Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Cove ❯ Prisoner ( Chapter 86 )

She can't leave here. She can't leave until her brother gets better. How many years has that been now? She doesn't even know anymore. Everyone else who used to live here is gone. They either died or they left. It's just her and brother now.

Merci awoke when slim rays of light hit her face. She winced before opening her eyes. Her room was so dark. The sound of the breathing machine filled the air. She had gotten used to that sound by now. Three years of living here and nothing changed. Merci sighed as she pushed that thought out of her head. She climbed out of bed and walked over to the window. The girl drew up the wooden blinds. She had to shield her eyes from the light. It was going to be a bright day today. It rarely rained here. Who was going to come by here today?

The sounds of the breathing machine drew her attention back to reality. Oh yeah. She turned and walked out of the room.

Merci poked her head into the room across the hall. Her brother lay in his bed with tubes in his body. Before, the others wrote him off as dead. She wasn't ready to let him go.

"There had to be a way to save him," Merci said. The adults turned her away. She still wouldn't give up on the boy. He was the only family she had left. She could to keep trying. The medicines weren't working. The doctors weren't much help. The only one in the group gave up on him.

"There isn't much to be done," he said. "I would be better if you would let him die peacefully." Merci refused to listen.

"I will not let him die!" she shouted.

"Merci, you have to understand that keeping him alive like this is just cruel," he said. But the girl wouldn't hear it. She was going to do what it took to save him. That was when she heard about the Cove.

They came here years ago. There were many rumors about this place. They said that the waters had healing properties. People would never die here. Some never grow old. All dreams can come true. The Cove can give anyone whatever they wanted. Such a place couldn't be real, could it? Merci and her people had to set out and see for themselves. So away they went. The journey was long and only half of them made it. They set up their village on the Cove. Everything was going well. But over time, the cracks started to show.

Her brother used to be healthy. Namu used to be an ordinary boy. He ran around and played. Namu was a bright and talkative child. Things took a turn for the worse when he was four years old. It started out with a small cough and acting out. Merci and their parents couldn't figure it out. Within days, the boy gave sicker. The doctors couldn't help him. Merci watched her family lose money and fall apart around her. Like her, they couldn't let their son go. That's when they heard about the Cove. So they packed up their things and left with their neighbors.

Merci leaned over her brother's bed. She kissed him on the forehead.

"Good morning," she whispered. His eyes looked so empty. Merci used to cry when she saw him like this. Now, she's become numb to it. It would be so much easier to put the boy out of his misery. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. So Namu just lingers on. His sister rose to her feet and walked out of the room.

As far as Merci knew, nothing was going to change. Three years and her brother hadn't gotten better. Some days, she thinks about ending it for him but stops herself before she can bring herself to do it. Merci doesn't know why she keeps doing this anymore. She probably thinks maybe. Just maybe...

Merci paused in the hallway. She could feel the change of energy in the air. Oh...

"Here we go again," Merci said to herself. But why couldn't she shake the feeling that something was going to be different this time?

Chapter Eighty-Eight: Prisoner: