Chapter 5: The Lady in Stone
**Note: This chapter does contain a bit of graphic detail (not sexual)and may not be as accurately depicted in the game. This is my own spin on it**
When I awakened, I expected to be in the same section of cave as I was before blacking out. Instead, I was in a lightly lit area on a smooth, comfortable patch of grass surrounded by water and small cliffs. The room was bare, the only true color there being the light from the bell looking flowers and the grass. Water could be heard silently swaying against the rocks, but otherwise the cave resided in silence. In the middle on a platform across from the one I was on stood a statue, carved entirely out of stone. It is a small beautiful woman with her large oval eyes staring sadly into the ceiling; her hands clasped together towards her chest in prayer. The dress she wore seemed simple, but from another angle, wings prodded out from her back in intricate swirls.
"She is beautiful," I whispered, letting a long, low whistle echoing off the cave walls.
"She is the Harvest Goddess badum!" A small voice bellowed out, nearly knocking me off the small island into the water from the sudden noise.
"Now look what you did badum! You startled her!" A huskier voice yelled, louder and deeper than the first voice, imbedded in what sounded like a further part of the cave.
"Please do not be afraid badum! We mean no harm!" A middle, almost childish voice quickly added from some other side of the cave. The sound of grass crinkling under footsteps filled the air over the rush of silence that soon followed after the voices. They sounded far away at first, as if from a distant land. They proceeded closer and closer, echoing louder and louder off the cave walls as they approached my location. I spun on my heels, drowning out the silent footsteps at first with my own twirl around the grass. Three small figures stood in the dim light, approaching cautiously as if I would freak out and harm them.
"W...who are you?" I asked, shaking slightly at the small elf-cookie-making-looking people. Each had a similar identity: short green hair combed back under a colored hat and wore a santa clause looking outfit that matched the color of the hat.
"I am Billy!" The blue bell sprite jumped up, his voice childish and light.
"I am Arthur.." The red bead sprite said in a small, quiet voice.
"I am Carlos!" The yellow voice bellowed, giving the cave a little shake from the voice.
"Right..." I mumbled, wondering what the hell I ate today to cause this illusion. The blue sprite Billy walked up, jumping up and down in his little foot frame.
"Jinx! You have to save the Harvest Goddess or the land will die!" Arthur stepped forward was well, over towering the Billy by only an inch.
"The humans have lost hope in her and to save herself, she turned into stone." Carlos came forward as well, the same height as Billy only a little wider.
"So we need you to collect notes. These can be done through various things like planting a tree and so forth. Things to make nature restore back to its original state." I nodded, absorbing in the information...sort of. It was hard to believe this statue could actually be alive or the little men in front of me appear to be real.
'I must have eaten something bad in my fridge last night...or maybe the assult from Blue did a number on my memory and now is making me hallucinate...maybe...'
"You!" A voice shouted, rocking the cave erratically like an earthquake. The shadow ran forward, nothing extremely prominent to determine the personal other than the cowboy hat. Jamie.
"You guys told her too? You have to stop telling everyone that can see you!" He glared, stressing the word 'her' as if I was a disease. My blood boiled, my fists clenching closed, building its own spit fire to match Mr. Arrogant.
"So what if I know? Obviously you are not doing a great job if she is still like this!" I bellowed in a low hiss. Jamie took his eyes off the small creatures, turning his glare in my direction. Fire brewed in his light blue eyes, darkening into a violent storm. He came up until we were chest to chest, his height over towering my own. I could feel the waves of hatred rumble through his body in tides, creating goosebumps. I looked up, testing him to try something and he returned the glare, restraining himself. I had a second to process a comeback when all of a sudden my head recoils to the side, a slight burning sensation resting on my left cheek. The scarf, which was worn from the day of Blue's attack fell off to the side as my head readjusted back into place. The sprites gasped behind me as the encircled bruise print encased my neck with a thick molten mix of purple and blue.
Jamie stepped back wide-eyed, fear flashing across his eyes for a brief second before returning to their original emotionless facade.
"Huh! You deserve that. It will be me that saves the Goddess! You will see!" He turned around, running out of the cave as if nothing had happened. I rolled my eyes, wincing slightly as the pain throbbed with the adrenaline. It was definitely going to be a bruise.
