Page 50 of Torment

14

Jolie

I was havingthe most wonderful dream.

I was walking through a beautiful mansion, staring at a flickering candle as I held it steadily in one hand. I was aware that I was asleep and none of this was real, but I stayed deep in the imaginary world, blissfully happy in my surroundings.

The flame in my palm was a brilliant orange. It t lit up every corner as I stepped into a new room. Mason was lounging lazily in a black leather chair, and he smiled at me as I approached. He looked young and unscarred, and when I caught sight of myself in an ornate mirror on the brocade-patterned wall, I saw that I was younger too.

“Don’t you love being here?” Mason asked, stretching out one arm.

I nodded. Of course I did. We shared a lovely home together, and neither of us had a care in the world. Everything was perfect. Our lives were truly charmed, and I couldn’t remember a single bad thing ever happening to either one of us.

The flame in my hand turned golden and took on the shape of a flower. I watched as the petals folded outward, radiating warmth and light.

“I need to take this out to the garden,” I said. Mason nodded and got up to follow me.

I stepped outside. Beyond the backyard garden was a bountiful orchard. I approached a tree and stared up at it. Ripe red fruits hung from the branches, begging to be picked.

“Should we have one?” Mason asked, tilting his head to the side.

Suddenly things didn’t seem so wonderful. I was afraid and overwhelmed for some reason, and I didn’t want to be here anymore. I dropped the candle, watching the flames spread rapidly across the nearby grass. Then I stood on my tiptoes and picked one of the unripe fruits from the tree, a tiny, rock-hard, blood-red thing. I threw it at him and ran away, ducking around the endless rows of trees.

“Come back, Jolie!” he shouted. “Come on. Come back to me!”

His voice and the rest of the dream faded into blackness as I finally woke up.

My eyelids felt weighed down, and my body was sluggish. I could feel that I was in a comfortable bed, but I couldn’t muster any excitement at that. Sickness was washing through me, a slow-moving tsunami of fever and nausea.

“What… what happened?” I murmured, addressing a dark person-shaped thing standing at the end of the bed. My vision was too blurred to see who it was, or if it was even a human. For all I knew, it could be a coat rack.

The dark shape split in two. One moved to the left, and the other drew closer to me.

“Should she be awake right now?” I heard a hushed masculine voice say. Mason.

I tried to call out to him, but I couldn’t eke out any more words. I couldn’t even move.

“Yes, it’s fine, but she probably feels terrible,” another voice said, this one wholly unfamiliar. “I think I should give her more sedatives. It’s kinder to keep her out during this stage.”

“Okay. Do it.”

“You know, you really are lucky you found her out there in the rain,” the other voice remarked. From the way the sound alternated between soft and loud, I could tell they were moving around the room for some reason. “Rattlesnake bites start affecting a person within thirty minutes, and if they’re left untreated for more than a day or two, the organs start to shut down.”

“I know.”

I blinked and moaned. The left-hand shape was bending over now, picking something up.

“Judging by what I’ve seen from my examination, she was probably bitten several hours before you managed to find her. She’s going to feel pretty bad for the next several days, especially while the anti-venom takes effect.”

“Well, I’ll keep giving her the sedatives after you leave,” Mason said. “Thanks again for coming out here so fast. And thank you for agreeing to be discreet. My cousin is trying to hide from her crazy ex-husband at the moment, so the last thing she needs is to be in a hospital where he can easily find her.”

“I understand.”

There was a brief silence. I moaned again, trying to move.

“You’re going to feel a slight prick in your arm,” the unfamiliar voice said. It was closer now, somewhere by my left ear. “Nothing to worry about. Just something to make you go to sleep for a while.”

I felt a sharp sting in my right arm. Sleep came fast, robbing me of any remaining shreds of awareness and strength.

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