“There once was a boy named Seraph,” he says.
“Sarah?”
“Seraph,” he repeats, making an fffff sound at the end of the word. “But you’re already ahead of me, because that’s what the other boys called him. They used to tease him, and hit him with sticks. So do you know what that boy did?”
“What?” I begin to settle down against the stretcher bed. It’s not comfortable, but I could curl up to Silver’s voice anywhere.
“He found new ways to beat them, until he could grow big enough and strong enough to physically...”
“Fucking destroy them,” Alexios grunts from across the room.
“Yes, that,” Silver agrees. “And the way he found, was that if he talked to them in a certain way, if he made sure to speak words they needed to hear, if he was calm while they raged with fury, and if he understood the mechanics of their minds, he could not only stop them from bullying him. He could influence them. Control them.”
“You’re talking about yourself, aren’t you.”
“Mhm,” he says, brushing some hair from my forehead with a delicate touch. “I do what I do because it helped me survive. I use it to help others do the same now. The mind is a powerful thing. It decides if you feel pain or not. You can be wounded and not feel a thing, or you can have the smallest bruise and be in agony.”
“Show me... make me sleep.”
He drifts his fingers lightly over my face, closing my eyes.
“Take a deep breath, and remember what it feels like to have the sun on your face. The warmth on your scalp. A soft breeze playing across your skin. You can feel it tickling you a little when it gusts gently. And you’re safe, so safe, in this place where you are protected.”
I can feel the sun. I can sense the wind. Silver’s voice builds a place in my mind outside this dark little survival shack. He lulls me not only toward sleep, but toward a feeling of being so completely cared for that I know I will be safe, no matter what. The dream world rises around me, mixing with Silver’s words until I drift away, held in the arms and the words of the man who saved my life.