New Age

Chapter 19 ~ Tripping, We're Defiantly Tripping

I’m frozen, I can’t move. This girl can’t be older then 12 and she has dried blood around her mouth. In a daze I put my hand on Lucas’ shoulder, an unspoken question going between us.

What the hell happened to this girl?

Then I see Spencer moving forward towards her, I open my mouth to tell him to get back but nothing comes out, just a breath I never knew I was holding. Spencer seems to sense my unease as he turns and nods to me, telling me it’s ok. Lucas and I watch as he crouches down in front of her. I can’t see his face but I can see hers, she’s scared, very scared. Although I don’t know why, she’s the one with blood around her mouth; we should be scared of her.

“Hello,” Spencer whispers, no reply.

“I’m Spencer, what’s your name?” Still no answer, her facial muscles tense up when he stops talking, she likes him talking, if we’ve got anyway to communicate with her Spencer needs to keep talking.

“Spencer?” He looks at me and so does the girl.

“She likes you talking, you need to keep talking to her.” He nods and looks back at her whilst she still stares at me; it’s freaky. I lean into Lucas a bit more and he puts his arm around my shoulders. I go to push him off but I don’t want to scare the girl, yeah Mika, keep telling yourself that.

“We’re not going to hurt you, we’re only here because we need a place to live, these bad people,” I laugh in my head at that, they’re not people, “They’re after us for no reason and we need to hide from them or they’ll hurt us. That’s the only reason we’re here. We’re not going to hurt you. Do you understand me?” And at that question the little girl looks back at Spencer, she understands.

“She understands you Spencer.”

Lucas looks at me, “How can you tell what she’s thinking?”

“I’m not, I can just tell by the way her face moves what she knows.”

“So you’re reading her responses on her face?” Spencer asks looking up at me whilst she looks at the floor.

“Yeah.” I shrug, this is basic stuff, Drey taught me how to read peoples responses by looking at the way their facial muscles move. Spencer looks back at her.

“If I ask her questions could you reply for her?”

“Uh, sure, If I can.” Spencer nods whilst Lucas shakes his head, well, he’s obviously opposed to this idea.

“Do you have a name?” Spencer starts the questions. Her face tells me her answer.

“She doesn’t remember, if she had a name then she doesn’t remember it now.” Spencer smiles at me then back to the girl,

“Then we’ll have to give you a name, won’t we? Is that ok?” She nods, just a small nod but it’s visible. Spencer looks around for ideas, something to call her. Then he looks at her and gets an idea.

“How about Sparrow? That’s the bird on the clip in your hair. Would you like to be called Sparrow?” Her face lights up, she likes it. She nods, a bigger nod than the last.

“Can you talk Sparrow?” Lucas asks, she looks up at him and her face tells me she’s sad. She slowly but surely shakes her head, then her hand slowly lifts up to point at her mouth, the blood is keeping her mouth shut.

“We need to get the blood off her mouth.” Lucas looks at me like I’m crazy but Spencer nods and looks at the girl, he shuffles forward and when he sees her eyes widen he stops and holds out a wary hand.

“It’s ok, I’m just going to help you to your feet, is that ok?” she nods slightly and goes over and puts one arm around her waist and the other supporting her arm.