RULE 42: BORDERLANDERS MUST ALWAYS STICK TOGETHER
✷ C H A P T E R N I N E ✷
"Pa!" I exclaimed loudly, almost in disbelief.
Without realizing it, I had made my way into Pa's tight embrace, his arms welcoming me home; I squeezed him as hard as I could, afraid he would vanish if my grip wavered.
Involuntarily, I exhaled deeply, the pain in my wrist suddenly absent from my mind, as I was now safe. I was now home — with Pa. A dull trace of anxiety remained, however, but I brushed it off from the traumatic events that had occurred recently.
The nightmares Pa used to tell me as a child became a reality in the past day, and, while I was safe now, I think some anxiety was justified. I just hoped it would settle soon, and I could soon shake the thought of Theo out of my mind.
I wasn't quite convinced that he was not doing something... supernatural to keep him in my thoughts. While I was focused on Pa and our reunion, thoughts of Theo were lurking in the very back of my mind. Soon, I was squeezing Pa even tighter, trying hard to empty my brain of any unnatural thoughts.
"Sage," Pa sighed into the top of my head; the relief in his voice washing over me as well. "I thought I had lost you."
I could feel the sorrow in his words; his words carried the same hurt that overcame him when he told me Ma was gone. Loss was no stranger to him, but he did not appear to be a veteran of loss.
"Never," I said with tears starting to ebb their way into my vision.
My face was smashed up against Pa's chest, my tears soaking into the coarse linen of his shirt. I inhaled deeply. Pa smelled like fire and soot, a scent that usually had me begging Pa to bathe, but right now, I couldn't mind any less that Pa smelled like his forge.
Swept up in the reunion with Pa, I did not take a chance to check my surroundings. After Memphis picked me up, he went down a long, winding road that made my head spin. At any point, I couldn't tell if we had managed to escape or if we had instead made our way back to Theo's compound.
My heart was racing the entire time, regardless, and I had to push away a strange feeling of regret. A part of me was nudging me to go back. I chalked it up to the glamor and curiosity the Outside world provided.
As Pa and I reluctantly ended our embrace, I could see that I was underground — not inside the Borderlands. What was going on?
"Pa?" I questioned, and suddenly, in the presence of Pa, it was like I was a little girl again, confused about my surroundings, looking to Pa for guidance.
He scratched at his chin and cleared his throat. My breath stilled — Pa was many things, but a liar was not one of them. He normally had a hard time keeping a secret; he just naturally did not have a filter and would say whatever he was thinking. This hardly ever got him into any predicaments, surprisingly, but it did make it easy to tell when he was lying.
Or when he was withholding information, at the very least.
I didn't want to press further. My birthday had taken an unfortunate turn, and I just wanted to put Theo and his... weird way of life behind me.
"I'll answer your questions soon, Sage, but for now let's get your wrist looked at," Pa half smiled, and guided me along with his arm placed on my back.
I furrowed my eyebrows. It seemed as if I was in a constant state of confusion — even when I had managed to get home, I was still as confused as before. Well, not that I was convinced that I was truly home yet.
From the walls and floor, I guessed we were back underground, but I couldn't comprehend exactly why we would come back down here besides to go back to the Borderlands. More confusing was the fact Pa was here. If we were truly underground, why had Pa not lectured me about leaving the Border?
He had always been so absolute about never leaving the Borderlands. He never entertained the idea Ma could be saved once she went over the Border. No, she was dead. That was what he told me. He told me to never hold on to hope for Ma. If I questioned why, he would just say that was the way of life here in the Borderlands.
He was a loyal Borderlander, but as the implications of him being underground started to resonate in my mind, my stomach became queasy, and I wanted so badly to rewind time so that I never stepped foot outside the Border.
"Sage," Pa ruffled up my hair, "I can hear those wheels turning up here."
As we were walking down a hazardly carved hallway, a man, with his head thrust downwards, slowly nodded at Pa as we passed. Pa silently nodded back before opening up the metal door the man came from.
Beyond the metal door, there was a corridor Pa took me down. If Pa was the one not leading me, I would be on edge, thinking that I had been recaptured by Theo. I gulped subconsciously, as something was amiss here.
Eventually, we made it to a medical room. The walls were made of hard, cracking dirt. The metal exam table looked so foreign in the dirty room, but it looked even more foreign to be something that belonged here beyond the Border.
"This is Sabrina," Pa told me, as he ushered me over to the exam table.