"You can stop gawking you know." I mumbled, picking up the scarf and rewrapping it around my neck. "I understand and I accept to help you."
"Thank you!" They chortled, the feeling of uneasiness lacing the air. I nodded, walking towards the direction Jamie had come from. The glow from within the cave began to dim as I proceeded forward; the grass melting into dirt and rubble as the mouth of the cave opened up. Water cried down the entrance in a rapid pace, encasing the world into a dark gray fog. It was still raining.
'Wonder how long I was in there...'
"Jinx! Come on Jinx! Where are you?" A voice shouted over the roar of the rain. A smokey gray figure ran aimlessly in the dark, accompanied by another faded figure.
"In here!" I shouted as loud as I could, feeling my voice crack at the end. The sloshing of footsteps grew louder and louder as the figures grew closer. Blue was the first to arrive, drenched head to toe in rain water. His cap was gone, flattening his hair down onto his scalp with single beads falling off straggled pieces of hair. His tan features slightly flushed from the cold rain, especially the bridge of his nose. Behind him Joe stood, his bandana completely ripped off and pocketed in his side pocket. Much like Blue's hair, his chocolate spiked cut fell flat.
"Thank god," Blue breathed, collapsing onto his knees. Joe smiled, a tight yet relieved smile. I blinked, just staring at the two boys who looked all but relieved to see me.
"When the rain started coming down badly and you were not behind me, I went to your house to make sure you got home alright. When I knocked at the door, Blue answered instead. When I asked if you came home he said that you did not and instantly freaked out." Joe elaborated at my confused expression. I nodded, taking everything in.
'Blue must of had some bad hangover to be sleeping that long in my house. Ellen must be really worried about him...'
"Jinx," Blue whispered quietly. He sighed, rubbing his lightly paled skin through his damp hair. "We need to talk when we get to your house."
"It is fine Blue," I smiled, wincing slightly as Jamie's mark sent a shock of pain up my jaw. Joe stepped forward, squinting slightly to see with what little cave light was left. Something warm brushed up against my left cheek, filling it with a calming sensation.
"Where did you get this little beauty?" Joe mumbled, gently stroking his fingers in a rhythmic up and down pattern. His hand was a little rough around the tips of his fingers, but he worked with heavy lifting and what not so I could not complain. Blue's head snapped up, much like his body in an instant. He pushed Joe away, examining the bruise with his own touch. Joe just sighed, shrugging his shoulders as he made a useful cave prop holder.
"Did I do this?" He whispered so low, my ears strained to hear it against the rain. I shook my head, brushing his hand aside.
"Fell face first into the cave when it started to rain," I lied, rubbing the back of my head. "You know how clumsy I am with tripping over flat surfaces and what not."
"Too true!" Joe laughed from his corner of the cave, the deep hearted laugh sounding louder as it danced along the walls. Joe squished his way over, bending down so his eyes were aligned with my chest. As I was about to yell, my feet gave way from the ground and instantly a wet warmth hit me. My eyes looked frantically up at Joe's who all but told them to shut up and deal with the help. I sighed, snuggling closer into the warmth.
'No doubt about it a cold was brewing under the skin for the three of us. I wonder if Alex will lecture me again...'
The rain shocked me out of my thoughts as it threw itself into my face as if it was an angry chick who just got her man stolen. Blue followed wordlessly behind, hiding behind his curtain of hair. We exchanged no words down the mountain or through the town and into the Clinic where Alex waited with his arms folded like a disappointed father.
"Hi Alex," I squeaked, coughing a few times as the chill finally hit me. He said nothing, but in his deep abyss for eyes told me I was in some deep shit. Alex walked over, snatching me from Joe's arms as an elderly woman approached the two boys with towels and most likely hot herbal tea.
"You are an idiot! Are you trying to kill yourself?" Alex screamed as soon as we were out of sight. I rolled my eyes, which he saw since he gave yet another glare.
"I am a big girl Alex. I can take care of myself."
"Of course you can," He snorted, sitting me upright on a white bed. "If you could, you would not have been so dumb as to get drenched and stay in a goddamn cave. It is like you are asking for pneumonia or something."
"Yeah yeah. I have heard this all before." Alex turned fully around from his little station, his right charcoal eyebrow raised.
