Fever – a flash fiction story

I watched hopelessly as he writhed on the bed, muscles spasming in agony. He’d been steadily getting worse all evening and I had no idea what to do or who to call. Coming up to the cabin was supposed to keep us safe and out of the way while the others figured out the whole mess. We’d only been here a day when he started to look ill. At first, he had brushed it off, called it stress but I knew he hadn’t believed it.

I’d found him collapsed in the bathroom a few hours ago and just about managed to drag him into his bedroom. I’d tried to cover him up but he had thrown all the covers off. His skin was almost too hot to touch. Small moans escaped his lips. He wasn’t even fully conscious now; I suppose that was something, at least he was only vaguely aware of his pain maybe?

I’d gone round and checked the entire cabin and the outer perimeter too. All the wards were in place. Nothing should have been able to get in, but somehow they were still managing to have an effect on him.

A cry of pain erupted from his throat and I chewed on my fingers anxiously. The signal out here was awful but calling the others would only distract them from the one thing that could actually help. I sat on the floor against the wall. I’d tried holding his hand and talking to him but he kept flailing his arms around. I didn’t know how much more of this I could watch.

It was then I became aware of his lips moving. I moved onto my knees and crawled closer to the bed. There was no way anything should have been able to get at him through the wards. The fact that they were hurting him so much scared the living daylights out of me. How strong would they be without the wards? As long as we stayed inside, they could not come in. I watched his mouth. Unless…

My blood froze in my veins as I finally realised what he was saying. His eyes snapped open and delirious with fever, he called out her name. Finally, the spasms stopped and he slumped, asleep on the bed.

‘Finally,’ a voice purred behind me. ‘So nice of you to invite me in.’

Written in response to prompt 3 from the January writing prompts on: https://puttingmyfeetinthedirt.com/2022/01/01/january-2022-writing-prompts/ from Putting My Feet in the Dirt.