Authors: J. F. Jenkins
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Zes stared at Anj, frowning with worry. His brother wouldn't wake no matter what he tried. Shaking, banging things, nothing worked. Anj still slept. Zes checked to make sure he was alive before calling the teachers. Mr. Thantos arrived shortly with members of the medical staff.
“And you say he has not awoken yet today?” Mr. Thantos asked.
“Yeah.” Zes rubbed his arms. “In the morning I figured he just needed to sleep in or something, so I went to class. You know how he is with sleep. Sometimes it's great, other times not so much. When I came back this afternoon to check on him and found him still sleeping, that's when I tried to get him to wake up. And I felt how cold his skin was and⦔
I thought he was dead even if he was breathing.
Mr. Thantos nodded then put his ear to Anj's chest. “His heart rate is a little slower than normal. His breathing is the same. He is clearly in a deep dream state, but I am not sure why he will not wake.”
Hope filled Zes for a moment when Anj's arm moved and scratched an itch, but his brother's eyes never opened. Outside of briefly changing position, Anj didn't move any further.
“I don't get it,” Zes said.
If he's doing this to mess with my headâ¦
“Did he mention anything happening last night?” Mr. Thantos asked, now checking Anj's pupils.
“We didn't talk much,” Zes replied. “He went to go study and went straight to bed when he got back. It was kind of early, but again, I didn't think much of it.”
“The way his eyes are moving suggests that he is in the dream stage of his sleep cycle. I am sure you are aware of how peculiar this cycle is for him.”
“Sort of.” He frowned. Even Mr. Thantos knew more about what was going on than Zes did. “So what's gonna happen now?”
“He will stay here. I do not feel comfortable moving him. There are a few things about his condition I need to research. Physically, everything seems in order. The medical staff has not found any head trauma or anything else that might cause him to enter into a coma. I do sense something is amiss here, but I cannot quite put my finger on what is wrong with this room. For now, I would recommend getting something to eat,” Mr. Thantos said, and practically shoved Zes out of the bedroom door.
“But Iâ”
Mr. Thantos's dark eyes locked onto Zes's. “Let me be blunt. The things I am about to do could possibly hurt you, because the demons have branded you. I do not wish for that to happen. Please go for only a moment. If your brother awakens, I will be sure to tell him you will return shortly.”
Zes averted his gaze. “Fine.”
He left the dorm, but the last thing he felt was hungry. Instead, he wandered around the campus, aimless, lost in thought and emotions. His first instinct was to blame himself even if he hadn't actually done anything.
If we hadn't fought, then he wouldn't have left. What if something happened while he was gone? I lost him again when I should have been watching.
“No,” he said aloud. “Don't go down that what-if path. Anj won't like it.”
“Zes?” Cheyenne asked from nearby.
He saw her crossing the campus courtyard, approaching him slowly as if he were some kind of dangerous animal. Inside, he wanted to run, turn around and go the other way, and pretend he didn't notice her. Yet there was something else conflicting with that desire and telling him to run into her arms instead. For the time being, he pushed aside whatever was happening between the two of them and walked toward her.
Cheyenne hesitantly put her hands on his bare arms, and he realized then that he hadn't even bothered to bring a coat. The cold of winter finally hit him, replacing the numbness he'd been feeling before. Her fingers traced the brand on his arm, and it filled with a warmth that radiated throughout his body. She must have felt it too, because she pulled the hand that had been on his wounded arm away as if she had been burned.
“Your skin is like ice,” she said. “You need to come inside.”
“I'm fine.” He shook his head.
“Please, come inside,” she urged, and pulled him back to the dorm.
Reluctantly he followed, letting her touch him and hold his hand. She unlocked the door and brought him to the girls' side. Visiting hours were in session, so it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Once they were inside her room, she grabbed a blanket and put it around him before forcing him to sit on the couch.
“Do you want anything to drink?” she asked from her kitchen.
