Banished To Earth Book Two, Splintered Souls (21)

    Eloween, sucked in a deep breath. Nikki’s body arched up, stayed arched for several seconds, then convulsed so violently she threw herself out of the bed.

 

   Her ‘new’ body, hopelessly tangled in the thin blanket Beth had lovingly placed over Nikki, a mere hour earlier, lay like a corpse on the floor. A lot had changed in that hour. A lot more than Eloween had anticipated, not that she had given it much thought. She should have…

 

    The pink blanket bound her hands and feet. It was warm, soft and unyielding. Her eyes rolled about like marbles in a bucket. They absorbed the gauzy grey light of her bedroom like a dry sponge in a rainstorm. Trapped inside one of their boxes just as neatly as she found herself trapped inside a paralysed body she had no right to be in, she was helpless, with no one to help her until…

 

   A moment later, the bedroom door flew open. Beth had heard the loud bump of Nikki’s body crashing onto the floor. Human hands were suddenly pressing down on her. She could not help but wonder ‘…is this what Arabella's last moments were like….?

 

    Eloween tried to scream, but her vocal cords were nestled in the heart of an ancient oak, in a body she had abandoned to a doomed child.

 

   “Nikki! Mama’s here.” Horror distorted her pretty features as she drew Nikki’s limp ragdoll body to her bosom. “What happened? What’s wrong?” Her baby could not answer. Terrified by the silence, she cradled the child and pressed her palm against her forehead. It was cool beneath her hand, too cool?

    

65

 

  The others had by this time entered the bedroom. “Nightmare?” Asked Silhouette. She knew all about those.

 

    “I don’t know, I don’t know!”

 

    “Let's get her downstairs,” Trudy said, “lay her on the couch, check her out real good, and I’ll git my thermometer.”

 

  Pry and Chase looked on helplessly. Tucker stepped out of the doorway as they made their way downstairs. They all trailed behind the frantic mother, saying nothing and feeling impotent in the face of a sick child.  

 

   “Is,” Davin paused.  “Is she breathing?” He forced the question out, but it had to be asked.

 

    She lay her down on the couch, knelt, and turned her right ear to her sweet little mouth. Relief poured down Beth's face as the faint sound of moving air kissed her ear. “Yes, yes. She is. She is”

 

   “Well, that’s good, really good.” Said Tucker.

 

    “Check her head,” Pry said, remembering the time she slammed her head on Davin’s doorframe.

 

   “Yeah,” said Silhouette, “She did fallout of the bed. Could have hit it when she fell.”

 

    Beth hurriedly ran her hands over the child's head, pushing back long black curls but finding no injury. “Her eyes are open. They're not blinking. She doesn’t look right. I’ve never seen that expression in her eyes before. Dark, too dark.”

 

    “You, you missed her blink. And you’re just seeing worry, your own worry looking back at you.”

 

   Trudy grunted.

 

  “Just sayin,’” Said Tucker, “tryin’to help.”

 

    Trudy stepped up beside him, as they gathered around the couch, “We know Tucker, we know.”

 

   “Think she can drink something?” Davin asked.

 

   Pry was returning from the kitchen in an instant, with a glass of water in her right hand. A bendable straw leaned over its rim. “Here.” She offered Beth the glass.

  

66

 

  The child’s lips were puckered open. Beth gently pressed the straw against her lower lip. No response.

 

   “Get an ice cube.” Davin offered.

 

     This time, it was Silhouette kneeling by Beth. She left, returned and was holding an ice cube in her hand, in a matter of seconds. Beth set the glass on the coffee table, took the ice and lightly rubbed it on Nikki’s lips. A low moan slowly worked its way up from the core of the child’s limp body.

 

   Smiles swept across the room.

 

  “Thank you, Jesus!” Trudy said.

 

  Tucker smiled but said nothing, then, “me too,” he murmured.

 

    A moment later, Trudy was by her side with a thermometer.

 

   “She’s not hot, Trudy.” Said Beth.

 

  “Maybe she’s cool,” Trudy replied, “too cool.”

 

    “Yeah, she did feel cool to me. Go make her some hot chocolate. She loves that.”

 

    “Ain’t got no super speed, like ya’ll by I’ll be back soon as I can.”

 

   “You don’t need super speed, gotta super heart.”

 

  “I can gag now, right?” Silhouette said. Again, nobody laughed.

 

    Beth gasped for joy when she saw Nikki’s eyelids blink, then blink again. “That’s right baby, come back to us.”

 

‘…. she can never do that…’ English words slowly formed in Eloween’s mind, and a pang of regret was slowly pulling her into a world she never wanted to live in. She brushed the regret away and wondered if Thorn had freed their people yet. He had not…