The Offering

Chapter 24

I am above my unconscious body once again. My first thoughts are that of shock and disbelief as I see my once already slight frame has become deathly thin. My skin is almost translucent, my veins protruding and I can't help but compare my startling resemblance to that of a corpse.

I barely recognise myself and I know that some time must have passed for me to look this way. If it wasn't for the wires and tubes hooked up to my body and the gentle rising and falling of my chest, I'd have sworn that I was dead. I feel a fearful knot in my stomach as I question whether or not I am in fact brain dead. If it is just the tubes and machines keeping me breathing.

I observe that my right leg is raised in a cast that runs all the way up from my ankle to just above my knee. I have a bandage wrapped around my left wrist and two black eyes. My bones have clearly been broken and I hear them crunch and snap in the back of my mind once again as I recall the impact of the car against my fragile body.

"What are you doing up there?"

My eyes dart left and I see a little girl standing by the door. Before I have the chance to study her in any sort of detail I feel gravity catching up with me and I begin to plummet. In the next moment I am led on the cold linoleum floor, though I seem to have hit the floor at speed I don't feel any impact or pain upon my 'body'.

Is that what this is? A 'body'? I expect 'spirit' might be a more appropriate term but the thought of that sends a cold chill up my spine. I hear a youthful giggle and look up to see the same little girl now stood beside me. I estimate she must be around five or six years old, she is wearing a pale blue hospital gown and fluffy pink bunny slippers. Her skin is a milky alabaster shade, her face framed with copper curls. She is the picture of innocence and yet there is something about her that makes me feel instantly sad.

I clamber to my feet and she takes a step back from me, she fidgets nervously with her fingers before she asks,

"Are you a Superhero?"

I can't help but smile, despite my current circumstances. I shake my head and a puzzled expression shifts onto her drawn face. I realise then that despite her angelic appearance she does in fact look very sick. Her eyes have dark circles beneath them, her lips are unnaturally blue and she is far too thin for her age. Perhaps she is even older than she looks.

"But you can fly?" She protests, "only Superheroes can fly."

I step towards her, she steps further back. She's afraid, confused by me for some reason and I have yet to gain her trust.

"I'm not a Superhero," I tell her, "I'm Alice."

"But you're invisbable like me," she adds, "nobody else can see us."

I feel a tug in my chest as I realise what she is saying to me, it hadn't occurred to me to question how exactly she could see me.

"What's your name?" I question, trying to make my tone sound as friendly as possible so not to scare her away.

She bites the inside of her cheek momentarily before replying,

"Poppy, like the flower," the words had clearly been spoken to her many times before.

"That's a beautiful name Poppy," I reply and step closer to her.