Page 14 of Ashland Hollows

“Relax,” I ordered between clenched teeth. “Or this won’t work, you know that.”

Jeneva grunted and leaned her head back until she was fully rigid, closing her eyes. Slowly exhaling, she let her body go lax, but I could feel the tension coiling through her. No matter how often we did this, her body always seized up. No matter how used to this she was, she could never settle her insides. Looking up, I jerked my chin in the direction of my bag. It was inches away, but I needed to keep the power flowing. One small break, and I’d have to restart. Without Mallory, this job generally took up to an extra hour than it was supposed to. It took an hour and a half less when I'd accompanied my grandmother due to the help given.

Maybe having Mallory shadow me wouldn’t be entirely bad.

The girl scampered forward and snatched up my bag, shoving it right down in front of me before opening it.

“The vial with the thick white liquid,” I instructed between my teeth, keeping my voice low, not wanting to say anything too loud and accidentally startle Jeneva. Because that would result in also having to start over, something that wasn’t foreign to me.

Jeneva was a skittish little thing. Despite spending so many years on the road in various places, it had left her with the unending need to constantly look over her shoulder. I didn’t say it, and neither did anyone else, but her life left her with paranoia. I wasn’t surprised, in all honesty. I knew what was out there. I wanted to know if Jeneva had crossed paths with them as well, but I didn’t ever dare ask her that. It was a question nobody dared ask, the only story Jeneva never told.

As Mallory withdrew the vial, I jerked my chin in Jeneva’s direction, instructing her to have the woman drink it. Doing as she was told, Jeneva didn’t fight when she was given it. She knew what it was, but I rarely brought it out and only under special circumstances. As I knew she would, Jeneva’s body relaxed, all tension evaporating in a huff of air. I felt the stress flicker away inside her and allow the magic to do its duty, coursing through her veins, trying to heal up any other wounds besides the main one. Because if there was anything unseen, healing the main course would do no good.

The incision grew smaller, but only just. That’s all it ever did. It closed up, but that was normal too. Come next week, it’d be reopened. From whatever had been used against her. I suspected it was a cursed weapon, but again – Jeneva never spoke about the worst of times. Just about the glories of traveling, the people she met, and the life she had created. Never the downside, though. I knew there was a downside. I had to see it in my dreams every night, feel the haunting of when I stepped into the empty cabin that I grew up with things untouched after my mom had put them up so long ago.

But I didn’t tell her that either. They were secrets I knew better than to speak. For if I did, their reality would only make it worse.

Maybe that was why Jeneva never spoke about hers. Because pretending it didn’t exist was far better than the truth. That, I understood more than anything. Sometimes, I wished I could tell her.

Bandaging Jeneva up and leaving her in a dazed state, I took my pay from the bowl she left for me next to the door and split it with Mallory, showing her the way out. As if the horrors within walls didn’t exist, the sun gleamed down upon us, making us squint our eyes at the brightness. Jeneva liked a life of solitude these days, including keeping shades drawn and absolutely no candles lit in the dim.

“Will she ever heal?” Mallory whispered, as if saying the word loudly would somehow taint them in some way.

“No,” I answered curtly, the same way my grandmother had when I’d asked her the same question. “She’s cursed, I think.” I shrugged as if it were no big deal, but it bugged me.

I couldn’t say that, though. As much as I was desperate to get out of this place, to not look back over my shoulder, I, unfortunately, did take my job seriously. I wouldn’t tarnish my mother’s good name because I didn’t want to follow in her shadows after all. So all I could do was grit my teeth and push forward on to the next patient.

ChapterEleven

Aweek. It had been a week since the guys had left, and I swear, it felt like one prolonged day. It felt like it was taking an eternity to get through. The longer I had to go without them, the worse it would become. I just knew that. I also recognized it was pathetic to still mourn their departure, but I couldn’t help it.

“There you are,” a voice announced as I drew another kid's shirt from the bin and put it through the strainer.

“Hey, Mallory,” I greeted without looking up, ringing out the shirt again.

“You’ve been kind of missing.”

I rolled my eyes. “At least I’m doing my part for the community. Nobody can complain about my absence otherwise.”

Her shadow fell over me, swathing me in momentary cool from the sun's rays that beat down on the back of my neck. Finally, I drew my gaze up, squinting at her.

“When are we going to continue our training?”

I stared at the sixteen-year-old, biting my tongue in regret against the promise to Timothy. “I guess now.”

Her eyes lit up, and she pounced to sit on her knees at my side, planting her palms on the ground. “I want to be a good healer, like you and your mother. I’ve heard so much about your mother and you're following in her footsteps. My mama can heal, but nothing like I’ve heard stories about you two.”

I shook my head. “There’s nothing like what my mother used to heal around here. The most I do is cuts and bruises.” I snorted and turned back to my washing. “I have to do this load first, then we can get going.”

She was silent for a moment as I returned to my job. Dipping the clothes into the bin that lay right beneath the surface of the water and scrubbing at them with the bars of soap only allowed to be used for washing. If we were caught using it otherwise, you’d be docked an entire day’s worth of pay. Considering pay already was crap, it was a hit for sure. After rubbing the fabric clean, I pulled it out and wrung it out.

“I want to be a medic nurse for the army. That’s where all the good stuff happens,” Mallory rambled, picking up a washed piece of clothing and twisting what little water was left with her hands.

I snapped my head up, eyes narrowing at her. “What did you just say?”

“I want to be a medic nurse for the army,” she repeated, and my eyes went wide. “You didn’t know about that?”

I shook my head violently. How could I miss such a thing? Oh, right, because I’ve never been serious about being a healer. I never truly paid attention to the crap that went along with it. I couldn’t care less. All I’d ever wanted to do was fight. That was always my number one focus, even if it was frowned upon.

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