The Truth spills out

[Mohindra Vallumbosa]

Mohindra lay perfectly still on the hospital bed, her breathing shallow and silent. She was awake but she left everyone to believe otherwise for the moment, keeping her eyes shut tight, as if they'd been weighed down by lead.

She was almost afraid to open her eyes, afraid to find herself alone, afraid of what she would see in the eyes of those around her.

 

[Epsilon Vallumbosa]

Epsilon waited patiently beside his sister, waiting for her to wake or for the nurse to return with news of her condition. He sloutched tiredly in the chair beside his sister's bed, resting his face in his hands with fatigue. His mind seemed to be running on nothing but fumes right now but at least that gave him a chance not to think about what had happened.

 

[Bruin Dumbledez]

Bruin had rarely felt so utterly useless. He stood several feet from the bed, opposite Epsilon who was seated with head in hands, watching Mohindra for any sign of movement. He didn't know what to do or say, but felt that it was the right thing to do to stay and find out from Epsilon or the nurse if there was anything else he could do. He wondered if Mohindra and Epsilon's parents should be notified and whether or not he should offer to send a letter to them.

Bruin looked tentatively at Epsilon and broke the silence. "Umm, Epsilon? I'm Bruin. Is there, uh, anything I can do? Anybody that you'd like me to notify about what's happened?"

 

[Abby Britton]

Abby walked into the Hospital Wing with the rest.She watched as theygently placed the girl on one of the beds.Abby walked over and stood beside the girl, getting out a thermometer she gently spoke to the girl,"Can you hear me dear?" If you can I need you to open your mouth for a moment so I can take your temperature," Abby said.As she waited for the girl to say something she turned to the older man,"Are you her brother or relative?" Abby asked him.

 

[Lily Drage]

Lily stood back from the bed, having held the pillow-like thing on her head from by the stairway. She heard Bruin address the man with them as Epsilon. "Same for me. Is there anything I can do to help you out?"

 

[Abby Britton]

Abby looked at the young girl that had held the pillow-like thing on the injured girls head."If you want to you can go wash your hands." Abby told her."It looks as if her ribs are broken," Abby said thinking outloud.Taking her wand she muttered something under her breath."That sould fix some of the injuries on her ribs." She said."Can someone roll the sleeve of her arm please?" Abby asked, mainly talking to her brother.

 

[Epsilon Vallumbosa]

"I'm her brother." Epsilon replied to the nurse's earlier question, without taking his eyes off his sister. To Bruin and Lily, he muttered bluntly, "Parents are dead and all our other relatives ditched us long ago, so there's no one worth contacting. Thanks anyway."

Epsilon went very still, his already pallor complexion turning ashen. "Can someone roll the sleeve of her arm please?" the words echoed hollowly in his ears. He'd have to do it, it wouldn't be fair to place the burden on someone else, but... God only knew that Mohindra would hate him terribly for it.

"I'll do it." He said quietly, reaching for his sister's arm with quivering hands.

 

[Mohindra Vallumbosa]

Her brother had hardly touched her when Mohindra reacted. Her eyes snapped open and she jerked away from him, ignoring the fact that the movement made her arm flop uselessly at an awkward angle. Her eyes turned glassy and wide with an animal like look of fear and suddenly she was shaking again.

"Don't," she gasped frantically, clutching her broken arm to her chest.

 

[Epsilon Vallumbosa]

"Come on, Mo," Epsilon said in a quiet voice trying to be soothing, "We need to fix your arm."

He reached for her arm again, moving a little slower this time. He'd known she would put up a fight about this but, terrible as it all might be for her, he'd been hoping she'd listen to reason. "It'll only take a minute and then it'll all be over." He added, praying that she'd give in soon. If she flat out refused, they'd probably have to pin her down just to get at her arm and that was definately an experience that he had no wish to encounter.

 

[Bruin Dumbledez]

Bruin stood in stunned confusion, watching as the brother and sister appeared to be fighting over something in front of them. "What are you doing?", he muttered, barely audible to the others in the room.

 

[Lily Drage]

Lily stood stunned as the pair fought over the girl's arm. "Won't it hurt less if you let them heal you?" she asked the girl quietly. "It won't be that bad."

 

[Epsilon Vallumbosa]

"Some wounds never heal," Epsilon whispered when Mohindra remained silent. He reached for his sister's arm staring at her appologetically as he did so.

 

[Mohindra Vallumbosa]

Mohindra let her brother take her arm this time. She stared back at him for a moment, her eyes tortured with the fear and sadness that she had tried so hard to swallow since she'd come to live with him.

When he grasped her arm, she broke her gaze and turned away, rolling onto her side as if to tear herself away from her own limb. Her own arm had become an alien thing to her, something that she wanted nothing to do with and yet could never get away from.

 

[Epsilon Vallumbosa]

Taking care not to knock the broken bones out of alignment, Epsilon peeled back Mohindra’s sleeve, exposing the skin beneath. And whatever part of him that had so feebly clung to the hope that this might be the wrong arm, that when he looked, all he would see was smooth, unmarked skin, died in that instant.

 

[Mohindra Vallumbosa]

If Mohindra could have turned away any farther she’d have done it. As it was, her shoulder felt about ready to snap but she had absolutely no interest in lessening the awkwardness of the angle in which she held herself. Either way, her efforts made little difference. She could not see her arm but the marks wormed their way into her mind as tangibly as the handprint shaped burn beneath them anyway. Twenty six silvery, wire-thin lines. Once they had been gashes, carved into her flesh by a hand that was not her own. That had been six years ago but as her brother had so accurately said, some wounds never healed.

In all too many ways, Mohindra had never healed and this was very much because of her scars. Not because of the scars themselves necessarily, but because of what the two words they merged together to form. Living Dead.

 

[Bruin Dumbledez]

Bruin stood back, curious about what Epsilon was doing, but feeling very much like an outsider, intruding upon something that he should not see. As Mohindra's arm became exposed, he saw what appeared to be words etched into her flesh, upon reading them, he simply stepped back with a confused look on his face. What the hell does that mean?, he wondered to himself, completely at a loss for who could do such a thing or why.

 

[Epsilon Vallumbosa]

"Try to hold still now, Mo," Epsilon muttered, holding his sister's arm in place as he glanced at the nurse. "I think it's set. Let's get this over with."

 

[Lily Drage]

Lily watched the siblings interacting, wondering what would make the girl want to hide her arm so badly. Then she saw it. Words etched in her arm. What in the world? So that is what she was hiding. I wonder what happened and who put that there. Lily looked confusedly at Epsilon, then turned to Bruin to see if he was just as concerned and confused as she was.