Chapter 7: Sick of it

Garfield sat in his kitchen, he was lightly snacking on some leftover tofu. Raven was in her room sleeping. He couldn't stop thinking, about her, about Rorek.

How could someone be so evil? Rorek locked up people he saw as special. That scream, that scream was from insanity. He was a madman. He drove innocent people to the point of insanity, and nobody could stop him. Somehow he always turned the table on them. And right now Garfield couldn't take that chance, not with Raven here.

If Garfield went to jail, Raven would be forced under Rorek's "Care". He couldn't have her, not now, not ever.

He closed his eyes in anger, he wanted so badly to help those people. But he couldn't, he was helpless against him.

A whine broke Garfield out of his thought, he looked to his side when he felt weight on his leg. Beast had placed his head on his leg, he felt his master's sadness and anger.

"Hey buddy, I'm fine…" He patted the dog on the head. "You're a good boy…" The dog barked with joy when he felt his master's happiness rise. Garfield smiled.

After getting some coffee he sat down with Raven's papers. Anything from what she had told him to her health status. He looked over one file labeled Family. He couldn't really stop thinking about Aaron.

He was alive and knew Raven was, but didn't tell her. Garfield was a little angry at him for doing this, if anyone thought they had lost everything, they would probably be happy to know they hadn't. Garfield growled to himself, how could someone do something like this?! To family!

All he wanted was to run up to Raven and tell her that Aaron was alive.

But…

He made a promise. Don't tell her, even though it hurts.

Shaking his head, he looked down at other files. His eyes landed on one in particular, it was only one piece of paper with two words. Magic and Unknown. "Huh…" He scratched his chin. "That's strange…"

A sneeze from above him made him look at the stairs. Raven walked down with a blanket wrapped tightly around her.

"Morning…" She muttered. Her voice cracked and she sniffed a few times.

"Are you okay?" He asked as she sat down in front of him.

"I don't know… I just." She let a loud sneeze. "Don't feel so good."

"Looks like you catched a flu." He smiled gently at her.

"That explain the headache and why I'm freezing." She wrapped the blanket around her tighter.

Garfield gently rose from his spot and placed his hand on her forehead, he quickly took it away as he felt his skin burn. He furiously blew on his hand trying to ease the pain. "You're really hot!" He yelped.

Raven giggled. "Hehe… Really now…." She teased.

Garfield caught up with what she was saying and fell out of his chair. "Raven!?" He yelped.

"I know what you mean…" She sighed, before rubbing her head in pain.

"Come on…" He gently took her hand and lead her to the sofa. "I'll call Vic, that fever was really high." She nodded and sat down. "Want anything?" He asked.

"No…" She shook her head before sinking into the blanket.

"Okay." He picked up his phone and called Victor. "Hey Vic, you mind coming over, Rae is sick and-"

"..."

"Yeah I know, but she's got this really high fever. I think I got burn marks on my hand." He waved his hand in front of his face.

"..."

"Stop joking… I-"

"..."

"Alright, just come as soon as you can." He hung up and turned to Raven. "He'll be here in two hours, he just had to finish some tests on another patient." Raven nodded with closed eyes before she fell into a trance.

Garfield noticed her sudden tiredness and sat down next to her. She started to lean on him resting her head against his shoulder. He gently lifted his hand to her head, just as warm. He let her rest her head against him.

She started to shake softly, Garfield pulled the blanket up to her chin, but when she didn't stop. Garfield looked at her, her eyes seem to be forced shut. He gently began to rock her in his arms. "Shh… I'm here..." He whispered.

The doors to his house opened with a click. Garfield thought it was Victor as the person came into the living room. But when he looked, he was shocked to see Aaron.

"Aaron? What are you doing here? I thought you didn't want Raven to know you were… You know… Alive."

Aaron chuckled. "I know, but I sensed her nightmare." He pulled something out from his pocket, a small dark oak wooden box with a rudy raven on top. "This is her old music box, it was hers when she was young and I wasn't there to help her with her nightmares." He opened the box and soft beautiful tone began to play. Garfield noticed that inside the box was two small dancing ravens circling each other.

"Wow, that's beautiful." Garfield said as Aaron placed the box on the table, he noticed that Raven had stopped shaking. "I think she caught a flu, is there anything I should be worried about?"

Aaron nodded. "Her powers will lose some control, things may explode but-"

"Explode?!" Garfield interrupted.

"Yes, but that's rare. When she's sick she's really weak, the shadow souls will try to catch her. She's a powerhouse, if they happened to catch her, get me there. At that point it won't matter whenever she see's me alive or not. Raven is… Vulnerable." Aaron looked at Raven with a sad look.

"Do you know if it's just a flu or not?"

