Unity; Chapter Two; Home Sweet Home

						Home Sweet Home
						   Limp Nicky




	This was it. This was the end of your life. There was no pain or suffering, which unnerved you a bit. You had taken several blows from a fire axe wielded by only God knows who, you thought there would be intense pain. Instead, there was only a slight chill travelling across your body. It wasn’t freezing, and it wasn’t even enough to give you goosebumps, but it was enough to make you want a blanket. The serenity of the moment was eerie. You had so much more you wanted to do with the girls, so much more help you could give out, so many more lives you could save or improve, yet, you felt at peace. There were others who could help, others who could carry on your work. If you were able to smile, you were doing it.

	However, you began to think that there was no such thing as dying without regret, as you regretted a bunch of things. You slept until noon this morning. You had Burger King for lunch. You decided to wear a nice dress shirt and a pair of arachne-woven jeans to come to this damned abandoned factory. All seemed like good ideas at the time, but, now that you were dying, you wished you had done those things differently. And those were just things from today, there was no telling what all you would regret if you really thought about it. Your wound began to radiate in your chest, suddenly becoming mildly warm and sticky. This was a foreign sensation, and you equated it to the pool of blood in the wound overflowing. It made you uncomfortable, as it felt as if someone had warmed several jars of smuckers and poured them into your chest. It was a feeling that you couldn’t describe in words. The wound started to tickle, and continued to grow in warmth. The jelly in your chest then began to startle you. It was moving.

	It dug around inside of you gently, enveloping the entirety of the exposed parts of your chest. You felt several pinches, followed by even more warmth. The jelly settled for a moment, as if it was observing its work. The warmth was now spreading back throughout your body, pushing away the chill that had invaded. You felt something pushing gently on your lungs, as if forcing them to contact, to fill with air. After several pushes, you felt your lungs open, taking in a large breath, and releasing it. The jelly that was tampering with your lungs stopped while you took several slow breaths, before it frantically began moving around inside you some more. Someone was reviving you. Or trying to, at least.

	You began to hear again. At first it was little more than the sound of rushing water. It wasn’t violent, like a river, but more like a gentle stream. The sound of the stream faded away as quickly as it came, and you were now hearing what sounded like a voice that had been submerged underwater. Another higher pitched voice chimed in. They were talking to one another. You then felt something poking your index finger, and in reaction to it, you wiggled it as hard as you could. You were sure you were able to produce little more than a twitch, but if someone was trying to save you, you figured you had better cooperate. The voices were still muffled, but they had lost the underwater-sound, and they were louder.

	“Mmph? Mmmm hmm mph?”
	“Mmmm. hmhmmph.”
	“Mmmmmph!”

	More and more, you were beginning to feel less like you were dying, and more like someone was holding your eyes shut. The jelly was still moving around inside you, sometimes shifting things around, other times gently rubbing against your lungs, as if to make sure you were still breathing. You could tell your palms were facing the ground, so, you tried moving your fingers, and to your surprise, you could feel the sensation of each finger thumping on the ground. The action of you thumping your fingers must have startled the voices, because they became louder. Much louder. In fact, now that you were focusing on the voices, you could actually understand them.

	“...hold his arms, honey. He’s going to come to any moment now, and we don’t want him to move. He could hurt himself even more.” A gentle, feminine voice cooed.

	“Yes ma’am.” A more high pitched voice responded. It was almost how a daughter would respond to a mother. That’s when you realized this voice was that of the Goblin. You felt pressure on the both of your arms, like two cinder blocks were balanced on each of them. It wasn’t enough to create pain, but enough to make you uncomfortable. “Is this okay? I don’t think I’m strong enough if I use my hands.”

	“It’ll work, dear. Now, be ready. His eyes will open any moment now.”

	The mention of your eyes made you remember the fact that you had eyes, ones that could be opened. You took several deep breaths, and with all the might you could muster, you tried to open your eyes. To your surprise, light flooded your world. The cold darkness was gone, and all that was left was bright, blinding light. The more you opened your eyes, the more intense the light became.

	“His eyes are opening!” The Goblin shouted. “Hey, hey, I told you I’d be here when you woke up!”

	“Isaac?” The feminine voice called to you. You felt something warm on your cheek. “Isaac, honey, can you see me?” It asked. You shook your head very gently. “Good, you can hear me. Listen, don’t move until I say, okay?” You smiled widely.

	You were alive. You just took an axe to the torso, and you were still alive. Your smile must have startled the owner of the feminine voice, as you felt the jelly in your chest frantically recheck everything around it.