"And yet you repeat the same dumb mistake again." He shook his head. "What am I going to do with you?"
*You are so dumb sometimes Jinx. If it were not for me, you would end up dead.*
I shivered as the memory appeared, goosebumps of fear lining my skin. Same dead words only lead to mistakes. Trust as an illusion to gain what 'he' wanted...what 'they' wanted. I shivered again, feeling as if their eyes were scanning me over again, watching, waiting, for something, for anything.
"I need you to take off your clothes, slip into these, and hand me your wet clothes cause who wants to sit in wet, uncomfortable clothes?" Alex pushed forward a simple white strapped bra and matching underwear. Underneath it sat a forest green tee shirt and black slacks. The color drained from my face when I realized he meant everything off, including the scarf which hid Blue's secret.
"Do you have another scarf by chance?" I mumbled quickly. He raised his eyebrow again, shaking his head left to right.
"I do not see why you need one in the middle of spring to be quite honest. The bathroom is two doors down on the right. I will have my assistant Gina take your wet clothes for you." Before I could utter another word, Alex ran out with a clipboard in hand. Most likely to check out his other patients.
"Shit," I mumbled, running my fingers through my damp hair. I followed the never ending white tile to his instructions only to behold yet another white object. The gold colored knob looked completely out of place and possibly an old thing of sorts, but it quietly clicked open to reveal the bathroom. Despite all the white outside, the bathroom itself was colorful from the aqua to navy blue spotted tiles on the floor to the beach sand and sky wallpaper. Even the shower curtain to my surprise grew palm trees from the base of the tub to the tip of where it hung with brightly colored green leaves. As the clothing was shed from my body, I winced at the markings around my neck. In the chill of the air, it was much more pronounced with a darker shade of purple along with the handprint on my face courtesy of the asshole Jamie.
For an instant through the mirror, a pair of eyes glared from the corner of the frame. I spun quickly, checking back at the mirror again only this time they were gone. I sighed, placing my hands on the sides of the sink for support.
"They have no idea where you went," I whispered, looking up into the mirror again. The calm blue sky and warm sand only reflected back. "There is no way they can track you out here. No way..." Goosebumps hilled my skin with a bitter cold, not from being naked, but from the stare of those all too familiar eyes.
After a warm shower with much contemplation on how to hide the mark, I finally came up with a cover up for now. The fluffy warm towel that felt like a warm cloud would be wrapped around my neck and hang off my shoulders as if to keep my wet hair from hitting the clean clothes.
"So you are done now Jinx?" A warm voice hummed as the bathroom door opened. A girl around my age, maybe younger stood in front of me with another towel in hand. Her light robin egg colored hair was neatly braided into two pigtails residing on the side of her head. Her copper tone eyes hid behind large harry potter circular looking glasses. Just by looking at her outfit, her favorite match up is a light spring morning blue and the darkest of night black.
"You must be Alex's assistant. Thank you for the clothes." She giggled, a faint blush crossing the bridge of her nose.
"It was no problem really. I mean...yeah...oops! Umm I mean yes I am...Ah goddamnit!" She cursed at her self, the blush fusing her face to a pinkish tint.
"Sorry I just moved here from the city not too long ago and I have a hard time talking to new patients or people." She sighed. "I am Gina, pleasure to meet the infamous Jinx."
I rolled my eyes. "I guess Alex tells you I am a common customer here?"
"Yup! Martha felt bad about how you were the only girl here and as girly as Alex can be, she thought by having me here it would make things more comfortable."
"Martha?" A lightbulb must of went off in Gina's head since her face lightly blushed again.
"Where are my manners? Martha is my grandmother who helps Alex out around here, especially with pregnancies." She shuttered. "You never want to see those here. It is so strange how a big headed thing comes out of something so small..."
"So I am girly now Gina?" A male voice echoed down the small hallway. Gina whispered a small 'oh shit!' before smiling slightly at Alex who stood with his arms crossed, a playful smirk on his face.
"Now who in the world would say that about you?" Gina looked toward me. "Did you hear anything about him being girly Jinx."
"Not a word," I replied with my own smile. Alex laughed a light, airy laugh, shaking his head as he walked away. Gina and I followed behind him, making small comments about how Alex walked. Especially Gina who nearly had me in tears when she whispered, "Work that butt baby! Shake what your mama gave you!"
