Whispering Tempest

Chapter Seventeen - A Past Reclaimed

Chapter Seventeen – A Past Reclaimed

I wake up on the floor covered in sweat and gasping heavily for air. Blood leaks slightly from my nose and ears but it’s wiped away with my energy-drained hands. My limbs feel so heavy but the pain is gone. It’s all gone. Everything is gone.

Just like my family.

“No,” I cry out, huddling on the floor of my mind. I have not left the swirling red tunnel but all of the memories have stopped attacking. The emotions that had been withheld from me are now here. I remember everything. My mother, sisters, my death… The hate. My hate scratches at every bone and muscle in me but it’s driven back with the love I keep for the friends I’ve grown to be with. That isn’t me. That can’t be me.

“Gail,” the Emerald tries to bring me out of the red. “Come back to us. We need you now!”

I slowly follow her voice and leave the tunnel, closing my eyes and falling back into my body even though I never really left. As my real eyes open, I inhale deeply and cough out the air that came into my lungs too fast. The Emerald helps me sit up but leaves my side as soon as I’m able to breathe on my own. My ears are ringing so badly I can’t even hear if she left the room or not.

“My Aunt Carol raised me,” I whisper to her not knowing if I was loud enough to be heard. My fingers pinch at my nostrils to clean my dripping nose. Using my pajama shorts, the red staining my skin is wiped off hastily. “She pretended to be my mother in this life! And my dad, Jeremy? He was the Peridot’s assistant! What the hell?”

The bottom of my shirt is pulled up to rub off the rest of my sweat and blood. That hatred I had for the Spencings in the past life is back. My father hated me even though I was his own daughter. But because of what my mother was, he tossed us aside so easily! How can non-mystic people be so cold? Those ignorant humans! But I remind myself of all the people in my life that had been kind to me. It isn’t easy given the fact of how I was raised. The Spencings aren’t to blame, I know that now.

My body flinches again with another surge of sadness, experiencing the feeling of my parents’ death again and again. My beautiful mother being murdered by father, him being stabbed by Ivette, Aunt Carol/mom who died in the crash and daddy… I exhale slowly and try to even my breath. Life just loves taking my loved ones away.

“The worst pa-part about this,” I say choking on my own words. “Is that t-the dad I felt so connected to isn’t even related to—”

Everything in the world stops for me as I see Xander lying on the floor. I couldn’t hear the frantic cries of Carter shouting at Trevor to grab a different potion. The pulsing ring in my ears blocked me from noticing the panic. I crawl over to him and get a big rush of nausea from moving too fast. The Emerald and I beg for Xander to wake up. Her two fingers check the pulse of his neck.

“Xan,” I sob. “Wake up Xan. Please, wake up. Oh my god, Xander!”

~*~

The man in the blue uniform finishes scribbling down my last lie as an answer and leaves me to stare in Xander’s hospital room. He lies cold and unmoving on the bed with a slow heartbeat. His mom sits beside him, hunched over her knees and holding Xan’s hand tightly. The doctors watered down their medical jargon and said the pain brought on by the blows from our muggers is the reason he fell comatose. They also said he should be waking up in a few hours. But that’s what they think. The truth is: it’s much worse.

I’m treated for my wounds but there’s nothing really wrong with me. All I have are a few bruises and they can’t really cure those. My nose scrunches at the sickly hospital air. It takes them a while to let me see my friend. It’s Xander I’m worried for. What’s going to happen to him? My feet pace back and forth before I meet Trevor in the waiting area down the long hallway.