Chapter 17: Waking up

Sel felt something push up against her mouth. It tickled a little. The item felt hard, and cool to the touch. The sensation just strong enough to break through the fog that clung to her thoughts.

The object wormed its way between her lips, and something grabbed her head and limbs. Pinning her down. The fog in her mind began to clear as a small worm of panic bubbled up. This isn’t right. Why…

Something slimy, and greasy fell on her tongue.

Her eyes bulged open as she convulsed. Trying to get rid of whatever thing was in her mouth. Above her, Mr. Quinton stood holding a glass bottle full of red liquid to her mouth. Behind him she could see the rest of the Quinton family, Mel, Tiffany, Mickey, and Ms. Quinton, all holding down her limbs.

The Bottle! That was the hateful thing! She tried to spit it out but before the noxious thing could be ejected a hand clamped down on her mouth crushing all hope. Sel’s eyes pleaded with everyone in the room, but they wouldn’t meet her eyes. Traitors! I thought we were friends Mel! She struggled, but it was all in vain. The concoction of death continued to flow from the bottle into her mouth. Growing more and more disgusting with each additional drop that flowed in.

“Selina, I need you to swallow okay? I know that it’s gross, but it's going to make you better, okay?” Mr. Quinton’s steady eyes met her as his calm, reassuring voice washed over her.

She glared back. Squinting her eyes as she continued to struggle. I will not swallow it! I will not!

“Sweety, I know this is hard but *grunt* if you’d just—Ow!—swallow it then--!” Sel managed to get one of her legs free as Mrs. Quinton also tried pleading with her. She managed a few quicks as her vision blurred. Eyes watering from the foul taste in her mouth.

Sel had eaten bugs that tasted better than this. Heck, they were practically divine when compared to ‘the hateful thing in her mouth’! It seemed to transcend disgust and reach the level of actual pain, her entire body rejecting the vile concoction.

They would have had an easier time getting her to swallow sewage. Even that wouldn’t be as wrong as what was in that red bottle!

“Come on Sel! Don’t be a wuss! It’s just a health potion! One swallow and you’ll be better!”

Mel sat to her left holding down her other leg. Traitor! Her grip was firm and unyielding despite being the third smallest in the room. No matter how much she tried to free it, the most she could do was wiggle it a little. Which hurt!

She still struggled though. The screams of her left leg and arm were nothing compared to the vile concoction in her mouth. The pain in her side and all the other bruises and scuffs over the past couple of days failing to even come close.

“I don’t know why I even bother asking. *sigh* Alright everyone, hold her steady.”

Sel didn’t care what he was going on about, there was no way she’d—

Sel felt her nose being pinched shut.

She thrashed for a couple more seconds, eyes bulging and limbs flailing—or as much as limbs could flail while being firmly held down by a family of bandits. Finally, she swallowed.

She could feel it as it slid down her throat and into her stomach before vanishing. The wrongness dissipating out to her limb until it was just… gone.

That’s when the itching started.

“Okay team, you can let go now.” Mel’s dad gave the okay for the assault on her person to cease.

“Can I go? I have a date with Blake I had to miss, and I won’t see him forever after he leaves for college! I’m sorry the twerp got hurt, but she’s fine now, right? I can go?”

Sel wanted to comment on how she was not fine. What had they given her! Everything itched!

“Yes, Tiffany. Thanks for helping. You can go hang out with Blake, but I want you back before ten. Mind the arm too. It was a pretty clean break, so it shouldn’t stay numb for too long, but I don’t want you straining it. New origins can be finicky.”

“Sure thing! Thanks, Dad!”

Mr. Quinton seemed to have a conflicted look on his face as Tiffany raced for the door. A cast wrapped around her arm. Huh, did Tiffany break her arm?

Sel watched the rest of the room’s occupants warily. She noticed with some panic that the bottle of poison was still half full. If they thought she would take another dose quietly then they’d have another thing coming. This time she was awake and if anyone tried to hold her down, she’d make a bolt for the door!