When we all eventually stopped, everyone stood in the main room of the hospital. Joe making himself comfortable on one of the beds was the first to spot me.
"Hey Jinx! Come bunk with me! I do not rape much!" Alex threw what looked like a dinner roll at Joe's head with a successful hit. He ate it anyway whether it was fresh or not. Ew. Joe sat with his lower half covered under the blankets; however, his upper half bore a similar tee shirt to me only a striking yellow instead of green. His hair started to dry and slightly curled at the tips around his face. Something he was trying to hide since his hand was constantly in his hair patting patches of the curls down.
"Hey doc you are out of her..." Blue stopped head in his tracks when he saw me. His eyes laced around where the towel lay.
"Ah yes Blue I gave you and Joe the last of it. Remind me in the morning to run out and get some." Alex nodded from his corner of the room where he proceeded to check up on Joe.
"Oh!" I bowed to both boys. "Thank you for finding me and most likely getting life threatening sick as Alex puts it." Alex gave a playful glare from the corner of the room while Joe waved it off.
"You are our friend Jinx, of course naturally we will be worried about your idiotic self." Joe smirked, wincing as Alex hit his head with the little hammer thing they use to test reflexes.
"Stop messing with the sick girl or no food for you." Joe pouted, but said nothing as I let out a wind of coughs.
"Lovely," I sniffed, finally regaining air after what felt like days. "Do not mind me too much with the coughing I have a lot of problems with it when I am sick."
"Jesus Jinx! You scared me!" Gina said from beside, slightly petting my back. "Almost thought I had to preform CPR and I love you girl I do but not enough to go lesbian on you." We looked at Alex.
"Do not look at me, I would of had one of the boys do it."
"I would do it!" Joe screamed happily followed by an 'ow!'.
"Anyway," Alex looked back at Joe. "Feel free to use any of the cots laying about Jinx. After I check on Blue's condition and call up their parents I will have a look at you alright?" I nodded, watching as Alex took a distraught Blue away. Gina ran to his side, grabbing random tools as she passed various desks before disappearing behind a curtain. The room slightly darkened as he went by the light switch in case, I suppose, if we wanted to sleep.
"Come here for a second Jinx. I promise no funny business." Joe tapped the empty space beside him and I obliged, taking a comfortable seat next to him. He wrapped his arms around me, rubbing his hands up and down to take the bitter edge of cold off.
"You know, I use to have a mother once, she was very pretty just like you." Joe started, startling me with this information. "She would always make homemade lunches for me and my father when he worked late at the mill. I remember it all clearly. A sunshine filled smile with calming sea blue eyes and the smell of honey suckle, her favorite flowers. We always had our neighbors, Kurt's family over for dinner every night."
"You and Kurt are not related?" I gasped, feeling kind of bad for interrupting his tale. He smiled, as if he had heard the same proclamation before.
"We look similar but we are not related by blood. Although, considering all the years we played together he is my brother in some ways." He playfully glared. "Now wait until the end to ask questions."
"One night, my mother fell ill which happened a lot due to her lack of immunity to things in the city. The doctors felt that it would be best to move her here, to Flowerbud where we met Woody who is more like a grandfather to us. She began to get better, I remember seeing her outside often cuddling with father when the fireflies came out." His face darkened; the air becoming thick with tension and grief.
"She collapsed one night and we brought her to Alex's father. He said that she was having a heart attack but at the time, we could not pin point why. She died with very night in this bed." He rubbed the sheet as the memory rewound in a painful circle.
"Even in near death, her smile still lit the room with a little warmth, a little hope, as if she would pull through. To sit up again and hug her husband and child. To have the smell of fresh baked lunches and honey suckles around the house to a point a person could get drunk off of the smell. Yet, she had let go, entering the world of no return and darkness." A tear silently fell down his face.
"Sometimes when I close my eyes, I see her smiling at me, telling me that she is proud of what I have done. But when I reach out to hug her one last time, she vanishes into nothing but an illusion. Alex's dad, when they did her autopsy, told my father she had ingested a poisonous plant thinking it was most likely edible, but it was in fact lethal. Whether it was on purpose or accident I do not know, but my mother, although she always smiled, there were times I would hear her painful sobs in the middle of the night, praying to the goddess for help. She was ill with a rare disease I once over heard. Something that slowly eats away at your internal organs until your body breaks down and collapses. I did not want her to suffer but," he sniffed, clutching tighter around my shoulders. "I wish I could go back and give her one last hug before she died. To tell her I loved her and that I love everything she ever did for my father and I."
