The first rational thought that passes through my head is: Shoot, I fell asleep. But then I remember that I'm not in that blasted torture chamber anymore. No, now I'm in the infirmary at DWMA, but when I try to open my eyes I find they're still covered, though it's not the silk that was there before. Instead it's the same soft cotton bandages that cover pretty much covers most of my skin. My hearing's taking its own sweet time in waking up, but I think I hear movement in the room.
"Hello?" My voice comes out as a gritty whisper and I cough before I try again. "Hello?" This time it was a little clearer and someone (Stein?) answers.
"Oh, you're awake. How do you feel?" I shrug and silently rejoice when I can hear a bird in its nest a few blocks down.
"Numb. Can I take off the -" I gesture at the bandage, since I didn't know if I could still call it a blindfold.
"I thought there was a reason for it, like sensitivity to light or blindness. I had the silk strip washed, if you want it for sentimental reasons or something." I smile and probe the bandage for a way to get it off.
"Love's blind, me on the other hand? Not so much." I scratch at the bandage. "Could you help? I can't... find the..." Suddenly the cloth is undone and I'm blinking in the bright light coming through the window. When my eyes finally adjust my heart decides to skip a beat because there, across the room is a man. Not just any man, (after all, I knew Dr. Stein was male) but a man with a scar running diagonally over his nose and under his left eye held together by untidy, extremely noticeable stitches. His clothes looked like they were sewn by a six-year-old and followed much the same pattern of his face, but the weirdest thing of all was not his clothes or his face, but the abnormally large screw that's been stuck into his head. As I'm watching, he reaches up and turns it and it clicks as if it was hitting against something metal.
"Well, I don't mean to offend, but seeing you first thing after seeing nothing for a time is enough to give someone a heart attack." I smile to show him I'm joking and he chuckles while still turning the bolt.
"Yes, I suppose it would." We both smile and he's about to say something else when a girl's squeal and a groups laughter comes through the open window and interrupts him. It reminds me of the excitement in the city last night and while wrapping the bandage around my hand I casually ask,
"So, is there something important coming up soon? I get a really celebratory vibe coming from this place." I was talking complete nonsense and it was probably obvious, but I didn't feel like giving up any information to people I didn't really know yet.
"An anniversary, actually. The Kishin Asura died two days from now last year."
"Two days -?" I freeze. If there's only two more days until the anniversary, then I was in that solitary cell for two and a half weeks. Dropping the cloth I raise my hands to rub my eyes as an overwhelming sense of guilt washes over me. How many people did they capture while I was biding my time? How many people did the Darkness kill for fighting back? I quickly remember that Stein is still in the room and regain my composer, striving for a smile that I don't really feel. The two students who enter offer a welcome interruption to whatever Stein had taken a breath to say. One is a boy with snow-white hair and blood-red eyes and the other is a girl who looks a little like me, only with grayer hair, a smaller chest and shorter. My eyes are also brighter than hers, though I suppose that mine would be brighter than pretty much everyone's.
"Hello, are you feeling better?" I smile as I place the girl as Maka.
"A bit. I'm a lot less tired than I was yesterday at any rate." The boy who entered with her (who I've figured out is Soul) is leaning against the wall and closes his eyes, as if he'd rather be anywhere but here.
"Lord Death wants to speak to you in the Death room at 'the earliest convenience'." He makes air quotes around the last three words, making him seem not only uncommitted, but also incredibly sarcastic. He turns to Stein. "When do you think that would be?" Stein shrugs and looks to me.
"You'll have to ask her, most of the wounds aren't fatal, just painful. So it's really down to if she feels up to it or not." Maka and Soul look at me as well and now it's my turn to shrug.
"Might as well give it a shot." I fold back the covers and see I'm wearing pajama bottoms that are a couple of inches too short; probably Maka's. The tank-top is the perfect size so was probably borrowed from someone else since there's no way I could fit into anything Maka owned without showing more skin than I cared to. In one smooth motion I gracefully swing my legs over the edge of the bed and stand, only to find myself on my butt a second later. "Ouch?" Maka, Soul and Stein all rush over to help me up, but I shoo them away saying, "I'm fine! I just need to go a little slower is all." I use the bed side table to support my weight as I get back on my feet. My legs are still shaky when I put let go, but they're not going to give out on me again. At least, I hope not. "See? Fine." I dust myself off even though there's no reason to because I need something to do with my hands. "So, let's go!" I smile my most brilliant smile and gesture that the others should lead the way. "Well? What are you waiting for? Let's go meet Death!"
