Blackout • NH

Chapter 36

I hear the floor creak in front of me and I look up and see a girl a little older than me. About 25 or 26 years old. She has blondish white hair that looks like it's been died before with her natural brown roots growing back in. Her eyes are a light brown and she's a bit taller than me as well. She looks like she's starving to death. She's so skinny, I can see her bones poke out from all over her body.

"Thank you for helping me out." I say sincerely.

"You're welcome." She says, quiet and timidly. She has a British accent. She must have been a student or on vacation here when the blackout occurred. She backs away slowly, noticing I still have the dagger in my hand.

"Woah, it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. You aren't one of them." I say, dropping my dagger and pointing towards the dead glazer.

"Oh no." She gasps and back farther.

"What!"

"You were cut!" She grabs a knife sitting on the mini bar and holds it defensively.

"Woah, woah, woah. Calm down. I'm not going to turn." I say softly.

"Yes you will! You all turn!" She starts to cry.

"Trust me, I won't. Look, see this scar on my arm." I show her my arm from when I was first cut back before Elliot took me.

"That was from a glazer. This was about a month ago." I say.

"How do I not know you're lying? Everyone turns within 24 hours!" She says, moving closer to me.

Suddenly, the room starts to shake and a few things fall off the mini bar counter and off the bookshelves around the room. The knife in her hand suddenly flies out of it and hits the wall. She is then shoved to the ground suddenly. And pinned there by some invisible force. She screams and wiggles trying to break free.

Wait, this happened to Elliot when I was trying to escape. Oh my god.

"Stop it!" I yell. Suddenly, she sits up and looks at me.

I look around the room and begin to speak.

"She doesn't mean any harm. Let me talk to her." I look back and hold my hand out to help her up. She slowly grabs it and I pull her to her feet. She looks scared out of her mind.

"What is your name?" I ask.

"Everyone calls me Anne." She says quietly.

"Nice to meet you Anne. I'm Jodie. Do you want to know what just happened?" I say, nervously. Only the group knew. The group. I tear up a bit and bring my hand to my eyes to wipe any moisture away.

"Anne, do you believe in Guardians and Angels?" I say, sniffling a bit.

"Yeah, I'm a bit religious." She says, still distancing herself from me.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I know you don't mean any harm and I know you don't want to hurt me either." I say.

"Want to sit down over here on the couches? I have a story to tell you." I say.

I tell her everything. From the first night the lights went out to now. I told her about the group I was in, but not mentioning any names, me being kidnapped, how I was able to talk to my father's spirit, how I'm immune, how I was pregnant, how Flight was a guardian spirit attached to me. I did leave out a few details not wanting to give out too much information.

She sits back in awe, not knowing what to say.

"Jodie, I'm so sorry all of this has happened to you." She says sincerely.

"I lost my parents and brother. Our camp was raided after the blackout and my parents had their lives taken. My brother and I escaped but we got separated by a crowd of other people fleeing the camp. I haven't seen him since." She sniffles a bit and looks down.

"How did you end up here?" I ask.

"I did what you did. Just tried to find some place safe and away from people. That glazer you just killed, he was one of the survivors from my camp. We bumped into each other in the woods and found this place. But he never told me he was cut. He turned and I've been locked up here since, too scared to leave the room because I would get cut." She explained.

"I understand. Hey, how about we get rid of this dead glazer's body and get something to eat. You're not looking too healthy Anne."

"Okay, that sounds good. I'm glad to finally get out of this room." She laughs.

"Oh and Jodie. Thank you. Sorry for trying to almost kill you." She nervously laughs.

"No harm done." I laugh.

We both grab the glazer and drag him to the window. We lift him up and push him out, watching him drop into the deep murky water below.

We both then head back downstairs to the kitchen and I grab a can of Beanie Weenies and open them. I grab two spoons and a large plate and pour the can onto it.

We both eat the beans and sausages and talk.

"Jodie, not to sound rude but you said you were pregnant." She asked curiously.

"Yeah. I'm only a couple weeks pregnant."

"Where's the dad?"

"He's back with the group." I say looking down at the plate.

"I left the group while they all were asleep."

"Why? Were they hard to live with or were they abusive?" She asked.

"No! Nothing like that. I just didn't want to burden them with this baby. It's too dangerous for the group. When that baby is born, it's going to cry and I can't have it attract any glazers and putting us all in danger Anne." I say.

"I understand Jodie. But don't you miss them?"

"I do, but it's for the best."

"So nobody knew you left?"

"Only one person did and that was my younger sister. She understood what I had to do. She was going to be safe in the group."

"What about your boyfriend or husband?"

"He doesn't know. We got into a huge argument, well I mainly yelled at him for getting me pregnant and blamed him for this when we both did this out of consent. We both loved each other but I guess I was just so scared. I decided to take it out on him." I start to cry.

Anne comes over to hug me.

"Shhhh it's okay Jodie."

"I love him so much and I just left. What if one day I go back and he ignores me or what if he's dead?" I cry even more.

"Niall!" I cry and hold my heart. I move my hand to my belly to feel it. There's no bump but I know there's a beautiful creation in there. The only part of Niall that I have left.

I open my bag and pull out Niall's sweater and hold it to me. I felt something hard in there. Anne is staring at me, not saying a word.

I put my hand in the pockets of the sweater and felt something hard and crumbled up. I pulled out whatever it was and found a piece of paper with writing on it. I uncrumbled it and something hard fell out and hit my leg. I look down and my eyes widen.

Niall's geode. Only half of it though. It was carved and sanded down and shined a bit, giving it a professional look but it still had the natural element look to it. It looked like it was half of a heart. I looked closer and saw a small heart carved into the half heart shaped geode.

I quickly unfolded the letter and began to read.