71

Chapter 73

The floor has dropped out from beneath me. I'm plummeting, falling, forever... There's nothing, no light in the darkness, no remedy for my pain... He's gone, Coal is truly and finally, gone. I'm falling, waving my arms wildly around, trying to find something, anything, to grab, to hold on to... I'm falling, and there's no one to catch me...
"He's in a coma."
My brief trip to self-pity screeches to a halt.
"What?"
"He's in a coma," Glass says again, eyeing me, frowning. "You don't look so good... Are you alright?"
Yeah, yeah it's all good... I feel like screaming. In frustration. In anger. In desperation. "So," I force myself to choke out through gritted teeth, trying to remain calm. "He's. Not. Dead.?"
"No-Well, not really..." He shrugs, as if he can't really explain.
"So he's alive?" I say, just to clarify.
"No..."
"Is he dead or alive!?" I say, leaping to my feet, and waving my hands wildly for emphasis.
"No-Yes-" Glass rubs his red nose in irritation, tracing his fingers up and down the bridge, and shaking his head. "He-He's not really either... This way." He sighs, turning, and, without looking to see if I've followed, he begins to stroll down the path in a curious, long-legged stride.
I stand for a second, not sure if I should follow, and if I'll like what I see, when I catch Hour staring suspiciously at me. I keep staring dead ahead, at Glass's receding figure, and I wait for her to speak.
"You care about that boy." It's not a question. She speaks with a soft voice, like a whisper of the wind through leaves and trees of the Wold. "But you poor thing... He's a bad person, who's done very bad things... Sometimes there's nothing you can do..." She shakes her head sadly, looking back into her cooking pot.
"You're wrong." Is all I say, and, without ever so much as looking at her, I set off after Glass.