19-Jun-2002

Magic Happens by Ebonydove

Part Eleven

Something was scratching at the door...

My alarm was going off and the cat needs to be let out. I was going to be late for work.

I rolled over to get out of bed and let her out when I bashed my head against something hard at the same time I scraped my knuckles against something just as hard. Pain ripped through my skull. The air was so thin that I could barely get a breath. When I opened my eyes I was staring at a wall of lightly colored wood that was washed in an odd green glow.

02:05

"Oh yeah... " I croaked out in a barely audible whisper. I was still in my coffin. I lifted the phone to my face with great effort. My limbs were stiff and heavy and I was finding it increasingly difficult to think coherently. My hand was shaking so badly it was hard to keep a grip on it and I had to squint my eyes in the errie green light to make out the numbers that were blinking. Was it 8:40? Or 0:48? I closed my eyes and let the phone fall back onto my stomach. I had really hoped I would simply pass out and die in my sleep, but my Maxwell luck wasn't that good.

00:45

Then I heard it again, the noise that had woken me in the first place. It was a scraping sound...

I tried to laugh, but I had done too good of a job ripping out my vocal cords the last time I had been awake. At least the smell of urine wasn't as pronounced. I'll just close my eyes for a few more minutes and then I'll let the cat out...

"Duo? Please... please open your eyes... "

Someone is crying. I can hear them sniffling in my ear.

"S'ok Solo, I'm not gunna leave ya. Cross my heart n' hope ta die."

"Sure Solo... I'm good see... only a scratch." God they beat him bad.

"N-no, Solo they w-w-won't come back."

"It's t-too dark there... p-please I dun wanna b-be in the dark b-by myself... s'ok if you come with m-me... "

I hid in the dark with the rats and the spiders and I waited... and waited... in the dark... trying not to make any sound as I breathed... dark...

"Duo? Please... please open your eyes... "

I tried to open my eyes but they were so heavy. So very, very heavy.

"He's going into shock and severely dehydrated. We need to move him! Now!"

Wufei? How'd he find our hiding spot? I never told a soul. I tried to will my left eye to open and for an instant I saw a white, bright light. But my head screamed abuse so I let it slide back closed.

"I think he's coming around... give him some room... "

I remembered being in the dark and spiders crawling over the skin on my arms. Tiny, little spiders. I had felt one bite me painfully in the crook of my inner elbow and would have tried to brush it away if I could. I opened my eye again a bit more than my last attempt and pressed my fat, swollen tongue against the back of my top teeth as my head thrummed in time with my heartbeats.

"Duo listen to me... listen to my voice... come on Duo you can do it... you're safe... we found you... we got you out... "

Got me out of what? I tried to relax and remember the last thing I was doing or the last place I was...

Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod... I'm underground.

I was afraid to open my eyes. But I knew right away that something had changed. There was no smell of wood or dirt. I felt air moving over my skin. I took a shaky, pain filled breath and tried to swallow, but my throat burned too much.

"That's right Duo ... nice and slow. Try not to breathe too deeply." Quatre was here. Very slowly I opened one eyelid and then quickly shut it again. The light was so bright.

"Quatre, grab a blanket and shade his eyes. He's waking up. He's got a nasty mark here near his temple. Did he sustain this from the encounter you both had on L1 or from this last harrowing event?" Wufei was upset and I wanted to give him some petty response, but my head was swimming and I was having great difficulty keeping my eyes open for more than a few seconds before they closed again.

"It looks more recent."

Heero? I tried again to keep my eyes open long enough to focus on anything and was pleased with myself as Quatre finally came into view. Blurry, but definitely him. I tried to open my mouth but I felt like someone had scraped out my throat with a razor blade.

"Shhh, don't speak. Oh Duo, we thought we lost you." I felt him squeeze my hand and then watched as he turned to the door.

I felt like someone had let a rhino sit on my chest. Quatre stood up and moved around to my other side as Heero crouched down and picked up my hand. He looked like Hell warmed over and reserved. His hair was more tousled than normal and his eyes were bloodshot. They were all covered in reddish clay-colored mud. He pressed a damp cloth to my mouth. It hurt to swallow, but was better than the sandpaper feeling I had going on.

"We believe you must have been... screaming for some time... so don't try to speak." Heero answered quietly. "We gave you something to ease the pain."

I was feeling very sleepy, but needed to know. Just how in the nine levels of Hell did they find me? I glanced to Wufei who was looking stressed, careful not to move my head too much and mouthed: How?

"My phone has a tracking chip, Maxwell. Good thing you had it with you or else we wouldn't have been able to find you. The signal was weak, but you weren't that deeply buried." I shuddered and squeezed my eyes shut. He was just telling it how it was but a sudden, cold fear gripped me and I couldn't make the shuttering stop.

"All right gentleman... Agent Maxwell is still showing mild signs of shock... please... you need to let us get him to the vehicle." I could hear a nice sounding guy begin to usher them out the way, Wufei muttering softly in Mandarin and Quatre asking to hold the bag of saline.

Heero still hadn't moved and I gripped his hand with all the strength I could... which wasn't much. He squeezed it back in response and I opened my eyes and looked past him to the bright blue sky and smiled. I didn't want to ever be in the dark like that again. I shuttered harder and felt the prickle of tears gathering.

I felt Heero run his hands gently through my sweat dampened bangs. He gently adjusted the plastic tubing that had been taped to the IV in my arm and helped Quatre and the medic load me into the ambulance. I fought to keep my eyes open, because now that they were and I had seen the blue sky and the green grass, I never wanted to close them and find myself in the cold, dark ground again.

"It's okay. Just sleep, Duo... I'm not going to leave you. I'll be with you when you wake up. Don't fight it."

I gripped his hand tighter and let my eyes slip shut. I fought sleep for some time, trying to keep the image of the cloudless blue sky and Heero's face in my mind until I woke up again.

End Part 11

(:./ebony/magic11)