	“Isaac, talk to me. Can you talk?” It asked.
	“Buh...Bur…” You sputtered.
	“That’s it honey, we’re here, you can do it.”
	“Burg...Bur…”
	“C’mon Issac, you can do it, stay with us.”

	Your eyesight had been focusing the entire time, morphing from blinding white light to a variety of colors, which then began to form shapes, which eventually evolved into regular eyesight.

	“Burger King is terrible.” You finally finished, your smile unbroken. The Slime you had taken with you to the abandoned factory was sitting beside you, both of her arms in your chest, which was now overflowing with cyan slime. The Goblin had both of her knees on your elbows, her dark blue jean shorts hovering just above your stomach.

	“That’s too bad, because that’s what’s for dinner!” The Goblin giggled. The Slime smiled, but went back to looking in your chest, examining her work.

	“Did you find the girl?” You asked the Slime. She shook her head, not looking up from your chest.
	“No. I don’t think there was one. It seems as if this was a trap.”
	“Speaking of which, how am I alive?” You asked. The Slime laughed calmly, still poking around inside of you.
	“Slime is extremely restorative to humans. My mother was actually a combat medic once upon a time.” She responded, finally looking up at you. “Why would anyone set a trap for you?”

	“Dunno.” You answered. “I think someone or a group of someones don’t like what I’m doing.” You looked at the Goblin kneeling on your elbows. “Could you get off please, Sam?” The Goblin known as Sam nodded, and gently lowered herself off of you, relieving the pressure and making you sigh in relaxation. “And Sam?” You asked, as she walked to the Slime’s side. “I’m very sorry that you had to see that. I would have never brought you along if I knew the damn hash slinging slasher was running around out here.” Sam giggled some more at your reference, and peered inside your wound. The slime, although cyan, still provided a pretty look into your insides.

	“You’re lucky I decided to check on you guys when I did, but now, we need to leave. We don’t want anyone coming back to make sure you’re dead. Very carefully, try and stand up, and stay near me. I have to keep that wound filled until we can get you better care.” The Slime explained.

	“How long do I have?” You asked, slowly rolling over and picking yourself up. You were a little wobbly on your feet, and a little woozy, but something in the slime made you feel better than you probably should.
“Technically, forever. As long as I have that wound filled, you’ll live.” The Slime explained as she walked next to you. Although you felt pretty good on your feet, you were doubting your ability to drive. You opened the driver’s side door, and climbed in. The Slime climbed over you, smothering you for a brief moment, and then settled in the passenger seat, so as to avoid breaking her connection to you. Sam climbed in the seats behind you, and buckled herself in, smiling widely.

	“I still helped, even though there was no other goblin!” She smiled. You turned the key in the ignition, bringing the car to life, and shifted the car into reverse. You felt very guilty about bringing Sam along. The anonymous tip you got said that they had seen a Goblin wandering aimlessly around the factory, so you thought you’d bring Sam to help talk to her and convince her to come with you. You were going to have to be more careful in the future.

	“Whew.” You sighed, leaning your head back against the headrest. You looked over at the Slime for a brief moment, and noticed that she was calmly studying the wound. “How’s it looking, Gummy?” You asked, smiling, your eyes on the road.

	“Actually, we may not need to go to a hospital. I might be able to take care of this on my own, I’ll just need to be inside of you for the rest of the evening, tonight, and maybe a little in the morning.” She explained. You weren't able to fully understand how it was possible, but Gummy blushed. “That is, if you don’t mind me this close for that long.”

	“Meh, it’s either that, or gaping chest wound. It’s a matter of YOU being able to put up with ME for that long.” You laughed. Other than the psychological trauma of being ripped open with an axe, you were feeling pretty good. You weren't entirely sure how badly you were injured, or how you were even alive, for that matter. Magic WAS commonplace in the modern world, but it didn’t answer any questions.

	After about an hour of driving, you reached the polished brass gates of the manor. You opened up the glovebox of your car, and pulled out your wireless keypad, entering in the code. You pressed the green enter button, and the keypad beeped several times. The gates started to slide away from one another, allowing you to drive through.

	“Sam, when you get inside, try and distract any girls in the lobby. If they see me like this, they’ll freak out.” You said, looking around the outside of the manor rapidly, making sure nobody was outside. Sam nodded her head and jumped out of the car, scampering up the steps to the massive front doors. You put the car in park, and sighed. “Home sweet home.”