Sel’s wary gaze passed over the occupants. Mel giving her a puzzled look, her Dad looking more amused than anything. Mickey squirmed in his seat under her glare.

Finally, Miss Quinton got up and grabbed Mickey’s arm.

“Well, it’s about time you got to bed. It’s late, go brush and floss.”

“B-but I don’t want to go to bed! Why does Mel get to stay up! I helped too! I want to talk to Sel too! Please!”

“Come on, remember how you promised that as soon as Selina was up, you’d go to bed? Well, she’s up, now and you promised. You weren’t lying were you?”

“No, but—”

“No ‘buts’, it's past your bedtime, now off to bed.”

Still protesting at the injustice, Mickey was led out of the room by his mother. The door clicking shut behind them, leaving only three of them.

“Sel!”

Mel launched herself out of the chair and latched on to her like a wild octopus. One arm wrapping around her neck as she squeezed her tight. As if she hadn’t been trying to kill her moments before with that, that, concoction of evil!

Sel shoved her away and glared at her two assailants. Brows furrowed, and teeth grit.

“What did you feed me!? It itches and it was… it was so disgusting, vile, and wrong.”

Mel’s expression looked hurt, but Sel’s eyes were locked with Mr. Quinton. The man who still held the other half of the thing in his hands. Her scathing look didn’t affect him though as a comforting smile graced his lips.

“That was a greater health potion we just fed you. Practically priceless, and as you put, very disgusting.”

“That wasn’t just disgusting. It was wrong.”

Mr. Quinton’s smile pulled upward as it turned from comforting to mischievous.

“I’ve only known one person who could drink one of these willingly and he was crazy enough to chop his own arm off without even flinching. Even he grimaced a little when he took it. I’ve never had the pleasure of tasting one, but I have heard they are… nasty.”

Mel glanced back and forth between the two of them, before saying,

“I can’t be that bad right? Couldn’t you just inject it if it was that awful? Or tube feed it to them or something?”

Sel was about to tell her that it was much worse than ‘that bad’, but Mr. Quinton beat her to the punch.

“It’s not really a ‘taste’ per se. People who are given health potions by injection feel severe pain at the injection site and have been known to tear at their skin for years after the injection, sometimes causing severe injuries. Which is astonishing because it’s all psychosomatic! There’s actually no damage or pain being done to the body and it’s all in the head of the person taking the dose! Truly fascinating. That is why the administration of health potions has always been a problem. People are always trying new things, but nothing's really stuck. You can’t give it to someone unconscious, because no matter how badly injured, they will immediately wake up after getting even the tiniest dose. A recent study published by the Leaf Researchers Post found that if you tried to aerosolize it that—”

“Dad! I get it! I was wrong! I’m sorry! Please don’t lecture me in front of Sel! It’s embarrassing!”

Mel’s pale cheeks were flushed slightly red, and she was covering her face with one arm. Sel thought she heard something along the lines of ‘nerd dad’ being murmured underneath her breath, but she wasn’t sure.

There was something else occupying her thoughts.

“Mel! What happened to your arm!”

Mel blinked glancing up behind her hand barrier, then down at her right arm that was in a sling. Did she not notice it was there!?

“Oh, this? When the pillar of flame got eaten by the clouds, I formed my origin in my arm. Don’t worry! It’s not really hurt, it was in my triceps and bicep though, which is apparently pretty odd. Dad said it would be better in a couple weeks and then it would go back to normal. And… wait a second!”

Mel looked up and glared at Sel. Uh oh, I know that look!

“Sel!”

Like a spring Mel launched off the bed and once again took on her octopus act. Only with one tentacle instead of eight. Though to be fair she sure was nailing the sucker part.

“What happened to my arm! That’s what you’re asking! I should be asking you that. Your arm was torn up, your left leg had a fracture and several torn muscles, and your side had a giant gash in it! Your back was just one big bruise! Do you know how worried I was! I couldn’t even see you since Dad stole you away for hours! Then I had to talk with this big old meany on the phone and—”

Sel didn’t catch much more after that as the words grew less and less coherent. Her eyes darted around the room finally meeting with her tormen—er, Mr. Quinton’s eyes. SOS! SOS!

