by Lina Langley
“I am sorry,” he finally said.
“Okay,” Taln said, shifting in his seat.
They sat in silence for what seemed like forever. Sinking back in his seat, he set his eyes on Taln before he spoke. Taln looked a lot older than the first time he had seen him. While he had gained a little weight, there were dark circles under his eyes and his cheekbones were protruding so much his face looked slightly hollow.
“Can I ask you for something?”
“You can ask me for anything, Jesse,” Taln replied.
“You can’t say stuff like that,” Jesse said, looking away from Taln. He worried that if he looked at him again, he would. “Can I see your stitches?”
“Sure,” Taln said, lifting up his shirt. The injury still looked bloodied and the stitches would obviously create a nasty scar.
“Do they hurt?”
Taln shook his head. “Only when I move.”
“Right. And you don’t need to do that.”
“Not yet,” Taln replied. “But we’ll have to move her.”
“I have the upper-body strength of a five-year-old, so you’re going to have to help me put her on this gurney. And I don’t know if disconnecting her will alert anyone so we’re going to have to be quick. I brought your clothes.”
“Thank you,” Taln said, taking the clothes off of him. “So what do we do?”
“The hospital locks up at eleven, I asked the nurse. So we have exactly thirty minutes to take her out, take her to my apartment, and then I guess throw her—throw you guys into the portal.”
“So after thirty minutes, we will never see each other again,” Taln said.
Jesse leaned his head back and studied the dark light bulb. “It was fun, at least. You know, for a bit.”
“Yes,” Taln replied.
“Come on. We better get this over with.”
“Will this hurt her?”
“If she could feel it, it would. Watch the door, okay? And if anyone comes by, stall them. Ask them questions. Do something.”
“Okay,” Taln said. “Jesse.”
“What?”
“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing, Taln,” he replied. “Come on. We don’t have much time.”
* * *
Taln leaned against the door outside the bedroom, his arms crossed over his chest. He was trying his best to appear nonchalant, but the injury was still bothering him. While he had found humans’ access to magic superior in almost all ways, their healers left much to be desired.
He was wearing his street clothes—ones Jesse had bought for him—and looking around for night nurses. He could hear faint noises in the reception area, people coming up and down the stairs, but not that many people.
It had probably only been a few minutes, but Taln thought that Jesse was taking forever. He could hear all sort of things happening in the background. It was making him sweat profusely, just thinking about what could be going on inside the room, when he heard Jesse quietly call him in.
The ceiling light bulb was still off, but the lamp on the nightstand provided dim lighting. There were tubes around Salisei and she rested on her side. Something about the way she was posed looked horribly unnatural to Taln.
“Grab her arms,” Jesse said. “We’ll put her on the gurney and then try to just walk her out of here.”
“How?”
“I don’t know,” Jesse replied. “I don’t know where I could get access to scrubs so we’re just going to have to wing it. Just, remember, above everything, don’t look worried.”
“I am worried,” Taln said.
“I know. I’m worried, too. But if you show that you’re worried, we can’t get your sister home. And we have to save her.”
“Fine,” Taln said. “I have hold of her.”
“Great,” Jesse replied. “Me too. Okay, lift her on three. One, two, three—”
They lifted her together and deposited her limp body softly onto the gurney. Jesse grabbed the blanket from the bed and put it over Salisei.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s breathing,” Jesse said, grabbing her arm and pressing his finger against her wrist for a few seconds. “I mean—your mage will save her. Taln, fretting. Go outside and tell me if there’s anyone there. If there isn’t, we can go.”
Taln nodded and stepped outside the door. He looked to his right, then to his left, before he signaled to Jesse that there was no one there.
They walked together until they reached the elevator. Taln didn’t like elevators; transportation boxes made him feel uneasy. He said nothing as Jesse pressed the button several times, despite the fact that it lit up under the first touch.
“Come here,” Jesse said. “Stand next to me.”
