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“Xan?” Saki asked. “Are you alright?”
“I think I may be re-writing definitions for 'not alright'” I groaned. “Damn, I hurt so much, but I don't want to take any more painkillers today.” I flinched, trying to curl around my self.
“Suki! Suki come here!” Saki uncurled me and laid me out on the bed, I tried my best not to feel like a corpse. I heard the twins mumbling, but all I could think about was the pain. Every breath I drew in, it felt like something sharp was digging it's way into my chest. I coughed, but didn't have the strength to cover my mouth, or wipe away what came out; blood from the feel of it.
“What...? Oh!” Suki touched my face, and wiped it away.
“Am I right?” Saki whispered.
“Yes.”
One of them opened my vest and shirt, baring my chest. I shivered, and coughed again.
“What're you doing?” I mumbled.
That's when I heard someone knock on my door, then enter.
“Xan?”
“Aw hell,” I muttered. Henry had to come visiting right then, didn't he? No one really wants to have a friend see them in such a wretched state, and especially not when one's flat mates have decided to start stripping them.
“What's going on here? Who are you children? What are you doing to Xan!?”
“Xan's been elfshot.” Saki said. He sounded terrified. “It's going to spread if we don't get it out.” A finger, dipped in something terrifyingly cold traced itself on my chest, I gasped, and started coughing.
“Hey! Girl, what are you doing!?!”
“We told you-” Suki was closer- it was her finger drawing on my chest, my eyes slit open, it looked like she was drawing a glyph on my chest, kneeling on the bed, my ink pot in one hand. “Xan has been elfshot; we have to get it out.”
“Henry -” I choked. “It's fine”
“Fine?” He squeaked- in any other situation, I would have been amused. “You've conjured two hobgoblins to tend you, and you're telling me things are fine?”
Suki flicked ink at him. “That's really nice.” she scowled.
“We're not hobgoblins.” Saki frowned.
“Familiar spirits, elves, what are you?”
“Twins.” came the chorused reply.
Magic hummed through the air, and for a moment, the pain in my chest intensified.
“Sweet Jesus.” swore Henry- but I could only hear him in the distance. I could see a light and then; the pain; the one that I'd been feeling in my diaphragm; went away. I heard Suki and Saki speaking, and felt another sudden surge of magic. I opened my eyes and sat up. The twins grinned at me, small sigils in ink on their cheeks. Whatever pattern had been painted on my chest was gone, however- but my chest got smeared with ink again, as they flung themselves into my arms.
“Eventually,” Henry said dryly, sitting on the end of the bed. “I'm sure you're going to explain what's going on.” I smiled, and dosed off, in the relative lack of pain.