"Joe..." Joe sniffed back a few tears, trying to regain composure.
"The funeral was held at the church in town and Kurt arrived alone with a scowl on his face. When I had asked my dad where Kurt's family was, he said they had a terrible accident and could not attend. I went to talk to Kurt, but he shoved me away, panic rising into his eyes. That is when I noticed under the cuff of his sleeve a deep burn of some sort imbedded into his wrist. At the time, I assumed they were hit by a car or something and that Kurt could not deal with their pain, but it was much worse. Kurt's house was broken into one night by a local gang from the neighboring city. They tied him and his father up, raping his mother right in front of them. Once they finished, they shot her in her abdomen and stomach to let her suffer until her death. When you get hit in those spots, there is no way to really live unless swift action is taken, but she bled so quickly, so profusely, she knew she was a goner by the puddle forming under her. His father broke free, attempting to beat them up, but one man off to the side shot him clean in the head. He fell to the floor wide eyed staring right at Kurt as his own blood mixed with his mothers. That is when they turned to Kurt." Joe shivered as if he himself lived the memory.
"I will let Kurt tell you when he is ready. It took him a long time before he told me and I guess that is why I keep light of everything. To make up for his horrible childhood and to make my mother proud of me." By now, silent tears fell down my face as my brain processed the information. To have so much done so quickly was unbearable and even without Joe telling me Kurt's details, I had a strange feeling I knew what he went through.
*Tie her up! We cannot have her running for help!*
"A similar situation," I mumbled under my breath.
"That is why I want you to be friends with Kurt. Maybe it will show him life is not as bad as he perceives it." Joe smiled, wiping the tears as they fell down my face. I smiled a tear filled smile.
"I will try Kurt. I will try."
"Jinx please come here so I can check your wounds." Alex called quietly into the room. Joe gave a sad smile, but quickly wiped any evidence of my tears off my face. Alex waited patiently, taking my hand to guide me in a similar direction they took Blue. He knocked on one of the white doors, and Blue stepped out, keeping his head low. He followed the path back to the room.
"Gina you are dismissed. Go get some rest for tomorrow." Gina bowed, giving a small wave as she ran further down the hall towards the right. He silently closed the door, gesturing me to take a seat on the crinkle paper of fun.
"Take the towel off your neck Jinx." My eyes grew wide and I shook my head.
"Take it off."
"No."
"Jinx..."
"No!"
"Damn it Jinx! Blue told me what he remembers so let me see!" My eyes grew wide with fear as Alex let out a frustrated breath. I slowly let the towel drop onto my lap, still damp from my hair which hung in waves around my face. Alex walked forward, tracing the pattern on my neck from the drunken encounter.
"He did quite a number on you didn't he?" He stepped back, the coolness from his hand dissipating. "For now, I will give you medical tape to put around it but you will need to hide it unless you want to explain what happened."
"I know..." I sighed, relieved he was not flipping out at Blue. "Jamie also did a number on my face too."
"That does not surprise me," Alex breathed under his breath. He shoved a foggy glass of water, most likely laced with pain killers, and I downed it gratefully. "Feel better?"
The energy surged from within my stomach in minutes, fueling my body with some sort of numbing agent. The sting from my cheek and neck disappeared in minutes.
"Much. Thank you." Alex ushered me off to bed, heading the same way Gina went most likely to his own bed for a nights worth of rest. When I returned to the room, it was tinted with a much darker grey than before, but the shadows of the bed is easy to depict. Joe had pushed another bed next to his which lay bare of any body and was sound asleep in his own. Blue, who must of saw Joe's intention, pushed his bed on the other side of the empty bed where he too is sound asleep. I smiled, quietly walking to the center bed and climbing over the end to get in. I sunk comfortably into the middle, laying flat on my back and pulling the covers up. The room felt at ease, the light snores from both boys making the room less lonely unlike my first night here. The dream world began to pull me under, but right before it did, I could of sworn I felt a warmth on both of my hands.