Chapter 25 Mika’s PoV

  The sudden noise yanked Mika out of her dream. Disoriented by it, she rummaged through her bnket until she found her ringing phone.

  While searching for it, she also realised who the caller was. It was Steven, and he better had a damn good reason to wake her up.

  After checking the time and seeing it was barely past 4 am, she swore if he did not have a good enough reason, she would never let him copy the homework.

  “What?” Mika did not bother with pleasantries.

  “Got shot. Need help… Lewis Park, pond.”

  Mika could barely make out what Steven was saying, but once she did, all of her compints vanished. There was no time to waste as she quickly grabbed the closest piece of clothing she could find and started to dress.

  Lewis Park was near her hose, and the pond had a lot of dense bushes surrounding it. For those reasons, it was a pce where it was easy to hide. Steven had not managed to arrive at her pce - meaning the situation was critical.

  Mika rushed out of her house, not bothering to expin what was happening to her parents, who had woken up after hearing the commotion. She could come up with something after dealing with whatever Steven had gotten himself into. Now, it was more important to hurry.

  As she ran, Mika dialled Steven's number, fearing the worst and hoping he would answer. After what seemed like a long time, Steven finally picked up but did not utter a sound.

  “Steven! Steven, speak with me! Say whatever you want, just say something.”

  “Come… Faster… You coward.”

  Mika did not know how to feel about what he had said. On one hand, he did not sound like he had any strength and was barely managing to move his tongue.

  On the other, he had made a quip. Though Mika suspected he had done so to make her feel better. It had worked… If only for a moment.

  When Mika rushed into the park, she immediately headed for the pound. She had tried to get Steven to speak with her the whole way. It had been hard as he kept nodding off.

  But Mika had heard it was better for a critically wounded to stay awake. So she tried to keep Steven awake. It barely worked as every word that was returned seemed to become more and more feeble.

  The call served another purpose. Mika’s own voice through the speakers brought her to Steven. She found him lying behind a bush. And upon seeing his condition, she froze. Then, she rushed up to her friend, lying on the ground. Her first real friend.

  “Steven, I am here! You’ll be alright!” Mika started to heal as soon as she touched Steven. Her ability told her many things, and the foremost one was that it was bad. She let her power flow to the best of her ability, as it automatically headed for the most urgent and damaged parts.

  After a minute had passed, Mika found it hard to heal more. She was running dry of the energy. Silva had shown how to locate it, and she was aware she didn’t have much. It was not enough.

  All of her efforts of pacing herself and trying to direct the flow had been fruitless. Her ability had concentrated on stopping the bleeding and replenishing Steven's blood. The actual wound was still there, and it still threatened his life.

  Soon, it became clear that she could not do it. That her strength was not enough to heal Steven. At some point, Steven had stabilised and did not seem to drift away anymore. Mika did not hide the truth from him. She ignored her own dizziness that came with overspending herself as she spoke.

  “I-I can’t heal you fully. We need a real doctor. We have to get you to a hospital.”

  “Mika, you know we can’t do that.” Steven’s voice was calmer than she had expected it to be. At least her effort had returned some sembnce of vigour in him.

  “Why? You will die! All I did was give you more blood and stop bleeding for a moment, I can’t do more!” Mika felt the st of her power drain. There was nothing more left in her, and it would take time for her to recover. Too much time.

  But Steven shook his head.

  “It would reveal us. Not only me but also you. And then even Silva. My body is not ordinary. And you already started healing. There would be questions with no answers, and they would look for more. I am sure of it.”

  “You will die, Steven! We have to get you fixed! We-we can run afterwards.” Mika spoke but did not believe in her own words. It was never that simple, but for now, she had to convince her friend.

  As she looked down at her friend, Mika noticed that he had started frowning and tried to move.

  “Stop, stop, stop! I understand, don’t do anything rash!” Mika tried to calm him down. It would be even worse if Steven decided to move around.

  Mika knew she would not be able to stop him despite his terrible condition. And if he decided to run away... “But you understand, don’t you? I can’t heal you. Even if I healed you every time I recovered enough, it would only keep you alive, nothing more!”

  “So you are saying I won’t die.” Steven allowed a small smile.

