it. Harvey's the best doctor in town."
It wasn't going to help the situation to add that he in fact was the only doctor in town, so I didn't mention it.
Robin took a long sip of her coffee as the front door was heard opening and closing. Interpreting my pain as worry, she then grabbed my hands to hers. Not caring one bit who had just come in, she stared me deep in the eyes and stated.
"She'll get through this. And if it gets too difficult to deal with you can always come talk to me. Okay? Okay. Good."
Sebastian waltzed in the room with a tired yawn. The tears had made their way back and Robin handed me the tissue box.
"What's for d- oh, hey. Hey-" I couldn't see much past the tears, but I could feel a warm hand on my shoulder. Sebastian had kneeled in front of me with clear worry riddling his face.
"Everything alright?" He asked, glancing at Robin every now and then in search of answers. I held onto his arms because I had begun to question my own strength. "You look like you've died twice and crawled back to life."
"Thanks." I sneezed.
He was probably right, though. My clothes were soaked in blood and just from that I could only imagine what the rest of me looked like. Robin had patched up the bleeding cheek, but my hair was covered in cave dust and my skin had grown an entirely new layer.
"Sebastian." I whispered once Robin was out of the room. She had started to get ready for bed and now that Seb was with me, she didn't have to worry. I had to take a deep breath and I hesitated for just a second before letting it out.
"I think I might be dying."
***