by K. Manna
Smooth olive skin made both Dr. Avery and Sir Felix smile. Only smeared blood marked my arm, which Dr. Avery wiped clean with a wet rag.
“You are getting quicker by the day, dear Margo. You make it look so easy, so effortless. You will be done with the remaining tests in no time,” Dr. Avery complimented me.
Next, Dr. Avery took out a long iron bar with a shape connected to one end. He then reached for a miniature torch, spraying hot-orange flames onto the end of the bar until it was glowing, fiery-red-orange metal.
Oh crap, here we go.
“Please lift your upper sleeve,” Dr. Avery instructed.
So I did, looking away again. My eyes scrunched shut, knowing what would come next.
This is gonna hurt like hell.
I knew all too well the excruciating pain that I would soon endure. This time my right hand clenched the side of the leather chair, nails digging so deep into leather they would probably leave a permanent mark. No, definitely leave a mark.
Blazin’ blisters!
Scorching pain seared through the skin on my upper arm, causing a deep groan to rumble out through my throat. Then that nasty burning smell hit the air.
Ugh, gross. Burnt flesh. My burnt flesh.
Finally, he pulled the no-longer-glowing orange iron rod away from my flesh. I glanced down at my torched arm to find a red, sizzling mess. A lion, and a freakish lion at that, had been branded onto my arm. Reaching across, I rested my left hand over the burnt lion marking my arm, envisioning purple sparks penetrating the broken, smelly, singed skin.
With the healing heat from my hand absorbing into damaged flesh, I yelled out in pain, “Ah, it’s hot! Oh, it freaking burns; it burns!”
Very slowly, the pain dissipated as the wound healed beneath my hand. Though the pain was diminishing, I had to convince my brain of this. It was only with great control that I was able to unclench my jaw.
Oh, relief, finally some relief. I still think the worst way to die would be burning to death. I hate being burned with a passion. Now both needles and fire are my ultimate enemies.
Purple healing light faded to nothing beneath my hand, at which point I felt it safe to pull away.
“Nice work yet again, Margo. You already seem to be an expert healer. You are absolutely magnificent. There is no trace of Leo the Lion on your spotless arm,” Sir Felix said with enthusiasm.
Taking a deep breath in and blowing it out, I softly mumbled, “Thank you.”
Sir Felix clasped his hands together in front of him. “You are very welcome.”
At that point, I reminded myself that both Sir Felix and Dr. Avery were sure to have been expected to praise and compliment each of us. It felt awesome to hear how well I was doing, but I had to remember that this was anybody’s game. Like Eugene had once said, “Things can change within a blink of an eye.”
Dr. Avery pulled a miniature silver gun from the drawer. “You will need to remain extremely still for this next test. Any movement could result in a more serious injury.”
Oh, such a nice way of scaring the shit out of me. Just what I want, a more serious injury. Not! And what does he mean by a more serious injury, anyway? Does he mean my life? Could I become paralyzed? Freaky! There is no way in hell that I’m letting that happen to me.
Dr. Avery motioned for me to stand. “Please pull your shirt up to about two inches above your navel.”
I did as he instructed, bringing my shirt up until my fingertips dug into the sides of my ribs. Dr. Avery made adjustments to the little gun in his hands before walking over to his silver case and removing the scanner. He handed it to Sir Felix.
“Can you please hold this over Margo’s abdomen so that I may determine where the bullet will be safe to penetrate?” Dr. Avery asked.
Bullet?
Sir Felix nodded. “But of course.”
With Sir Felix holding the scanner in front of my exposed tummy, a blue laser light wiggled across the screen until it stopped moving near the meaty flesh on my left side. I squeezed my eyes shut.
This is gonna hurt like a b-otch. Breathe, Margo, just breathe.
My hands trembled while holding tightly to my shirt.
Remember, stay very still. Don’t move. Stop moving!
I clenched my shirt even tighter to keep from moving. Actually, every part of my body seemed to tighten: legs, back, and neck locked, all the way up to lips and eyes.
