SWNOVELS Jinxed: Chapter 21
conservatory was an escape away from the house.
Knowing there was a room I could go to that felt like I was outside, even while I was still trapped, was absolute heaven. And true to his word, Felix brought in one of the overstuffed chairs the afternoon after the spider incident. I would sit and pretend to read, watching him putter over his plants.
We were all waiting for Brynn to return, hopeful she would come back with good news. None of us spoke about it, but the energy in the house had shifted. I knew for the guys, this was the first time they had ever felt like they had a true shot at getting out of the house, and I wanted to make sure they held on to that feeling as tight as they could. I had only dealt with confinement for a few months, so for them—I couldn’t even imagine.
It was a week after Brynn had come, I was sitting in the conservatory. I would’ve loved to ask her what was taking so damn long, but I had no way to talk to her unless she was standing on the front porch. Waiting was my only option. Luther and I were taking an unspoken research break, so on my lap sat an ancient copy of Wuthering Heights. I wasn’t making any progress with the book though, because I was watching Felix stake one of his massive orchids. He turned and smiled at me, his fingers deftly tying the stem to its new support.
“You’re not wearing your gloves,” I pointed out. Felix was always wearing his gloves, a habit I assumed he hadn’t broken in over a hundred years.
He shook his head. “I was careful about wearing them before, because I didn’t want you all to know what I was doing. But now that the secret is out, I want to feel the soil under my hands.”
I smiled, watching him quietly until eventually he turned to me.
“Do you ever read anything Luther gives you, or do you just bring it in here for a few days and then give it back to him?” Felix smirked.
“Hey!” I protested. “I do read the stuff he gives me. Just not all the time. And besides, I read Wuthering Heights in college. I know the lowdown. Unrequited love and all that jazz. Leopards can’t change their spots.”
Felix laughed. “Sounds like you hold a high regard for the book.”
“I do. Right now I just have a high regard for something else.” I raised an eyebrow, giving him a smirk.
“Oh, yeah?” He started walking towards me, intent written all over his handsome face. “And what would that be?”
“I’ll give you three guesses.” I sat up straight in the chair, tucking the book behind me.
“Hmm…me?” I loved playful Felix. I loved the energy he embodied, and the way his smile made my stomach knot. I loved how much more often I got to see it, now we weren’t hiding things from each other. Now we got to love each other in the daylight.
“Right in one. Come and claim your prize.” I held out my hand to him, but he stopped short. A peculiar expression flashed over his face, like he wasn’t sure what was happening. “Felix? Are you okay?”
He shook his head, trying to smile. But I could read the pain behind his dark eyes, clear as day. “I just had the oddest chill come over my body. Like I’m sweating and cold at the same time.”
“Well that doesn’t make sense. I’m boiling in here today, so why the hell would you be cold? Are you getting sick?” I frowned, and gestured to him as I rose to my feet. “Sit down. Let me feel your forehead.”
Felix didn’t protest, sinking into the chair right away. His face relaxed immediately, and I realized he must have been a lot worse off than he thought. Illnesses scared all of us. We couldn’t age, but we could still get sick. Our health care was limited to whatever Felix had brought in with him in 1907, which consisted of a few bandages and whatever else was in the pantry. A fever, like the one Theo developed while he was going through withdrawal, could really only be treated with cool cloths, and a shit ton of hope.
I pressed my wrist to his forehead, and then my lips. “You’re burning up. Are you sure you feel okay?”
He rolled his eyes. “I feel fine. Just that odd chill. Can we go back to what we were doing before now?” He tried to pull me closer, but I stood my ground.
“No way. You’re going to bed immediately.” I pulled him up to his feet and pointed towards the door. “March.”
“You’re as bad as Luther sometimes, you know that?” But Felix didn’t protest, walking out the door with only one small glance back at the orchid he had been staking.
“I’ll finish staking her. You worry about getting yourself upstairs to bed.” I shooed him on.
“Okay, but gentle hands. Give her a good water when you’re done. None of that one tablespoon bullshit you tried to tell me. She likes to be soaked.” He was still talking to me from the stairs, calling out directions I ignored.
Ten minutes later, Felix’s orchid was situated, and I followed him up the stairs, a stack of fresh washcloths in my hand. Luther and Theo’s bedrooms were both empty, which meant we had the rare opportunity of privacy for the time being. Not that we could do anything with it, as sick as Felix seemed to be. He was completely undressed by the time I reached his bedroom, curled up on his side under the blanket. “How are you doing?” I asked quietly, trying not to disturb him if he was sleeping.
His teeth chattered in response. “I’m fine, really.”
