Ascension (Nanowrimo13)

Ascension [6]

Chapter Six

Upon arriving back home from the clinic, two things happened.

 One, Colbie realised she had lost her door keys somewhere along the way. The second was she found herself accosted by her father’s two security men as soon as one of her strangely elusive housemates allowed her into the house. She had only just stepped through the doorway out of the rain when the two men darkened the doorstep. There was no attempt at subtlety.  The biggest and burliest of the pair, with his closely shorn hair and his heavy gait, just strutted up the narrow path towards Colbie. Then with no preambles, he thrust out his hand.

Blinking, she glanced down at his meaty and callused hands. Her gaze immediately fell upon the small phone which looked incredibly breakable in his large hands. Grunting when she made no move to take the handset, he snatched her hand roughly and then slapped the phone into her hand. It had only just touched her skin when the ringtone started blaring. To make it worse, Colbie’s ears were assaulted by that annoying Crazy Frog ringtone.

She attempted to glare at her bodyguard but her eyes caught sight of the name on screen. With a loud gulp, Colbie closed her eyes and lifted the phone.

“Hello?”

“Bee, are you okay?” Her father’s voice filled her ears and Colbie was left wondering as to whether she should start laughing or crying.

“I’m fine daddy. I just did something silly. You know how I can be.”

Mr Carrington laughed down the phone line. Colbie felt her own lips move up into a smile in response.

“What did you do this time?” He questioned, though the little chuckle between his words told the princess of vampires that her father knew exactly what she had done. Still, enjoying her his rare laughter and joy, she sighed as if reluctant to part with the words.

“Well, you see, I was running. I was late to class – again.” Colbie paused and rolled her eyes at big and burly as he watched her speak with an unwavering stare that was more than a little unsettling. There was definitely no such thing as privacy in their world. “I kind of ran into a metal pole.”

Loud laughter sounded so loudly through the phone line that the young woman actually had to hold the phone at arm’s length away from her body and yet she could still hear it.  Female laughter could also be heard down the phone line too. Colbie shook her head and waited with the patience of a saint as she for her dad to regain his composure.

“Sorry Bee,” He finally stuttered.

She remained silent and immediately grovelling and apologies came down the phone line in a torrent. The young woman felt her own laughter bubbling up but she tried to stifle it. The result was a snort followed by a choked laugh.

“That wasn’t nice. You had me worried that I had made you upset Bee.” William Carrington’s voice greeted her with a soft reprimand as she finally pressed the handset back to her ear. “Now tell me honestly, are you okay? How are you healing up?”

“It’s healing quickly dad - though I’m going to have to make it look worse than it is. It would be difficult to explain my healing from a head injury in a matter of hours.”  As she spoke, Colbie brought her hand up to her head and prodded at the spot that had made her see stars.

She winced at the lingering tenderness but the purple golf ball sized lump which had been on her forehead when she left the clinic has already begun to shrink. By the following morning it would be gone completely.

“I’ll arrange for the guys to bring you a kit. You remember how to use it I assume.”

Colbie nodded her head and hummed in assent.