Don’t move now; stay stiff as a board. Ah, but I have to breathe. What will I do if … ?
Dr. Avery must have read my mind at that very moment. He said, “Hold your breath!”
CLICK!
A little click went off followed by deep, plummeting pressure on my lower left side. Oh, did I cringe! Quick, shallow breaths flew in and out of my mouth while I hunched over, grasping my side.
“Oh, m-my. Ow,” I mumbled to myself, beginning to pace back and forth. “P-pain go away. Oh, p-please go.”
The bullet did not go all the way through my body, thankfully, but that had to be the whole point of this test. I was expected to heal my body from the inside out, forcing the stupid bullet out of my flesh. I covered my left side with my hands where the bullet had burrowed without my welcome. Hot, pulsating sensations flooded through my fingertips.
Purple. Focus on purple. Yes, purple healing light so strong that it will force this unwanted bullet out from where it doesn’t belong: in me. Get out, bullet! Exit my body at once!
As the bullet inched its way out, throbbing pain shot through my abdomen. Then pulling and heavy-pressure sensations began, making it feel as if someone were ripping my insides out of me. When finally …
Oh, there it is! I feel it against my hand.
The hard bullet pressed against my palm before dropping to the ground.
Sir Felix beamed. “Fabulous! You are fabulous, Margo!”
Dr. Avery nodded in agreement. “You are very much so. Now, are you ready for your very last painful moment, Margo? Can you believe that?”
No, I can’t believe it. Only one more torturous moment lies ahead of me. I am ready to get it over, at least as ready as I will ever be.
“I’m ready for it to be over,” I panted.
“This time, I would like you to lie down.” Dr. Avery patted his hand on the chair.
After I sat in the chair, it started to recline and the leg rest extended. The chair gradually moved until my entire body laid comfortably flat, eyes staring up into the cloudy gray sky above. Dr. Avery began to strap my arms tightly to the chair, then my right leg. My left leg still moved freely.
Okay, this is it. This will most likely be the most painful of them all. But after this, I am done. It will all be over and done with. Whoa, then I will win … hopefully. Margo, pretend you feel nothing. Pretend you are completely numb to pain. Pretend you are made of rubber that can be moved and manipulated every which way without feeling.
Dr. Avery’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “Cole, please come over here. We are in need of your tremendous strength.”
Cole came walking over.
I know what he is expected to do, and I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to hear Dr. Avery explaining to Cole what he needs to do or how he should do it. I need to block everything out.
To block out all noises, I started to hum. Then Cole’s clammy hands grasped my left upper leg.
“You will be fracturing Margo’s femur. Did you know this is the strongest bone in the human body?” Dr. Avery asked, his question penetrating my ears.
Ugh, I don’t want to hear that. Dammit. My stone! I can’t reach it in my pocket.
I wanted to squeeze the heck out of my jade stone at that moment, but I couldn’t since my arm was strapped down. So I settled for digging my fingernails into the thick leather chair again. Glancing down, I saw Dr. Avery grab the scanner. The sky was a much better sight to look at, so I roll
ed my gaze back to the clouds.
You feel nothing, Margo. Nothing … nothing … absolutely nothing …
SNAP!
The sky went black. No stars punctured that infinite void. Voices, indistinguishable, sounded muffled in the background. Shock must have taken over my mind and body from the intense pressure streaming throughout my lower body. It was such a striking explosion, way too difficult to explain the actual feeling of it all. It wasn’t until a splash of cold water hit my face that I began to float back to reality. The straps that had held me down were no longer in place. And when I moved, a striking pain zipped through my lower left side.
“Ah, someone please kill me now. I can’t stand this pain. I can’t,” I complained, tears streaming down my cheeks.
Dr. Avery spoke to me in a calm voice. “Margo, you can do this. You are almost done, my dear. Don’t give up now. Soon this pain that you are feeling will be gone. Heal yourself. Come on. Show the royals what a great healer you have become.”
