Let Me Stitch Your Broken Heart

After Faas finally left her, Carly sat down on the bed, exhausted. Gopher came and sat at her feet expectantly. “Not now, Gopher.” He looked down for a moment before lying on top of her toes for some beauty sleep. Carly sighed and leaned back until she lay across the bed. She spread her arms out as far as she could and traced the patterns on the bed’s canopy with her eyes. At a loss, Carly began humming to herself. Gopher grunted and rolled farther into her ankles with his furry oversized body. Finally lyrics put themselves to her seemingly tuneless hum. Her lips parted as her tongue formed the words and her vocal chords gave them sound.

Maybe it's intuition
But some things you just don't question
Like in your eyes
I see my future in an instant
and there it goes
I think I've found my best friend
I know that it might sound more than
a little crazy but I believe

River’s face filled her mind and painted itself over the insides of her eyelids. Tears only blurred the picture. Carly sniffled and continued to sing their song.

I knew I loved you before I met you
I think I dreamed you into life
I knew I loved you before I met you
I have been waiting all my life
There's just no rhyme or reason
only this sense of completion
and in your eyes
I see the missing pieces
I'm searching for

Eventually sobs wracked her body to the point that words, especially those being sung, were impossible. Carly pulled her feet from beneath Gopher’s side and curled into the fetal position on the bed. Tears raced over her cheeks, between her grimacing lips, and across her neck. She screamed with all the air that her lungs could hold, ending in yet another sob.
Crying was all she was able to do for nearly half an hour until she rolled over onto her stomach and buried her face into the comforter. “Gopher?” she mumbled. The slobbery dog stood and placed his front paws on the edge of the bed. His mouth hung open and his tongue lolled over the side of his jaw. “You haven’t eaten yet today, have you?” He didn’t change position. “You want food?” That was a word he understood. Gopher ran to the kitchen door and waited for her impatiently. “I’m coming.” Carly stood and rubbed her fists on her soaked eyes. She wiped a few stray teardrops from the underside of her chin as she turned the knob. Gopher forced the door open himself before she could even begin to push it. “Alright, alright, I get it. You’re hungry.”

Hundreds of cabinets were built on every wall of the immense kitchen. Carly stared in wonderment, unsure of where to start. She chose the cupboard door closest to her and found dog bowls inside. She pulled out two—one for food, one for water. A faucet shimmered from the other side of the room and Carly began the journey over to it. Along the way, she opened various doors, hoping for regular dog food. Some cabinets were refrigerated or frozen while others were heated. The only problem was that all the contents of the stocked compartments were for people. “Gopher, what are you supposed to eat?” she asked as she filled his water bowl and set it on the floor. He ran over and scooped a few gulps out with his overly flexible tongue. When he was satiated, he looked at her hungrily.

“I don’t know what to give you,” Carly shrugged.

“No worries, miss.”

She jumped in surprise and turned to the somewhat familiar voice. “Oh! It’s you!”

“Yes. His Majesty has asked for both yours and Gopher’s presence at a semi-formal dinner tonight,” the guard from earlier announced.

“Okay. When should I be there? Wait, where is there?”

“I will escort you. Be ready in fifteen minutes. I will wait for you outside the door.” He turned and walked out of the kitchen and into the bedroom suite where the door to the rest of the palace was located.

“Wait! I have a question!” Carly jogged to catch up to him.

“Yes?”

“Remember those hollow opals you told me about?”

“That information should not have been shared with someone like you.”

“Like me? What’s wrong with— Oh, never mind. I promise not to tell anyone what you’ve told or that you’ve told me anything at all.”

He looked at her skeptically for a moment. “Fine. What do you want to know, now?”

“Where are they?”

“Why?”

“I’ll keep my promise if you won’t ask questions.”

“They’re in the drawer of the table in the back left corner of the Opal Room.”

“Thank you. I’ll meet you in a few minutes.”

“Very well.” He turned to leave again.

“Wait!”

He looked at her, annoyed.

“Could you take Gopher with you?”

The guard laughed and nodded as he took the dog by the scruff of the neck.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He shut the door behind them.

Carly walked over to the clothes trunk and pulled out some dresses to choose from. Eventually, she narrowed it down to two. The green dress was lovely and Carly liked it much better than the ultra low-cut pink number, but Gopher would be at dinner. She decided that wearing a dress she liked would be a bad idea. Carly slipped off what was left of the dress she had pulled on that morning and pulled the cotton candy pink dress with the brown belt and sparkles on in place of it. She then walked over to the full-length mirror to inspect her reflection. Still barefoot. After running her fingers through her unruly hair a few times, she pronounced herself ready for dinner with the ruler of Celildh.