“You do not sound fine. At all.” I pressed my wrist to his forehead again, pulling it away when I realized how sweaty he was. His fever must have been crazy high, but without a thermometer I had no way of knowing. “Felix, I need you to tell me the truth. What exactly are you feeling?”
If I was going to treat him right, I needed to know the symptoms he had to narrow down the causes. I wasn’t an expert by any means, but I had been pretty handy with an internet search and a bottle of painkillers growing up. Dad didn’t trust doctors, so he would only take me to get checked out if it was something he couldn’t cure himself, like a broken wrist or infected cut.
Felix sighed, flipping over onto his back. His eyes didn’t look good, already glossing over from the fever. How long had he been feeling like shit and just hadn’t said anything? Fucking stubborn men were going to be the death of me. “I have chills. And my bones ache. That sounds like a fever doesn’t it? Like yellow fever?”
I shook my head. “Not really a thing in these parts any more. But you might have the flu. What else?”
“I just want to sleep.” I could see his eyes drifting shut, but I needed him to stay awake until I figured out a course of action.
“Anything else?” I repeated, leaning him forward so I could rest a cool cloth behind his neck. Hopefully the direct location would help bring the fever down.
“Nothing else,” he murmured. “Except my wrist is ridiculously itchy. Does that have anything to do with the flu?”
“Not usually, but let me take a closer look.” I grabbed his wrist out from under the blanket, and gasped when I realized what was making his skin so itchy. Where his wrist met his hand was a red and purple welt. It was already looking infected, pus and blood seeping out freely from the three dots in the middle. Definitely a spider bite, and definitely an infected spider bite. Shit. What was I going to do without antibiotics?
Think old school, Savannah. “Alright, this is what we’re going to do,” I announced. “I’m going to go downstairs and boil some water. We’re going to clean that bite with boiling water, and whatever hydrogen peroxide I can find in the house.”
“Okay, darling,” he whispered. “Whatever you think is best.” His eyes were fluttering closed again, and I wasn’t sure if I should keep him awake or not. Fucking hell. I wasn’t a nurse. I didn’t have any first aid training. I was a waitress with a community college business degree, and I was in over my head. Fuck.
I pressed my wrist to Felix’s forehead again, and if anything he felt warmer than he had only moments before. The infection must have been running wild since the moment the spider bit him. “I’m going to send Luther in to sit with you while I boil water.”
The only response I got was a mumbled acknowledgement. I darted out of the room, hammering at the library door until Luther poked his head out. “Hey, sweetheart. What can I do for you?” He was smiling, but with one look at my face, his expression fell. “What’s wrong?”
I was trying to keep my emotions under control. Feelings wouldn’t help Felix get better. Logic would. I collected my breath, and met his sharp gaze. “It’s Felix. There must be another spider in the conservatory. He’s always used gloves before, but today….”
“Oh, shit.” Luther’s eyes widened, even less able to hide his emotions than I was. “What do you need me to do?”
Thank God for Luther’s steadiness, and willingness to help. He was such a rock when I needed it most, and I was clinging to him for all he was worth. “I need you to sit with him while I boil some water. It might be too late to stop the infection from spreading, but I have to try.” I paused, frowning. “I just don’t understand how he didn’t notice. We could’ve treated this so easily if we had caught it right away.”
“Hydrogen peroxide is in the pantry.” Luther was already walking towards Felix’s bedroom.
At Felix’s door, Luther paused. His eyes widened, and his face paled. He swallowed hard, and then shifted his face before he turned back to me, trying to put on a calm face for my benefit. But it was too late, because I had seen his true reaction. “If that spider really was a black widow, you often don’t feel the bites, but you would react to the venom. Or maybe he got a secondary infection from the soil. Let’s hope not both, and that it doesn’t turn necrotic.”
I tried to ignore the last words he said, because they weren’t going to be a reality for Felix. We could ride out the venom, and I’d stop the infection before it got any worse. He was going to be absolutely fine. Except I couldn’t stop the thoughts from cycling as I made my way downstairs. Because while I knew how to handle Theo’s withdrawal, having experienced it before, I had no idea about venom or how to treat an infection without medication. Dad knew his limits, so any bites or scrapes I had gotten as a child were treated with antibiotics as soon as they began to turn red. A quick trip to the doctor usually sorted it all out in a matter of days. But we didn’t have access to a doctor. We were trapped in this godforsaken house with supplies from 1907.