The royals? Yes, they are watching. He is watching! I almost forgot all about them. You are not giving up, Margo. Not now. You have come way too far. Heal the pain away. It will be gone soon. Do you want to win the Royals Rise or not? Do you? Yes! Okay then, all you gotta do is focus, imagine, and believe.
“Yes! Yes, I want to win!” I screamed.
Determination took over. Adrenaline rushed through my veins. Sweat began to seep out of my pores.
Nobody can win this for me but me!
Throwing my hands over my floppy, unmovable leg, I fought through the pain. Purple light raced through my tender skin to the broken bone, little by little, repairing it back to new. The pain definitely became worse before my leg was completely healed, but I knew this was a good sign. This meant that it would be over soon. I felt a slight movement from inside my leg as the bones shifted.
Weird! It feels like something is alive and crawling inside of me. And something is: pure energy, my energy.
All the heat, movement, light, and pain eventually subsided, leaving my leg as good as new.
Hopping off of the chair, I cheered, “I did it! I got through it! I’m done! Done! Finally!”
My bladder felt so full that I started off in search of a bathroom or a bush. Wherever would do.
“Margo, where are you going? You are not finished just yet,” Sir Felix pointed out.
I stopped. “What do you mean I’m not done? I thought that was it.”
He nodded his head toward Donovan who walked in our direction. “Almost. The last test will be for you to heal Donovan.”
Duh, how could I have forgotten this part?
Donovan seemed to be taking his sweet time strolling toward us, clearly not too ecstatic about the agony he would soon feel. There was no possible way for him to look forward to the upcoming moment, but what he would get in return would surely be worth his while, a whole lifetime’s worth.
Sir Felix gave a pat to Donovan’s shoulder. “Good to have you with us again, Donovan, you courageous young man. Are you ready to get this over with?” Sir Felix asked with a smile.
“You know it,” Donovan murmured, nervousness written all over his face.
Dr. Avery came forward, gesturing for Donovan to take a seat in the chair. “Donovan, please lie down.”
Donovan sank into the chair, lying very stiff. From the rise and fall of his chest, I knew his heart was racing. I knew the feeling. Dr. Avery began strapping Donovan’s limbs down against the reclined chair, causing Donovan to breathe even harder. His nostrils flared in and out quickly.
Donovan closed his eyes. “Just block everything out. Block it all out, dude,” he told himself before making instrument sounds with his mouth.
Ah, he must listen to heavy metal.
Dr. Avery explained to Cole that he wanted him to stand near Donovan’s right arm, which had not been strapped down. I stood close by as Dr. Avery took his scanner and placed it above Donovan’s right shoulder, explaining to Cole what he would need to perform next. Then the nod came, the go-ahead for Cole to quickly pull down on Donovan’s upper arm with enough force to dislocate his shoulder.
POP!
“Ow! What the … what the … ah!” Donovan hollered.
As soon as Dr. Avery flicked a switch at the end of the chair, the straps automatically came undone to let Donovan move freely, but he didn’t. He lay there motionless, still as a stone statue, moaning in pain. I rushed toward him to ease his suffering with my invisible purple healing light shining from my hands. Heat began to grow as it penetrated his limp, useless shoulder. Minutes passed, then I started to notice a slight movement in his upper arm, moving up toward the shoulder joint.
Shit, now it moved back farther from the joint. Not good.
I focused even harder, putting out all of the energy that I had left in me. Beads of sweat trickled down the sides of my face, neck, and back.
With the growing energy and heat, Donovan hollered out again. “Ah, it hurts, dammit! Hurry! Please!”
I would hurry, dude, if your dumb shoulder wasn’t being so frickin’ stubborn.
“Let me check the head of his humerus to see its placement,” Dr. Avery said.
Dr. Avery consulted the scanner that he held above Donovan’s shoulder. “The head of the humerus has moved slightly toward the shoulder joint. Keep at it, Margo.”
Donovan’s stubborn arm continued to move up toward the joint where it belonged, but then it would jiggy back away from the joint. This frustrated me so much that I wanted to cry.
