Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 101: Do You Know...?

Chapter 101: Do You Know...?

I leaned forward and saw that there was still a good amount of gruel left in the bottom, and it didn’t look like anything happened to it. So why was I feeling so uneasy? And why wasn’t I scared like I was with the other one?

"Thank you, Sir," I said softly, looking at him as the unknown Reaver got to his feet. He wasn’t the same one as yesterday... he was missing the bleeding wound across his forehead. If anything, he looked...

Huge...

But not a freak...

I mean, he was tall, easily over 7 feet tall. His spine was curved, giving him a bit of a hunched back, and I could see the scars on his hands and face. What surprised me most was his blonde hair.

"Do you know the Muffin Man?" asked the man, cocking his head to the side. All of a sudden, his voice sounded sweet and innocent, almost like a child’s.

"Yes, I know the Muffin Man," I smiled, ignoring everyone around us. The Muffin Man was one of my favorite nursery rhymes until someone ruined it for me. "He lives on Drury Lane."

A smile broke out on the face of the Reaver in front of me, stretching the scars until they were white and painful.

"I found you!"

-----

After that cryptic statement, the giant of a man turned around and walked away, leaving me with the bowl full of gruel.

Well, might as well save the protein bars for some other time.

Rolling to my side so I was facing the food, I slipped my arm through the bars and grabbed the spoon. It barely fit back through the bars, but it was full of the white grain thing, and it beat trying to eat it off the ground.

"You fucking bitch," hissed Bitchy as I gorged on the meal in front of me. Even Ming Zhu couldn’t hide the brief flash of hatred in her eyes.

I ignored both of them and continued to eat as much as I could before the Reaver realized what he had done and came back for the bowl.

Yesterday, Ming Zhu ate my food off of the ground, not giving me a chance to change my mind about eating it. I wasn’t going to, but she didn’t know that.

This was the ultimate episode of Survivor. No one was your friend; everyone pretended to be, and if you weren’t careful, you would wind up with a metaphorical knife in your back.

Or, in my case... a literal knife.

-----

I had just finished my dinner when the new guy returned for the bowl. "Thank you," I whispered as he bent down. It wasn’t until this moment that I realized that one of his ankles was severely broken. "That must be painful," I continued, pointing to his foot that was pointing off to the side.

The Reaver just shrugged his shoulders, not responding to my comment. However, something inside of me was compelled to help him.

I didn’t think I would be able to heal him; the bones had been long set like that if he was walking somewhat normally, but I needed to do something.

"Muffin Man?" I pushed, waving my hand to indicate he crouched down again.

"Yeah? Bo-Peep?" grunted the man as he did what I asked.

Quickly, my hand shot through the bars, and I gripped his bare wrist, not thinking about anything other than this need to make him better.

My head tilted back in a silent scream as I was brought into his body. The pain was excruciating. I had no idea how he was acting like everything was normal; anyone would be unable to function if they had experienced this.

It was like every bone was shattered, only to be left to heal on their own. His head felt like shards of broken glass were crushed into my brain, cutting it apart even more.

I took in a deep breath and tried to take all the pain away from him that I could, starting with his ankle.

"What are you trying to do?" asked a child-like voice in my head. I looked around to see where I was, expecting to see the same thing I had with Ming Zhu and Yin Jie: the inside of a body.

Instead, it looked like I was in one of the fun houses. There must have been a hundred mirrors all around me, each one showing a different version of the Muffin Man. In some, he was wearing a suit and tie, his blonde hair cut short and styled to perfection. In others, he was nothing more than a creature with a ball for a head and a mouth like a shark, his jaws so big it seemed to split his head in two.

However, in the mirror with the image that was speaking to me stood a little boy with knee-high white socks and a school uniform of some kind. I cocked my head to the side, looking at him.

"I am trying to heal you," I said, not sure what was going on. I could still feel the pain that accompanied healing someone, with my ankle taking the most of it. Good. Hopefully, I would be able to help him in some way.

"Why?" his voice had a slight accent to it. Was he from England? Was that even possible?

"Why not?" I smiled back at the child. I wanted to ask if he was originally from England. If he was like me and found himself here unexpectedly, but I didn’t want to upset him.

"No one has ever tried to make the pain go away. But it seems like it hurts you when that happens. Don’t worry about me. We can handle the pain. Well, him more than me, but he doesn’t mind taking it from me." The boy looked at me innocently, but I couldn’t help the fact that my heart broke at his words.

No one should ever experience this much pain.

No one should ever consider something like this normal.

I could take it away from him. Maybe not all at once, but eventually, I knew I would be able to make it so he never hurt again.

"What is your name?" I asked softly; walking up to the mirror, I crouched down until I was level with the child.

"Randolph Isaac Peterson the Third," he replied proudly, his chest puffing out.

I chuckled at his response. "That is a really big name for such a shorty," I joked, knowing that the body this boy was in was much, much taller than me.

"Well, I guess you can call me what my friends did," he said hesitantly, looking up at me as if wondering if I counted as a friend.

I nodded my head in encouragement. "I would love to. What did they call you?"

"Rip."