Bound by the Mortals

Chapter 4

It took me half an hour of constant scrubbing under the spray of my shower to finally feel like the events of last night were gone. At least physically that is. Emotionally the images kept playing over and over, the panic, pain. I had yet to hear from Julia who had apparently made it hone safe; I had called her home and spoke to her mother, Fiona, who informed me she was still dead to the world and in bed.

While knowing she was safe I still couldn't help but feel uneasy. How had she gotten home? Was Hunter in order of more thanks or did she go at her own will. She did have her own car but I didn't believe that she would leave without knowing where I was. Unless she did know and thats why she left. My thoughts consumed me as I carefully dried myself considering my injuries. My head was no longer throbbing but it was starting to feel like it would accumulate to that soon.

Hunter had not getting given me the pain killers the doctor prescribed to me. I was going to have to seek a numbing haze from another source. As easy as that would have been for a normal person, it wasn't for me; I didn't have any pain medication. I was just going to have to suck it up for now.

A knock sounded on my bedroom door and I turned to face it. It was my mother who peeked her head in.

"Oh your up." Yes and I didn't wake up here. "I just wanted to say happy belated birthday, sorry I missed it yesterday." My mother had seriously time consuming job that took place all day, and And all night. I rarely got to see her and when I did it was usually like this. Brief.

"It's okay." It was not okay.

"I'm headed back to work now, but I wanted to first give you your present." I raised my eyebrow, presents were unusual. She opened the door and walked towards me.

My mothers slim figure perched itself on the edge of my bed where I joined to sit as well. Looking at her, the similarities were a given, the same dark hair and caramel skin tone. But our eyes were not twinned, while hers were a warm dark brown mine took on a hazel green colour that was often mistaken for blue. The stranger that sat before me held a small box in her hand.

"This was something your father and I agreed to give you on your eighteenth birthday, but I thought to give it to you now instead." My father had passed away when I was younger, I didn't know much about him aside from the love story he had shared with my mother. She rarely brought him up and I pondered why she would go against a dead mans wish. Especially one she loved.

"This was beyond our most valued possession." Ouch. "It is imperative that you always keep it with you from now on." She opened the box to reveal a ring. A small silver ring with red ingravings across it. The object took my breath away and I felt drawn towards it. At a closer inspection the ingravings appeared to be writing, but not in a language I was familiar with.

"Its beautiful. What does it say?" I hadn't touched it yet, afraid
What the pull I felt towards it meant.

"It says 'Hold me with you close, and you will be found.' It belonged to your fathers mother and hers before that." My mothers eyes teared up and I instinctively reached out to offer her confort.

"I'm sorry I haven't been there for you like I should have been, but you are and always will be the most important thing in my life. And keeping you safe will always come first." My own eyes fell back to the ring, the meaning it held to her, and she was giving it to me.

"Thank you, its beautiful." I didn't voice the call of the ring nor how strange the words she translated were.
I reached out to take the ring, my fingers almost touching it when a knock on the front door startled us both.

My mother hesitantly walked towards my door, leaving my gift on the bed with me. When she walked out I finally looked at the ring up close and opon my inspection I had hardly realised I was breaking into a sweat.

My heart thudded in my chest. I reached out to place my index finger on the ring, I almost jumped at the effect I felt in my body, it was almost magical. My heart swelled at the contact with the object and I felt a peace I never new exsisted. I sighed and slipped it onto my index finger. Beautiful. I could vaguely hear the down stairs door open and my mothers voice. But I did hear the scream.

"Atty run!"