I've Got My Eye On Youwith Elke
So, they'd caught on and now she was trapped for three more days. Instead of escaping the hospital on the twelfth, she would be leaving on the fifteenth. No one seemed surprised at all when she had started to cry, although none of the nurses could have ever guessed at the real reason for the tears. The longer Elke stayed put, the longer she was hospitalized, the higher the chance of the Princess getting hurt without her Crystal. The more likely the person who stole the Crystal would do something to hurt her! What if the Zodiac tried to do something and it failed because she was off being sick? She wouldn't be able to make it if she ended up like Scorpio--alive and unaware of anything that had gone on. Elke thought that if she were so unfortunate as her fellow Zodiac, she should feel terribly empty. It seemed impossible that the Zodiac should ever fail.
She had bummed around her room as best she was able--they had taken her off the IV for a little bit, but then the infection had struck and now she was back on it--they claimed that she could get dehydrated and that wouldn't help the healing process at all. To hell with the healing process, thought Elke, using a shiny new word she'd picked up from Elzo and also from Hero, many times. She wanted to go home. She wanted to be able to protect the Princess and sitting in the hospital wasn't helping anything. In fact it was helping absolutely nothing! It just... it just...
Scylla had been a little confused at Elke's unhappy face when she'd clambered through the window, but the explanation--
I got an infection and they want me to stay until it's better--seemed to suffice. Certainly the older senshi had smiled and settled in next to her after a few questions as to the return of the IV. She held up the new edition of Cosmopolitan, smiling brightly as Elke sighed and settled into her normal place; head on Scylla's shoulder to look at the picture, curled up carefully so as not to aggravate the wound on her side. The new IV was in her left hand, so this time she was in a place where she could see the window. Every so often, she glanced out at the little slice of sky she could see from the bed. She couldn't quite see the stars, but she knew they were there--a thought that, of course, provided great comfort. As long as there were stars, everything would be okay.
"
-- instead of going back and forth about where to eat on a Friday or Saturday night, just draw a name from the bowl and embrace the surprise --"
It was really very good that she had a friend like Scy, reflected Elke. She was not quite off the drugs yet, though the dosage had dropped to the point where she remained mostly lucid; sleep came easily under the influence, especially when lulled to sleep by the older senshi's pleasant voice. Sometimes she tuned in enough to actually consider what she was being told--
a full-body massage oh gosh who does that??--but it was mostly the rhythm of the words and the pauses and smiles.
Her eyes drifted closed until Scylla giggled, and then she looked down at the picture and blushed. "Scy, you did that on purpose," she complained, looking up and out the window again. But instead of stars, she saw a pair of eyes. A pair of deeply unsettling gray eyes.
Another girl would have been freaked out because of the fact someone was looking at the two of them; another girl probably would not have encountered the student ghost outside her tutor's window at Barren Pines. Elke gave a tiny, breathless shriek, muffled by her own hands and the shoulder of her friend. The reaction was immediate; Scylla asked what was wrong, dropping the magazine and shifting to pull her in for a hug. Outside the window, the eyes dropped out of view.
Elke was shivering, thinking of the student of blood outside Giselle's window. She never saw it herself, she knew that there was something out the window, but she had seen the bloody sheet. She had heard the scream. And those eyes... reminded her of terrible things, as most gray eyes did. How did you explain those things to an outsider, who hadn't personally experienced Barren Pines? Who hadn't died with the Zodiac that night, trying to save the Princess?
She shook her head and clung tightly to Scylla's arms. After a few minutes with no explanation, Scylla picked up the magazine and began to read again, this time quieter than before. Elke clutched tightly to the fairytale quilt, pressed closer against the older senshi, every so often shuddering as a detail came to the forefront. But mostly, she was quiet, and soon enough she fell into a restless sleep.
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