Mr. Quinton gave her a shrug and then turned back to a book he’d gotten from… somewhere. Oi, Oi, help me! I can’t even understand what she’s saying anymore! Aren’t I a patient here? Where’s my ‘peace and quiet'. Also, why is Mel the one crying? I’m perfectly fine!

Sel finally settled for patting Mel’s back as her blubbering got quieter and quieter. She’d catch a couple of phrases about ‘goblins’ and ‘sorry’ and the ‘police’ but even if Mel had been more coherent, she doubted she could have made much out of it.

Mel finally quieted and just sat there hugging her while Sel continued to stroke her back. Sel noticed that Mel’s long red hair was a tangled mess and that her clothes were covered in dirt and grass stains. Some of the green was a bit darker than the rest. Goblin blood?

All was quiet. Sel sat with Mel for a few minutes until she felt something wet on her shoulders. Tears?

Nope.

Though Mel’s eyes did look a little puffy, it was not tears that she felt dripping onto her. Mel was fast asleep, a small line of drool making its way down to soak Sel’s shoulder.

Well, that was gross. Still, she let Mel continue to lay there for a bit longer as she slowly rubbed her back.

Unfortunately, there was an urgent problem that needed to be attended to.

Her left side was itching like crazy!

All the wounds on her body had stopped hurting after she’d taken the… greater health potion, but since then the numb sensation had slowly begun to resolve into a maddening itch. Sel bounced her left leg, trying to distract herself from it but it wasn’t really helping.

“Let me help you. She’s had a bit of a rough time of it and has refused to lay down until you were better.” Mr. Quinton gently pulled Mel free and laid her out on the bed next to Sel. Now that the octopus was off, Sel did what she desperately needed to.

Diving down she ripped off the bandages wrapped around her arm and legs. Pausing only to watch the skin wriggle and writhe shut before vigorously rubbing at it and scratching at the prickles that were eating up her skin. It ITCHED!!!

“Yeah, health potions tend to itch just a bit.”

Just a bit? Just a bit!? She felt like her skin was about to bubble off!

“It’s late and once the health potion takes effect, you’ll nod off pretty quick, but before you konk off alongside Mel, there are a couple of things you should know. The first is that, when I negotiated for that health potion, I promised that you’d give an account of what happened yesterday. It can wait till morning but talk to me before you talk to the Head of Internal Affairs. There might be a few key details that you might want to brush over and if we play our cards right, we can get some nobles to pay us a little to hide some of their subordinate’s incompetence today.”

Sel frowned at that. Why would the nobles care about what happened yesterday? It’s not like they had anything to do with it, right? So why—

Sel felt a wave of weariness wash over her as her head drooped. Everything just became… heavier and moving her arms grew difficult. The itching was still there but at the same time, she was just too tired to even move. Slumping back against the headboard of the bed her chin fell forward against her chest as every part of her just went limp. Her eyes drooping shut.

“Yeah, kind of expected that to happen. In the morning we can talk about the rest, but for now, I need you to tell me where your origin is. None of your other injuries should have been bad enough to put you in a coma. I know your family has a tendency for cardiovascular breaks, but I need a bit more to start planning out a treatment. We have a bit of time while the greater health potion fights to keeps the effects at bay but after that…”

But Sell wasn’t listening anymore. The heaviness in her limbs was slowly traveling inward and she could feel her entire body start to relax and sink into the cushions. Finally, the heaviness reached her head, and like a rock in water, Sel’s consciousness dropped. And she knew no more.

Sel woke up freezing! She was lying on a bed but her covers and blankets were gone! Where’s my blanket? Reaching out, still half asleep and shivering, she quickly found the source of the problem.

She was sharing the bed with a pig!

Across from her, peeking out from all of the blankets was a small frock of hair. Its red color obviously an indicator of the thief’s body temperature. Toasty.

Seizing the miscreant's stolen goods she yanked them back towards her side of the bed. Honestly! When Mel woke up, she was going to give her a lecture on proper blanket sharing! How selfish!

Unfortunately, her pull did little good. She managed to recover just enough blanket to cover a leg, well half a leg if she was being honest, but the rest was being clutched in a death grip.

How!? Mel can only use one arm! How can she have such grip strength in her sleep! It’s not fair!

Sitting up, she prepared for the coming war. Scooting closer, she went over her options. It would be rather easy to push her off the bed, but that would send the blanket off too. As satisfying as the short-term effects would be, she couldn’t forget what she was fighting for. Equal rights! Equality over the blanket! She must not let revenge and pettiness taint her noble goal!

Still, just a little shove couldn’t possibly hur— No!

Shaking her head, she examined the caterpillar in front of her. Which was basically what Mel was right now. Somehow in her sleep, she had managed to wrap the blanket fully around herself and then some. The lowlife was cocooned in warmth, uncaring of the cold, dark world that lay outside her wool walls. How despicable!

Looking over the curled-up form, she quickly came to the conclusion, that even while sleeping, Mel was not an adversary to take on lightly. Even in her sleep, she had few openings.

She couldn’t roll her off the bed because of ‘moral’ reasons, and she couldn’t roll her the other way because of how the problem-child was curled up. Truly an impressive defense.

Sel grabbed the other side of the blanket and got ready to pull. She figured that if she pulled on the side that was under Mel, she’d roll out of it onto her side of the bed. The blanket would be freed from tyranny and she’d saunter over to Mel’s now unoccupied territory to sleep the rest of the night away. She took a breath,

One, Two, Three, Pull!

Mel rolled over once or twice and the blanket pulled free, the momentum sending it flying out of her hands and off the bed. Sel fell backward bouncing on the bedsprings, her head hanging off the edge. Victory!

That’s when she felt it.

A sudden squeezing sensation in her chest as the room started to spin and her head grew light. An ache in her shoulder. Nauseous. A cold sweat breaking out across her body.

Ah, Crap. That’s no good.

Her breathing grew heavy as she reached out with her foot and lightly kicked Mel. Then in the loudest whisper she could,

“Mel, Mel! Wake up Mel! Mel!”

“Hmmm? Sel? Stop kicking me. I don’t want to beat up the apples.”

…What?

“Mel! Mel! Wake up! I don’t need you to beat up any apples! I just need you to wake up!”

“Hmm, Sel? Why’d you wake me up? *yawn* It’s still early.”

“Mel I…” What should she tell her? That her origin was killing her? That the room was spinning, and she felt like her chest was being squeezed by some brute? What would Mel even do?

The memory of Mel hugging her fiercely while babbling about how distraught she had been flashed through her mind. Could she really do that to Mell again?

“…I’m cold.”

Mel sat up and looked around the bed, blinking. She rubbed her eyes a couple of times and squinted at Sel, who was lying at a T shape from her with her head hanging off the side of the bed. She blinked a couple more times.

“Well of course you’re cold idiot! You kicked the blanket off the bed! How did you even get in that position? You need to be more considerate when you’re sharing a bed. Not only did you steal the blanket, but your feet are digging into my—ouch! Stop that!”

Sel didn’t stop and dug her feet into Mel’s side again! If she wasn’t feeling so ill, she would have screamed at the injustice of it all! Whose fault do you think all this was! Mel sure had a lot of nerve lecturing her on sleeping etiquette.

“Fine! Fine! I’ll grab the blanket. Ah no! Don’t you get up! You might still be hurt! Honestly, you need to take better care of yourself! You need to stay warm, so you don’t catch a cold. Here, I’ll tuck you in.”

Mel scrambled around the bed and grabbed the sheet with her left arm and threw it onto the bed. She attempted to tuck Sel in, but with one hand it was quite the pitiful display. Sel grabbed a corner and helped. To be honest this was kind of embarrassing. Being tucked in by her best friend. Still, she couldn’t protest. The pain in her chest was fading but she still felt weak.

