Sabrina – Part 3

Sabrina awoke to the scent of moisture and moss. Her surroundings were dark and dimly lit but as she moved, she sensed someone or something move beside her.

“Take it easy,” Theo said. He was sitting next to her on a dampened old chair and Sabrina panicked realizing she had passed out. She did not know where she was or what had happened, she just remembered pain, pure, unapologetic pain.

“Where am I?” She asked, looking around the room. It was spacious and housed many beds that spanned the four walls. There was little light, but Sabrina noticed another person laying in an adjacent bed. He looked unconscious and wore a thick bandage around his left arm (or what was left of it)

“You’re safe,” assured Theo raising his hands to calm her. “This is Thana, she’s being helping you”

Sabrina was about to ask ‘Where’ when suddenly a figure glided into view. Sabrina saw the woman appear as if out of nowhere, or perhaps materialize from the darkness itself. She had greasy black hair that she wore into a ponytail and for a moment, Sabrina could have sworn her eyes were fiery red. But then when she looked again closely, she saw they were indeed bark-brown just like Theo’s.

“Good evening Sabrina,” Thana said, attempting the best smile she could with her pale lips.

“How do you know my name?” Sabrina asked suspiciously. Thana quickly looked at Theo whose eyes grew wide with concern. Something was not right here, and she felt like she was the only person in the world who did not know what was going on. They knew her name for starters.

Theo extended his hands out before her, no doubt to diffuse panic that grew in her own eyes.

“I met you in the street, remember.” He said calmly. “You collapsed so I brought you here to help you, you are free to leave when you’re able Sabrina. We’re not kidnappers.”

It was a lie. Sabrina was not sure how she knew, she just did. As easy as a mother knows when her child is lying about something trivial.

“And where’s here?” Sabrina asked, now feeling her hot temper raising like it sometimes did, it usually only made things worse, but she seldom saw how things could get any worse. It was the evening for starters, which meant she missed her volunteer work, which meant she could expect a beating from Tabatha when she returned to the orphanage.

“You’re in the sewers of Leeside,” Theo said tentatively.

“The sewers!” replied Sabrina incredulously.

Sabrina tried to rise but her head sent another shockwave of pain that forced her to grit her teeth and submit to laying still.

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“You’re—” Thana began, “Well, you’re—changing”

Sabrina felt the thin fingers from Theo wrap around her own thin fingers and she gripped them reluctantly. Her mind was on fire and her throat felt twice the size it should have been.

“What’s happening to me?” Sabrina whimpered in dismay.

She didn’t see Thana and Theo exchange their glances of sympathy at each other, she had closed her eyes from the pain, but she could sense their sympathy no different than if it was a warm blanket being placed upon her.

“I’ve noticed a few things, Sabrina,” said Thana, “Firstly your tonsils are swollen and releasing some… organic string”

Everyone knew what it was, but no one, not even Thana would say. Its spider’s silk.

“There is little I can do for the headaches I’m afraid except ease the pain, endurance and time are your best medicines, until it’s over.” Thana continued.

Sabrina listened but when it came her time to speak, she found the pain paralyzing. She had so many questions and wanted nothing more than the ability to get up and leave. Finally, Theo gave her the assurance she needed.

“Rest Sabrina,” he said softly. “There will be plenty of time to talk later, and I meant what I said earlier. You are not a captive here. Simply a patient for the doc here”

She sensed his smile behind her closed lids and let her mind slip into stillness, like a boiling cauldron brought to simmer. She needed time to rest, to recover.

“Drink this,” came Thana’s voice and Sabrina felt the cold glass rim of a bottle press against her lips. “It’s a sleeping draught, for the pain.”

Sabrina accepted the potion and felt its sticky substance treacle down her swollen throat in laborious gulps, it was cooling to the core and sweet with the flavour of honey. Underneath the sweetened concoction, she tasted the essence of Nightshade: harmless in small doses, lethal in moderate ones. Sabrina felt her head grow heavy and roll around on her neck before darkness took her once more.

*

She did not dream this time and the pain in her head forced her to wakefulness during brief periods. When she eventually awoke fully, unable to determine the time that had transpired under the dim light of this chamber in the sewers, she noticed the man adjacent to her was gone. Theo was also not next to her anymore. She rose timidly in her bed and this time was not beaten into a vortex of agony.

“Good morning,” Came a voice next to her from the gloom. Sabrina couldn’t stifle the scream that escaped from her in sudden shock, her voice echoed around the stone moss walls and traveled hauntingly down the corridor opposite her as if a ghost screamed them whilst fleeing from her bed.

Thana was sitting in Theo’s chair and waited for the echoed scream of Sabrina to diffuse throughout the many corridors of the sewer system before continuing.

“I did not mean to scare you,” Thana said flatly.

“Then try not constantly appearing out of thin air,” Sabrina said still trying to master her breathing that had grown rapid. “I didn’t see you, where did you come from?”

“I’ve been sitting here the whole time,” Thana replied quickly. “How is your head?”

Sabrina looked at her cautiously. She swore she saw them red fiery eyes again, like a momentary flicker when their eyes locked.

“It's fine,” Sabrina said slowly. “Thanks.”

Thana smiled and stood, her greasy black hair glistening under the single candlelight set in the corner.

“Good, if you’re feeling up to it. I can escort you to the feasting hall?” Thana asked.

“There’s a feasting hall in the sewers?” Sabrina retorted.

“Of course,” Thana replied as if it was the question itself that was odd and not the former.

Sabrina thought about the notion of food but felt safe somehow here in this bed. Then she heard her own stomach growl in rebellion.

“Good,” Thana said, hearing the stomach rebel. “Follow me.”