The Hunt For Jenna Mason

Chapter 6

What have you done?! My brain kept yelling at me. How could you do that?! With him?!

"Shut up!" I yelled, hoping for some peace. It was obvious I wasn't going to get some anytime soon though, because Hayarta came out of the bathroom, pulling on his black shirt as he walked. Once finished, he walked to his closet and picked out some boots that were hiding beneath a pair of pants.

"Who are you yelling at this time?" he queried as he started pulling on his boots.

I blushed and quickly looked down. What did you do?! I considered the question quickly, trying to fight the urge to hide. Obviously, I couldn't answer "me" and I couldn't say anyone else because he would know I was lying, so I didn't say anything. You can't lie if you're silent.

Hayarta straightened up and gave me an exasperated look, probably hoping for an answer but knowing he wasn't going to get one.

"Anyways," he started, hoping I would listen. He returned to lacing his boots. "I have to go to the surface with Marak today." He finished with his boots, strode around the bed, and reached for his black cloak that had... somehow... managed to... find its way onto my side of the room... "We're going to walk the border and make sure the elves are staying out."

Oh? That was interesting. And such great timing, too.

I tried not to let my excitement show on my face but I must have failed, because an embarrassed face is much different than an excited one.

"Don't go getting into trouble, Diem." Hayarta walked over to the bed, leaned over, and planted a quick kiss on me, pulling away before I could smack him. "I'm not going to be here, and Marak certainly won't be, so if you get yourself bitten again you're going to stay paralyzed until I get back. And that's going to be a long time. Probably a couple days." He ran his hand through my hair softly and stepped away.

Perfect. I just had to stop the crazy snake-thing from waking up and I was golden.

I was still sitting on the bed as I watched Hayarta grab his hat and his bag of items needed for magic. I had no idea what was in there besides the healing cream (I have a tendency to deplete his stocks), but I sure didn't want to know. It was probably a bunch of stuff that had revenge written all over it. He moved to exit the bedroom.

"I won't do anything to warrant that, thank you," I quipped back. I tried to muster some dignity as I spoke. "I'm going to be a perfect little angel."

Hayarta stopped at the door and laughed. It was a good laugh, a rich, deep, genuine laugh that no one heard except for me and Marak, and even then not often. Hayarta didn't have a sense of humor when he was working, which was all the time. He laughed so hard he dropped his pack.

After he had finished laughing, Hayarta stooped to grab his pack again and left the bedroom, making his way to the door that led into the hallway. I could hear Hayarta turning the squeaky doorknob (I should probably get that fixed) before I decided to act. I jumped off the bed and ran to the bedroom door.

"Wait!" I called, probably sounding desperate. "How long are you going to be gone for?" I gripped the stone of the doorway, trying not to let my anxiety show.

Hayarta turned back to me, amusement clearly showing on his face. I silently burned with embarrassment, seeing as I wasn't exactly... fully clothed.

"This is new. Why the sudden worry?" He smiled again. Is that a challenge?!

"Just answer the question," I shot back, hoping for a straightforward response. I reluctantly let go of the door frame and left the door to our room behind as I started walking towards Hayarta in all my messy-haired glory. I crossed my arms, hoping it would make him give me an answer. I slowed my steps gradually, hoping he wouldn't bail on me before I could reach him. I did not want him thinking I was going to attack him.

I was past the bookcase, where the book I had thrown yesterday rested.

Now I was past the chair I always sat in after visiting Jenna.

There goes the couch. Its eating my metaphorical dust! Not that I was going fast enough to kick up any...

I raised my hands, trying not to appear threatening, which was kind of ridiculous. I mean, who's the magical fairy-tale creature here, anyways?

When I was six or seven steps away from him, Hayarta grinned and pulled the door open. "Don't want to. You'll just have to wonder." He chuckled again as he walked out into the hallway, pulling the door closed with him.

I froze, in shock from not receiving an answer. I shook myself and then jumped the remaining distance to the door, stopping it before it closed. Hayarta was already halfway to the steps which led up to the royal chambers.

No! the voice in my head wailed. "Wait!" I yelled. "Don't tell Marak why you're late!"

"Sorry, Diem," I heard him call over his shoulder. "Goblins don't lie." And with that, Hayarta waved at me, started climbing the steps, and let his laughter float back to me.

.

