Chapter 22: Illness

It hit's the compound three months after Raph is taken.

Slaves are dying left and right.

I refuse to work, keeping Gaeh and Aria out of the compound we hide away in a small cave with Yelgah, the woman that helped us so much.

An old woman, but the kind of woman who'd want for a grandmother. Raph trusted her completely, left Aria with the woman while he worked.

But I know I've caught it…I'm wheezing…blood stains my urine…chest pain has started…

I'm dying like the others…I can only hope that my son and my niece will live. I separate myself from them, sleeping away from them, as days pass the coughing starts, blood soon flecks my cheeks from the force of each cough.

Tears stream down my cheeks, I'll never see my son grow up, I'll have failed Raph again… won't be able to take care of my niece.

When the fever finally hits me, I'm too weak to fight back, coughs wrack my whole body, my ribs crack from the strength of the coughs.

A hand touches my forehead and I shiver, worried that whoever it is will soon follow my fate…

Then to my shock I'm being lifted, carried. My head rests on their shoulder as my body shakes from my attempt not to cough.

"Easy…," I hear…the voice is familiar…so…famil-

~*~

I'm in and out for I don't know how long.

Vaguely aware that I'm warm…wrapped in blankets…I taste clean water as my head is lifted and a…cup…a cup is pressed to my lips.

I cough seconds later…my whole body on fire with pain and fever.

Again I slip in and out, wrapped in warmth…

Where am I?

Gaeh?

Aria?

Yelgeh??

I so weak-…

~*~

I'm standing inside a slave carrier, Yelgeh, my son, and my niece are off to my left.

I'm still sick…my body aches…and cough…I still have a bad cough.

We're escorted off the slave ship and I stand, swaying, in a place all too familiar…Joban's…

My stomach clenches and I bolt as fast I can, away, as far away as I can get. I won't risk making these people sick…

I won't risk killing my friend.

Pain rips through my lungs as I fight to breathe. I see a fence ahead of me and jump it, just barely.

Another fence…I smell the electricity and the death.

I only hit it for a second before something knocks me off.

I'm aware I'm screaming…then I black out.

~*~

I shiver as something touches my head, a whisper, a voice that is familiar…Yelgeh?

I wake up days later, I learn and spot Raph shivering beside me, I curl close as I fight fearful tears.

I can't lose my brother…I can't.

Then he fever breaks later that night and he curls against me, looking like the little brother I remember from my childhood…the brother that would play with me, laugh with me…my best friend…

~*~

We're cured so the kids are allowed to come in.

By some miracle neither of the kids got sick. Gaeh clings to me and cries for a while before he falls asleep, Aria does the same, only to her sleeping father.

Raph wraps an arm around her and hugs her, whimpering a little when moving causes him pain.

I hurt too…but I feel a lot better than before.

Then one day he wakes up and stares at me in confusion, slowly he smiles…

My brother…oh my brother.

He hugs me tight, comforts me, the kids are out playing I told him.

I forget for a time about the shame I carry, about my lack of honor.

Later I try to tell him that I don't deserve my old name, he refuses to think of me as different and writes out Leonardo in bold, black, letters.

Glaring as he shows it to me.

I cry then, weep, but finally feel a little healed.

Not a day goes by that I don't wonder though…will my father make me commit Seppuku in front of my son?

I only hope I can run away from here before Raph drags me home and tries to prevent the inevitable.

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