Too Soon/Not Soon Enough
(Did you miss me? I know, right. Where has Sketch been for 3 years? Well, it's complicated, but I can explain it simply. I graduated from college and I spent a year writing my book. I spent the year after that getting it ready to be published. And spent another year trying to get it noticed—and also got a full-time job. The book is Deviants: Ignite, available on Amazon for digital download and paperback. Featuring characters that you saw before anyone else—Nikki, Christian, and William. I'm taking some time to step back from marketing it and the black hole of despair that brings me to get back to this lovely story with these lovely characters for you all to enjoy once again. I apologize for the long hiatus. And I can't promise regular updates like I used to. But rest assured, readers: I have not abandoned our Symphony.)
William slowly blinked away the blur from his vision then squinted in the bright light shining down on him. Stein hovered over him with a thread in his lips, pulling a hooked needle up and back down. Up and back down. William lethargically dragged a hand to his eye and rubbed, now feeling the slight tug on his skin where the scientist was stitching him up. "Fuck," he mumbled.
"Fuck indeed," Stein said around the thread in his lips. He finished closing the wound and used medical tweezers to tie a knot.
He tried to lift his head to have a look, but he couldn't manage it. He was either too weak from his injuries or Doc had drugged him for the repairing process. "Am I gonna be okay?"
"Yep. But you aren't going to be doing much but going to class and sleeping for a while." Stein cut the thread and pushed his taped glasses up his crooked nose.
William watched him, still blinking through his fog. "I'm sorry. About your face."
"You said that already." The teacher strung out some gauze and some tape.
"Oh." William turned his head away.
"Thank you."
The pupil looked back to his doctor. "For apologizing?"
"For stopping me." Stein began taping patches of gauze to the treated holes in William's torso.
He blinked again. "… She hates me now."
"No she doesn't. She's already over it. Too worried about you." Stein tore some tape with his teeth and wiggled his lips around when it got stuck there.
William stared at the ceiling for a while now. He hoped he could face Marie again.
"Why the hell did you take on such a powerful Kishin mutt by yourself," the doctor asked as he taped up another hole.
"Why not," he replied lackadaisically.
Stein sighed his response. "Don't do it again." Without warning he pulled William's shoulders up to make him sit erect, eliciting a pained grunt from him. The instructor began wrapping gauze around his torso.
William looked to his arm to see a red tube attached to the bend. He followed it up to a bag of blood hanging next to him. It was almost empty. "That my first transfusion?"
"Yes. But you'll turn it black soon. I don't know how soon, so I'll have to take samples every day."
The student stayed silent for another moment before addressing him again. "This is gonna set us back a lot, isn't it. Practicing, getting ready to go to the East."
"Yes."
"How long before I can start again?"
He sighed again, this time through his nose. "Not as long as it would have taken if you were a meister and not a weapon. I'm going to guess around six weeks."
"Six weeks?" William said incredulously.
"You could start tomorrow if you hadn't been stupid." Stein cut the gauze and began to secure it in a large bandage. "Just remember that. You have no one to blame but yourself."
The young man leaned his head back and closed his eyes. "I know."
"I'm going to suggest Lord Death resonating with you."
William was surprised at the proposal and at the same time he wasn't. Part of him knew that was only a matter of time. "… Whatever makes me safe for Odette to resonate with. I'll do it."
"This is a process that can't be rushed like you want it to be, William. Lord Death's soul will be rough on yours—"
"I already know that." He turned his head away. "I remember. But if it's what we have to do, then we need to start as soon as we can."
"Not until you're healed."
William looked at him. "We don't have six weeks. Avetta and Carvahlo are fucking up the East all the way here—"
"You're not going to the East anymore," Stein said sturdily.
He stared, his words extinguished right on his tongue. "… What?"
"You're not going to the East, William. You and your team are staying right here and finishing your training. Lord Death has assessed the situation in the East and we no longer have time to prepare you all to send you there. So, you're staying here and we're recruiting other help."
William kept staring. "You can't do that… He—he SAID we were going! You—he can't just change his mind!"
"Actually he can. He's the Grim Reaper; he can do whatever he wants. Drink this." Stein held out a bottle of what appeared to be Gatorade.
"What help is he recruiting? Someone else from the academy? This isn't fucking FAIR, this is what we have been working so hard for! And it's all for nothing?"
"It is NOT for nothing. We have decided to utilize your strengths here instead of the East, William, that's all."
"Then who's going to the East."
"Drink this." Stein pushed the bottle at him.
William sighed irritably and took it. He was pleasantly surprised by the sweet berry flavor that raced down his throat.
Stein reached to William's feet and pulled up a blanket. He turned the overhead light off and slid a pillow on the end of the bed. "Get some rest."
"I want to see Odette."
"Not yet. Go to sleep."
"I want to see my meister—"
"NOT. Yet," Stein said through his teeth, apparently having had enough of the student's noncompliance. "Sleep."
William watched him until he was almost out of the room, then addressed him again. "Hey, Doc."
Stein begrudgingly turned around, apparently not entirely ready to hear more of his mouth.
"I know you probably didn't want to after what I did to you, but thanks for saving me. And fixing me up. I do… appreciate it."
He stood motionless and quiet for a second or two. "You're welcome."
"Just let me know if you need someone to bust your face up again." William stuck up his thumb.
There might have been a ghost of a smirk that flickered on Stein's lips before he turned around and went out the door. "Will do."
(Page Break)
In Odette and William's living room, the gang sat silently, most of them staring into space after Odette had informed them all of what she learned. Part of her felt dirty for telling such a thing about her teacher, whom she did care for. But they would eventually see his bruises. And if anyone had a right to know where they came from and why, it was them.
"Dr. Jekyll is losing his grip," Christian said just loud enough to be heard.
"That's not funny," Katy snapped at him.
"I know, I'm not joking! It's… just scary." He ran his fingers through his blonde curls.
"You think he and William are… making each other this way?" Nikki asked.
"Yes," Odette said honestly, "I do. Stein said something like that in the last resonance session." She took a breath. "They're perpetuating each others' madness."
"Then they should stop," said Tim simply.
"They are stopping. But now there's nothing left except the blood transfusion, which is not guaranteed to work. Even if it did, it would take forever for William to be black blood-free."
"I'm sorry, this might be a bad time to bring it up, and I don't mean it the way it's going to sound," said Rachele, successfully gathering everyone's attention, "But… is it… safe? … For us to continue training with William?"
"Black blood can only be transferred from weapon to meister or vice versa. That and infection through physical contact. He shouldn't be able to infect the rest of us," Kian looked to the rest of the group.
"No, I don't think he can," Odette said quietly, pulling at her sleeve anxiously.
"… Odette, how have you been feeling," asked Tim gently, "Can you tell he's infected you."
She shook her head in response. "No. I don't feel… any different. I have… bad dreams is all. Maybe a twinge here or there when we resonate, but… nothing that makes me believe it's changing me."
"Then maybe you don't have any black blood in you!" Rachele said brightly.
"She does," Katy corrected, "It only takes one resonance for the transfer to happen. She may not have more than a speck in her, but Odette does have black blood in her. There's no doubt." She pulled her collar up over her mouth. "Oh my God, that sounded so awful, I'm so sorry."
"Don't be. It's true. And I'm not afraid." Odette continued picking at her sweater.
There was another moment of quietness among the group until Christian spoke up again. "Those things are getting closer and closer to the castle. And they're getting bigger and meaner. Do you think Grim's gonna send us off early?"
"I don't know," said Odette, her thoughts still swimming with all this information that she had no choice but to pay close attention to, "but I don't think any time could be soon enough."