XxXoOoXxX

I finally felt strong enough for another excursion three weeks into my hospital stay. I had a private room, which meant I was bored out of my mind. I didn't have a roommate to keep me up with moans of pain. Worse, I didn't have Jenna to tease. Honestly, what's the point of hospital stays if you can't bug the crap out of your roommate?

What did this call for? Operation: find Jenna's room. Yes, I knew it wasn't a cool name, but I was high on painkillers at the time.

My objective: find Jenna's room, steal her pudding, replace it with my jello, and leave, cackling like a mad bandit all the way.

This was a noble cause.

I decided to go with my previously scrapped plan. That's right. I was going to drag my IV drip around, mostly because if I didn't I would have to rip the needle out. No thank you.

This time when I stood up, my muscles didn't ache. They screamed. I grunted and sat back down quickly. I would have to find some way to carry my jello without hands. I needed both to hold me up on the stand. I couldn't put the jello on my head. I had never been able to walk with things on my head before, and doing so while leaning against a metal pole seemed like too much of a handicap. That plan was out.

I briefly considered putting the jello in my underwear, but that plan was scrapped almost immediately, for obvious reasons. I tried balancing the jello on the stand, but that thing had no flat surfaces and it wouldn't stay on when I jerked the stand around anyways. I eventually settled for leaving the jello, resigning myself to going without pudding.

This was a big sacrifice, and the whole point of Operation: find Jenna's room, was to replace her pudding for my jello. I was robbed of my righteous cause! I almost decided not to go, but I thought of how happy Jenna would be to see me, and that made me get up.

My muscles screamed at me again, rebelling against the sudden workload I had dared to place on them. My knuckles turned white from my grip on the IV stand, and my arms began to ache as they held part of my weight.

I don't weigh that much. Come on, wimps! Maybe calling muscles "wimps" isn't the best thing to do but it seemed to work for me as I was able to shuffle forward slightly. I dragged the stand with me as I slowly crossed the room, cursing the whole time.

I was supposed to start physical therapy in a week. Why not get a head start?

After the longest 6 feet of my life, I finally reached the door. I opened it cautiously, making sure no nosey nurses were watching. They would just make me go back to bed, and then where would my mission be?

The coast was clear, and I pushed my door open further. It was the type with hydraulics, making it shut automatically, which meant it was really hard to open. I used to think those doors were cool, because they kept the crazy patients from wandering around the hospitals. Now I was the crazy patient and I silently apologized to everyone I had ever laughed at. I chuckled quietly to myself, appreciating the irony.

My amusement flew away as the strain of opening the door took its toll on my muscles. Screaming doesn't quite explain what it felt like.

I didn't give up though, because I had a mission! And Jenna owed me a pudding anyways, just for being in a separate room and putting me through this hell.

Annoyance, frustration, and finally anger coursed through me as I tried to find the nurse's desk. If I got there, they would have to tell me whether Jenna was here or not. All I had to do was find it, but these hallways lasted forever!

I kept shuffling along, pushing my stand and hoping that I didn't tip it over. I didn't think I could get up if I fell now.

The hospital smelled like antiseptic, which is an awful smell on its own. What was worse was the faint smell of disease and waste hidden partially beneath the artificial clean, making it somehow even more disgusting than normal.

I had hoped I would be used to it now, but I was wrong. If anything, it smelled worse than when I had arrived.

The bright lights highlighted the white walls, making them brighter. It hurt my eyes, and I squinted as I continued my long journey to the nurses' station.

It can't be that far, right?

I looked behind me, and found I had only gone about twenty feet.

XxXoOoXxX

.

Heat traveled down my spine, and I shivered involuntarily. This wouldn't do. I had to leave soon.

I quickly took a shower and got ready for the day. Jeans, a t-shirt, and a cap seemed like appropriate attire. Absolutely no jewelry, although some went into my bag just in case.

I grabbed a length of rope from Hayarta's closet (don't ask me why he had it) and stuffed that in my bag as well. Another change of clothes thrown in, a pair of sneakers on my feet, and I was good to go. All I needed now was Jenna.

I quickly exited my rooms and headed up the stairs Hayarta had taken earlier.

As I climbed the steps I hummed quietly to myself. The tune was made up. I hummed whatever note came to me, even if it was out of tune.

I finally reached the landing I was aiming for and looked ahead. No guards were posted at the doors, which was kind of odd. Maybe the border was having problems.

