The Third War

Chapter Sixty Four: Zoe

"I'm not a flower..." I muttered as Kris came back in from her argument with Jeremy. I ignored the feelings that rose from learning someone else had to put up with the same pain I did.

As much trouble as Julia caused for us, I would never wish that upon another soul. How someone came up with that torture is beyond me. The whole idea rang psychotic. The poison's end result was supposed to be killing myself or someone I loved more than anything.

Absolutely, sick, demented, and sadistic. The injections themselves were awful, but the long term effects were cruel. I only survived because of everyone who helped drag me out of the holes. Who distracted me from the voices that whispered temptingly into my ears. Poor Julia had no one like that in her life. It tore me apart to imagine any one going through it, especially when they're mostly alone.

"I know you're not," Kris said with residue annoyance still in her voice.

"Are you going to let him come back?" I felt bad for Jeremy. He had been trying to make sure his sister stayed alive. He had asked if I minded being left with Haley and Veronica, I said no even thought I did mind. I wanted him to be able to see her.

I think Kris had the idea he had done it with no regard for my opinion. "I don't really know, what do you think?"

"It was usually Haley..."

"It shouldn't have happened," Kris said with a sigh. Her eyes shined with betrayal, she had trusted Jeremy to watch me while she was gone, and now she had no one to help her. I wanted to say something reassuring, but nothing came up.

Instead, a knock on the door drew her attention away from the problem at hand. "Care for a visitor?"

"I guess..." I trailed off worried about who it could be.

She opened the door and I heard Chloe's voice. They talked for a few minutes, about Chip going to see Dustin after yelling at someone named Max, and that she cut her hair and Phoebe didn't notice.

I had no idea what she meant by that. I figured I missed something. Chloe suddenly ducked under Kris's arm so she could run over to me. "Tada!"

She held up my zebra hat that had gotten left behind in the hospital room. "My hat!" I took it from her and plopped it on my head with a smile.

I saw Kris smile as well by the door. Before I could say thanks, Chloe ran out without saying anything.

"She's like a seven year old Chip."

"Yeah..." Kris trailed off sounding concerned, I'm guessing because of the idea of two Chips.

Suddenly my vision blurred. I shook my head trying to fight off another attack. I began to panic grabbing for something to keep me anchored to my sanity.

"Zebras are white with black stripes." I stated while locking onto the piece of my hat that held a little puff ball.

Kris slowly walked over, "Zoe? Are you okay?"

I shook my head, "I'm seeing things."

Kris's eyes filled with panic as she realized she didn't know what to do. "Okay, Zoe, we're going to visit Haley."

My eyes darted around the room trying to get the words out, "I can't. Tell me a story." I fixed my eyes on Kris's. "Something without our family, or me, or anything that's happened."

"Um," she stammered, "Okay, um...."

I closed my eyes as she began, "Once there, uh, was a castle by a waterfall."

I tried to imagine it, "What colors was it?"

Kris hesistated, "Pink and purple."

"Were there towers?"

"Yep, um, three towers." Kris paused, "And there was a princess, who had a pet snake, and...never wore socks."

She began to pick up confidence. "She was in her carriage one day, and there was a dragon, whose breath smelled, and he was going to break the castle, but the princess tied his tail to a tree until he said sorry."

I imagined the story being played out like Haley had told me to. Kris just wasn't making it very descriptive. "What color was the dragon?"

"Um, green and gold," she continued, "So the dragon said sorry so the princess gave him some tea. Later, and evil witch came, and saw the princess, and when they met the princess and dragon gave her a nice dress and some makeup. And they started a band. And the dragon played the...bass?"

I went still as all the background noise calmed to where it only whispered in the back of my head.

I realized that story was a song we used to listen to as kids. I looked up at her, "You're terrible at this."

She sighed in relief, "Thanks."

I felt guilty at not previously telling Kris what to do. Our talk with Haley had ended in this solution. "I guess we should have told you what to do."

She gave me a questioning look, "Who's we?"

"Well, Haley came up with it. She said when it happened to tell a very descriptive story so I could picture it in my head and focus on it. She figured Jeremy would be doing it more so she gave him note cards with different stories. He threw them away though because they were terrible."

"I'll add story telling under pressure to my list of things I can't do."

I giggled, "You didn't fail. Jeremy did the first time because he panicked. He told some weird thing about an octopus who fell in love with a squid."

"What?"

I shrugged having no idea where it even came from.

"He's a special boy." Kris said carefully.

I nodded, "I think we should let him come back. I said it was okay for him to go, he wouldn't have if I had said no."

Kris sighed, "Yeah. The evil girl is still unacceptable."

Nodding my head, I added, "His other friends seem okay."

The few times he had talked about them they seemed decent. A little stupidity caused by boredom, but what are you gonna do? He said I could meet them soon, so that's always there to look forward to.