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***
Julie
pushed the door open and walked inside. Eli lay silently on the hospital bed,
staring at the same game on TV that Simon was watching in the waiting room. He
still sported a neck brace, and he looked incredibly uncomfortable. Julie walked
by his bed and sat on an orange, vinyl-upholstered chair in the corner of the
room. Eli looked over at her and raised his eyebrows. Her heart flipped in her
chest. Even in a hospital gown and a neck brace, he was still the hottest
guy Julie had ever seen.
“That
was probably the worst three dollars I ever spent. I hardly got to see any of
the game at all.”
“You
mean you didn’t buy an activity pass?”
Julie
shook her head and leaned back in her seat, trying to appear relaxed. “I hadn’t
planned on attending any games. I’m not normally a sports
fan.”
“Wow,
then I feel pretty honored that you came to see me.”
Julie
smiled. “You should be.”
Eli
started to smile, and then winced, obviously in pain.
Julie
hopped off the chair and ran to his side, clutching his hand in hers. A jolt of
electricity raced up her arm. She was so glad to feel it, but it immediately
began to wreak its normal havoc on her.
“Are
you okay?” She was now breathing too hard, and those familiar spots of color
were beginning to cloud her vision.
“I’m
gonna be okay, Julie, but you look like you’re about to pass out. You better
sit.”
Julie
nodded. She did feel like she was going to pass out. She took a step away from
the bed, intent on heading back to the ugly orange chair in the corner, but Eli
still had hold of her hand, and pulled her back.
“Sit
here, on my bed.”
Julie
had no time to protest. She knew if she didn’t sit, she’d end up on the floor.
She sat, pulled her hands out of Eli’s, closed her eyes, and breathed deeply,
trying to gain control of herself. By
the second breath, she was feeling a bit better. She opened her eyes to a
smirking Eli Sullivan.
“What?”
she snapped. His smirk immediately softened into a concerned
smile.
“I’m
sorry my touch has this ... effect on you. It doesn’t seem to affect anybody
else quite like this.”
“Besa
Soobedda.”
Liana
stood in the doorway. She whispered the words again and nodded towards Julie.
The foreign words meant nothing to Julie, but she could see Eli understood them.
His brow furrowed.
“No,
Liana. It’s too late.”
Liana
backed out of the doorway and disappeared down the hall. Julie looked at Eli
suspiciously.
“What
did she say?”
Eli
crossed his arms across his chest and stared at the ceiling. “Nothing you need
to be concerned with.”
“It
must be something important if you said it was too late. Too late for
what?”
Eli
started to shake his head, but stopped with a groan and a gasp of pain. “Ah,
cripes, Julie. It’s nothing. She’s just a meddling old woman who needs to mind
her own business.” Julie was about to push for an answer again when Eli closed
his eyes and grimaced. Droplets of sweat spotted his forehead and upper
lip.
Julie
slid off the bed and grabbed a washcloth. She held it under a stream of cold
water, rung it out, and laid it across Eli’s forehead.
“Is
it bad?” she whispered.
Eli
bit his lower lip. “It’ll pass. It always does.”
Julie
sat helplessly by Eli’s side and watched as Eli fought silently against the pain
that wracked his body ... the healing pain of immortality. It was mind-boggling.
Eli should be dead, or at the very least, paralyzed from his injury, and here he
was, on his way to being completely healed. Julie wondered how many times he’d
already gone through this. Had he ever actually experienced death?
The
grimace on Eli’s face relaxed bit by bit as his breathing slowed. He was asleep.
The worst of it must be over. Julie slid softly off the bed, careful not to
disturb him, and curled up in the orange chair. She stared at Eli ... at the
steady rising and falling of his chest. He just cheated death. Death. It
was something she’d spent most of the last five years thinking about. But it was
her own death she contemplated. The thought of someone else dying, someone she
... cared about, frightened her, more than the reality of her own death ever
could. Her death was inevitable. It was just a matter of time.
***
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