Dream and Nightmare

Chapter 29 - Stairs

They were released when Lina vanished, and Kellen rushed forward to Felidy. Anah's legs were jelly as she wobbled forward, but Jack held her back. He didn't have to say anything; she hadn't wanted to get much closer to the body. She knew Felidy was dead, and she didn't want to remember her broken neck; she wanted to remember her the night before when they had their little moment of friendship.

Even seeing the body, grief didn't hit her right away. It didn't seem real. It couldn't be real.

Anah checked Jack first, making sure he wasn't hurt, but Rendel had been careful. After betraying them and then trying to kill Shritaum, Anah wasn't sure what to think of the boy, but she knew he didn't deserve what had happened to him.

Anah ran to Rendel's side. At least he was alive. Blood painted his hairline, and his leg bent in the wrong direction. It made him look dead though his pulse was strong. For a moment, Anah went to look for Felidy to help. A sob tore through her when she remembered, and she bent over Rendel, trying to keep her cries silent. What could she possibly do to help Rendel with Felidy gone?

The rest of the next days were just a blur on her memory. Kellen helped bury Felidy at the base of the tower, and they left a sloppily marked headstone and some flowers over the quick grave. She remembered Jack promising Felidy that they'd be back.

Kellen carried Rendel back to the bell tower. Taking his shortcuts, the walk still took a day, though if Kellen tired of carrying the well built seventeen-year old, he didn't say.

The day after, Anah remembered long hours sitting silently with Jack while Rendel slept and Kellen and Kendelyn argued in Spanish. Jack warmed her hands when she got cold and brought her glasses of water and burnt grilled cheese. Anah returned the favors with kisses and feeble attempts at smiles.

Her grief was not only for Felidy, but for the mother she'd grown up with. A part of her was relieved at Mary's death because the woman had only gotten worse through Anah's lifetime, but at the same time, she had given Anah a home and food and drove her to school in most mornings. Though the thought of living with the woman again was frightening, the knowledge of her death added to her grief.

Jack was hurting, too. Anah could see that in his shaking hands and the way he turned from her, pretending that she didn't notice his tears. Other times he held onto her tightly and they mourned together, but those moments were short lived, broken by another shouting match from Kellen and Kendelyn or the need to take care of Rendel: changing his bandages and so forth. Still, Anah felt no jealousy over the way Jack mourned. Since her last conversation with the deceased, Anah felt no jealousy at all. Felidy deserved the tears.

What Kellen and Kendelyn were arguing over was a mystery to the girl. One particularly loud argument ended in the slam of a door, and Kellen storming out of the house to his car and driving off.

Nearly half an hour passed after that before Kendelyn joined them upstairs. She looked tired, and her eyes were red, but her smile was sweet and soft. "Has he woken at all?"

Anah shook her head, watching Rendel's chest rise and fall. Jack didn't like sitting in the room with him, especially since they didn't know how he'd react when he woke, but Anah had insisted that she wouldn't leave him, and Jack didn't wander too far from her side.

"Why are you two fighting?" Anah asked. She sounded like a sad six year old when she spoke, but that wasn't too far from how she was feeling.

Kendelyn's smile faltered, and she sighed deeply. "It's nothing." Her voice was so soft that Anah almost couldn't hear, but her expression clearly told Anah that it wasn't nothing.

Jack stood up, and spoke something to her in surprisingly smooth Spanish. From Kendelyn's expression, she hadn't known that he spoke the language either.