Aaron walked over to the sleeping form of Raven and placed his hand on her forehead. "It's just a flu. Your friend is a doctor right?" Garfield nodded. "Good, she need a lot of attention when she's sick, if not… The shadow souls could get her." Aaron looked at Raven with a sad frown, his hand moved from her forehead to her chin. "I miss her so much…"

"I'm sorry." Garfield muttered.

"Don't be, without you she could have been in the hands of Rorek. You may not know this, but Rorek is in the same family as Malchior. And if my sources are correct, Malchior is somehow still alive, even though I know I killed him." He began to walk back and forth around the living room.

"But if you know he's dead, how could he be alive now?" Garfield gently began to stroke Raven's back.

"I have felt Raven's nightmares, that nightmare she had the other night when she got that scar. That wasn't a nightmare, it was Malchior searching for her. Malchior has been crowned as the Shadow king as far as I know, he's after Raven's power and if we or I don't stop him he'll use Raven against me."

"What?" Garfield asked, he was one: Stunned, two: Shocked and three: confused.

"Malchior was Raven's fiance as he called himself, but I know he didn't love her. She didn't love him either. I was the next king in line of Azarath, but Raven was still magical and powerful, if Mal here was to marry her, he would gain control over her." Aaron stopped walking and sat down.

"How?"

Aaron raised an eyebrow before letting out a sigh. "You mortals are confusing. Me and Raven are immortals, we're not humans. That's why I have survived, Raven was put to sleep so she is still 17, but I was awake and aged so I am 9025." Garfield jaw dropped.

"But you look like you're only 25!"

"I made so my physical for stopped aging, my soul is 9025. Raven's sleep has blocked any kind of magic, aging, physical needs like eating." He shook his head. "But that doesn't stop her powers. You noticed the cage right?" He asked.

"Yeah it was weird the bars weren't even straight." He scratched the back of his head.

"That's right, because Raven's mind created a spell before it was shut down. Her mind knew she would sleep for a long while so they put up a cage around her to stop anything."

"But I opened the door…" Garfield said with a tilt of his head.

"Yes because she wanted to be found, if it had been anyone threatening it would have shocked you." Garfield stiffened. "Lucky for you, Raven is an empath and can tell the difference between danger and…" He looked him over. "... You."

The front door opened and sent Beast into a friendly jump into Victor's arms. Garfield looked towards the door. "That reminds me, why haven't Beast attacked you?" Garfield asked and turned to Aaron.

"Your dog seem to like our people." Aaron smiled before the window bursted open and he vanished like a breeze.

"Yo, Gar!" Garfield hushed him and pointed to Raven, who was still sleeping. The music box had stopped and so had Raven's nightmare. "OH! Sorry." Victor whispered.

"It's just a flu but I wanted to get it checked."

"Okay, first let me see this 'burn mark' you complained about over the phone." Garfield gave his hand to Victor, who looked shocked when he saw it was true. It wasn't bad or big scars, but enough to prove his point.

Victor shook his head and turned to Raven. He placed his own hand on her forehead only to take it away seconds later. He pulled out a bag he had over his shoulder, he opened it and pulled out a stethoscope.

Garfield helped him get Raven out of the blankets, somehow she remained asleep. Victor placed the metal on her back, she jerked slightly from the cold metal.

"Her heartbeat it fine, she did have a high fever. Try get some ice." Garfield nodded and ran off to the kitchen. He returned with a small bag of ice cubes, gently placing it on Raven's forehead, she jerked out of the way a few times before adjusting to it.

"Is there anything that could help?" Garfield asked.

"Just keep her as her warm so she doesn't freeze, but try to get her fever down. You could make her some soup or maybe some tea would help." Victor shook his head. "I can't help more than that."

"Chicken soup?" Garfield asked with a grunt.

"That would help, but I don't know if she can eat it. Ask her when she wakes up." Victor got up and checked his phone and smiled and began to laugh. "I'll have to get back to the hospital. Kori texted me, Richard somehow broke his arm…" He laughed.

"I don't get what's so funny about it." Garfield muttered.

"He broke his arm trying to flirt with Kori in front of Roy, he was riding his bike. He leaned on it and it fell over him. Kori was there and beat Roy up when he started to laugh." Garfield laughed lightly. Kori wasn't the one to joke with when it came to people she cared about.

"So Kor got Richard to the hospital?" Garfield asked.

"Yeah, gotta go before she starts to yell at me for being late." Victor started to walk to the door.

"Just tell her Rae was sick, she'll probably drop by later because of that, and it'll give you an excuse. So you can't blame the traffic, because she never believes it." Garfield shrugged as he put the blanket around Raven again.

"Okay, see ya!" He locked the door behind him. Beast came running over to Raven and whined. He climbed onto the couch and curled up against her back.

"Beast…." The dog looked at his master and whined, before licking Raven's cheek and jumping off the couch.

Garfield watched as Beast placed his head in front of the sick girl. Garfield smiled before placing his own kiss on her forehead. "Sleep well…"

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