“Why?”
“In case there’s someone in the elevator,” Jesse replied. “And, um, we need to distract them. This isn’t an elevator for patients.”
“Distract them?”
The elevator pinged and a person in scrubs regarded them suspiciously before setting their eyes on the gurney. Jesse kissed Taln on the lips, putting a hand on Taln’s cheek.
He cleared his throat. “Can you two get a room? This is a hospital.”
“Sorry,” Jesse replied, moving away from Taln and nudging the gurney back slightly. “You know what it’s like.”
“Right,” he said, before turning a corner and disappearing into the hospital.
“Okay, quick,” Jesse said. “Let’s get in here and go down to the garage. Yep, okay, that’s the one under the L button. Great. Now let’s hope that no one stops the elevator on the way down.”
Every time the elevator went down a floor, Taln's heart fluttered in his chest. If someone had stopped them, that meant that Salisei wouldn’t recover. It also meant he could stay with Jesse.
He could convince Jesse, Taln thought.
The kiss was a performance, but it had felt real. And he didn’t need it to be real, he decided, he just needed it to feel real.
He did need time to convince Jesse. Jesse would not be so easily swayed. By the time the elevator actually opened the door in the garage, Taln could tell he was sweating and that his heart rate wasn’t going to slow down at all. Jesse's eyebrows knit in consternation.
“I called for an Uber,” Jesse said. “Listen, alright? We’re going have to get her out of the hospital, then we’re going to have to dress her, then you’re going to have to carry her. We’re just going to say she’s really drunk, okay?”
“Okay,” Taln replied.
“Hurry,” Jesse said. “What’s the matter?”
Taln laughed. He didn’t expect that he would laugh, but he did, and he didn’t like it at all. Jesse looked a little hurt before he shook his head and smiled. “Right. Good point.”
They walked quickly to the edge of the parking lot. “The gurney is hospital property,” Jesse said. He grabbed a small dress out of his backpack and threw it at Taln, who grabbed it midair. “Take her gown off then put that on her.”
Taln did as instructed. He couldn’t focus on how weird it was, or how much his sides hurt, instead, he tried to keep his breathing steady as he finally slid the dress down his sister’s body.
“You’re done?”
“Yes,” he replied.
“Now you have to carry her. No, like over your shoulders. Like you were giving a ride. Good. Are you doing okay?”
“I’ll be alright,” Taln replied. He had never been weak. It was bothering him that he was currently weak.
“That’s our ride,” Jesse said, pointing at a red car parked on the street below. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
* * *
“So how long have you been doing this for?”
Taln listened to Jesse speak to the Uber driver from the front seat. He could hear the edge in Jesse’s voice, but he was doing a good job at keeping his voice steady.
“A few weeks,” the chauffeur replied. He said something else but Taln had stopped listening. He concentrated on Salisei, watching her b
reathing. He cursed her in his head. Why had she come here? Why had she done this? She was sitting up—rather, Taln had propped her up and leaned her against his shoulder. He held her hand. It was so cold. He shook her a bit, wondering if anything would happen for a second before her body slumped over and fell on his lap.
Jesse glanced over his shoulder, his eyes widening in a flash of panic, before he composed himself. “So, yeah, if you could just drop us here,” Jesse said to the driver, still looking at the backseat. “She really just needs to sleep it off.”
“Okay,” the driver replied. “Are you sure she’s alright?”
“Yeah, yeah, she’s not an experienced drinker,” Jesse said. “Kind of a freshmen ritual, you know.”
“Right,” the driver said, laughing. “Well, you crazy kids look after each other.”
“We will,” Jesse said. “Come on.”
Taln propped Salisei over his shoulders while he was still in the car, holding on to her legs as he stepped outside into the cold, damp street. There were puddles everywhere and it stank.
“Thank you!” Jesse said as he closed the door. The car speed away and then Jesse turned to face Taln. He set his gaze on Taln’s face before his eyes started moving down, until they stopped at Taln’s stomach.
