The Broken Ones

Chapter 19

There was a tingling sensation trickling down my throat, spreading to my fingertips and down finally to my toes. It was an odd but soothing feeling as my eyes slowly began to open with the action.

My head was propped against someone's lap, another beside me as they brought something up to my lips. I recognized the figure as Kat, which could only mean Taylor was around.

Frantically, at the thought, I opened my eyes and tried to sit up, but found myself quickly pushed back down.

"No," I groaned. "I-I need to find her."

"I'm right here, idiot," a voice said.

I looked up from where I was laying at the face above mine. Immediately, relief flooded my every sense at the sight of Taylor. She was okay. Her face seemed a little sunken in, but still fine all the same. On the other hand, I was struggling to even move.

"Hey," Taylor cooed in a soothing manner, her fingers finding their way to my forehead with a gentle stroke. The motion made my stomach flutter, not in a sickening way in which the fairies produced.

The fairies. I brought my hand up to my face in the spot where I had been struck. The veins, I noticed, were still prominent, but slowly began receding. My shirt was slightly torn where their spears cut open parts of it. Overall, though, everything seemed intact.

Kat had a large leaf in her cupped hand, something liquidy flowing inside of the bowl-like shape. She nodded towards the leaf, "It's not as nasty as it looks."

It was true. The liquid was dark and had something light brown swirling around the inside of it. I hoped it really was the right stuff that the book said to drink and I wasn't polluting my body with what seemed to be actual pollution. Taylor was breathing normally now, and my cuts were slowly healing, so I couldn't really object when I had to drink more. It didn't have much of a taste, mostly earthy with a hint of dirt.

"Yum," I said sarcastically.

"I know." Taylor brought her thumb up to my cut. She gently trailed her finger across it in hard concentration as I continued to stare up at her face. She's really gotta stop doing that. It was driving me all kinds of wild.

The warmth of her skin left just as quickly as it came. Her touch truly helped more than anything else. Not that I would tell her that ever.

Kat forced the remaining serum down my throat until I was sputtering like crazy. I always pictured her as the mother of Taylor and me, always looking after us and having a fit if we had a single scrape on our knee. She was the closest thing to a mother I knew. I admired her tenderness in everything she did, even after years of pain in her life. I guess it reflected on us, in a way. Taylor noticed it too.

We left the are area before fortunate enough to encounter any more fairies. When Tyson said there were dangers in the forest, I never expected fairies of all things. Maybe a bear or two. Certainly not demons. All adding to the exhilarating experience, I suppose.

Hunger quickly crept up on the three of us. We fished out some sandwiches from the bag and began feasting on the gourmet meal.

"There's not much food left in the bag," Taylor pointed out whilst peering into the bag.

"Lovely," I said. "Great. Not only are we going to be ripped to shreds by angry Tinker-Bells, but we're going to be extremely hungry while it's happening."

She shook her head. I watched indifferently at something she digging around for. My face fell even more when she lifted up a bag of gummy bears. "We've got these, though."

We passed around the bag for a few minutes in deep thought. The road slowly began to increase in lighting, to my relief. On top of everything else, I didn't need excess darkness.

Suddenly, after the bag was passed back to me, Kat spoke, "Truth or dare."

Taylor snorted, while I resisted the urge to laugh myself. It was almost a comical question at a time like this. "Truth or dare?"

"Yeah, truth or dare," Kat confirmed. She seemed to think it was the most normal thing ever.

A moment of silence. Finally, with a shrug, Taylor said, "Dare."

"Ooh, taking risks." Her silver eyes fell to the ground in thought. I looked at Taylor, amused, with a questioning glance. She just shrugged. "Oh, okay. Go lick that tree." We followed her gaze to what seemed to be a normal oak to out left.

"That's disgusting, I'm not doing that."

Taylor's stubborn tone almost made me laugh. She added, "That tree could be poisonous for all we know."

She gave me a strong scowl when I said, "Hey, you picked dare."

"Who's side are you on," I thought I heard her murmur before she reluctantly walked over to the tree. We watched with a grin on our faces. Slowly, she hesitantly brought her face closer to the bark, dragging a short lick across the rough surface. As we cringed playfully in disgust, she just pouted.

"I hate you gu-"

All of a sudden, she seized up. Her eyes went wide and arms went stiff. Kat and I stopped laughing. I could feel my heart drop at the sight of her fearful face. And then she dropped to the earthy ground, eyes closed.

We both bolted towards her without hesitation. Panic washed over me in sickening waves. My stomach clenched up. Kat grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her frightfully. "Taylor? Taylor, come on, wake up!"

Not again, please not again.

Her eyes opened. Kat stopped shaking her. I held my breath. And then, a small grin fell on her lips.

"Taylor Abby!" Kat screeched. Of course. Should have seen it coming.

I felt I could finally breathe while Kat thought the opposite. She was punching Taylor with little damage, throwing leaves in her face, whacking twigs on her. All while Taylor laughed.

And then a thought hit me . . .

Taylor Abby was laughing.

Contacts:

Email: 55leftturns@gmail.com

Tumblr: 55leftturns

Thanks for reading!