I filled the kettle with water, and set it on the old stovetop. Then I sat down in the old kitchen chair. While I waited for it to boil, I started to cry. For the first time in the house, I let myself cave to everything I felt—bad and good. I felt utterly and completely stuck. We didn’t have doctors. We didn’t have medical supplies. We couldn’t leave the house. And Felix was either poisoned or infected. Two very bad words.
Luther’s face said it all. There was a chance I wouldn’t be able to do anything for Felix, and he would succumb to his spider bite one way or another. It was such a small fucking thing that now had the biggest consequences. Over one hundred fucking years, they’d lasted. Since I came, we were all living in a fantasy world of sex and love, focusing on the good instead of what we lacked. What made the whole situation a thousand times heavier was the fact we were so fucking close to getting out of here.
There had been a different atmosphere in the house since Brynn’s visit. For the first time in a long time, the guys shared my hopeful attitude. Never before had they had help on the outside—and definitely not help that might know about our situation specifically. All we had to do was keep going and wait it out. We were so close.
And one fucking spider bite was going to ruin it all. “Fuck.” I slammed my hand down on the table and sobbed harder. I was pissed. Pissed at the world, pissed at the situation, pissed that Felix might not have a chance for what was such a stupid fucking thing. None of this was fair. Felix getting an infection we had no way to treat while we were waiting for help was the cherry on top of so many things that had gone wrong in all of our lives, and I cried for all four of us. I grieved for what we had lost, before we ever found it.
For Theo losing his parents. For finding hope in a snowstorm, only to end up here.
For Felix, being used for what he thought would protect him.
For Luther, finding love and losing it just as quickly. For learning to stand on his own feet, and then having them knocked out from under him.
For never giving myself a chance to change. For relying on others so heavily I forgot the beauty of being alone.
I cried so hard I didn’t notice Theo appearing at the top of the basement stairs. “Sav? Are you okay?”
“Shit,” I cursed. “Theo, you scared the hell out of me.”
He smiled, used to sneaking up on me when I wasn’t expecting it. “What’s wrong?”
I sniffled, wiping my eyes on the hem of my shirt. “I’m just being dramatic. Felix has an infected spider bite from the other day, and obviously I can’t just send him out to the doctor.”
Theo’s mouth dropped open. “Oh, shit.”
I laughed bitterly. “You and Luther had the exact same response.” The kettle whistled, and scrubbed my hands over my face, pretending the situation wasn’t as dire as it seemed. “I’m just boiling some water to try and stop it from spreading any further. Maybe we can still catch it in time.”
“Maybe,” Theo agreed, but his voice didn’t sound so sure. “Can I help?”
I nodded as I grabbed the knitted tea towel. “Can you either bring this upstairs, or find the hydrogen peroxide.”
He took the tea towel from my hands, giving me a kiss on the forehead. “I’ve got the kettle. I’ll do whatever you need, sweet girl. Felix is going to be fine.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. I clung to his hand, squeezing it tightly as if I could transfer all of my fear and pain that way. He smiled at me, but it didn’t meet his eyes. “I’ll just grab the peroxide and I’ll be right up.”
I ran off to the pantry, stuffing my emotions as far down as they would go. I needed to stay focused if I was going to heal Felix. I indulged my pity party, and now it was time to get to work. As I stood in the pantry filled with glass jars and unknown labels, I realized my first problem. None of the weird bottled medicines looked like peroxide. I ran my fingers over each one. Headache tonics, vitamin mixtures…it had to be here somewhere. I searched for a brown bottle, then realized, hydrogen peroxide was called something different in 1907. I snatched the brown bottle labeled with “Dioxogen.”
I ran upstairs. In the doorway, I froze, taking in the scene before me. Felix lay in his bed, tossing uncomfortably. If anything, he seemed worse than when I left. Theo stood awkwardly to one side, still holding the kettle, staring in shock at the man who had always seemed so powerful. Luther stood beside his bed, a solemn look on his face. He was holding Felix’s arm in his grasp. Fuck. I had been hoping for something reassuring. This wasn’t it.
I cocked my head to the side, trying to ask what he was seeing without freaking out an already scared Theo further.
Luther gave me a subtle shake of his head, and lifted Felix’s arm off the bed to show me. I nearly dropped the precious bottle of Dioxogen when I saw the angry red streaks shooting up his forearm. This wasn’t just a mild infection we were going to be able to kill with some hot water. I wanted to curl up next to Felix and cry. I wanted Luther and Theo to hold me and tell me it was all going to be okay. I wanted Brynn, and my dad. But none of that was possible right now. The next 48 hours were going to be make or break for Felix, and sitting around moping wasn’t going to be much use to anyone. I pursed my lips together and nodded, grabbing from the stack of washcloths. “Let’s get to work.”