As she opened the door, Carly prepared for her outfit to be mauled by Gopher. Instead, she was greeted with the guard’s crooked elbow. Gopher stood on his other side with a leash clipped to a studded collar around his neck. “Ready, miss?” Carly nodded. They had only been walking down the large hallway (in the opposite direction of the Opal Room) for a few minutes, when Carly remembered another question she had for the guard.

“Excuse me?”

“Yes?”

“Where is Tallina’s—?”

“Sh!” He pulled her through a doorway on the left and closed it behind them. “You can’t just say things like that around here! Haven’t you ever heard the expression ‘the walls have ears,’ madam?”

“You seemed fine in the Opal Room.”

“Those walls are sound-proof. That way, we don’t have to hear that insistent buzzing all the time.”

“Oh. Well, where are we?”

“The closet beside the dining hall. Now, promise me you won’t say things like that out in the open!”

Carly noted the location. “Okay, I’ll promise. But first, answer the question.”

“Fine. What?”

“Where is Tallina’s opal?”

“Why?”

“Ah-eh.” Carly shook here head and wagged a scolding finger at him even though it was nearly pitch-black in the small space.

He sighed. “First wall when you walk in from the door leading to your suite. J-18.”

“Huh?”

“Figure it out. Down to J and over to 18 equals J-18.”

“Oh. Okay. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, I think. Now, will you please promise so that we can get out of here? I left Gopher alone outside.”

“You what?! Okay, okay, I promise. Let’s go.”

The guard opened the door to find Gopher sitting on the rock floor, waiting for them.

“He never ceases to surprise me.”

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Dinner with Faas was quiet and uneventful. Gopher was fed a steak and Carly was served dish after dish of a five-course French cuisine meal. When her dessert dishes were cleared away, she looked at Faas purposefully.

She cleared her throat. “Um, I believe that the water in Gopher’s, erm, bowl has been successfully purified.”

“Okay,” Faas drug out the word and paused for a moment with confusion written all over his face. “Oh! Right. Yes, I remember. Very good. Um, I’ll have that, uh, taken care of soon.”

“Also, after dinner, I think Gopher should play in his new, um, dog-pen—the black and white one—if you want him to finish his, um, exercise routine by noon tomorrow.”

“Yes, I agree.” He cleared his throat as well. “I’ll have a few of the guards clear a space for it.”

“Alright, I’ll excuse myself then. Dinner was delicious. Thank you.”

“You are very welcome.”

Carly nodded as she motioned to her escort that she was ready to leave. He pulled her chair back for her and crooked his elbow once again. She took it and allowed herself to be led to the door.

“Carly!”

“Yes, Your Grace?”

“Be careful. Um,” he suddenly turned uncomfortable, “Gopher can be rambunctious.”

“I am quite aware, sir.”

“Alright, you may leave.”

Carly nodded again and reminded herself to take mental notes on how to get to the closet from her room for her not-so-secret meeting with Colton later that night.

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The guard dropped Carly and Gopher off at their suite and left silently, as if they had no acquaintance whatsoever. She took her alone time as a chance to prepare herself for a conversation with Faas’s long-dead daughter. Perhaps she would have information about that missing wife of his.

As Carly tip-toed down the hall a little while later, she tried to force thoughts of River from her mind. Dinner with Faas had proved to be a worthy distraction, but she didn’t know how much longer she could last before another wave of pent-up feelings over-took her. Her transformation would have ended the day after next. She just wished everyone had left her alone so that her heart wouldn’t have to go through so much mangling. It wasn’t fair. This roller coaster of emotions was starting to affect her physically. She was feeling exhausted, more than Gopher or the time of night could have caused.

Before she knew it, Carly was there—in front of Tallina’s opal. She pressed her ear to it and listened. Small whispers of sound escaped, but she couldn’t make them out. “Hello?” Carly leaned forward to listen again. Nothing happened. “Hello? Tallina?” Still nothing. Finally, Carly resorted to tapping on the stone. Buzzes erupted. Once again, she listened for words.

“Hey! Who’s there! Help! Yas? Is that you? Hello!”

“Tallina.”

“Yes? Who’s there? Hello?”

“Carly. I’m Carly Wade.”

“Uh-huh. What do you want? Are you here to coax me into some worthless body that doesn’t fit me? Because I’ll tell you right now: I’m not budging!”

“No. I’m here to give you your greatest desire.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“You tell me.”

“Tell me why you picked me.”

“Answer my question first,” Carly challenged.

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“I know people. I know things—about you, about people you know, people you love.”

There was a long pause. Carly hoped Tallina was thinking rather than ignoring her.

She finally responded, “Okay. I’ll tell you what I want…on one condition.”

“Alright. What?”

“You have to swear to tell me everything you know, including why you picked me.”

“Fine. I swear—as long as you keep up your end of the bargain and tell the truth.”

