Althena

18. Blackness

Conner spends the next day with me. He takes me shopping in the city center all afternoon. The fancy expensive stores. He knows I like this.

The queen shows up while we're having lunch. She smiles at me. "You know, people come through here constantly. Every day. All day. But somehow, every time you're here, we get notified."

I smile. "Sorry. I just like shopping."

"We like Moonlit's money, so it all works out."

Conner cracks up laughing. He can't keep it together. "Wow, you're the best queen ever."

She fixes her dress. "I like to think so too. Have fun shopping."

"We will. Thank you." I smile again as she leaves. "She is pretty amazing."

He nods. "There's an electronic store somewhere. Lets go get new everything."

"I wonder if we could find a book store."

"You know you could put a book app on your phone?"

"They always lose my places. Then it takes me forever to find it again."

"No idea how to fix that." He helps me up. "We'll ask the electronics store."

Hours later, we pull up in front of my store. It's past midnight. "I'll see you tomorrow. I need sleep."

"Me too. Have a good night."

I walk to the back door and go in. Something slams into the back of my head. I drop and hit my head on the table. Everything goes black.

I open my eyes and it's dark. I can't move. I'm so sore. It's not my head. It's my whole body. Every inch of me hurts. After my eyes adjust I find a tiny window with bars on it. It's really high. Maybe I'm in the basement somewhere.

I think I passed out again. It's dark outside now. There's a light on in the hallway though. There's a wall of bars. I'm in a jail cell. I think. I can't make sense of this. Everything hurts.

I focus and try to move. I have bruises on my arms. I don't know what happened. The lady bug on the back of my hand is moving around. "Go." It jumps off my skin and flies out the window.

I try to stay conscious. It's so hard though. Everything hurts.

Then there's a big crash. It sounded like a wall came down.

"GET HER NOW."

I can only lay and watch. A man runs up to the bars and fumbles the keys. They fall on the floor and then he floats up in the air. His arms, legs, and head fly off at the same time.

Darmon grabs the cell door and pulls it right off.

I can't talk. I can't move any more. I watch him.

"HERE NOW."

I feel like I'm floating. A lady smiles. "She needs a hospital." She rubs my hair. "Happy birthday, princess."

I hear the king yelling something. It sounds like mumbles.

Blackness takes over again.

I'm in bed. A warm soft bed. My eyes open to the bright room. The hospital room. The beeps are slowly beeping away. Mike is holding my hand against his forehead. He's got his elbows on my bed. I rub his head with my thumb.

He kisses my hand. "You're ok."

"What happened?"

"Not now."

"How long as I out?"

"You've been here for 2 days. You were missing for almost a full day before that."

"What happened?" I try to scratch my head and there's a bandage around it. "I hit my head."

"Does it hurt?"

"Some."

The king and Darmon come in. The king speaks. Darmon watches me.

"You gave us quite a scare young lady."

I rub the bandage. "I hit my head."

"Do you remember anything else?"

"I'm tired." I close my eyes.

"She'll be fine, Mike. The drugs are still in her system."

I feel him kiss my hand. "I'm just glad she's awake."

"We all are."

The next time I wake up, I text Chris and he tells me he's coming. I have no memory.

Chris sits in the chair. He didn't even comb his hair. "Gold gave us all rooms in the city center. Things have been tense."

"What happened? I'm in the city center?"

"Yea, the gold's own this hospital."

"It's nice."

"Ok..." He takes a deep breath. "Conner dropped you off at home. It was 1 am. At 7 I got there so we could go to the beach. But the back door was open and there was blood on the floor. I searched but you weren't there. I called Mike. I didn't know who else to call. I guess he called the King. I don't know that part. But soon, everyone was there. Someone found a note. I had Amos's name on it. Then everyone went after Moonlit. They were searching everything. The king was there. All Moonlit could do was stand down. They searched for hours. Nothing was found. By then, Mike was there and he tried to beat Amos to death this time. Darmon got in the way and said he thought demontail was using everyone to attack Moonlit. So, they went back to square one. Nobody could figure out anything and it was dark."

"So the second night?"

"Yes. It would have been the night after you were taken. They all agreed the demontail theory seemed possible, so they began the search for demontail pack members. But they were gone. Vanished without a trace. Nobody could find even one of them. Then suddenly magicians showed up. A lot of them. They were all over. Some of them were carrying fire in their palms. They said it would grow brighter the closer you are. They led the boys right to you. Then Darmon and Mike took over. There is no more demontail pack, at all. Every single one of them is gone. Those boys are crazy."

"Where was I?"

"Market district. Opposite side as your shop but still in the market district."

"Anything else?"

"Mike beat the hell out of Conner too. It was bad."

"Is he ok?"

"He'll be fine. He didn't fight back. Darmon got in the middle of them and got Mike to back off. But Mike blames Conner for leaving you in the middle of the night. Conner blames himself too."

"Why the bruises?"

"No idea. They had to do surgery to stop some internal bleeding. My guess is someone beat the s**t out of you. You don't remember?"

"I remember hitting my head in my shop. Twice. Something hit me then I fell against the table. I woke up a few times. I was sore and couldn't move. I sent the ladybug out."

"That must have been when the magicians showed up."

"I wish I could remember more."

"As bad as you looked, maybe it's better you don't."

"Anything tragic?"

"No. They said you'll make a full recovery. You've recovered a lot already. But they had you on so many drugs. You couldn't wake up."

"Yea, the groggy was real."

"I guess the king asked you something. You told him you were tired and went to sleep."

"I kind of remember that. I was tired."

"Do you want some help with your hair? It still has blood in it."

"I think I can manage. Will you stay close in case I get stuck in the shower?"

"Of course. I'll be right here."

The water running over me feels amazing. This might be the nicest shower I've ever had. I must be in it for too long though.

Mike yells, "YOU ALRIGHT?"

"YES. I'M NEVER GETTING OUT."

"I WILL COME IN THERE AND GET YOU."

Chris cracks up laughing. "HURRY UP AND GET OUT. I DON'T WANT THAT VISUAL."

"FINE." I look at myself in the mirror. I have bruises on my stomach and around my ribs. But they've faded. I see some yellow around them. A dark red scar runs from my belly button up about 4 inches. The rest of me is mostly healed. A few sore spots on my head but it's ok.

I put some clean pajamas on and exit the bathroom.

Chris smiles. "Been a lovely visit. I'm going back to bed. She woke up at 3 Mike. She's going to need a nap."

"That's fine."

Once Chris leaves, I give Mike a hug. I bury my head in his chest and cry. "Why did they do that?"

He sits and holds me on his lap. "Everyone knows we hate Moonlit. We didn't hide it at all. Demontail used you to get to us. We attacked the Moonlit Pack for them. They wanted it."

"Is Moonlit?"

"They'll be fine. We searched their entire packland and left some bruises but nothing other than that. Demontail is gone. If I even hear that name again, I will kill the person who said it."

"And Conner?"

He shakes his head.

"He didn't do this. He took me shopping. I had fun."

"He should have made sure you got in ok."

"No. Don't do that, Mike. I drive myself home mostly. The only reason he was with me is because of the shopping. Nobody knew this was coming."

"We knew they would try something. Everyone was on high alert."

"Don't blame him. It was 1 in the morning and we were both tired. My shop is in a safe spot. There have never been any issues."

"I know." He holds me tighter. "I had to blame someone."

"You fix this."

"I will." He kisses my head.