Today Is A Good Day

Intro
After a confrontation with Dokucu, the Ominous on The Arena grew too dangerous, Karina Oblay flees to the only place she feels safe before all the damage catches up to her...

Today Is A Good Day
Today is a good day. Today I learned a bunch of new Material Effects stuff. I think if I practice it tomorrow, I might finally get my first spell figured out. It’s going to be amazing. Now I get to come back and be with Karina tonight. I even got to see Mom on the way to class! That basically never happens! Now I’ll just go to my room, get changed, and get ready to meet Karina. I trace my way around the hallways, which are really easy to follow only when you’ve grown up in them like I have.

As I open my door, I can feel the magic of Karina’s planeswalk. I’m getting better at that, right? I didn’t really expect her to be here yet. Oh well, I guess I’ll just get changed behind the wall again. No big deal. I push my way through the door to greet her.

“K-Karina?” She’s on the floor. She’s on the floor. Why is she on the floor? I run to her side and fall to the floor with her. She looks up at me. Weakly. Like she’s Exhausted. No. Please, don’t.

“Karina?” I throw my arms around Karina. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“Safe… now…” Karina? “So… tired…”

“What? What are you safe from?”

“Don’t forget… We love you.”  We? Karina’s eyes close. Karina? Karina? I pull her tighter to me. No. No. No.

I take a sharp breath. “ALERT! HEALER!” My transceiver lights up. They know. It’ll be alright. I can feel my tears. Don’t leave me. Please? But she doesn’t respond. Of course she doesn’t. I need her to, but she’s not. Why…?

Footsteps travel around me. “Healer here, I need you to let me see her.”  I can’t stop crying, but I let go. I need her to stay. I need her to be alright. I need her to… More footsteps come in and surround me. Another healer. Just in case, I guess, why not.

“Miss Hannah,” one of them says. I look up, but I can’t really see anything. My eyes are blurred. I try to breathe. It only barely works. Karina… “She’s just tired. She’s exerted herself a lot and needs to rest.”

“She… she’ll be okay?” I ask. Please say yes. Please. One of the sets of footsteps leaves. I guess he decided he wasn’t needed.

“She should be.” The healer shoves a glass ball into my hands. Is this an energy cell? “If her body is too tired, she might stop breathing. If that happens, I want you to break this on the ground, as hard as you can. It’ll help her. Okay?”

I take a deep breath and nod too many times. “A-anything.” The healer nods at me, lightly moves Karina to my bed, smiles at me, and leaves, closing the door behind him. It’s just her and me, alone. She’s in my care now. And I’m not letting anything happen to her, no matter how long I have to watch her. I guess there’s nothing stopping me from changing now. I get dressed in a set of light pajamas. Karina’s breathing never stops. Thank the Spirits. How long have I been awake, watching her? I can feel my own tiredness now. This must be the longest I’ve ever stayed awake. Dad tried to take my job away from me at first. I promised I’d protect Karina. I’m not letting someone else do it for me. The many cups, bottles, and plates now scattering the floor of my room are reflective of all the sugary drinks and snacks I’ve eaten trying to stay here. Things Dad brought to me once I was clear I was staying.

I lean over the bed from the ground as best I can. Will she ever wake up? What would I do if she doesn’t? I shake my head. Of course she will. She’ll be okay. She wouldn’t leave me.

Karina’s eyes blink open with a sharp breath. She flicks her eyes around, looking across my room. I gasp, take a deep breath, and smile as best I can. Finally. Karina leans up to me the moment her eyes catch mine. “Hannah…” she whispers before she kisses me. I return her kiss. If there was anything that could keep me awake, it was that, for sure.

“Karina? Are you… are you alright?”

Karina takes my hands and looks up to me. “I am now.”

“You shouldn’t exhaust yourself like that. While you were asleep, I did some reading… Apparently people can die if they get too tired, kinda like aether exhausting but more confusing. Please… please don’t die on me, okay?”

Karina sighs. “That’s why I was so tired.” She looks down. I take this moment to get up and sit beside her on the bed. “Something attacked me… tried to…” She closes her eyes and takes a heavy breath. “But I couldn’t die on you. It took me everything I had to escape. It hurt. So much. But all I could think was I was going to hurt you if I died. I couldn't let that happen.”

There’s a moment of silence between us that I take to lay down with her. What do I even say to that? “Hey, uh… Before you fainted… you said ‘Don’t forget we love you.’ What, uh… who’s ‘we’?”

Karina’s sharp breath and sad look hit me. Did I say something wrong? Did I hurt her? She starts to cry. Why did I say that? Why did I make her do this? Karina pulls me into a tight hug and I hold her. “I’m sorry,” she eventually says through her sobs. “That was… the last thing my mom told me before… before…”

“It’s okay Karina, everything’s going to be okay,” I say, not really knowing how okay it was. I tighten my hold on her. “You don’t have to worry about what you say, okay? You can say anything you need to.”

Karina takes a breath through her crying to continue. “She knew they were going to… and she wanted me to remember that.” She pauses again to cry. “I must have thought I was going to die. And I wanted to tell you I love you one last time.”

“I… I thought you were going to too…”  I look into Karina’s eyes and lightly try to wipe the tears from her face. That’s what I’m supposed to do, right? “I love you. I thought I might never get to say it back… But it’s okay. You’re here now. You’re okay. I’m okay.” I yawn. “Tired but okay.”

“I’m okay. We’re okay.” Karina takes some deep breaths to calm herself down. We’re okay. “How long have you been here?”

“Uh…” I glance at my transceiver. “Fourteen...? … hours?” Please don’t be upset at me. I know I’m supposed to sleep at normal times, but…

Karina stares at me with a stunned look. “Wow.” She watches me for a little bit while I watch her. “You’d better have gotten some sleep during that.” She gives me a small smile.

“Mm-mm,” I reply slowly as I shake my head. “The healer… he said you might stop breathing if your body was too tired, so I stayed awake to make sure that didn’t happen.”

Karina closes her eyes and laughs, kind of. It’s sadder than I hoped. “You know you’re the most amazing person ever, right?” I look at her and smile, even though she can’t really see me right now. “I’m sorry I put you through that. I was trying to make sure you didn’t—”

I kiss Karina to cut her off. “You don’t need to be sorry about anything. If you didn’t do what you did, I might never have gotten to see you again. You did a good thing. Okay?”

Karina looks at me. “You did a good thing. And now you should get some rest, okay?”

“Are you sure you’re okay now?”

“No. So I’m going to stay right here until I am.”

I look up at Karina. “I’ve gotta stay up to make sure you’re better, though.”

“You already have.” She kisses me. I smile at her and let myself relax with her. “Don’t worry,” she says as she relaxes herself too. “I’m not going to leave while you’re asleep. I love you, Hannah.” I smile.

“I love you, Karina.” I take a deep breath as I let my tiredness take over me.