Lingering Discord by Niranjan K

Author:Niranjan K
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Geetha Krishnan

D

ylan was falling and Nolan couldn’t catch him. Dylan was jumping in front of a disintegrator ray and Nolan couldn’t stop him. His mother was lying on the floor, still, with a spike in her back and his father was on his knees coughing up blood and Ash stood there with a horrified expression on her face.

Nolan opened his eyes, blinking against the bright sunlight that flooded the room. He registered two things: one, that the day was well advanced and two, that he was all alone in the room. His body was drenched in sweat and his breathing was faster than normal, and so was his heart rate. He closed his eyes, grateful for the solitude. He debated staying in bed, but sooner or later someone was going to come looking for him if he did that. As long as he was up and about, people left him alone. Which was how he preferred it.

What time was it anyway? Nolan rose slowly, looking at the large window through which he could see the forest beyond. All his life he had lived in Prith and he hadn’t even known such a place existed. He was still feeling fatigued, as if the sleep did nothing to refresh him. Where was Ash? She had been staying with Kaylee and Paige for some reason. The last he saw her was the previous night at dinner, immediately after the memorial they had held for all the fallen, including Dylan.

Nolan had gone only because Ash wanted him to. He would have preferred to grieve in private. He had tuned out most of Zain’s speech, his loss too painful and his pain too fresh.

He decided to take a shower. He had read once that going through the motions helped, though he was yet to see any evidence of it. The water he set to scalding hot and watched his skin blister and heal almost instantly. The pain helped him forget, even if for a moment that Dylan was gone, that he was truly alone now. Dylan would never grow old, never get married, have children . . . he would never tease Nolan over his crush on his employer. Nolan would never see him again, and the thought was worse than the rupturing away of his skin. He wished his healing extended to his heart as well.

It was to the makeshift medical facility that he went after finishing his shower and dressing. It wasn’t much: only three rooms and in one of them lay Rupert, still in a coma. He knew Daisy was in one of the others and the third was for treating minor and major injuries that didn’t require overnight stay. That was where everyone who had been wounded in the fight in Selenia had got their treatment.

The room Rupert was in was large with a row of beds. Rupert was in one corner, the machines hooked up to him monitoring his vitals. There was nothing physically wrong with him that the doctors could find, but he was still comatose from that woman’s attack on him.

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