I shrugged and continued on. After all, this made my job easier. I could go in, grab Jenna, and get out quickly.

When I finally reached the door, I pushed it open cautiously, hoping Jenna hadn't camped in front of it again. That would have been annoying. The door didn't meet with any resistance and I opened it fully, revealing the dark interior of the royal chambers.

Marak liked to keep his chambers especially dark. He said it was to keep his night vision sharp, which of course was the truth. However, I also thought that the darkness was for another reason. He didn't want to freak out Jenna too much.

Marak wasn't what you'd call... handsome. He looked like a monster fresh from hell, which was quite fitting, considering where he ruled. His body-shape was relatively normal, besides the pointy ears and the fingers that had one bone too many, but his features and coloring were anything but. His eyes were completely black (no pupil, no iris, no white; just black), which was scary enough, but his face and body were truly terrifying. Four fangs jutted out of his mouth, two pointing up and two pointing down. He had eyebrows, but other than that he was completely hairless. His skin was dark red, like he had been dipped in dye when he was little and had been bathing in it every day since. Red everywhere, except where cracks ran along, in a dried-mud sort of way. There, his skin was black. When he was younger, Marak had been hit by a spell, cast by the previous Elf King. This spell caused the jagged edges where the red and black skin met to curl up, like he had two separate skins that were battling. It was rather painful, which is why he wrapped himself in bandages that took on the color of his skin. With all these features combined, was it any wonder that I thought he was a demon?

I shuddered, glad that I was married to a "failure" of a goblin.

I shoved all thoughts of Marak aside and hoped that he and Hayarta were gone already. I checked the balcony but it was empty. I sighed and walked further into the suite, glancing around corners and looking under tables. When she wasn't on the balcony, Jenna had a tendency to hide. One time I found her wedged underneath the sofa side-table. Now that took some work to get her out without being bitten. I don't think I succeeded.

I finally found her in the bedroom, sitting on the floor in front of the closet. She didn't look up when I entered. The only reaction I could discern was the slight curling of her hands into fists, and the slight lowering of her head.

I sighed. This wouldn't be fun, but it was necessary.

"Jenna, get up," I commanded, hoping for some sort of response. After a moment she rose gracefully to her feet, raised her head, and looked at me. The spark in her eyes from yesterday still glimmered there, like the reflection of light from a mirror. Blinding, but you had to be at the right angle to see it.

I was definately at the right angle to see it, but it was only a spark. I needed a fire. I needed a blaze. I needed an inferno, because we weren't going to get out without her cooperation.

I glanced around quickly, making sure we were really alone. "Look, Jenna," I started, trying to keep my voice as soft and non-threatening as possible. "We're going to get out of here, but I need your help if you really want to leave." I noticed she was still in her pajamas. That wouldn't do. "Get dressed," I ordered.

I walked over to her dresser and opened the drawers one at a time, grabbing appropriate clothes and shoving them in a bag. When I finished I went for her jewelry, shoving in anything that wasn't obviously magical, until the bag was half-way full. I then turned around and saw Jenna zipping up a dress while trying to balance on a high pair of heels. That was my Jenna, always impractical to a fault.

.

XxXoOoXxX

After what seemed like three days I finally found the nurse's station. After she saw me the nurse immediately jumped up from her seat, wove around the mess that must have been behind the counter, and grabbed me like I was a million dollars about to blow away.

"What are you doing?" the nurse queried as she pulled me to a nearby chair.

"Uh," was my extremely eloquent response. Again, I blame the painkillers. I blinked a couple of times and tried again. "I uh... don't know?"

The nurse fixed me with an exasperated look. She looked fine, but I was obviously testing her patience. "Who are you? Let me see your bracelet."

I instantly covered my wrist with one hand and sealed my lips tight. Nothing getting out of here, lady. I'm not going back to that room!

The nurse had had enough and reached for my wrist. She tried to pry my fingers off for a few minutes. I silently struggled, gripping my fingers around my wristband tightly. Every time the nurse lifted one finger up and held it, I shook my arm (ow ow ow), loosening and then breaking her hold on me. The muscles in my arms protested, demanding that I give up quickly before I hurt them more. I tried to ignore them.

After about 5 minutes the nurse shoved my hands away from her, held up her hands in frustration and walked away, leaving me by myself.

I started to shiver. Cold air from a nearby vent blasted me, whipping my flimsy paper gown around. This hospital had apparently never heard of AC overkill.