  "I can't heal you indefinitely! And we are in a park! Soon, there are going to be people moving around." Mika tried to reason, failing to keep her voice down.

  “Then we have to think of a solution before that.” Steven did not back down.

  “What solutions are there? I-I don’t know what to do.”

  The silence from Steven signalled that neither did he, but he still tried after some consideration. His phone rang but was immediately silenced. With trembling fingers, he sent a short message to the caller.

  “It was Ben,” Steven expined, his voice still too calm. He then returned to the problem at hand. “You could get better at healing?”

  Don’t be stupid! Among us, Silva is best at using her ability! And even she can’t make me magically improve,” Mika argued.

  “Then help me get somewhere safe.”

  “No, you can’t move around! You need a doctor.”

  “Look, you said you can keep me alive, so we can argue after getting to a safer pce.”

  “You can’t move, and I can’t carry you alone! You are too heavy. And blood! How did you manage to bleed that much...” Mika teared up.

  Despite Steven’s way of speaking, she could tell that it was only a facade. He was still weak and suffering. His trembling and cold sweat betrayed his true condition.

  “Then get me something I can cover myself with, and then we walk.”

  “I can’t leave you! And you can’t walk!” Mika excimed in horror.

  “Okay, got it.” Seven murmured and picked up his phone.

  Mika looked at her friend making a call and hoped he had finally come to his senses. Or maybe he was looking for Benjamin. She was sure that he was involved in one way or another.

  Ben probably also knew someone who could do something about Steven’s wound and be discreet. Her hopes were, however, dashed.

  “Silva, we need your help.”

  Mika managed not to lunge at her injured friend. Barely. “What are you doing?” She hissed.

  Steven only signalled to let him speak, not listening to Mika’s protests.

  “I’ll need something to cover myself in. A bathrobe would do if you can get one, if not a bnket… Something cool would be great, too. Like a bck coat or some…thing.” He failed to finish the sentence properly.

  What followed was the description of where to find them. Mika used the chance to make a call of her own to inform her parents of where she had gone. Luckily, she did not really have to lie much.

  They believed when she had told them that Steven was in trouble and needed her help. Mika simply didn’t expin how big the trouble was.

  “You know I want to strangle you right now?” Mika cried.

  “Oh, common! She will be here in twenty minutes tops. Silva said that she would take a cab. Also, how far have you recovered? It’s getting really cold.”

  In a panic, Mika restarted healing. Only to come to a stop a few seconds ter, as she was once again left without any strength. She almost colpsed next to Steven, barely managing to sit down.

  “Where can we even bring you?” She felt helpless.

  “After Silva gets here, we can take the same cab to a pce Ben owns. It’s empty, and he won’t mind. It is not far.” Steven started to mumble at the end as if he was getting sleepy.

  “Hey, Steven, don’t sleep. Tell me, what happened?” Mika rushed to bring her friend’s attention back to her. If he was this coherent, it was better if he kept speaking.

  What followed was a disjointed recount of what Steven had gone through the st night. Mika had many things she wanted to comment on, but one was more important than the rest.

  “Do you think they died?”

  “I did not hold back.” Steven dispassionately replied.

  “… You can talk to me anytime.” Mika was lost in what to say. How to console Steven.

  “It still does not seem real to me. I mean, I know what I did, but…”

  “Yea…”

  The rest of the time waiting for Silva’s arrival, they spent humming a song they had learned years back when they had started their school days. Both did not remember words clearly. Truthfully, it was kind of a mess. But the early morning silence let the sound carry freely and clearly. Both of them shivered from the cold as the wind passed by but did not stop humming.

  When Silva arrived, she greeted them with a shout of distress. Mika had to spend a couple minutes of precious time to calm her down and expin the situation. During that moment, they prepared Steven as well as they could.

  Most of his ruined attire was discarded. Without the clothes, the hole in his torso looked even direr, making them hasten even more. Silva had brought both - a bnket and a bathrobe with her.

  They wrapped Steven into both, making sure that no blood spots were visible. Mika spent all the energy she had managed to collect and heal - ensuring he was as ready to move as possible.