“You’re bleeding,” Jesse said. “Can you lift up your shirt?”
“Not really,” Taln replied.
“Do you mind if I do?”
“No,” Taln replied. “Do it.”
He felt Jesse’s fingertips on his skin as he slowly moved the fabric of his shirt up. He felt Jesse put his hand on his stomach, flinching from the pain when he did.
“Your stitches burst,” Jesse said. “This isn’t good at all.”
“It isn’t?”
“You’re not fully healed and there could be an infection,” Jesse said. “You may need an antibiotic. Wait. This person that’s going to heal your sister—”
“Isocrice.”
“Yes. Can they also heal you?”
“Yes,” Taln replied. “I believe she will be able to. We just need to get to the transport point.”
“So will she know you’re here or—”
“She’s in my head. “She can see where I am. She will know I’m here.”
“Okay,” Jesse replied. “You should, um, call her. You’re bleeding. You’re going to get sick if you’re not seen to.”
Taln nodded. “I will. I’m just—”
“What?”
“Talking myself into it,” Taln said, looking at Jesse. “I don’t know how I’m going to live without you. I don’t know how I’m going to live there.”
Jesse sighed, looking away from him. “You could try to come back.”
“I will try,” Taln said. “There’s nothing there for me.”
“I’m not going to talk you into staying, Taln,” Jesse replied, looking back into Taln’s eyes. “There’s nothing here for you.”
Taln felt nauseous. He was about to say something when the searing headache started. He let Salisei fall on the ground, her body bouncing off the concrete, before he collapsed onto the street himself.
Jesse flinched, tears in his eyes.
“Taln?”
“That’s her,” he said. “Stay away, Jesse. This could hurt you.”
Jesse nodded and watched him. Taln writhed in the concrete alleyway behind Jesse’s apartment and whimpered with every movement. His mouth was open in a grotesque shape and he was looking right past Jesse. He reached out to grab Salisei’s wrist and held on to her as he felt something starting to pull him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The light had been almost instantaneous and blinding, but now, with his forearm still raised in the air from shielding his vision, his brain wasn’t able to process what was happening in front of him.
There was nothing in the alleyway. No Taln, no Salisei, nothing. There were puddles of stagnant water and a darkened stain where Taln had been standing. Lying, Jesse reminded himself. He’d been lying there, in pain, before a beam of light collected him.
Took him back to his home planet.
Jesse contemplated sitting on the street and waiting for something else to happen. Maybe if he closed his eyes and opened them again, Taln would be there. That’s what had happened the first time. He didn’t understand why it couldn’t happen again.
A car honked and a man drove up to him. “Yo! Get off the street or you’re gonna get ran over!”
The shouting startled Jesse, who mumbled an apology before he walked over to his apartment. He found his keys and made his way to his empty bed before collapsing in it and not sleeping a wink.
* * *
“Jesse,” Rayne said. “Pay attention.”
“Sorry,” Jesse replied. “I haven’t had much sleep.”
“I know,” she said. “It’s been weeks.”
“Do you need a prescription?” Peter said.
“Boy, do I. I don’t need a prescription, guys,” Jesse said and laughed at his own joke. Peter and Rayne traded a glance.
“You need to be ready for your deposition,” Rayne said.
“You mean to perjure myself,” Jesse said. “Are you sure they won’t believe my disappearing in the light story? I know you two don’t believe me, but I figure if I hold steadfast to it for long enough, it'll create a little doubt in your mind.”
“Sleep deprivation has a huge effect on the brain,” Peter said. “You know that.”
“Maybe I should go to a nut house.” Jesse rubbed the bridge of his nose and ignored Peter. He had heard this a million times before. He didn’t want to try to convince him again. “God knows I could do with the rest.”
“Jesse,” Rayne said. “Please, pay attention.”
