Since waking, in the hospital, Henry had never had a dream besides his first meeting with the rotting fish, and small memories of his mother. Tonight in his darkest moment, on the verge of death, was no different. Not even blessed by the kindness of his mother's voice, Henry fell asleep, and shortly awoke to the excruciating pain he was in.
Looking down took immense energy, but he could see that within the dozens of layers, at least six were packed with blood.
'The bleeding should have stopped.'
Henry slowly revealed his wounds, and as he had estimated, the bleeding did stop. In place were massive, deep cuts filled with scar tissue. If he hadn't of used all his Miasmal energy, he would be dead.
His ankle wasn't in better shape, either. It was almost completely bruised, and bloated. The wound hadn't closed, and his bone was almost definitely fractured. The betrayal was more painful, and damaging, than Henry thought Lumora was capable of.
Henry grated his teeth, his lungs still damaged making talking nearly impossible, but these words he had to say out loud.
"She tried to kill me. Sh-she was going to kill me."
And she still might Henry.
The giggling voice surfaced in his mind.
"Shitty… fish."
His throat began to ache.
Don't talk too much, wouldn't want to ruin those perfect lungs of yours!
The fish laughed at its joke.
Wow, what happened to you, not looking so good. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?
Henry clenched his fists.
"Yeah, who knew sleeping on rocks was so damaging."
The fish laughed, for the first time it was humored by the boy.
So did you like the episode, I, personally, think the acting was phenomenal.
"Do you mean the one where I got stabbed, and nearly killed? If so, give it a 10/10 the writer must have had a field day."
'Shitty fate.'
Henry shuffled, sitting against a wall, and tending to his wounds better.
"Do you need something, or are you just here to make jokes at my expense."
Silence spread for a moment before the fish spoke up.
Just was wondering something.
Henry perked his head up, the fish never had questions for him…
"What?"
Well, I'm curious, didn't you know what she was going to do?
A memory flashed in his mind, when he had realized a knife was missing from his bag on the second day.
Why didn't you strike first?
Henry looked down, disappointment spreading on his face.
"She wanted to spend time with me, and I with her. I thought she was going to try doing something during the seventh day, not late at night."
He bit his lower lip.
"Guess she was more cunning than I thought."
The fish let out a deep laugh.
Trusting someone you know wants to kill you. How brave, tell me boy, why didn't you strike first.
Henry scowled at the invisible voice.
"I was going to leave… I mean, leave her, and find a way out. I didn't think I was going to get attacked."
He sighed and watched dust flow in the air along the miasmal energy.
"I know better now."
He began cleaning his wounds, the pain immense, but if he wanted to survive, he would have to do it.
Once he finished, he wrapped himself with makeshift bandages. And began crawling around the ruins, he could barely move, and the idea of standing on his ankle was not going to be tested. For now, he had to crawl, for about ten seconds he could move, before he had to stop and take a break. It was not optimal, but it worked. Though in that time he found no food nor water. Instead, he took his bag, and found all the vines he had, along with his waterskin checking how much he had left within. If he rationed, he would make it four days, but he needed energy to recover, rationing was out of the question.
"Shit"
He would have to search for food, and water while injured. Crawling around in his state was dangerous enough, but not eating would stop his recover, and death was not on the table.
"Hey fish, you still watching?"
Do you think I'm here to answer phone calls from dying people?
"Shut up."
The fish gasped at the insolent boy talking back to him.
"You made the artifact work right, don't you do anything else, or are you just a useless voice besides that?"
The fish laughed at him.
Oh, wow, the reverse attack worked once, and now you think it will work twice? I commend the attempt, but you won't be getting anything from me.
"So you don't want to be entertained?"
The fish took a breath, but Henry interrupted its next words.
"Give me some help, and I'll give you the best show you've ever seen. "
The two sat, both for once having similar goals. Yet, neither understood that about the other.
The mark, on your arm, is it still there?
Henry had almost forgotten about it due to the short time between gaining it, and being sent to the ruins. On his left arm was a scar, it was a single line with four smaller squiggly lines crossing through it.
"Yes. Why?"
Interesting…
The fish begun laughing maniacally.
Tell you what, if you cut that scar open again, every day for the next three days, maybe, just maybe, I'll show you what a true deity can do.
Henry stared at his chest wound. Then he looked at the scar on his arm.
"Deal."
He grabbed a rock, and begun scraping it against his scar, tearing the wound open again. He then wrapped it, and fought the pain to continue cleaning the rat of his wounds.
How interesting, I didn't take you for the resilient one Henry, tuff breakup?
Henry continued wrapping, paying no mind to the fish, he was already sure of his future, whether he liked it or not. He had chosen the wrong path, and it was time to fix it.
'I'm just like my father.'