He shook his head. She made something anyway, because a few seconds later he could hear the microwave going.
When she sat down with him on the couch, she had a mug of tea. She handed it to him. “I don't want you to get hypothermia. What were you doing outside without your coat? It's freezing outside.”
“Didn't cross my mind. I was told to leave by Mr. Thantos, so I did.”
“Leave? Why? What's going on?”
Zes eyed her from across the couch, uncertain of what he should tell her, if anything. Their eyes met, and he couldn't help it. He had to tell her everything, starting from the fight he'd had the day before with his brother and up to the mysterious coma now plaguing him. By the end of it, he felt as if he were having a mental breakdown. She put a hand on his shoulder, but he flinched away, hunching forward and hiding his face in his hands.
“I'm so sorry,” she said. “For everything. Not just what happened with us but everything.”
“I'd say it's not your fault, but I don't want to lie,” he mumbled. “Maybe not all of it, but⦔
“Things would have been different,” she said. “I don't expect you to take me back, and maybe that's for the best. The things I feel for you areâ”
“I don't want to hear this right now.”
“But it needs to be said! So let me say it, and then we won't ever have to talk about it again, okay?”
He growled. “Fine.”
She took in a deep breath. “The things I feel for you are powerful. We've been through a lot, shared a lot, and you'll always be special to me. I don't want to lose the bonds we have, but I know it's going to take some time for you to get over what I did. I just want you to keep an open mind about being friends. Because when things like this happen, I want to be able to help you, to comfort you, to support you. Both you and your brother mean a lot to me. I screwed up. We both did. There's a lot I wish I could take back right now. Not so much the fact that we ever were a couple, butâ”
“Right,” he said. “Don't elaborate please, because that's a topic I definitely do not want to discuss.”
“I don't either. And I think that's everything I want to say about âit' anyway.”
Sleeping together was a big mistake. Yeah, I feel the same way. I wish we hadn't moved so fast without thinking.
But he meant it when he said he didn't want to talk about it, least of all with her. So he only nodded. “Not having you around is weird. You being around would be, as well. Maybe someday we can be the same kind of friends we were before all of this happened, but right now I have a lot of stuff to get over first. I'm willing to⦠to at least let you sit with us at lunch again and⦠try. But not if Denver's there.”
“No, of course not.” Her eyes welled up with tears, which she wiped away immediately. “Thank you. It's so much more than I deserve.”
“Sure thing,” he said.
You got that right.
But for some reason, he couldn't let her go.
“What can I do to help your brother?” she asked.
“I wish I knew. Nobody knows what's going on. Hopefully, whatever Mr. Thantos does will give us some answers. But if you hear anything, let me know?” He didn't want to flat-out ask her to use her Divine connections or whatever connection she had to the underworld to find something out. She knew what he meant, though. The way her body tensed up and she chewed on her bottom lip was a dead giveaway.
“If something comes up, I'll let you know.”
“Thank you. It means a lot.”
“It's the least I can do. And with the way Mr. Thantos talked about your burn, I can't help but wonderâ”
“If this might be demon involved?” he asked.
She looked away. “You should get back to him. I didn't mean to keep you.”
“Right. I'll, um, see you around.” He didn't let her hug him good-bye, nor did he wait for a wave. Zes silently left the room and returned to his own.
The instant he touched the doorknob, he felt searing pain on his hand. “Ow! Why does itâ?”
Mr. Thantos opened the door and shook his head. “Just as I feared. It is connected to the Dark. When I put up the wards, there was a spiritual force repelling me. Anj reacted strongly to it and woke up in a lot of pain.”
“But he's awake now?” Zes's eyes widened with hope.
“No. He fell unconscious again as soon as I stopped creating the ward. It was supposed to break all current connections with the Dark, and that is what concerns me the most. I had to break the ward because it was hurting him so much, killing him even. I will have to do some research. The most I can do for now is keep anything else from entering the room. Unfortunately, because of your brand, it is confusing you with a demon.”
