King Make Believe

Chapter 29

Hirokazu

I blinked my eyes open, the scent of herbs and crushed plants stinging my nose. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, and my forearm. I had no idea who caught me but I knew that I had to tell them not to worry because all that was left was a shimmering silver scar.

I opened my mouth to speak my felt that hand clench around my heart and lungs. I let out a strangled gasp and looked around wildly as I fell forward. I landed on the ground, the floor wooden and reminding me of the first seizure I had. I curled up into ball and covered my mouth, closing my eyes and hoping that everything would pass. That I wouldn't need that medication that burned and that I would only have to wait a little longer—

"Hey, what are you doing? You're going to make condition worse!" I didn't recognise that voice, it was male. And angry. But when a hand went to pull me up, they saw what was really happening. I whimpered and opened one eye, someone—somehow—had placed me on whatever I'd been lying on before and was walking over to my far right. My vision flickered in and out of focus as I watched this figure race back and forth, grabbing things and grinding them up deftly, their strong hands working quickly and neatly. 

"What happened?!" Jae's familiar voice ran out and I wanted to see her. But my head wouldn't move, immobilised by the pain slinking across my nerves and around my bones. Wrapping, tightening, crushing.

"Hold him down." The same male voice said. I felt two pairs of hands on the top half of my body and lower half, holding me down—I realised then that I had been twitching from a seizure. I was still having the seizure. So much for not needing medication.

Everything was blurred and rushed and I tried to see what was going on, why this was happening. I couldn't understand why it had to be now—now that I collapsed, when anything could happen. The excuse of saying I was 'Tainted' and that my duty as a King was to revenge the destruction of my palace and homeland by killing the Vaxxine Squad.

No one would believe that. I wouldn't.

"He should stay stable, for now." The male voice said again. I slipped from reality with the same thing relating over and over in my head.

Vivamus moriendum est...Meraki...

I sat up gasping, I looked about and tried my hardest to remember. To remember what...? I frowned and held my head, bending over myself and barely refraining from hitting my temples in the attempt to get my memory working. "You feeling any better?" A rough voice asked.

I spun around and felt my shoulders blades pinch. I winced and moved back around, both halves of my body comfortably together. I rubbed one side of my face and stared at the boy around my age leaning against the counter. "I...guess?" I said, leaning forwards and sucking in a breath when this movement caused a familiar tightness in my chest. I leant back quickly and looked over at the door. My gaze searching and wary.

"Your friends are off preparing your bedding, we were—I was—going to carry you into the other room." I looked back at the boy and he wasn't looking at me anymore. His back muscles were visible through his long sleeved shirt as he worked away, grinding at leaves and petals.

"What're you—?" But before I could finish my sentence I coughed loudly. It was a sound that even sent shivers down my spine. I'd never heard that kind of sound escape my throat, not ever in my life.

The boy looked over at me and watched me carefully. His gaze was piercing and...I guess—beautiful. His eyes were light amber red with just the right amount of emerald flecks. I covered my mouth, and knew what he was seeing. The blood seeping through my fingers as I tried to hide what was wrong. I watched his steady hand point to a door off to the left hand corner of the room. I raced desperately towards it and managed to make it to the sink in time. I let the coughs rake through my body and soul as blood stained the drain and sink.