“Agreed.”

Suddenly, it was silent. Carly waited for an answer. She sat there for a full three minutes before interrupting the awkward quiet between them. “Tallina? Are you there?”

“Yes. I’m here.” She sighed. “I know the rules, Carly Wade. I know that if I tell you my greatest desire—other than freedom from this minuscule Hell—and you give it to me, then I’ll be freed. I also know that that usually means put into another, equally-sized Hell and forced into a newborn baby. And…I’m not sure if I want that. I want freedom. I want to roam around and see all the places I’ve never seen. I want to watch those I used to know live their lives and be happy. I…I just want…I just want freedom from this opal. I don’t want anything else—nothing obtainable anyways.”

“Tallina, I’m here to help you. Things may not be as impossible as you remember. Things are much different now than they were however-many years ago. I promise you that they are. Just tell me what you want and I will try my very best to give it to you.”

Carly heard her sigh again. “Have you ever been in love, Carly Wade? How many times? Do you remember the feelings?”

“I still feel the feelings,” she mumbled.

“Well, I don’t. Because I can’t. In this thing…this opal…I can’t feel anything but depression and sadness. It’s like they stole my heart and gave me a rock in return. I was in love. That’s what I miss the most about Celildh and being alive. I miss being in love and being loved in return.”

A few inconsolable tears escaped Carly’s eyes. She sniffled. “How do I give you that?”

“A token. Give me a token of love, Carly Wade. I want to know that someone out there still loves me.”

“Your father loves you.”

Tallina scoffed. “Sure he does. That’s why he comes down here and talks to me.” Sarcasm dripped from her words.

“Oh.”

“Can you handle that? Please don’t dangle this in front of me, Carly Wade, if you’re just going to disappoint me. Please.”

“I won’t. I won’t disappoint you, Tallina. I promise.”

“Good. Now tell me what you know.”

“I-I will, but I can’t right now. The guards are coming and if they knew I was here, they’d punish me. But I promise you, that when I come back with your token, I will tell you everything I know. Okay?”

“Alright. Run on then. Don’t get caught.”

“Goodbye, Tallina.”

“Goodbye, Carly Wade. And thank you…for at least trying.”

Carly smiled and stood. She felt bad for lying, but she really couldn’t tell Tallina all she knew without breaking her heart. If she knew that Colton had moved on, it would have…killed her. All Carly had to do was get a token of love from him that she could fool Tallina enough with to coax her into the hollow opal and to wherever she would be taken. Carly didn’t know where that was exactly, but she’d figure it out. Speaking of hollow opals, she had better grab a few.

Carly opened the drawer her guard had told her about and pulled out three false opals. She didn’t know how hard it would be to get Tallina in one or how many it might take. Her dress lacked pockets, so she had to stuff them into what little breast-covering material there was.

A clock from across the room glowed in the darkness. It read 1:49. She had eleven minutes to get to the closet by the dining hall to meet Colton. Carly ran from the Opal Room to her suite. No way could she let Colton see her in this state undress. Revealing articles of clothing made her insecure and uncomfortable.

She dug quickly through the trunk for the green dress she had almost worn to dinner earlier and placed it on the bed. She then pulled the fake opals she had obtained out of her bra and placed them on the bed as well. As she struggled out of the low-cut pink and brown dress, Gopher jumped onto the bed. “Gopher, no! Get down! Get away from that right now!” Carly ran from where her frantic twisting and turning had taken her and tried to stop Gopher from murdering her outfit. But she was too late. A large hole had been pulled open from waist to upper-thigh. She wanted to cry. Carly bent over the bed, defeated. A ripping noise tore into the air. She’d forgotten that her dinner dress still hung from her waist. It was now torn from the bottom of the zipper to the hem. “Ugh! Gopher! How could you! I-I-ergh!” Carly flung the pink dress off her body and grabbed the first thing she could lay her hands on. She was running out of time. She tugged it over her head and adjusted it as she raced out the door, leaving Gopher behind.

When Carly collided with the door to the closet, the stinging sensations on various parts of her body alerted her to how covered she was, or rather, wasn’t. She shook her head to clear her mind and opened the door. Colton wasn’t there yet, so she shut it behind her and waited for him inside. Thoughts of River immediately cascaded in from her mountain of memories. Carly slapped her forehead in an effort to push them away. She had to focus. This wasn’t about her right now. In the long run: sure; but right now: no.

Finally, the door opened. Colton, obviously thinking more clearly than she was, had brought what seemed to be a flashlight. He moved the beam up her body slowly.

"Stop that. You're freaking me out."

“I'm sorry, Carls. You know I love you.”

She cringed noticeably. “Don’t call me that. Don’t say that.”

Colton froze in horror. “Oh no. No no no no no. This can’t be happening. You’re…you’re fully…pure, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, God. I thought there was a chance. I thought that…that— Did he give you a pill with a gray heart on it?”

“Yeah, why?”

Colton put his palm over his face and squeezed his eyes shut tight. “There was chance, there was a chance, there was a chance, there was a chance,” he mumbled it to himself like a mantra.

“A chance to what?”

“Save you.”

“From what? From who?”

“From Faas’s bite.”

“He said the pill helps with that…”

“Yeah. Like a pervert helps a rape victim.”

“What?”

“Never mind. How are you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…emotionally. Should I…you know…heal you?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re lying.”

“No I’m n—” Memories from just a few hours earlier clouded her ability to speak. She’d lain across the bed sobbing for God-knows-how-long. She wasn’t fine. She needed help. But Colton wouldn’t be there every time she needed a pickup, would he? No way. That just wasn’t possible. She had to learn how to deal with the pain herself. She had to get over it. She had to be a big girl. “Colton, truthfully, I’m not fine—”

“Then I’ll help you!”

“No, don’t! I need to learn how to do this myself. There’s no way for you to be there every time I have a meltdown. I have to know how to deal with this by myself.”

“Carly, I will be there. I want to be there. I want to help you. I thought you agreed to let me stitch your broken heart. Remember that? I love you. That won’t change.”

She forced tears away. “Did it change with Tallina?”

“What?”

“Do you still love her?”

“It’s been so long since all that happened. I’ve had time to get over her. She’s dead an—and I’ve learned to deal with that. I’ve gotten over her because she’s gone forever. She isn’t coming back, Carly. I had to accept that. In a way, I will always love her. She was my first true love, but it’s possible to have more than one in a lifetime, especially when you live as long as I do. But, I have you now and you’re here now and I love you.”

“What if she could come back?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Carly.”

“I’m not. I talked to a guard. Do you know what happens to their dead?”

“I don’t want to know. Now, please, we have to talk about the matters at hand.”

Carly sighed. This was going to be harder than she thought. “Alright, go.”

“We have to get out of here before His Grace gets a hold of you. I don’t trust him to stick to his one pint…”

Carly tuned out the rest of Colton’s words. She’d forgotten that she had to tell him about her deal with Faas—the four-pint deal. “Colton,” she interrupted, “I have to tell you something.”

“What?” He looked wary.

“I-I made a deal with Faas. Actually, it was more of an amendment to your deal with him.”

“What?! What do you mean?”

“I told him he could have four pints as long as he let me go back to the Opal Room at some point and meet with you.”

“He knows we’re meeting?!”

“Yes.”

“Carly, he could have guards right outside—”

“Colton! Calm down! It’s fine. I trust him.”

“Why? And four pints? That could hurt you!”

“Yes, but nothing permanent.”

“No! I won’t allow this!”

“It’s too late. He’s already kept up his end of the deal. I’ve already gone to the Opal Room once and I’m meeting with you now. If it helps, he didn’t know where or when we were meeting. He has all the guards cleared out until noon tomorrow.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything. We’ll be out of here soon. I have a plan.”

“What’s your plan?”

“I can’t tell you. Otherwise, it won’t work,” Carly answered stubbornly. She was keeping lots of secrets and deals lately. She didn't know how she would keep up with them all.

Colton sighed. "Fine. I trust you. It's him I'm worried about.”

“He really doesn't know any more than you do.”

He eyed her skeptically. "Hmph."

"Colton..."

“Mind if I change the subject then…since you're not going to tell me anything?”

“Go ahead.” Carly was relieved for a diversion from his pushy sulking.

“That dress is just—”

Suddenly, Carly didn’t know why, but she had an ill feeling that this might be their last chance. She still loved River, but her feelings for Colton were undeniable. If she was going to lose him, too, she might as well make the best of the time they had together. Her mind became clouded with grief as she interrupted him, “Shut up and kiss me.”

Colton, surprised but nonetheless ready, put a hand on each of her cheeks gently and leaned in with a dreadful slowness, intensifying the tension between them. Carly pushed forward suddenly and kissed his lips with an uncharacteristic roughness. His surprise was evident as it took a moment for him to react, but when he did, it was purely wonderful. He wrapped his arms around her hips and pulled her as close to him as she could be with two layers of clothing separating them. Her hands moved from the back of his neck up to his hair where they pulled and ruffled it. Carly moved her lips in perfect harmony with his. They kissed like the other was their last breath of oxygen. Eventually, they ended up on the floor. They spent the rest of the night there, only leaving when shimmers of light peeked beneath the door. Then, they went their separate ways, sharing one last gentle kiss before attending to their duties to Faas.

Carly suddenly knew what to do about Tallina and her token.