Sapphee thought Glenn’s bed looked like a coffin.
Tisalia, crying her eyes out, held up a lantern to illuminate Glenn’s face. Arahnia kneeled by his side, rubbing his chest. Lulala had lined up a number of lanterns on the edge of the fountain. Apparently, they were for Sioux, Illy, and Plum, who weren’t in Lindworm at that time.
Lulala was singing, surrounded by those lanterns and illuminated by their light. The mermaid’s voice echoed throughout the night in the Central Plaza, as if everything was just as it should be.
And Sapphee… She was calmer than she would have expected. She held the lantern that Molly and Lime had made and stared into Glenn’s face.
Without a beating heart, Glenn’s face was just a corpse.
“Will this really…save him?” Tisalia asked.
“I dunno, but that’s what the manager said. All we can do…is trust her, yeah?”
“Ohh, Doctor…”
The two fiancées were crying, gazing at Glenn with intense grief. But Sapphee just felt angry at him for making them cry.
“Sapphee…your face is frightening,” Tisalia mentioned.
“Really?” Flustered Sapphee put her hand to her face. She finally realized how tight her expression was.
“I know you can’t believe it, but—”
“No, I do believe it. I believe Glenn will come back,” she said.
“Huh?” Tisalia let out a cry, as if it was an answer she wasn’t expecting. Sapphee was massaging her own face.
“Molly said it. She is in charge of the dead, so she must have an appropriate basis for saying so,” she explained.
“Then—why is your face so frightening?” Tisalia asked.
“I was preparing myself.” Sapphee looked at them with her sharp eyes. “If this doesn’t work, and Glenn can’t come back, I was thinking I’d go to hell and bring him back myself.”
“Don’t even think about it. I can’t handle losing a husband and my best friend all at once,” Arahnia said, sounding thoroughly disgusted.
“You’re right… I’m sorry.”
“Ugh.”
“But that is how prepared I am. That’s why, Glenn…” Sapphee stretched her snake body over Glenn’s supine form. “You’re a doctor, right? You’re already an excellent doctor. So, hurry back. If you let the girl you love die, you won’t be qualified to be a doctor anymore…right?”
Glenn didn’t answer.
Sapphee didn’t cry. Partly because she didn’t have tear ducts, but also because she’d decided she would no longer cry. Sobbing and whimpering didn’t suit her. The weight of the love she held within her was the force that drove her. She was born to love Glenn, so she would go as far as she needed to bring back his soul.
“Hey, I know you’re listening. Hurry back, Glenn.”
Sapphee kept talking. She believed he could hear her.
“Hey, Glenn,” she said to the human boy, who said he would accept her overbearing lamia love. “Come back.” She said it over and over. “C’mon—if you don’t hurry, I’m going to die with you.”
“Well,” Glenn moved his lips.
Sapphee’s eyes opened wide.
“Don’t even think about it…I think,” he said.
She was flooded with nostalgia.
It had only been a few days since she had heard Glenn’s voice, but it felt like it had been a lifetime.
“I don’t want you to die for a long time, Sapphee, so I came back,” he told her.
“Glenn…”
He really had come back to life. It wasn’t as if she didn’t believe it—but to see it really happen left her overcome with surprise.
“Doc…” Arahnia called him.
“Doctor!” Tisalia did too.
“Doctor? Is it really the doctor?!”
Arahnia was bawling. Tisalia was crying and holding Glenn close. Lulala stopped singing.
“I’m sorry—for making you worry. But I’m back now,” he said.
“Ohhh—”
And Sapphee…was desperately trying to support her upper body with her snake lower half to keep from collapsing. Glenn reached his hand up to her shoulder.
“I’m home, Sapphee,” he assured her.
Sapphee wanted to scream out with glee, but she stopped herself. She always wanted to present a perfect, intelligent face to Glenn. She was a whirlwind of love and delight on the inside, but she was too proud to let it show.
“I expect you to tell me about everything that happened,” she said to him.
“Yeah, I know,” Glenn smiled.
This boy was sure to continue to make Sapphee worry forever. He could never escape trouble. That was the fate of a doctor.
And she would be by his side the whole way.
A lamia was persistent enough to follow him anywhere, even to the edge of hell.
She decided to say one more thing to him.
“Welcome home, Dr. Glenn.”
Sapphee was glad she had massaged the tension out of her face moments before, as she was able to smile naturally again.