There was an unearthly gloom that shrouded the room from the absence of life in Revian's eyes, his breaths stalled with little symptom of life. Not even his struggling pulse made it through, his heart as unmoving as his limbs.
Slowly, the dark's horrors crept upon Garron, its sensation almost enough to make him ball up and cry out to the gods for help.
He withheld.
Out of fear that he was one of the only people present who could've been of help, he began pumping his arms into Revian's chest, trying to squeeze some life--any--back into him in the hopes that more could be done by a professional.
"Master, what should we do!"
His mouth contorted by grief, its corners twisting to tilt all the way down to his chin. It was a terrible pain streaking his expression, the terror in his voice drawing out emotion from even Varek.
Like water to a flame, his spirit dimmed to a slow simmer the more and more the sudden pulses he provided to Revian's chest served little purpose in restoring his life.
With rapid anxiety, his arms shook as his pumps hastened, the force behind them causing blood to splurge from Revian's open wound.
It shot out to Garron's left eye, his hand instinctively slipping back to his face to wipe away the crimson.
"Garron, stop!"
Varek's mouth trembled, a slight tremor passing through his fingers. Although he tried best to conceal it, he too had garnered concern for the fallen student.
"Look, you're just making things worse. Just hold on, I've already called for medical personnel to rush here."
There was a single breath of silence between the two, Garron turning to face the wall that held the only door in the room.
With perfectly timed circumstance, the floor pattered within the hallway to the two's left, blocked off by the blood-covered wall.
With a violent thud, a stampede of doctors rushed in, all equipped with medical tools beyond either's understanding.
"Get back, and keep your hands off him!" One yelled to the right of Garron, shoving him away from Revian's body.
"Leave this room now!" Another yelled, holding one end of a medical stretcher while looking back to make sure they didn't bump into anything.
"Come on, Garron, we're in the way."
Garron didn't even have time to react to his master's words, getting pulled away and then disappearing into the air as Varek carried him through and out of the building.
---
The pain striking Revian's head was indescribably fierce, cleaving through the midsection of his head like a guillotine's sharp disseverment.
Pain... unimaginable pain!
Those were the first thoughts that crossed his mind, his limbs battling intensely with the bed below, banging against the sheets that were painted in the same crimson that bled into his bandages.
The resultant clattering woke up the person seated next to his bed, the baldness of his scalp gleaming from the dimmed light above them, contrasting the dark to highlight his most recognizable feature.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't move like that! You'll reopen your wounds again!"
Once the man had gripped onto Revian's arms and inflicted pressure upon old wounds, Revian bit down unto his lip uncontrollably, red trickling down from where his teeth pierced flesh.
"Grahhhhh! Unhand me," Revian bellowed, throwing off his sheets to better improve his mobility, "or I swear, I'll kill you where you stand!"
The man slammed his elbow into Revian's neck and his knees on his chest, constricting his airflow and weakening his resistance.
"Damn it, they must've forgotten to give you the painkiller."
Stopping for a moment to turn his own eyes down to himself, he reached for his pocket with his other hand, pulling out a small jar of purple, glowing liquid that ran like water.
Forcing Revian's mouth open, he poured it down his throat, easing his own weight bearing down on Revian to allow him the proper room to ingest it.
"cough, cough, wh-what is this..." Revian stammered, his eyes quivering from the mystery of the man's figure, obscured by the dark.
If it were poison, there was no way for him to escape or circumvent its effects, the majority of its volume having already reached his stomach.
The liquid's effect kicked in as fast as it ran down his throat, each fear he had surrounding the liquid fading along with the aches and pains in his body.
It was frightening, how fast the debilitating pain had left his joints, allowing him a moment's reprieve from the disorientation.
"Ahhhhh," Revian sighed, recovering from both the fire in his wounds and the pressure the man had been putting on his neck and chest, "thank you."
The man in the dark was revealed once Revian's pupils dilated within the dark room, Varek standing before him.
"Yeah, no problem."
Turning his head, Revian looked to observe his surroundings, finding a number of nurses and doctors standing above dozens of sick patients of whom had severe ailments.
It was the urgent care bay, the place that no student wished to end up.
It's said that it was reserved for treatment for those teetering on death's door, treatment stealing years from your life.
Revian didn't even wish to contemplate on the possible ramifications of ending up here, drifting his attention back to the professor standing before him.
"What happened?"
Varek stepped back, sitting at the butt of the bed just past where Revian's feet where.
"You got banged up pretty bad there by that Class B student. Your heart was stopped, your breath stilled. You were essentially dead when you got sent here, and that wasn't even to mention the amount of blood you lost."
The air from Revian's extended breath brushed against the skin on his chest, his eyes closed as if to release a beast he wished to never be revealed to the world.
"Just give it to me cut and dry," he said, opening his eyes to meet Varek's, "what'd I lose to get treated?"
There was a little twitch in Varek's eyes, his attempts to tip-toe across the elephant in the room falling flat.
His eyes narrowing in resolve, he opened his mouth, the words trailing behind clattering teeth.
"Ten years."
"What?"
"Ten years of your life--is what they say. To have revived you with magic as experimental as it was."
With his words, water welled in Revian's eyes, held back only by the raw heat beginning to rise in his chest. Ten years--gone. Ten years stolen by Malric.
He clenched his fists beneath the sheets, the weightlessness in his limbs contrasting the heaviness in his soul.
Instantly, the bulk of his attention jumped elsewhere, staring to the front of the room where the door was.
Footsteps clicked against the tile. Two figures in sharp nurse uniforms approached, their emblems gleaming like verdicts.