As the cold air flew over my body, my shivering progressed to shaking. I clutched my gown closed in the back (seriously, why do they need to see my butt?!) and hoped that it would be enough. It wasn't. Like any self-respecting wind that is blocked by flimsy clothes, it just went straight through. It lanced through me with icy fingers and made my cells believe that warmth was overrated.

I sat in that cold plastic chair for what seemed like hours, but was most likely only minutes. A couple of voices soon floated to me down the hall.

"I'm telling you Jo, this girl... she's a monster! She won't even tell me who she is!"

What? Was she new? I had been terrorizing the nurses the entire three weeks I had been stuck in here. I would think most of the nurses hated me by now.

Soon, the nurse who had fought with me rounded the corner. "I have no idea what to do with her!" She was followed closely by the friendly, bathroom loving nurse who had found me on my previous excursion.

I sighed in defeat. She definitely knew who I was.

Jo took a quick look at me. My right hand was wrapped around my left wrist and my face was probably pale from pain. My teeth were making a lot of noise chattering. I was sure she could hear them.

"What are you doing out of your room Diem?" Jo inquired gently. She sat down beside me and gave me a small smile.

I hung my head in shame. "I'm looking for my friend," I mumbled. I didn't know if Jo understood me or not, but there was no way I was going to repeat myself.

Jo nodded, like she understood. "Well, this friend must be very important if you walked all the way out here. Is she a patient?"

"Yes,"I whispered. I slowly increased my volume as I said, "at least I think she is."

Jo nodded once again, as if she understood. She rose from her chair quickly and circled the counter. She seated herself at the computer and looked at me expectantly.

I looked at her, confusion clouding my thoughts. What did she want from me? Wasn't she going to take me back to my room?

My assumption was proven wrong quickly. "Well," Jo started. "What's her name?"

I genuinely smiled then. I sat up straighter in my cold hard plastic chair and proudly called out "Jenna Mason."

Jo typed quickly on the computer. She paused for a moment and scrolled down, reading names as she went. She must not have found anything, because she typed something again.

"Andy, go get Diem a blanket," Jo ordered. The nurse who had fought with me huffed and walked away. "Sorry, this is taking a little longer than I thought," Jo apologized. "The server must be bogged down or something."

I waited silently. Two minutes in, I started fidgeting. Four minutes in I decided to stand up and walk around, which didn't go so well. I hissed in pain as soon as my feet, specifically my right foot, took any weight. I slumped back into the chair and waited again. Jo started shuffling papers around and grabbed a few things from the counter behind her.

Five minutes in, Andy returned with a blanket. Jo stood from her chair and walked back to the front of the counter as Andy draped the blanket around my shoulders. Jo walked closer and I could see she was holding a few pills in her hand.

"Diem, take these. They'll help with the pain."

I didn't argue. I just asked for some water and swallowed them quickly.

"So," I said, once I was done taking the pills. "Are you gonna take me to see Jenna?"

Jo looked quickly at Andy and then back at me. She grimaced and then sighed. Hesitantly, quietly, Jo started speaking.

"Diem, there is no record of Jenna Mason being in this hospital. I decided to look up where the victims of the bombings were sent, to see if I could contact another hospital, but I found the casualties list instead."

I broke out in a cold sweat. My fingers clenched, crushing the paper cup I had previously drained. My heart ached, dreading the new I was about to hear. No no no no no. This can't be happening. Please tell me her name's not on that list!

"Her name wasn't on there. I'm going to get a list of all the hospitals in the area that took on survivors. I'll call them and tell you if I find her."

Oh thank goodness, I thought. At least she's still alive. I dropped the smashed cup onto the floor and fell asleep in the (rather uncomfortable) chair

XxXoOoXxX

AN: And you guys thought it would take six years to update. Ha! Don't worry, I may have lied about the six years, but it might take a little longer for the next one. This chapter is dang long. 3,754 words?! I think I just broke my word-count thingy...

I suppose I should put in another disclaimer. So, despite my best attempts, I still don't own anything. Well, this world isn't mine. And you can keep Diem. Hayarta is mine though! Back off foo!

And my beta Spoodles is made of pure awesome. Just saying ;)

I realize now that I didn't shamelessly beg for reviews last chapter. Let me correct that grievous error here.

Those who review get cookies?

SSK