I won’t give up. Come on, arm, get in there!
I imagined intense, bold-purple light streaming from each of my fingertips, all ten beams of light soaring into Donovan’s lightly swollen flesh, then swirls of light twisting around his upper arm and pulling toward the shoulder joint, while other beams of purple flooded the joint space, pulling bone, muscle, ligaments, and every other structure back into place.
Keep going. Yes, keep pulling. It’s working!
“Don’t stop. It’s starting to feel a little better,” Donovan managed to say through clenched teeth, looking up at me with hope and relief in his tired eyes.
The look gave me a burst of energy somehow. I imagined that my purple light beamed down from my head and up through my feet, connecting me with the energies of both sky and earth. Heat didn’t only run through my hands but also flared throughout my entire body. A huge, magnificent burst of energy sparked from my fingertips suddenly and then faded, everything going completely still. Donovan used his bad arm to push his body up from the chair … well, not such a bad arm anymore, by the look of it.
Donovan stood up and gave me a high-five. “That was a tough one, but you did it. Rock on.” He wiggled his shoulder in all directions. “Feels like it never happened.”
“Good. I got scared for a while there. I thought I wouldn’t be able to heal you,” I admitted.
Donovan shrugged his shoulders. “Well, you did. That’s all that matters.”
Sir Felix put his hand on my back. “You did wonderfully and should be very proud of yourself, Margo. Now, the two of you can relax while Bree and Indee take their turn. Please stay close by, but not in the event area.”
“Where is the closest bathroom?” I asked in a rush.
It was no longer just my nerves giving me this heavy-pressure feeling. I really had to tinkle.
Sir Felix pointed toward an opening through the bushes where Donovan had come through. “Not too far down that path. Donovan, would you mind showing her where to go?”
“Sure, no problem.”
Not only did I have to pee, but I also really wanted to be by myself. Disappointment boiled inside of me after the struggle to heal Donovan’s shoulder. The more I replayed the struggle in my head, the more bummed I felt.
Did I totally bomb my chances of winning? I’m so mad at myself. Why did that have
to happen? I should have practiced more. I could have done better. Dammit!
Tears began to fill my eyes, so I picked up the pace, causing Donovan to walk more quickly, too.
“Keep going straight until the next left where you will see the bathrooms on your right,” Donovan explained, a bit out of breath already.
Smoker? He could have asthma, so quit jumping to conclusions, Margo.
I faked a smile. “Okay, thanks.”
After I emptied my bladder, I also emptied a boatload of tears. Snot dribbled from my nose, while I cried hysterically, the kind of crying session where you sound like you’re hyperventilating and almost hiccupping.
I wailed, “I s-s-suck. I b-bombed it. I just k-know it.”
This probably was the longest, loudest, and hardest I had ever cried in my life.
Lottie can probably hear me right now. Oh, who cares. I suck.
The reality totally sunk in that I really had struggled with the last test. I replayed it over and over inside of my head.
How freakin’ embarrassing. And with everybody watching, especially the Zyon.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” I screamed at myself, letting my back slide down against the wall, burying my head in my hands.
Time passed, but I didn’t care. Nor did I want to show my face to anyone. Being all red and puffy eyed with snot smeared across my face was not my best look. Then a loud scream rang out in the distance.
Is that Indee or Bree? Sounds a little more like Bree to me.
Not to be mean, but as much as I wanted them to do well, I also wanted them to screw up, just like me.
Then maybe, just maybe, I will have a chance at winning.
After quite a bit of time had passed, the bathroom door flung open and Bree walked in. “You can’t hide in here forever, you know? Get up; it’s time, girly.”
Oh, doesn’t she sound so chipper. She must not have sucked like me.
With this thought, my last hopes fell away, drifting off into nowhere. My chest felt heavy with pressure, like someone had tackled me to the ground and sat on me. And my heart felt as if it were dropping, dropping to the ground and breaking into pieces. To wash away these broken pieces of me and to tame my swollen, red face, I splashed my face with ice-cold water before leaving the bathroom.