“Right,” he managed to say. “So where am I supposed to go now? And how come I don't have problems with any of the other wards around here?”
“You still feel pain in your arm, yes?”
Zes nodded.
“Then you react to the other wards. They are simply different, and thus your reaction is. As for where you will stay, I am sure you can room with another friend?”
“I'll figure something out, I guess,” he said. “But I don't want to leave him alone, you know?”
“I will be here, and there will be others as well, I am sure. Jewl has expressed interest in staying, as has Teague and other friends.”
I can't be there, but everyone else can?
He tried to not let his hurt show. “I'll need some things.”
“I can collect them for you if you would be kind enough to provide me with a list.”
I'd rather not, but I guess I don't have a choice.
“Paper, please?”
Mr. Thantos left the doorway momentarily and returned with a sheet of notebook paper and a pen. He handed them to Zes and waited, black eyes never leaving Zes as he wrote a small list of his necessary things. His pillow, a blanket, a set of clothes for the morning, and the last stuffed animal his father had given him before he died. Some might think it childish, but it was the only connection he had left with his father and the only thing that could provide him with comfort.
“And my school bag, please,” he said as he handed the list to Mr. Thantos. It didn't take long for the dark angel to collect his things.
Zes clutched everything close to him and watched with defeat as the door to his room was shut. He sat down on the floor, propped the pillow up behind him, and covered himself with the blanket. Then he started on what homework he could to try and distract himself from worrying. It didn't help. He spent the night in the hallway.
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The dreams started shortly after Lucien had left Anj alone, and they were constant. Never before had he been hit with visions so strong and vivid. It shocked his body, making it tense and rigid and giving him no real break or rest. What would he give to stop seeing them and actually sleep! He had a hard time believing his actual physical body was unconscious.
“What have you seen?” Lucien asked from a darkened corner of the cell. Anj was losing track of when the demon entered and exited the dungeon.
“Everything,” Anj said. Most of his visions he wished he could forget. Like how the business trip his mother had taken over the holiday was in fact a romantic rendezvous with her boyfriend of the past four months. Because of the twins' fierce loyalty to their father, she had yet to mention having a new love interest. How many had she had in the past that he still didn't know about?
He also had visions of his brother: Zes sitting alone in a hallway, clutching a pillow and blanket; the deep, emotionally and physically intimate moments he'd had with Cheyenne; and the torture of the demons he'd had to endure because of her.
Most of what Anj dreamed was repeated in a cycle. All Lucien had done up until that point was watch him. Anj's answer must not have made him happy, because he grabbed the blue chain and pulled on it, hard. Again, Anj felt pain as if his spirit was being ripped away from his body.
“Don't smart off at me. I told you I need respect. Tell me what you see,” Lucien snapped, pulling Anj close so their faces were mere inches apart.
Anj's lips parted into a wide grin, and he laughed. “Are you sure the boys will be okay with this? Of course, what they don't know won't hurt them. When it's time, we'll tell them.” His eyes glowed a more vibrant blue than before. The glow illuminated Lucien's face. Anj could see two different images at once. While he stared directly at Lucien, the vision of his mother and her boyfriend overlapped right over his face. The words spoken in it were the same ones Anj had just said.
“I want to meet them,” her boyfriend said.
She kissed him over and over, whispering,
“I know, I know.”
Anj couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her so happy and normal.
Lucien, on the other hand, was frowning. “What are you babbling about, boy? This is of little use to me.”
“I don't control what I see. Everything is on repeat,” Anj managed to whisper once the vision faded. Soon, another would be taking its place and he didn't know if he'd lose control over his body again when it did.
“How interesting,” Lucien said. “I have something that will fix this.”
Anj couldn't respond. A new vision was beginning, and his brother was lying on the floor of the dorm building. Teague and Jewl walked up to him. Both were frowning.