The Family - Volume 1

Chapter 8

- Joy's hurt!" panicked my mother as soon as Lia had finished explaining the mishap I'd had with Sting.

My parents came over to me and looked me over. Despite the fact that I was sweating because of my wound, which wouldn't stop hurting, I tried to soothe my mother.

- Don't worry, I'm fine.

They didn't seem to believe me more than that, and even less considering what Aunt Alice added.

- I can tell you're lying, Joy, and you look exhausted and in terrible pain.

- I'm trying to reassure my parents," I replied, "but that doesn't help me much...

- She hasn't lost her temper," agreed Ken, "and that's a good thing.

The look of fear in everyone's eyes was very hard to bear.

- Stop looking at me like that, I'm not going to heal with panicked looks.

- Your wound looks serious," my mother cut me off, touching my forehead with one hand, "you're burning with fever. You need to rest.

- After what happened? No way, I'll never be able to sleep.

- And Matt couldn't even close the wound? asked Uncle Chris.

- No," mumbled the latter, "I've given it everything I've got, but I can't seem to close it. It's barely shrunk a few millimeters...

My cousin looked dejected and I could understand why, he always thought it was his fault I was in such a state.

- It's okay, Matt," I said, "you didn't do anything wrong, and we'll find a way out of this like we always do.

- Joy's right," added Ken, "we're not the Mysterious Ones for nothing!

A long, heavy silence fell, leaving me to sink into my thoughts once again. The fact that I didn't know what Nekrós was doing at this very moment was filling my mind completely - he could pop up here at any second to get rid of us all. And I doubted we'd be able to hold our own for long, even though we were outnumbered and knew more about him than we had in the last confrontation. All this didn't prevent us from having to face him while he was at full strength, unlike in the Battle of Death. In the last fight, we'd only just managed to beat him - by a small margin - because he'd used up too many resources before coming up against us. I didn't think he'd make the same mistake twice. So there was only one way to stop him from attacking us, and that was...

- Christine, can you probe Joy, please?" my mother asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

- Of course.

Matt's mother came and stood right in front of me, looking me over and over as if trying to find a flaw. Her power allowed her to see as with X-rays, so she could flush out many things in someone.

- It's not a pretty sight," mumbled my aunt.

- Yes," said Sting, whom I'd almost forgotten because he blended so seamlessly into the shadows. A little more and his intestines would be affected, but right now, just part of his colon was impacted.

I was stunned for a moment by Sting's revelations before I remembered the nature of his power, which he had explained to me earlier: he could see inside a person using his second side.

- You're right, but what worries me most is that even a wound of this magnitude could have been healed easily by Matt. Something is probably preventing it from healing.

She looked at me for a few seconds before continuing:

- I can see some kind of liquid spreading everywhere, it looks a bit like poison but it's not. And it seems to be spreading throughout her body.

Sting leans towards me, frowning, certainly to try and see it too.

- It's strange, it's like bits of my father's energy...

- Nekrós must have put some dark magic into it and my body must not like it.

- It just can't be done.

Ken seemed to be thinking at breakneck speed, coming up with countless hypotheses that he rejected at every turn. Finally, he said:

- Joy, you may be powerful, but if he'd put some dark magic into his trick, you'd probably have been dead long ago.

- What are you talking about, Ken?" questioned Matt, who looked like he was about to lose it. Do you have anything better to propose?

- Not really, but that's not what I mean... Something's going on inside Joy, there's something inside you that's trying to resist this stuff and is managing, I think, to slow down the spread.

My mother approached me, I could feel her fear for me increasing by the second.

- But what is it?

- As far as I'm concerned, there's only one thing that can do this," Jon blurted out, "the magic of light.

- Don't talk nonsense," I exclaimed.

- Does light magic fall into the category of feeling magic you told us about?

- Yes," replied Lia. But even if Joy possesses light magic, she won't be powerful enough to repel dark magic, so it's not a great hope.

- But since I'm telling you it's strictly impossible! I don't possess this magic and I never will! The Ancestor already has it, and I can tell you that only one person can have it at a time.

- Joy...

Matt hadn't dared finish his sentence, and I looked at each of my family's faces in turn. Why did they all look like that? Then the strange dream I'd had when I woke up came back to mind. That hand, that warmth and the energy that had surged through me. At last, the face of the person who had touched me became clear to me, but I refused to admit it.

- Are you still hiding something from me?" I asked, trying to suppress my anger. I'm still missing something, aren't I?

Lia looked at her two brothers and I assumed they must be exchanging thoughts.

- Who's going to tell her?" asked Matt in a small voice, as if he feared my reaction.

- You haven't told him yet?" cried Aunt Alice gravely.

- Told me what?" I growled.

Lia looked sadly into my eyes.

- Joy don't take this the wrong way, but the Ancestor is dead.