The After Effects of Poison

The feeling of pain pretty much filled my body. The familiar beeping of the machine that was alerting the medical staff to my condition felt like it was bashing the inside of my brain.

"So, you are awake."

It was the familiar doctor's voice. Maybe I should pretend I was still asleep. However, my heart rate monitor was blaring out the obvious truth of my awakening. I groaned and held my hand up to my head.

"I am sure you have a nasty headache. Let's see… Three broken ribs, a punctured lung, broken wrist, internal bleeding, and various other injuries. You enjoy making my job difficult, don't you?"

"Some miscalculations were made."

The doctor punched some buttons near where the beeping was coming from and thankfully the beeping sound became more tolerable. I looked at the doctor in appreciation.

His lips became a thin line and I knew the worst of the lecture was yet to come.

"I contacted your party as there was no one else listed on your emergency contacts. While I commend your effort in making it back from the towers and your work to suppress the monster invasions I cannot commend your choice of entering the tower alone."

The doctor put down a folder on a table near my bed and folded his arms. I knew he was right, but he didn't know about the all powerful figure behind the screen. I didn't really feel like explaining why I had to go in the tower alone and why I had gone in such a hurry.

"You were also poisoned by some unknown substance. I sent it to the lab, but you will still be feeling the effects of it for some time."

"Oh, it must be the poison I used on that thing."

"So you have a pure sample of it, then?"

I nodded and pointed to my bag that was sitting on a chair across the room. The doctor picked up the bag and brought it to me. I managed to bring out a bottle of the purple poison Clay had made.

"It was made by Clay, my personal crafter. His information should be on the association website under my file."

"This helps. Please consider bringing an antidote with you if you plan on using poison in the future. You were brought to the hospital wing of the clinic directly from the tower. There are also people from the association who have questions. I am assuming it is an effort to inform other hunters of the dangers in the towers."

"Well, that is inconvenient."

"Showing up mostly dead out of the tower draws lots of attention. I think you even made the top of the forum news."

I groaned for a different reason. For one thing, I didn't want to draw attention to myself. Whether good or bad, attention only made it more difficult to achieve my goals.

"You lost a lot of blood, so we were not able to heal you completely. You are stable, aside from the active poison in your system. Your party members have been granted access to your room, but do not tire yourself out. I do not know how long it will take to formulate an antidote."

The doctor examined the vial of poison before leaving the room. It seemed the doctor had not gone overboard with his advice this time. As I looked out of the windows that covered a whole wall, I realized I had been admitted to an ICU type ward and several other hunters were strewn out on beds.

A nurses station sat in the middle of the circle of rooms, with personnel rushing too and fro. Lines of monitors hung from the ceiling alerting the nurses of the status of different patients.

It looked like a war zone and I suddenly understood the even temperament of the doctor. I was but one of many casualties of the towers. It could be that he was simply too tired to berate me further, but it felt more like he had grown accustomed to seeing hunters in gruesome conditions.

The skills healers learned were like a miracle, but they could not fix everything. With all the advances in technology, it was probably difficult to keep up with the medical side the most. Doctors and healers worked together to provide the best outcome for patients, but they were not always successful.

As if to agree with my consensus a code was called to a room out of my sight. Nurses and personnel rushed to that room, but in the end the long echo of the machine reported that no more life existed in its patient.

What was worse was the look of Callie's eyes as the elevator doors opened up into the ward. Redness rimmed her eyes and the puffiness that came with it made me regret my actions further. I wanted to look away, but the anger in Mat's eyes was also equally terrifying.

His anger did not hide the condition of his eyes either. I had people that truly cared about me and now I had let them down. It had been a long time since I had people like that. It was like I was surrounded by family once more.

"Kai! How could you go into the dungeon yourself?"

I winced at Callie's accusation.

"Please don't make us worry."

"Well, I have something to tell you two."

Mat brought two chairs over and they sat on either side of me holding my hands. Mat sat to my left and Callie to my right. My left arm and wrist was wrapped up in a cast like bandage.

I winced when he grabbed my hand, but his fingers just gently held mine and I could feel the care in his eyes. Callie just grabbed onto my hand with such vigor that I was sincerely glad she had not sat on my left.

"It seems we are always visiting you in the hospital."

I silently agreed with Mat's statement. It was better that it was me in the hospital and no one else.

"Why does it feel like you are glad it's you in the hospital?"

Callie was getting sharper. Maybe it was because she was a healer. She seemed to be unusually attuned to my feelings when I was injured. I smiled weakly at her.

"I had no choice. I was forced into the tower."

My statement broke the tension in the room. If it wasn't for the beeping sounds coming from the other rooms around me, I would have thought time stopped.

"You don't mean?" Mat asked me with a knowing look in his eyes.

I nodded. Callie looked down at the bed. Her lips formed a thin line and a haunting look came across her eyes.

"It's not fair!"

I wanted to agree with her statement, but a cough erupted from my mouth and blood coated the fresh bandages on my left wrist. I guess the poison was doing its job well.

"Are you okay?"

Callie stood up and was midway through a healing spell when I held up my hand to stop her. Mat held me a container and I spit out the rest of the blood in my mouth before rinsing it with some water.

"I ended up getting poisoned. Healing me will do no good at this point. They are formulating an antidote and I am sure Clay will help with it."

"But that's just awful!"

Callie's outburst was followed by fresh tears as she collapsed back in her chair. I stroked her head a bit before reassuring her I would be fine. I looked at Mat and very visibly motioned to Callie with my eyes. He nodded and released my wrist where he had been trying to clean up most of the blood.

"Callie, it looks like the nurses are going to have to clean up and change Kai's bandages. How about we go back home for today and visit tomorrow."

"Yeah. Okay."

Callie seemed reluctant to leave, but followed Mat to the elevator in the end. I let out a sigh of relief. Callie's overreactions were endearing, but I felt exhausted from her visit. She had a long way to go as a healer.

A knock on my door alerted me to a nurse. I waved her in and she began unwinding the bandages on my wrist. What I had thought was a cast was some kind of new material, most likely made from a monster's materials.

"Was that your party?"

"Yes. I wasn't expecting them to visit so soon."

The nurse smiled at me as she continued her work. She cleaned up the mess I had made as if it was a daily part of her job and made sure I was comfortable.

"How is the pain?"

"I have a pain resistance skill, don't worry about me."

"You are in the hospital, sweetie. There is no point hiding your pain from me."

"It's just barely tolerable."

"I understand. I will send the doctor back shortly."

It seemed my fake bravado had fooled Callie and Mat, but this nurse could see through me. I had truly been fine up until I coughed. Now it felt like I had torn something inside of my chest and my mind was being consumed by madness from the amount of pain I was feeling.

Seriously, what was this poison? Another round of coughing made me feel as if I was going to pass out. Thank goodness they had left before seeing this. The nurse hurried back in the room and cleaned me up once more.

Please hurry, Doctor.