The Spirit Guardians Book 4: Liberated

Chapter 25

The sound of frantic footsteps down the hallway in the middle of the night woke Cassie. She lifted her head up drowsily, hearing what could only sound like Cherie walking down the hall, speaking on the phone loudly. Cassie slowly sat up, pushing her bedcovers aside as Marc stirred beside her.

"Hm...what's matter?" he mumbled groggily.

"I don't know," Cassie murmured. "Cherie's out in the hall and—"

Lights flickered on in the hallway, and a few more voices joined Cherie. She could hear Wyatt and Lillian now, joined by what sounded like Irene in the distance. Cassie stood up, Marc joining her. They approached the door of their bedroom and stepped outside, finding the whole hall awake and speaking frantically with each other.

"Well, did you call Dr. Bradford?" Lillian asked, her hands on her hips.

"He's coming as fast as he can, and I tried CPR, but—"

"What's going on?!" Cassie gasped. All eyes suddenly turned toward her.

"Francesco's unresponsive," Cherie said. "I need to go back upstairs and—" She quickly rushed back up the steps, her phone still in her hand.

Cassie's heart was beating rapidly. The others looked just as terrified, if not more. Mitsuki and Wyatt had gone deathly silent. Another door creaked open, and Cassie turned, finding Elijah trying to creep out of his room.

"Mommy? Why everyone up?" he asked, rubbing his tired eyes.

Cassie quickly rushed to the child. The last thing she wanted was for him to get caught up in this business. She brought him into his room and sat him down on the bed. "You go back to sleep, okay?" she said, gently touching his cheek.

"But what happen?" Elijah asked.

"Francesco is very sick, so we needed to call the doctor. You don't need to worry about it. Just go back to bed, okay?" Cassie said, though she doubted Elijah would be able to fall asleep with all the incessant chatter.

His door creaked open again, and Irene popped her head in.

"I can watch him," Irene offered. "I haven't known Francesco that long. You take care of Francesco. I'll make sure Elijah falls back asleep."

Cassie breathed in relief. "Okay, thank you," she said, quickly leaving the child behind to his own mother. She rushed back out of the hall, running toward the others. Her heart was beating rapidly, and her limbs were beginning to shake out of fear.

"What happened?" Cassie asked. "When did this start?"

"Francesco has been acting off for a while now," Lillian muttered. "I was going to tell Cherie tonight to schedule a doctor appointment but I forgot!"

"This isn't your fault," Conny offered for comfort. "I thought something was up too."

"Apparently Cherie was going to bed late, as she normally does, when she found Francesco slumped over on his desk. That's when she started calling Dr. Bradford and performing CPR and..."

"No luck?" Cassie asked.

"I think I need to go lay down for a little bit," Mitsuki murmured, heading back to her bedroom. She watched Lillian extend her hand, as if to comfort her, but she pulled back at the last moment, letting Mitsuki go off.

The doorbell suddenly rang. Marc quickly left Cassie's side to bolt down the steps. She had a feeling this was going to be a long night.

...

Cassie awoke around noon the next day, feeling groggy and exhausted. Her eyes felt weak and crusted over with dried tears. Despite Dr. Bradford's efforts, it was too late. Francesco had gone without a heartbeat for far too long. Without an autopsy, it was difficult to wonder what exactly had caused the old man's demise, but Dr. Bradford's best guess was that it had been a heart attack based on the symptoms the others were bringing up to the doctor.