Popping out from behind the door was a short woman with glowing red hair. Her blue eyes were filled with curiosity, as she had a name tag latched onto her plain clothing. Her name tag read Sabrina, M.D., but without the tag, I would have never guessed she was a doctor.
I meekly managed a smile at Sabrina, too overwhelmed with everything to fully engage in conversation.
Something just was not sitting right. Sabrina. I had never met a Sabrina before.
"Now, take good care of my daughter. She's the only one I have. I'll be right outside," he said, interrupting my thoughts, as he exited the room.
Popping up beside me, Sabrina smiled widely, as she inspected my wrist without a word, "It looks like just a sprain. You do have a few cuts that I'll clean up for you, but you should be happy to hear nothing is broken, and wearing a brace for a couple of weeks will heal your wrist up nicely."
She quickly went to work cleaning up my wound. Every so often I would wince and flinch, even though the pain was becoming numb. My mind was becoming numb.
"Where are you from?" I asked, my voice cracking.
"The Borderlands," she responded hesitantly.
I furrowed my eyebrows. "Why haven't I seen you before?"
"I never went to school with the rest of the kids my age. My Pa thought it was useless, so I spent most of my free time studying medicine," she said with such ease that it was almost convincing.
"What did you say your family name was?" I asked.
"I didn't," was her short reply, as she stretched up above me, grabbing something I couldn't see. "Okay, you're all cleaned up. Now, here extend your hand out."
I did as she said while she slid something over my hand and wrist. "This is your brace. You can take it off to bathe, but you'll need to wear it for about two weeks or until your wrist is healed, whichever comes first."
"Thank you," I said, as I examined the high-quality brace.
Before I could question Sabrina more, she left the room, leaving me to be all alone in the dirt-carved room. Taking a deep breath, I quickly dashed over to the bucket that was near the exam bed and threw up all the contents of my stomach.
Quickly wiping my mouth with my brace-free hand, I stood up, trying to make myself presentable before I saw Pa again.
"You okay, Kid?" Pa asked, peeking into the room.
"Yeah!" I managed to say in the peppiest tone I could muster up. Pa didn't look convinced, but I did have reason to not be one hundred percent myself right now.
"Let's go get you some food, then." Pa escorted me out, navigating through the underground tunnels as if he had been living down here all along. He hadn't, right?
I was questioning everything, and I was half-convinced I was in some sort of dream. Maybe my subconscious was creating this fantasy — I had heard your brain could do that before you die. Maybe, I was dying.
After entering a new hallway and through another metal door, there was a cafeteria with at least twenty people milling around, eating, and conversing. Smiles were on a lot of their faces, and they were all dressed like people from the Borderlands. Many of them I could recognize — after all, everyone knew everyone in the Borderlands. But there were a couple of people unfamiliar to me, which was startling yet again.
"What's goi--"
"Sage, sweetheart," Pa turned to me, his eyes softened. "Memphis told me you had quite the birthday celebration. I think you deserve some rest and a nice, warm Gran cooked meal before you start asking your questions."
Hearing the mention of Gran, I instantly asked, "Gran? Where is she?"
It was as if just muttering her name had summoned her, as she popped her head out the cutaway window to the kitchen. She waved furiously, splattering the food that was on the utensil in her hand all about. I sighed deeply, waving back at her.
Once again Pa started guiding me about to an empty table to sit at. We had just sat down when Gran came scuttling out, her apron caked with different foods.
"My flower!" she exclaimed, embracing me in a soul-crushing hug. "I was so worried about you. You know how worrisome I can get. Pop thought I was going to die from worry, and for a little bit, I thought I was going to, too!"
"I'm glad you're doing good now, Gran," I hugged her back. "I'm sorry to give you a fright."
"Don't worry, Sage. Pa put some sense into that friend of yours."
"Pa! What did you do to Memphis?" My eyes bulged out.
"Nothing he can't recover from," was his only reply.
Gran kissed me on the forehead till she chatted our ear off about how hectic the kitchen was and how she had to go back immediately unless we wanted the place to burn down. Shortly after she went back to the kitchen, our food was served to us. Chicken noodle soup. My heart swelled. Gran had made it just for me.
Pa sighed. "Sage, I know you must be confused about everything right now, but we'll tell you everything once you're rested and well-fed. I promise."
"We?" I asked with a mouth full of soup.
"I've kept things from you these past few years that I shouldn't have. You're my little girl, but when —" his voice cracked — "when I thought I lost you, I knew keeping you in the dark was hurting you more than knowing the truth. Prepare yourself, though. They're going to offer you a proposition, and I don't think you'll like it."