Sam held Caleb's hand as she watched the respirator bag inflate and deflate which indicated that Caleb was receiving oxygen.  She slowly ran her free hand over the wounds and could feel a dark taint that caused her to retract her hand and placed it on Caleb's forehead.  He seemed cold, but she knew he was alive and that reassured her that they'd have more adventures, at least she hoped.  Slowly one by one everyone in the group appeared.  Sam let out tears every once in a while as she sat in the chair next to the bed.  She looked up as Ariana appeared, followed by Jeremy.  She smiled, thankful that they had come.  Then Ambrose came and the look on her face broke her heart.  He looked as if he was looking at an estranged lover who was about to die and he didn't know how to say his goodbyes.  She remained silent as Ariana asked how she was holding up, and her response was a simple "I'm fine," but that was it.  Ariana looked at Sam and sighed.  "What happened?"

"The headmaster knows everything," Sam replied looking at each of them.  "He wants to help us, but he said that he will come to us once we are ready.  He....," Sam paused and looked at Caleb running her thumb over the top of his hand.  His grip tightened slightly around her hand and she managed a weak smile.  "He told me that the demon will go after our families and that it is doing something, something dark that will cause great chaos."

Ariana sighed and reached to touch Caleb's hand, her own trembling as she retracted her hand and stuffed it in her coat pocket.


THREE WEEKS LATER!

Caleb sat up in the bed groaning as the wounds were slow in healing.  He could still feel immense pain when he moved, but thankfully he had awoken from his unresponsive state.  The nurses were happy to see him recovering, even if it was slow, but Caleb was happy to be alive.  He had been foolish in his actions, but he hoped that his friends would forgive him.  Currently, he was alone and no one was in the room.  They all had lives and school to think about.  The headmaster had visited with him a few times to check on him.  When there was no one else around they talked about what happened and he told him everything.  It was interesting to see the Headmaster's response.  Now as he sat there, he couldn't help but wonder where his life would end up.  He knew that he had to apologize to Ambrose.  He had taken the freshman through hell and back and it saddened him.  He couldn't blame Ambrose for backing away from him and not wanting to try, but Caleb sighed.  He really did want to try with Ambrose.  For some reason the guy intrigued him, made him smile, but he had to respect Ambrose's wishes.  The look he had given him when Alex had died and he brought him back still cut deep.  Sighing, he grunted in pain as he tried to adjust himself in bed again but the pain was unbearable and he pressed his morphine drip to ease the pain.  

"I'm sorry Alex, I'm sorry Ambrose, I'm sorry," he said to no one as he looked towards the window and waited.  He hoped to be back on his feet in the coming days.

[@Catmint]