The Protectors: New Generation Book 1

60 - Hasty Decisions - Tallulah POV

Once we get to Applewine, we go straight to the hospital. Dad meets us in the ICU waiting room.

"How are they?" I ask.

"Good considering the type of car accident they were in. Your sister has a broken leg, broken ribs, broken arm, and a bad brain injury. They aren't sure what the extent of her head injury is going to be, but the fractured leg was bad, so they took her to surgery."
"That bad?" Grandma asks.

"Pretty bad. It was a compound fracture of her tibia with dislocation of fibula at the ankle. They needed to get the bleeding to stop and set the bone in the proper position."

"How's Mom?" I ask.

"She looks worse than she is ..." Dad starts.

"Tally." Mom shouts and briskly walks to me. "Of course, I look worse, but nothing is going to hold me back."

"Mom, I'm so sorry I wasn't here." I cry on her shoulder.

"There is nothing you could have done to make things different. I know you will say something like, 'I could have driven the car instead.', but sweetheart, that wouldn't have changed the outcome."

"Let's all go sit," dad says.

We find a section away from the other visitors and sit down.

"How have things been going for you, pumpkin?"

"Good. Well, at least I feel good about it."

"She's been training hard and has already found some of her abilities," Grandma says before going into a short description of what I've been learning in training.

"My baby is growing up," Mom says.

I yawn after a bit.

"Sweetheart, you should go to the house and take a nap. Miriam, we have a guest room that you are more than welcomed to stay in." Mom says.

"That's kind of you. I think I'll take you up on that offer." Grandma replies.

We stand up and head for the house.

I'm walking a mountain path with my white falcon flying overhead. I get to the end and hear a desperate call for help from around the side of the mountain. I make my way over and a bald eagle is chained to the side of the mountain. I go towards the eagle to try and help it, but before I make it, I fall off the cliff.

I come off the bed gasping for air. How I wish I could interpret these stupid dreams? How are they helpful if I don't know what the dream is trying to tell me? If I thought simply, I would think I'm going to die trying to help something trapped. But I do know that dreams have some sort of message or messages in them. I would just like to know what they are. Can't the messages just come to me as the message and not some hodgepodge of things.

Not being able to go back to sleep, I decide to sit on the front porch.

I see Danny in the distance and I get so excited. We rush towards each other, and Danny's colors go from orange to pink. Oh, my lord! I forgot to turn off my ability to see colors. Maybe I need to rethink what I perceive some colors to mean. He definitely wouldn't see me as a girlfriend.

I don't make it too much further until I'm engulfed in a hug and spun around.

"Tally, you're back home. I didn't think I'd see you for a long time."

"Well, Mom and Kait were in a car accident. I think that is more than important enough to leave my training temporarily to make sure they are okay."

He sets me down quickly and his color has changed to a yellow and orange mixture.

"Temporarily?"

"Ya. I'm not done training yet. There is still so much left for me to learn, so I can help the islands."

His colors are changing. "What is going on?" I ask hesitantly.

"You think you'll be okay?"

"Well, I'll be as okay as anyone else and as okay as what I would be even if I was here."

His color is going to a red now, a deeper shade I don't normally see. By now, I'm confused.

A laugh leaves his throat, and it isn't humorous - it is tinged with darkness and anger.

"Sure, you'll be okay. You have no one to protect you. No one to rely on when the going gets tough?"

The red is now dotted with purples. Now I'm really confused. This isn't a color I've seen in this type of situation.

"What are you talking about?"

"Tally, you've never defended yourself before in your life. There's always been someone there to protect you—to shield you from the negative. Do you really believe you'll succeed at protecting yourself now?"

I try to close off the colors and concentrate on his emotions to try and see what he's feeling. But all I run into is a wall of bitterness and anger.

"Nothing to say to that? Of course not. Because it's true."

He continues, and a hollowness feels in my chest. Everything is crumbling around me. Where is his attitude coming from? Is this really the Danny I've come to know and love? Has he been hiding his true nature all along? NO! I will not let him talk to me this way!

"I don't need you, Danny!" I say, but my voice is betraying my words. I swallow back the sadness that is about to erupt. "I don't need anyone to defend me anymore!"

"Sure you don't. I'd like to be there when that day ever comes."

The anger is rolling off of him and I can't take it anymore. The wind picks up and debris starts moving around us. "That's enough."

"I hate you, Daniel Sinclair. Go to hell!"

I take off running towards town. Now, I again wonder if my whole life has been a lie. Now another person I thought supported me is pulling me down.

Why did he say those things?

Rushing down towards town until I arrive at a familiar shop.

"I'm done! Finished!" I yell out through the store.

Grandma comes rushing from the back. "What is all of this commotion?"

"I won't be going back with you. I made a mistake."

"Why all of a sudden are you deciding to quit?"

"I came to the quick realization that I'm not cut out to do this job." I say.

"And what made you realize this?"

"Something someone..." I blurt out, but stop quickly.

"Probably that fool eejit. You're not even part way through your training; how would anyone else know what you can and cannot do?" She argues.

"I just can't do what you're asking of me." And turn to bolt out of the shop.