“…Thanks Mel.”

“No problem! If you need anything just let me know, okay? And, um, I’m really, really sorry about—about not believing you. When you said there were goblins. It just sounded so crazy and I—”

She’d had enough of that! Reaching out she poked Mel in the stomach. Maybe that would clue her in?

“Ow! Hey, I’m trying to apologiz—”

If at first, you don’t succeed…

*poke!* *poke!*

Try, Try again!

“Hey! Stop that!” Unfortunately, even with only one hand in the dark, Mel was more than capable of evading a third barrage. Sel’s hand was quickly confiscated by Mel who glared down at her. Her face scrunched up and her lip protruding out in a pout. Drat. Now she’d have to use her words.

“Mel. You’re forgiven. Go to bed.”

“…Okay.”

After some rearranging, they were once again under the blanket. Sel snuggled deeper into the folds, waiting for her body heat to be trapped under the blanket to the extent where she’d actually feel warm again. The chill she’d woken up with persisted, however. Not even the blankets return and the upholding of equal rights to warmth enough to banish it.

Hmm, she’d forgiven Mel for the whole goblin fiasco, but…

She hadn’t forgiven her for stealing the blanket!

Raising her ice blocks—aka ‘feet’—she slid them up and under Mel’s shirt to rest them against her back. Warm!

“OH MY! Waahaaa! C-cold! Sel! STO—Wait, you really are cold! That’s no good! You’re still sick! Here let me help!”

No, wait! I’m sorry!

Sel realized she’d made a tactical error when she felt a very warm tenta-arm wrap around her. She struggled to break free, but the sucker-hold was just too strong!

“Honestly, Sel. Stop struggling! I’m just trying to warm you up!”

No! Let me go you octopus!

The next time Sel woke, it was to light streaming through the window and fire. Her bedmate's body heat radiated out like a furnace against her back. Burning her with its inhuman heat! Consequently, her back was now soaked with sweat.

Gross.

Clambering out of the burning embrace, Sel looked around the room. Huh, she hadn’t realized last night but looking around now it was clear that she was at Mel’s house. Specifically, in the spare bedroom on the second floor.

A small part of her was curious about why she was at her friend’s house instead of a hospital, but the rest was too tired to really care all that much.

After a long stretch and an equally long yawn, Sel was up and out of bed, walking on tiptoe as her bare feet protested at the cool morning ground. Her stomach prodding her towards the kitchen. Down the stairs and through the living room and into the kitchen she went!

It was only after she’d gotten there that the full implications set in.

What was she supposed to eat!?

The fridge was full of items, but Sel was unsure which ones were okay for her to get into. Was that leftover dish being saved? Had someone already claimed that one? Should she be holding the fridge door open for so long?

Closing the door, she examined the pantry and countertops. But ran into the same problem. Was it okay for her to open the new loaf of bread on the counter? Was the fruit being saved? Should she ask before using the microwave?

She squirmed inside. Hunger warring with her ignorance on the proper decorum.

Ignorance won.

*sigh*

Sel walked back into the living room and curled up on the couch. Listening to the quiet house.

*tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock*

Sel felt strangely contemplative as she sat on the couch. Nothing but the quiet tick of the clock on the wall to keep her company. It had been a crazy couple of days. Being chased by a goblin, creating a bonfire out of her barn, lighting said barn on fire and burning some fifty-odd goblins to a crisp, and then…

She rubbed her chest. Perhaps it had been foolhardy to open her origin. Magic had always been something she’d longed for. But it was always beyond her reach. Remembering that she’d been the Demon Lord had made her forget that for a little and now she was paying for it. She’d been warned and now she had willingly tossed said warning aside and the foretold consequences would follow.

And something else had been bothering her too.

