Only Shadows

Chapter 16

Brie

By the time they went downstairs for breakfast, Brie didn't feel so good. She'd kept it together for the rest of the night, but the pain medicine she'd taken hadn't done much. A throbbing burn radiated out from the gash across her right arm, skin cold, clammy, and hot all at once.

Brie followed Izzy and Ren out of the bedroom and down the stairs to the kitchen. "Let me do most of the talking, but Camila will offer to make you breakfast If you want," Izzy said.

"Like what?" Ren asked.

"Anything really. Eggs, pancakes, bacon. Waffles and fruit. Whatever."

"You get this on the daily?" Ren asked.

"I rarely eat breakfast. Usually just make myself a latte," Izzy said.

"Course you don't," said Ren. "But I could go for a waffle with fruit. And bacon. And a latte. At least to start." She grinned. "How 'bout you, Brie? Eating helps healing."

Brie's stomach grumbled and turned. She paused at the bottom of the stairs, gripping the railing with her hand. "I think I might be sick." She hadn't felt nauseous until she caught a whiff of the food.

Izzy and Ren turned back to her and exchanged a glance. "There's a bathroom just past the kitchen to the right. You think you're gonna throw up?"

"I'm not sure," Brie said. Too many sensations rolled through her body.

"Um, why don't you wait outside while I make coffee and Ren eats. Sure you don't want some toast or anything?" Izzy asked. She bit her lip.

"Maybe just some water," she said as they entered the kitchen. The stench of the frying sausage washed over her like the smell of that rotting deer several days earlier.

Camila stood with her back to them at the stove. "Bom dia. Would you girls like some breakfast?" she asked, turning around. Camila was average height, with medium-length, coarsely layered hair. She looked about the same age as her mother, with an accent Brie assumed was Brazilian. She wore a dark t-shirt and leggings.

Then the oily smell of the meat hit her again. Brie clapped her hand over her mouth and nose. "I'm going to wait outside," she said as she rushed to the glass patio door. She yanked it open, relishing in the cool breeze that greeted her, the clouds hanging heavy in the sky. As she stepped outside, she heard a gasp and the sound of a clattering pan against the floor. Brie spun back around.

"Meu Deus," Camila said, making the sign of the cross.

"What?" Izzy asked, the color draining from her face.

Brie suddenly noticed the faintly glowing hues surrounding Izzy's body, bluish-purple with orange and wisps of black. The more Brie focused on it, the clearer the muted colors became. How had she missed it before? Her eyes swung back to Camila and Ren, also surrounded in glowing hues – a muddy purple-blue-gray for Camila and bright orange for Ren.

She held her hand out and looked down at her fingers, outlined in indigo with black layered on top. A dull gray color came off her right arm where she'd been hurt. She waved her other hand through the color fields to no effect. When she looked back up, she realized everyone was staring at her.

"What?"

Camila mumbled a prayer and crossed herself again. "Querida." She stepped over the pan on the floor, grasping one of Izzy's hands. "What happened?"

Izzy's mouth hung open, her eyes wide. "No... nothing." She cleared her throat and shook Camila's hands away. "I had a nightmare last night, that's all."