Motel Serendipity

Remedy - Part Two

Even the ground seemed to deteriorate in quality as I walked along the alleyway. As if the feet of those that stepped upon it could not help but destroy everything in their path. The street lights flickered in bewildering patterns along the covered awnings and the air became cool and damp.

The grim looking dealer that Darius described stood near the sudden dead end of the alleyway and I approached him, lifting three fingers as Darius directed. The cloaked figure emanated with a strange villainous energy. It felt otherworldly. As if hell itself had opened to allow him to escape.

His head did not glance up to acknowledge my raised fingers, but even still he breathed, "And what shall be the payment?"

"Name your cost. I am prepared to give or do what you demand," I answered, swallowing down my nerves. Sending the part of me that was screaming warning bells to the back of my mind.

"I would propose your servitude, but I do not allow infected to work for me." He sneered. His tone sounded amused as if he took satisfaction out of this plight. "What else do you offer?"

"But I am not infected. The remedy is for my sister," I responded in confusion.

"Oh, but you are, dearie," he cackled as one arm gestured to my side, where my own arm hung.

I glanced down to discover he was speaking the truth. A light, circular bruise was developing just as Sabrina's had. As meticulous as I had been to evade physical contact, and it was not enough. Now both of us would perish.

A strange relief swept through my veins. At least if we were to both die, we could do so together. There would be no more crying from opposite corners of the room, yearning for the closeness we felt after our parents died and we found sanctuary within each other's arms. I felt my foot twist underneath me, my body preparing to dash home and hold her before my mind had even entirely resolved to do so.

I didn't quite finish turning back towards the road before the merchant let out a bloodcurdling laugh. He lifted his face to meet mine and a narrow, stretched Cheshire smile showed black and jagged teeth. His milky white eyes bore no compassion, no sympathy for what I must be suffering. Instead the colorless spheres locked on me as if looking through me with both humor and depravity.

"I will give you the cure. But on one condition. You only get one. You must choose between yourself and your sister. The one that is preserved will owe me my price."

He reached out his spiny palm and produced one vial of glimmering azure fluid. I stared at it. Its entire existence shook my world. There wasn't a remedy in his hand, there was a decision. There was a sacrifice. This was a game to him. Either way, he got what he wanted, one of us as his slave.

My hand reached forward despite my doubts. This man did not know my sister. He had only seen my face. This was an easy call.

But he spoke again before my fingers could curve around the glass and seal our fates.

"Child, lest you make a grave error in underestimating me. I will get my payment one way or another. I may be blind, but I see all. I may be deaf, but I hear all. Those who seek to commit iniquities against me may run, but eventually they will stop and I will be there. They may hide, but I will find them as easily as a lion finds it's injured pray."

So Sabrina could not just hide from him, instead I would be selling her to this evil man. Even when she could barely take care of herself. My mind, heart, and soul all grappled with each other and I just needed to shut down. I collapsed to my knees in the gloomy alleyway, wrapping into myself and covering my head with my arms. I couldn't do it. The decision was too much to bear. To save myself and get justice for the governments lack of assistance? The same lack of assistance that would then cost me my most beloved sister. To save my sister only to sell her into slavery for a year? To leave this world the same way we came into it, together?

"Oh, frail one. What choice is there to make? Take the vial. Drink up. One year of servitude to spare your life is an insignificant price to pay," the merchant drawled, his lifeless eyes wandering over parts of me that I would have rather he not noticed.

That phrase boomed in my brain again like an alarm. Blaring so powerfully that all other thoughts and concerns dissipated in its wake.

I would not let her die.

I accepted the vial in my hand haltingly, feeling the chill of the glass under my fingers. Then I began to run home, halting only to catch my breath when I saw Sabrina's silhouette in our apartment window. She was safe for now.

Instead of entering the apartment building, I walked around to the rear where the fire escapes lined the alleyway and dumpsters overflowing with decaying garbage discouraged people from lingering. I found a scrap of paper and calmly penned my last words to my sister.

"Sabrina,

You are everything decent in me. Your life must continue so that you may bless others as you have blessed me. My sole regret is that I will not be beside you, but know that I am watching from afar. There I will wait for you to become grey and weary and then welcome you home. The price you will have to pay for this saving grace will not be desirable, but you must pay it for the world must know your beauty and strength once it is finished. Tell your story. Inform others of the cure. Demand that the military provide it to the citizens in order to obliterate this blight from our home. It will not save mother, father, and I, but you will spare someone else's mother or father, or dear sister, and it will be worth it.

Never lose your servant's heart so rich in mercy and benevolence, but guard it against those that intend harm. Use your gifts to teach others how to be selfless and good-natured. You must survive for both of us now. Experience all the world has to offer, not just this apartment within this city. Let your feet ache from dancing and your face grow lines from its perpetual grin. Fall in love with someone whose heart rivals yours in measure of its grace. Have children with our mother's curls and father's dimpled chin. Name one after me. Remember me always, but not in mourning. Close your eyes when you are fatigued and feel my embrace on the wind around you. Count the stars and know that my love for you exceeds their quantity.

Your dearest sister"

I ascended the fire escape until I arrived at our floor and stretched my sleeve over my arm just in case I was spotted. After attaching the scrap of paper securely around the vial, I tapped on the window and then hastily withdrew. I let gravity drag me back to the ground as I slid my hands against the rusty metal railing.

I peered up long enough to see the window open before I hid behind a dumpster. I watched as Sabrina's yellow hair caught the sunlight and scattered it back out across the courtyard. She looked from side to side, trying to locate the origin of the knocking before her gaze fixed on the vial.

Sabrina started to read the writing but halted abruptly and started weeping. She shouted my name. Over and over. But I didn't move. I made my decision, and it was the right one. We were not in control of much. Whether the cure would save her or what fate awaited her after this moment were far beyond my realm of influence. But this I could manage. This I could give.

She dashed back inside, toward the front door, and I took the opportunity to run. I kept running. Past the open market. Past the bars and the brothels. Past the churches and the city buildings. I kept going until the walls of the city were far behind me. Until the sun started its final moments of descent.

I stared at the horizon, the life I once knew behind me and nothing but open expanse in front of me. I made peace with myself. With my decision. With my maker and fate. I knelt down on a massive rock and sobbed. Not for lost life or regret, but with gratitude that I was able to give Sabrina a chance. Tears fell heavy against the stone as my breathing came more and more ragged. The circular purple bruise now covered my entire arm and I could virtually taste the poison in my veins. I held true to my gratefulness as I began to hum a lullaby that our mother use to sing to make us go to sleep and let my eyes, that had grown so heavy in the passing moments, close for the final time.