A creak on the stairs revealed a very disheveled Mel. Hair going everywhere and eyes squinting against the morning light. Sel would have been lying if she said that the sight didn’t bring her a small bit of happiness. Mel was usually the ‘early bird’ and Sel was the one with the rat’s nest for hair.

Mel plopped down on the couch next to her, giving off a big yawn.

“Yawn—Good morning. Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah. Just been thinking.”

“About what?”

She hesitated. Not sure how to sum up her thoughts.

“Mel, have you ever thought you knew something really well, only to find you actually didn’t know much at all?”

“Of course.”

“Really?’

“Yep. Every math assignment ever. The teacher will explain everything, and I’ll think ‘yeah, that makes sense' and then later I’ll be looking at the homework and realize that, actually, none of it makes sense.”

Sel rolled her eyes.

“Math’s not that bad. It’s just moving numbers around.”

Mel glared.

“And history is just remembering numbers.”

Oof. Well touché. She probably deserved that one. There was still that nagging at the back of her head though. She needed to resolve it.

“Hey, what color is goblin blood?”

“Green.”

“Huh, I didn’t know that.”

And that was the problem. Sel hadn’t known that goblin blood was green. She had memories of slaughtering goblins, but when she tried to remember what color their blood was, she just… couldn’t. This wasn’t the only thing either. Back in history class she could remember what the vampire queen looked like, but couldn’t remember a single conversation, all the while knowing that they had talked.

Knowing this, it was easy to see that the memories that she’d thought were comprehensive were more hole-y than a chunk of swiss cheese. She could remember injuries without remembering how she got them. Doing magic, but not remembering what organs the spells had been scripted in. The further memories were almost untouched, but her ones of being the Demon Lord were in tatters.

Which led to some very important questions. Was this memory loss intentional? Where had the memories come from anyway? Were the lost ones still out there? And if someone could give and edit the memories then…

Was she really the Demon Lord?

It was funny that she could have an identity crisis on an identity she’d had for less than four days. Though if she was being honest the thing that bothered her the most was…

Why didn’t they remove all the bug memories!?

Seriously. She could be an entomologist with all the gory bug anatomy that existed in the back of her head. All boxed up and repressed for her own psychological good. Which bugs crunched, which bugs squished, textures, sounds, grossness.

How dare they! To steal all her cool magic memories and leave her with bugs! She would find the perpetrator and beat them up!

“Hey, Sel! Stop zoning out on me!”

“Huh?”

“You just went quiet on me for a minute or two. Is… last night bothering you? I know I had some trouble sleeping with my arm being all floppy and… remembering the goblins. If it’s bothering you, we could talk about it?”

“Ah, I’m fine. Just hungry.”

“Well, why didn’t you grab something from the kitchen?”

“…I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to eat.”

“Hum, good point. If I had to make a guess, I’d say we should start by eating food. If that doesn’t work…”

“Shut up.”

Even if Mel gave her a hard time about eating, Sel felt much better about having her there. The idea that you could just take whatever food you wanted was just weird. Back when she’d still been a kid there had been servants who would fetch her food, her mother would have been scandalized at her getting it herself! Tutting about family responsibility and ‘unbefitting’.

After her father had been kicked out of the wrath family that had changed. Food had become something that was limited. She’d had to ask what was for her and what was being saved by the others. Some dishes were specifically for her parents, and sometimes Ophir would leave her packed lunches in the fridge. And touching Mark’s food was just a bad idea.

Grabbing whatever you wanted was a very foreign idea. What if someone else wanted to finish those strawberries? Wouldn’t Mel’s parents be mad if she finished off one of their favorite dishes?

Still, this was Mel’s house. She’d been over enough times to know that her family was a little different than hers. Maybe they had enough food that they didn’t need to worry about who ate what?

With a shrug, Sel abandoned those thoughts by the wayside and followed Mel into the kitchen. Finally, she’d get to eat something besides hot dogs and rice! She hadn’t eaten since… school lunch? The goblins had interrupted her paltry dinner, and know she was practically famished!

There would be time to think about all that other stuff later. For now, she was just happy to be alive and with her friend!