  Following that, they managed to drag Steven to the waiting cab. The effort was made even harder by the feebleness Mika felt. Even if she and Silva had started some physical training, they still could not prepare her for this. Steven was heavier than he looked, and she was at her weakest.

  Most of the lifting was done by Silva, and when they got into the cab, Steven gave the address while pretending to be drunk. At least the driver did not deem it necessary to bother them with small talk.

  They successfully arrived at the pce Steven had mentioned. What followed was another titanic effort. They struggled to get Steven to the second floor, where Benjamin’s pce was. The key was hidden next to the door, but Mika had no strength to comment on such carelessness.

  “What now?” Silva asked when they finally had a moment to catch their breaths.

  “We figure out a solution.” Steven unhelpfully expined.

  “We don’t know.” Mika sighed. “We need to heal Steven, but I can’t do that. I am running on fumes as it is.” She concluded. She had checked on her inner world just a moment ago.

  “Then… that implies that we can’t rely on any of the usual means, right?” Silva ventured a guess.

  “Right, we did not go into details, but you got the gist from what we managed to tell you before we came here.”

  “Couldn’t we find help from others?” Silva continued.

  “No hospital.” Steven groaned.

  “She did not mean hospital…” Mika caught up with Silva’s thought thread. “You mean the supernatural side of the world, don’t you?”

  As expected, Silva nodded.

  “We-we don’t exactly know if they could help, but we could try to contact Esha, then there is that number…”

  “Esha would probably be the safest, but…” Mika specuted.

  “You won’t get me that far.” Steven dismissed the idea.

  “And the number is… An unknown… But was there something else you wanted to add?” Mika wondered. From how Silva had given her suggestions, there seemed to be she had left unsaid.

  “Well, there kind of is, but…”

  “I don’t see any butt.” Steven butted in.

  “But, it’s the thing at the Refuge… It can increase the power of your ability. Probably enough to do the full healing easily.” Silva finished.

  “We couldn’t get in there even if I was not leaky.” Steven dismissed this idea as well.

  “Then that leaves only the mysterious number,” Mika concluded. “There does not seem to be much of a choice. Anything else?” she addressed Silva.

  “Um, what about school?” After receiving looks full of incredulity, Silva shrunk back and murmured a small apology.

  Mika sighed, feeling a little better after hearing about the very mundane worry. She decided to find her phone, knowing she would have to use it one way or another.

  Luckily she had decided to save the number. Mika had not thought they would be deliberating using it so soon, but here they were. “Are we sure we want to do this?” Mika gave her friends the st chance to back out.

  “Call already. Or I will,” Steven grunted, and Mika did not elect to answer as she tapped on the call icon.

  She was not sure it would connect. The number wasn’t even a foreign one. From what she had found on the internet, it should not be a viable number at all.

  Mika was proven wrong only a second after she had tapped on the screen. The call connected instantly. Surprised, she put it on speakers so that her friends could hear as well.

  However, all they got was silence.

  “Hello?” Mika tried, and there was an answer.

  One that they could not quite make out. A lot of static noise was all they got for a while, followed by an intangible string of words.

  Soon, however, it cleared up. For the first time, they heard someone speaking without interference.

  “Your wish.” An androgynous voice stated, but it did not sound like a question. “Possible,” followed before they could ask for crification. “An agreement has been reached.”

  That was all. After the voice had said a scant few words, the connection was terminated.

  “Was that a robot speaking?” Steven asked incredulously.

  “I am not sure what I was expecting.” Silva followed.

  “Do we call again?” Mika wondered.

  They were saved from having to decide by a knock on the door.

  “That can’t be good.” Steven presumed.

  “So I assume it is not Ben or one of his ckeys?” Mika wanted to crify.

  “No, this pce is not known to his ckeys, and Ben would have called before coming.”

  “Um, who exactly is Ben?” Silva had heard the name before coming to this pce, but they had not expined anything more.

  “A trash,” Mika remarked as she got up to see who it was.

  “Ah, I’ll go!” Silva stopped her. “I can stay hidden.”

  Mika observed her friend becoming invisible, and after another several seconds of knocks coming from the door, Silva returned.

  “It’s Armraleo. Do we let him in?”

  They exchanged gnces between each other, coming to a resolution. And Silva returned to let the visitor in.

  Enkiari