An Asnean Odyssey: Bastien

Part 2

Twelve

Lying in the damp alley, crimson blood bubbled forth from the gaping wound in his stomach. Liet forcefully clutched his gut to try and plug the hole, but the blood just seeped through his fingers. He began to get lightheaded as he crawled into the shadows, desperately searching for help. What little energy remained quickly ran out and he lay still, gasping and choking on his own blood. The pain in his stomach ceased as his vision began to blur. Liet closed his fading eyes and accepted his fate. In his last moment of consciousness, he felt a pair of hands reach out and grab his limp body.

“Eh, you dead or what?” A voice echoed out in the darkness. “Come on, just get up already, this is boring.”

Liet groaned and rolled over onto his side. His eyes shot open and he let out a scream of pain as he rolled onto his gaping wound. His hands ventured downwards to plug up the hole, only to find that there was no wound.

“What, did you see your shadow or something? Come on, quit being so loud.”

“I... What?” Liet asked himself as he looked at the strange person sitting in front of him. She was clearly female, yet there was something strange about her. She was crouched on a wooden chair, her knees pressed against her chest. Her toes were peeking over the edge of the chair, as she had no shoes on. A black skirt hung around her waist, held up by a belt that was tightly fastened to her slender frame. She wore a white long-sleeved shirt with frills around the edges and a pocket on the right side of her chest. A thin silver chain dangled from her neck with an ivory locket attached to it. Her hair was a bright shade of pink, and hung in front of her eyes, which seemed to be changing between bright blue and a deep orange, with a rectangular pupil in the center.

“I know I’m beautiful, but are you just going to stare at me all day?”

“Ah, sorry. I just, I’ve never seen someone so...different before.”

“Different, huh? You don’t get out much, do you? You’re the only strange one here.”

“I assure you, I’m quite normal,” Liet didn’t really know why he was arguing with this woman as he soaked in his surroundings. He was now sitting upright on a dingy bed, the springs digging into his thighs. A chandelier was hanging in the center of the room, flickering violently, as if the flames were about to go out. A pristine white sink was positioned below a cracked mirror which was half opened, revealing various bottles. A silver bar upon which multiple towels hung was fastened to the wall about a foot beside the sink. The walls were tinted yellow, although they were most likely originally white. There was a rusty drain in the middle of the tiled floor, which appeared to have droplets of blood around it.

“Yeah, well, here, you’re not normal. Here, you’re a freak.”

“Alright, so where’s here then?”

“It’s like there, but it’s here. The same, but different,” the woman began to twirl her hair in her fingers.

“Oh, alright...that’s pleasant. I’ll chalk this up as a dream. Or maybe a near death hallucination. I mean, even if I just came out of a coma or something, I’d have some kind of scar, right?”

“Well, N-”

“Okay, glad we got that out of the way. Now then, I guess I just need to find out what I’m supposed to do here, huh. Then I’ll probably wake up in a hospital, with a new outlook on life. Alright, let’s get going.”

“Eh, are you insane or something?”

“No, this is a dream. Let’s get going already.”

“Where are we going, exactly,” the woman asked with a somewhat sarcastic look on her face.

“I don’t know, you’re supposed to know.”

“This is your dream, is it not?”

“Yeah, but you’re my guide, aren’t you?”

“What...?”

“Y’know what, forget it, I need to get some air,” Liet announced as he stood up from the bed and headed towards the door. After taking a few steps he began to feel lightheaded. The woman rose from her perch and braced Liet.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Take it easy, you lost a lot of blood before I grabbed you. You should probably rest for a while.”

“Before you grabbed me...? So, this isn’t a dream, is it?”

“No, not quite. I’ll explain it a bit better later, but for now you’ve got to rest,” the woman lowered Liet back down to the bed so he could rest. “I’ll be back to check on you later.”

The woman dragged a tattered white blanket over Liet and began to leave the room. She stopped once she had reached the door and turned around to face Liet.

“Oh, you can call me Skye, by the way,” the woman said with a smile before turning around again and leaving. Liet closed his eyes and held the blanket tight, which was surprisingly soft. Within moments, he had fallen asleep.