Where Fires Dare to Burn

Chapter 30 - Proof of Life, Proof of Love

After and hour silence finally descended on the dorm.

Luke slumped into his desk chair at the foot of the bed where Kasper lay. Gabi was sprawled a couple of feet away on the beanbag, one arm flung over her eyes, while Kenny and Aliyah sat on the other bed opposite. Kyan couldn't stop moving, the brawny student meandering back and forth, gnawing on a thumbnail as he wrestled with a reality his brain didn't want to accept.

To his credit, once Aliyah had set to work he hadn't hesitated when they needed his help. Holding Kasper down while she worked had kept him occupied, but now he couldn't keep the nervous energy contained. A couple of leftover beers seemed to have taken his edge off, but he still shot the occasional nervy glance in Kasper's direction.

His nerves probably weren't helped by the Karkadda suddenly waking up.

Kasper's eyes snapped open and he jerked upright with a strangled growl of pain. Across from him Kenny almost fell off the bed; Gabi sat bolt upright on the beanbag. Lights glimmered across the Karkadda's skin, shining through the thick bandages that now swathed his torso. He exhaled, long and slow; gingerly touched a hand to the wound.

"Don't!" Aliyah exclaimed. "You have to let it heal." She cast a pleading glance at Luke. "He should still go to a hospital."

"I'll be okay," Kasper rumbled. "You did good."

"All I did was stop the bleeding! You need actual stitches."

"No, I don't."

Luke straightened in his seat, raising a hand to Kyan, indicating his friend should stay put. The other student folded his arms tight, not taking his eyes off of Kasper. For a moment no-one spoke. Aliyah's mouth opened and closed, as though she wanted to protest but the words just wouldn't come. In the end she just stood up and walked to the kitchen area, keeping her back to the whole insane world that had fallen into her lap.

He felt a pang of sympathy for her. There was nothing fair about what had just happened, and no words from Luke would be sufficient to ease her transition into a new reality. When she'd finished her work he'd tried to explain it, all to both her and Kyan. The more he told the story, the crazier it sounded, but the proof was lying a few feet from him.

Gabi stood, touching him gently on the shoulder as she walked past, moving over to join her room mate. She wrapped a gentle arm around Aliyah's shoulders, speaking softly into the other girl's ear.

"Well, alright then," Kenny said, placing his hands on his thighs and looked at Kasper. "Now that you're feeling better, you want to explain how you ended up barging our door down?"

Luke nodded in agreement. "When you got here, you mentioned the fire – the poachers. What happened?"

"They must have followed Oaklynn," the Karkadda grunted. "She came to see Gallie. To..." His eyes flickered towards Luke for an instant. "They talked."

"About me?"

"Maybe." He shrugged. "It doesn't matter. The poachers came in the middle of the night."

A jolt of fear went up Luke's spine. "Oaklynn? Where is she? Is she okay?"

"I don't know."

"What the hell do you mean, 'you don't know'? Do the poachers have her?"

"They've got everyone."

"Then where are they?"

"I don't know. That's why I came here!"

"Kasper, I swear to God, if anything happens to her-,"

"Luke!" Kenny barked, cutting him off. "Shit, take a breath, man! Whatever happened out there, he didn't do it. Calm down."