“Okay, okay,” Jesse replied, sighing.
“So, let’s go over this again. What happened on the night?”
“I don’t know. I was in a lot of pain, had a lot of Vicodin, and suddenly found myself at home and unable to sleep. Taln and Salisei were gone. They were, um, they had just vanished. I thought they were back at the hospital, because Salisei had been declared brain dead, but then the police paid me a visit and informed that they weren’t.”
Peter nodded. “So when was the last time you saw Taln?”
“When my parents came to see me.”
“Were you in his room or your room?”
“My room. My parents came to see me and things got heated. Then they left and Taln stayed over to hang out for a bit because he knew how upset I was. Then he went to his room. That was the last time I saw him.”
“Good,” Peter replied.
“You know, if they call the driver as a witness, I’m fucked,” Jesse said. “Really fucked.”
“No one is trying to put you in jail, Jesse,” Rayne said. “They’re just trying to find out what happened to Taln and Salisei.”
“Right. Because I was stupid enough to put a photo of us on the Internet. I just thought he looked so cute,” Jesse said, groaning. “Apparently, so did the rest of the world. The police wouldn’t even be paying attention to this if I wasn’t so fucking stupid. Taln would be here if I wasn’t so stupid.”
“You’re not stupid, Jesse.” Rayne exchanged another look with her husband. “You’ve just gone through something really traumatic. No one expects you to be at your best right now.”
“No one expects me to be at my best ever,” Jesse replied. “Which is good. Because I’m disappointment made flesh and blood.”
“You’re a very poetic depressed person,” Peter said. “But that’s all you are. Depressed. Sad. Broken-hearted.”
“You’re allowed to be sad, Jesse. It must really hurt to have a break-up like that—”
“Where a person goes to their actual realm, drags their dead sister that will only survive if they go back along with him, and where you have to break his heart? Yeah, it sucked.”
“Jesse—”
“I know, I know.”
“We’re worried about you.”
> “I’m worried, too,” Jesse replied. “I wasn’t kidding about checking myself in somewhere. I mean, I was but I wasn’t. I can sometimes hear him; you know? In my head. Not like just remember him, but hear him. I know it’s not him, but I tell him I’m sorry, you know? I tell him I was lying and I want him to come back and I’ll ask how he’s doing and he’s always like so sweet and so very Taln-like. I don’t know, guys. It’s like my brain does this perfect imitation of him, but it’s not enough.”
“Yeah,” Rayne said. “I’m sorry.”
“Every time I wake up, in your guest bed.” Jesse continued. Now that he had spoken, it felt odd to stop, and his self-control was completely shot. He could see how sorry they felt for him and he hated it, but he also needed to get it out. His speech was slurred and his tongue was hard to control. The roof of his mouth felt dirty. He had never realized how much effort speaking was until that day. “Every day, every time I wake up in your guest bed, when I can actually get any sleep, I look for him because I know he slept there the one night. And you know I can’t go home. Just being there gives me a panic attack. I’m always looking for him. That’s the worst part of sleeping, waking up and for a second, believing that he’s there. And then realizing that he’s not, that he’s gone, that he was hurt, and that it’s all my fault. If I had just gone to the police when you said—”
“Nothing would have changed,” Rayne said. “Jon’s a psycho. He would’ve gotten to you one way or another.”
“He would have gotten me,” Jesse replied. “But he wouldn’t have gotten him. And he would still be here.”
* * *
He landed on the palms of his hands and he was winded. He looked around, seeing Salisei’s body and not much else.
He woke up in the morning. It had been hours because of the sunlight streaming through the open window. He looked around, trying to remember where he was, before his gaze landed on Salisei. She was kneeling over the hearth and looking up at him. Her long hair was down and she was sweating, but other than her disheveled appearance, she looked good. She looked normal. She was alive.
“Salisei,” Taln said weakly. He felt a lot worse than he had expected. “She healed you.”