The Edge

Tola: Part Twelve

More members of her family came the next morning. Tola knew there was no stopping it, but she still wasn't prepared to see them.

Arian was first to jump out of the car, rambling about the "weird-ass statue in town, what the hell is up with that?!" but stopped when he saw her face. Her distress must've been immediately obvious. "Oh, no, did he die or something?" he asked.

"Arian!" Luca gasped. "Don't be like that!" He gave Tola a second look, looking nervous and concerned as well. "But...is something wrong?"

Everything was wrong. Absolutely everything was wrong, and she didn't know how to fix it. Tola almost said as much, but when she opened her mouth, a sob came out instead. Both Arian and Luca looked immediately concerned, and she could feel a wave of concern coming from Gideon as well. "Hey, Tea..." Luca stepped forward and hugged her carefully. She almost pulled away, but he had pulled his sleeves down over his hand and was careful not to touch any of his skin to hers, so he probably wouldn't see anything she'd seen. Besides, she could really use a hug right now. "It's okay! We can figure it out."

Could they? It was a nice sentiment, but if she couldn't figure this out, when it was her area of expertise, how could they? Her brothers were very smart, but none of them were doctors or people with healing powers. She didn't want to show lack of faith in her brothers, but...

"It's been kind of intense," she heard Gideon say quietly. "The kid's not getting any better. Was there any news about a doctor? Or ships going off-planet?"

"I don't know," Arian admitted. "We've been focused on avoiding the cops. Helen won't let me look into anything but Cassandra's shit. Is it really that bad?"

"The mines are messed up. Something got in the wound. It's making things difficult."

"Infection?"

"Yeah, worse than anything I've ever seen."

"What the hell got in it? Fumes or some shit?"

Tola couldn't help laughing. Nothing was funny, but she was sure they could tell; even without her empathy abilities, she was laughing like someone on the verge of a mental breakdown. She wished it were only fumes. She might have been able to help with that. "I don't know what to do," she said, so quietly that only Luca could hear her. "I thought I was helping, but I don't think I've done anything."

"Hey, I know you're doing your best," Luca said immediately. "Maybe we could take a look? Fresh eyes might help?"

Maybe he was right. At the very least, Tola appreciated that he was trying to help. "Maybe," she said. It's not like you can make anything worse. "He's inside. I don't know if he's awake, but you can probably take a look."

Luca withdrew visibly once they entered the house, wouldn't shake anyone's hands, and radiated discomfort. No one seemed to notice; if anything, they seemed more concerned about Arian, perhaps realizing that he looked different from when they'd last seen him. People tended to distrust him because of his abilities, without even knowing what he was like. Tola pushed through the thought of how unfair it was and led her three brothers to Roland's room. She was surprised to see Roland trying to sit up. She was, briefly, hopeful that he was feeling better, but the distressed look on his face said it was something else entirely?

"Roland?" she asked nervously.

"I can hear it...I can hear..." He looked around the room with feverish eyes. "Can't you hear him?" He's speaking to me, he's down there, I can hear..."

"Shh, shh, it's just a bad dream." She tried to reach out to him, but he flinched away as if she'd shocked him. "You're all right."

"No, no, no, we have to go..."